Toaru Majutsu no Index:Crossover Chapter 1
Status: Incomplete
1/10 parts completed
Chapter 1
[Series Introduction 02]
Killer Queen and Deep End
A killer whose method of murder is fascinates people too much cannot be handled with a normal investigation or normal reporting. This is a story of the darkness consigning those killers to the darkness.
Part 1
They gathered at one point on the strange “wooden earth” that looked like a gym floor stretched on and on to the horizon.
In all, they were Kamijou Touma, Index, Misaka Mikoto, Quenser Barbotage, Heivia Winchell, Jinnai Shinobu (Status Effect: Freeze), Zashiki Warashi Yukari, the Yuki Onna, Anzai Kyousuke, Higashikawa Mamoru, the bunny girl, Nanajou Kyouichirou, and Satsuki.
That may not seem like quite enough, but unfortunately, Lieutenant Milinda Brantini aka the Princess was still inside the Baby Magnum. She must have run into some kind of trouble because communications were cut off and she was showing no sign of leaving the machine.
They had gathered in one spot to help grasp the situation, but it was obvious why they had gathered there specifically.
Whether one called it the ground or the floor, there was a perfect square of a hole in it with one meter sides.
Kamijou crouched down and peered inside. He saw wooden stairs leading down and a soft light that seemed to be from some kind of lighting.
His pointy head spoke.
“Welcome to the dungeon…I guess.”
The wooden earth continued as far as the eye could see and the distant square pyramid mountains looked like they were made from polygons. To be honest, it was a complete mystery where this was or how they had ended up here, but it would have been difficult to find anything besides the square hole to investigate.
“Hmm… We must have been set as the target of some kind of summoning, but not even my 103,000 grimoires can determine the exact system. Don’t tell me this was a technique on a level that only a Magic God could explain.”
“Wait,” cut in Mikoto. “What is this girl talking about?”
“At any rate, we should need the same technique to get back home. Ignoring who used the spell or how, we need to investigate everything we can to learn about the technique.”
“Oh, no. I think his ability to ignore me has infected her too!!”
Quenser and Heivia were focused on something else entirely.
“Hey, Sir Knight. They’re all boy-girl groups, so why are we the only one’s stuck with another guy?”
“We’ve got the Princess over there. Her defenses are a little strong, though.”
“Wow! Screw you! That’s just gonna lead to the usual pattern of you two sticking together while I’m left all on my lonesome!!”
“Complaining isn’t going to help and we don’t have any other choice here.”
“So we were called here in groups of two or three, right? So if one of the guy’s bites it, don’t you think we could ‘take their place’ if you know what I’m saying?”
“Hah hah! Great idea! So you’re saying if you die, I can have a lovely lady in both hands!? Then let’s do it! C’mon, Frolaytia! Or maybe the Information Alliance’s Oh Ho Ho!!”
As Heivia pulled out his combat knife and Quenser shoved a clay-like explosive in his awful friend’s mouth, the overly suggestive bunny girl peered down into the square hole just like Kamijou.
“Something this big is pretty abnormal, but it looks manmade. Is it some kind of ruins? Going in seems like the quickest way of figuring out what’s going on.”
College student Anzai Kyousuke gave an annoyed response.
“Yeah, but that isn’t giving a single thought to our safety. We don’t even know if it has any windows. We’d be goners if the lights went out after we’d made our way deep inside.”
They all exchanged a glance.
This seemed to be the only place to investigate, but none of them wanted to go in.
“Um…”
The one who went out of the way to raise her hand before speaking was the girl known as a Killer Queen.
“I understand investigating inside is risky, but can we really say it’s safe to stay here?”
“Why not?” asked Mikoto.
The girl pointed straight up toward the heavens.
“That…what was it? My common sense is harshly rejecting the use of that six-letter word beginning with a ‘d’, so I’ll beat around the bush and call it a massive black reptile. Anyway, ‘that’ could easily fly back here, couldn’t it?”
Another unpleasant silence fell over them all.
Not many people would actually want to fight the dragon (if that was really what it should be called) and just as few would want to get caught in the blast from one of the Baby Magnum’s stray shots. They had survived earlier thanks to the mysterious intruder, but nothing said that would happen the next time. It was even possible that intruder would show up as an enemy.
Both continuing on and staying put were risky.
After some thought, Kamijou made a suggestion.
“Regardless of what’s inside, the corridors don’t look very wide down there. If ten or so people swarmed inside at once, we’d clog it up. I don’t want to think about it, but if a giant metal ball started chasing us, we’d be wiped out in one shot.”
“Touma, then should we stay here?”
“No. If the risk is the same either way, I think we should split into a group to continue on and a group to stay. Personally, I would rather accept the risk and continue on than to shoulder that risk while doing nothing to improve the situation. What about the rest of you? Do you have any hope?”
His question received no response.
Eventually, Nanajou Kyouichirou summed up how they felt.
“Simply going with the flow is easy, but moving on your own is a lot harder than you think it is.”
“Then what should we do?”
“I already told you: simply going with the flow is easy. You pick the teams and we’ll go along with it. That would be easier.”
Kamijou had his doubts that would work, but no one objected. No one started arguing over who got to be the leader either.
(I didn’t get myself stuck in an annoying class president position, did I?)
He was unable to clear his doubts, but he had no choice since the majority had agreed to this.
“Hmm.”
He brought a hand to his chin and thought for a while. He gave a serious look to the dozen or so people here.
He then pointed at the ones he had chosen for the search team.
Kamijou Touma.
Quenser Barbotage.
Heivia Winchell.
Anzai Kyousuke.
Higashikawa Mamoru.
…
…
…
Once he had chosen that many, someone grabbed his collar from the side.
Quenser moved in close with the deadly serious expression he tended to get after discovering the military conspiracy at around page 300-350 in the latter half of Chapter 3.
“(Wait just a second. Don’t you get what this means, kid?)”
“Eh? Eh? What? What???”
“(You have the authority to put together your party as you see fit, so what kind of idiot chooses nothing but guys for his team!? Are you a celibate monk or something? Are you a hermit that cast aside all worldly desires!?)”
Quenser’s eyes grew so bloodshot that they looked pure red.
“(Don’t you get how juicy an opportunity this is? If you’re a guy, you should. When you can choose your own party, there’s only one option! Right!?)”
Kamijou remade his selection.
Index.
Misaka Mikoto.
Zashiki Warashi Yukari.
The Yuki Onna.
The bunny girl.
…
…
…
Grab!
“Now, the rest of us will be stuck here with nothing but guyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyysssssssssssssssssssss!!”
“I have no idea what you’re so mad about!! What is with you!?”
After the two boys grappled a bit and shoved at each other’s faces, Mikoto pulled an arcade coin from her skirt pocket and flicked it into the air with her thumb.
She caught it when it fell and made a suggestion.
“This is descending into chaos, so how about we decide this with heads or tails?”
“A coin toss, huh? Well, I guess no one can complain then.”
“Touma, no cheating with that magnet thing you were talking about the other day.”
“Bfh!? I-I would never do that!!” exclaimed Mikoto. “You worry too much!!”
“Bfhwah!! She wasn’t even talking to you and why are you strangling me!?” shouted Kamijou.
From there, their fates were decided by a coin toss each.
The results were as follows.
Search Team: Kamijou Touma, Misaka Mikoto, Heivia Winchell, Zashiki Warashi Yukari, Higashikawa Mamoru, the bunny girl, and Nanajou Kyouichirou.
Standby Team: Index, Quenser Barbotage, Milinda Brantini (lost by default), Jinnai Shinobu (Status Effect: Freeze), the Yuki Onna, Anzai Kyousuke, and Satsuki.
The white nun placed a hand on her chin and muttered to herself.
“I feel like someone cheated.”
“E-enough baseless accusations!!”
Mikoto blushed and shouted at the nun while Heivia secretly clenched his fist.
“Yes! An older girl with a huge rack and a bunny girl! This feels just like getting a good hand after a never-ending losing streak in poker!!”
“Are you sure you should be that happy?” asked Quenser. “I feel like both of them have a hidden sharpness that’s different again from Frolaytia’s.”
Incidentally, the Princess had yet to leave the Baby Magnum and perhaps could not leave, so she had lost by default. Jinnai Shinobu had also been unable to take part in the coin toss because he was trapped in a coffin of ice and the Yuki Onna was snuggled up against him while drooling in absolute ecstasy. She was even saying “Now I can be with you forever and ever. Eh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.” like someone with a terminal case of yandere.
And with that decided, things were finally set in motion.
