Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS2 Chapter2

Chapter 2

Part 1

“So she got away…”

Enirya G. Algonskaya, a security guard, sighed while looking at the monitor.

She was in a small room.

It was the room beyond the interrogation room’s one-way mirror.

After cornering her a bit, they had given her a certain level of freedom. That was why they had allowed her to access the Semipublic AR and had not deleted her account. They had been hoping Mikoto would end up revealing something to them in how she used the network once she had lost her cool.

One of Enirya’s fellow security guards spoke while bringing up some files on the wall.

“She escaped through the window and along the wall. The AR monitors on the wall had some trouble due to magnetism. Perhaps we should not have treated her like a usual minor.”

“It’s not like we actually know how to restrain an esper. Not much data on them has been disclosed to us,” Enirya said in a very different tone from when she had spoken with Mikoto. “Or are you saying we should have put guillotine-like wooden shackles on her?”

“She rotated those bolts with magnetism. She might be able to vibrate something made of iron at high speed and use it like a saw.”

“So we have no way of resolving that. And now this dangerous person who can use anything made of steel like a saw or a bullet is fleeing through the city.” Enirya put her elbows up on the table and asked her fellow security guard a question with her head hanging down. “How is the tracking going? Do we have any idea where she’s fleeing to?”

“No. She is not showing up on the surveillance equipment.”

“Hm, and it isn’t supposed to have any blind spots. …What about her Semipublic AR account? Has she used it?”

That city’s AR checked on the user’s location and made sure others could not see the images the user was seeing. That also meant that the person’s location could be checked on.

However…

“She has not used it at all since she escaped. We are continuing to monitor her account, but…”

“So she’s realized what we can do with it.” Enirya smiled a bit despite having lost a possible hint. “We can target that.”

“?”

“Everyone in this city uses the Semipublic AR. It is not forced on them, but it is simply inconvenient not to. …A lone person not using it will stand out. Search for someone who is slow to react. Don’t just use the surveillance equipment. Have the security guards on patrol be on the lookout, too. Anyone can see the importance of human eye surveillance with things like checks for suspicious objects in airports.”

While looking over at her fellow security guard using the AR to arrange that, Enirya added more in her thoughts.

(What was that esper yelling in the interrogation room?)

She frowned while performing some operations on a monitor that had been isolated from the AR.

(She said this was not over and that there were 19 oranges left.)

She typed on the table performing a search over the AR.

(The details are unknown on the contents of the bucket the suspect said she stopped. The contents were almost completely turned to ash making it hard to tell if they were actually crimson long-legged army ants.)

If they had the lab check the DNA, some new information might be found, but that would simply take too long.

Of course, she could not deny the possibility that the remains did not belong to crimson long-legged army ants. It could all be the prank of a middle school girl.

However…

(If so, would she have had a good enough reason to escape the interrogation room? She caused some trouble, but if she had only used normal harmless ants, it was at a level where she could have just apologized.)

That meant the situation may have gotten to a point where that would not cut it.

(But now that she’s run off, it seems the best option where it was just a prank has disappeared. The incident was real. However, what exactly is going on? Were there really crimson long-legged army ants there or was she merely claiming there were and now she’s about to cause some more trouble?)

After thinking for a bit, Enirya tapped her index finger on the table getting rid of the AR search.

(In any case, we will capture her.)

She once more confirmed what her own objective was.

(Getting information from the one who knows what is going on is the fastest method.)

Part 2

The date had changed.

Misaka Mikoto ran through the shopping mall late at night.

There was a major difference between day and night. Things were completely sectioned off. The night leisure areas that functioned into the night continually emitted light while the areas that closed at sundown were wrapped in darkness.

The vacant darkness may have been reminiscent of a school at night.

The emergency paths, the paths leading to security guard stations, and the locations of fire extinguishers and AEDs were color coded on the floor with arrows. The blue dots at even intervals on the ceiling likely denoted the locations of the sprinklers.

Those things were being shown on the Semipublic AR.

Because Mikoto was not allowing their sensors to see her, they were not able to personally focus them for her. Most likely, those displays were set at an isolation level where everyone could see them. In other words, it was the same as a normal television.

As Mikoto hid behind a display shelf with household appliances lined up on it, a few footsteps passed by.

It seemed to be a group of three. They seemed to be using the Semipublic AR to follow the “footprints” left on the floor.

If Mikoto had not tampered with the sensors, they would have caught up to her very quickly.

(But that also means I can throw them off my trail as often as I want as long as I can interfere with their electronic equipment.)

She watched the security guards head off in the wrong direction following dummy “footprints”. However, they would likely realize the “footprints” were unnatural before long. Once they stopped relying on the sensors, things would truly begin.

She could not allow herself to be captured.

Oranges filled with crimson long-legged army ant eggs could be set up around the shopping mall to act as living time bombs at that very moment. She had no idea when the eggs would hatch and the ants would become active. She had no idea how tenacious the ants were, but they might attack people no matter where they hid once they were spread around. It was horrible to imagine.

“…”

There were a lot of things she needed to investigate.

She had heard oranges mentioned a few times since she had entered the city. She had to go back and investigate those instances.

(It would be so easy if I could use the AR.)

Mikoto looked down at the ground while still hiding behind the display.

She was an esper that could control electricity. That did not just mean she could create powerful high voltage currents. She could also carry out precise hacking. In a city that managed the flow of people and things at such a high level, she could easily search for someone using the surveillance cameras, the electronic money, and other things. For Mikoto, an analog rural city would be harder to work in.

But the systems in that city used the Semipublic AR. That interface required Mikoto to use the actions of her body. In other words, if she used the ultrasonic wave sensors like usual, the security guards would find her.

She needed a different account to use.

She was already using her hacking to fool the cameras and sensors, but another problem arose. Just by going about not using the Semipublic AR that everyone used, she stood out to the security guards watching.

To completely continue on, she needed a new account.

However, the security was strong enough that Mikoto could not create a new account even with her hacking.

To create a new account, it seemed she needed to physically contact a large server that managed a great amount of information.

(I’ll start my preparations there for safety and convenience’s sake.)

Mikoto could not use the Semipublic AR, so she forced herself to recall the signs she had seen before.

She looked all around her and stopped while staring in a direction from which a faint light was leaking.

Part 8

Back to Chapter 1

Return to Main Page

Forward to Chapter 3