Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume4 Chapter3
Status: Incomplete
3/12 parts completed
Chapter 3: The Counterattack Begins – Boy_not_“Dark”.
Part 1
“I’m sorry to say this year’s nightly tournament project is a Cinderella story for unpopular guys and women who aren’t anywhere near as good looking as they think! The time has come for the 0-1 Grand Prix to determine the top comedian. We’re Double Magnet and we’ll be your hosts this year!”
“Unfortunately, accepting this job means we can’t be contestants.”
“I consider it an honor. They’re competing to be the top of the punished, but we get to do the punishing. It means we’ve reached the next rank as entertainers.”
“Then why even have the tournament? Just give us the 10 million in prize money.”
“We have a tournament to run here, hosts! Quit getting greedy and wasting the whole 2 hours on your prattle!!”
When the secondary comedian interrupted and some obviously staged laughter followed, Shokuhou Misaki tilted her head, letting her honey-blonde hair sway along the back of her babydoll. She frowned and spoke to her roommate, Misaka Mikoto.
“What about this is even remotely funny?”
“Enjoying comedy requires empathy and cooperation, two things you are sorely lacking in.”
They got into a scuffle on the bed, but in a purely physical battle, she had no chance against the chestnut-haired grizzly that was Academy City’s #3. Shokuhou Misaki had made a mistake from the moment she challenged the girl who could slice apart a naval cruiser.
“I paid extra to get this cable broadcast of the comedy channel, so you don’t get to complain!!”
“The polite thing to do would be to wear headphones! Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!?”
“Speaking of polite, can’t you wear something other than that see-through babydoll!? I’m embarrassed just looking at you! I mean, wow. I can see everything through it and it keep slipping out of place!!”
“I am a very delicate girl who can only sleep in her usual nightwear!!”
Pushed back onto the bed with her wrists pinned down, Shokuhou Misaki turned her head to the side and childishly pouted her lips. They probably would have been getting complaints from the other four girls in the room if the others hadn’t already been unable to sleep after ruining their sleep schedule staying up for their Christmas parties.
And Shokuhou’s next line was not “You might have control of my body, but my spirit will never give in.” Instead…
“(Also, well, I have trouble with hospital gowns. They remind me of that old project.)”
“Huh?”
“I’m just surprised with you, that’s all☆”
When her psychological powers did not work on someone, Academy City’s #5 kept the upper hand with plain words. But this was only a secondary skill for her, so it was not at the level of that girl who could control every aspect of someone with nothing more than words.
“I mean, I’m surprised you’re watching a comedy show as if you had nothing better to do. I thought for sure you would be using all of your monstrous strength to barge your way in to that trial.”
“Sitting in the same room glaring at him won’t change the outcome.” It was Mikoto’s turn to look away. “I won’t help anyone by fretting over it. And it’s getting so much attention that any channel I might be watching is bound to cut away to some emergency news the instant a verdict is reached.”
“You’re relying on the TV news when you’ll have a flood of trending online news and recommended videos coming your way, saving you the trouble of even searching for it? Besides, don’t modern trials use computers to partially automate the process?”
“Why do you know that? You aren’t manipulating the lay judges, are you?”
“Oh, c’mon. I wouldn’t go that far.”
“And how far would you go?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know☆”
That was when Shirai Kuroko arrived. The rehabilitation rooms were not open this late, but she may have been secretly receiving some counseling related to the previous incident.
But as far as appearances went, the twintailed underclassman was smiling brightly and spreading her arms.
“Oneeee-samaaaa, what are you- brfahflshf!!!??? Th-they’re making a super-sweet macaron sandwich in the same bed!? And Onee-sama is the top!? She’s the dominant one!? How powerful are your pheromones, Shokuhou Misaki!?”
“Shokuhou, did you mess with Kuroko’s brain?”
“Logical brainwashing can’t make someone act like that. It would seem the human body is still a treasure trove of mysteries.”
Just then, Misaka Mikoto’s phone played a monotone melody from the side table.
The three girls turned toward it.
Part 2
Kamijou Touma walked through the minus-20 weather of Los Angeles.
He had a single goal: find Melzabeth Grocery, who had been set up as the culprit behind the disappearances as part of R&C Occultics’s conspiracy, take her back to her daughter Helcalia, and have her apologize for worrying the girl.
He would fight anything to accomplish it.
Powerful resolve filled his mind as he asked a question with a white puff of breath.
“Umm, where am I supposed to find Melzabeth?”
He was almost in tears. It was 20 below outside. It was closer to midday than morning now, but the temperature showed no sign of rising. He had barely escaped Union Station with his life, but if he walked around aimlessly, he would turn into a popsicle before long.
Othinus sighed in exasperation from his shoulder and recrossed her legs. She also crossed her arms to give him a haughty look.
“In the broadest sense, Los Angeles is a collection of several large cities. Trying to find a single person there on foot is as reckless as plans come. If you still don’t understand the sheer size of LA, keep in mind that there are 375km of pipe drawing water across the desert to the city center here. This is the US’s 2nd biggest city and its economic value makes all that development more than worth it.”
“Y-you mean it’s too large to walk from one side to the other?”
“A splendid answer well worth seeking out a god’s aid for, don’t you think?”
Now he was even more certain he would freeze to death before finding that Indian mother. Just walking brought him closer to death out here, so searching without a single hint was much too difficult.
So…
“Do you think there could be anything more hidden on here?”
He let out another white puff of breath as he pulled out that smartwatch. The square face, the red and black band, and the small scratches and smudges sure seemed to hide some important meaning, but none of it did him any good when he didn’t have a code sheet telling him how to interpret it.
It was like having a list of all the correct answers for a multiple choice test but not knowing what test it went to.
Othinus sighed.
“If you want to pursue Melzabeth Grocery, you do have a few keywords to go off of. 1. Her daughter Helcalia. 2. R&C Occultics. 3. Space Engage. Searching based on those things would probably be the most realistic option.”
Kamijou Touma looked down at the smartwatch again.
“I must be big dumb-dumb cause that didn’t help me at allllll.”
“You aren’t trying to get out of thinking for yourself because you think people find you cute when you’re dumb, are you?”
But if he couldn’t find anything with the smartwatch, maybe it was best to try something else. He also had the phone that synced with the watch.
Needless to say, that Grapple MilliPhone had to be chock full of personal information, but an ordinary high school boy had no way of getting past the lock screen to see inside.
“In that case…hmm, I guess I’ll have to ask her for help.”
“You aren’t even trying to do this on your own, are you? Being stupid will not work out in your favor, you know?”
Othinus sounded utterly exasperated while Kamijou operated a mobile device. But this was not the mother’s phone he had collected.
He used his own Academy City phone to call one of the numbers in the address book.
It was only a phone call, but he spoke with the world’s ugliest attempt at sounding ingratiating.
“M-Misaka-shaaaan? I’d like some help from your zappy powers.”
It was so pathetic that Helcalia Grocery might have reflexively kicked him in the balls if she heard it so soon after trusting him to the point of tears.
However, he was not a private eye or a veteran police detective and there was only so much a high school boy could do.
But he had decided to do what he could.
He would not let that mother and daughter be lost in the darkness, no matter what it took. So if he lacked the skills and knowledge, he would find a way to make up for it. He would not hold anything in reserve. He would use every single thing he could think of. And just because he was a failure of a Level 0 did not mean everyone around him was too.
On the other side of the phone, Academy City’s #3 spoke with ice in her voice.
“So you vanish from the hospital without telling me, but the instant you need some help, you decide to get me involved in your own mess like I’m suddenly a party member again? I see, I see, I see.”
“Kyahh! Is that Kamijou-san!? Why is he calling!? Where is he right now!? Kyah, kyah!!” shouted a mysterious voice, but he couldn’t focus on that right now.
“Please, Biri Biri! This is an international call, not a free calls app!! Your anger is understandable, but I need you to act quickly right now!!”
“Oh, if you have a problem with this, I can always connect you to a mysterious call center in South Africa. Then you can think long and hard about what you’ve done while watching the call time rise on that abnormally pricey connection that refuses to hang up no matter how many times you hit the ‘end call’ button.”
“What in the world!? Did that defunct Dial Q service come back to haunt us as a phone fee black hole!?”
“And please stop shrieking, Shokuhou! Since when are you the giddy schoolgirl type!?”
“I was born this way.”
“And since when did you have hearts in your eyes?”
“I was born this way! Yes, born this way!”
“Well, it stops right now or I’m killing you.”
He heard a physical altercation over the phone, but he could not have this conversation delayed indefinitely. Those girls back in their peaceful country did not know the hell that was international phone rates.
Othinus, meanwhile, sighed with her arms still crossed.
“(She complains a lot for someone who picked up on the third ring. Was she waiting in front of her phone?)”
“Hey, put on that girl I just heard whispering,” said Mikoto. “I need to have a talk with her. And depending on her answer, I might just blow up the lithium battery by your ear.”
“?”
Kamijou looked puzzled and Othinus only gave a carefree whistle from his shoulder.
At any rate…
“I need to get past a phone’s lock screen, so can you open it with your powers?”
“A phone, huh? What kind? An Alkaloid?”
“It’s a Grapple MilliPhone. Why don’t you sound too confident?”
“It’d be a cinch if I had it in front of me, but over the internet is trickier. Those small, multifunction devices are so easy to accidentally break. Plus, the MilliPhones are rumored to have a planned obsolescence system called Telomere… Is the data backed up? If I fry the chip, you’ll never be able to see what’s on it.”
“But I really need to track down Melzabeth. The places she normally visits, her hideouts…anything really.”
“Dwehahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”
A bizarre yell suddenly burst from the phone.
He thought maybe Miss Misaka Mikoto had overworked her brain and gone crazy, but apparently not.
“Onee-sama!! I wasn’t done speaking with you! And now you’re having a phone conversation in bed? You know you shouldn’t use phones in the hospital, don’t you? There, justification acquired! Now I can drag her to a mysterious basement of loving and courageous punishment! Calexa, order me a scavenger’s daughter and a pear of anguish!!”
“You don’t have to be so careful about it without any specialized equipment in this room, so settle down, Kuroko!!”
“Pant, pant!! And you, whoever that is helplessly on the other end of the phone!! What do you think is happening to Onee-sama right now? Just what deliciously naughty things are being done to her!? Heh heh heh. Use your imagination to its fullest and strain your ears to pick up every little sound. Weh heh heh. This! Yes, this is the true joy of cuckoldryyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!”
Mikoto seemed busy, so maybe it was about time he hung up, had a snack, and tried again later. The international fees were really starting to scare him now.
But even as he stared off into the distance, the previous intruder said something more.
“Also, what was that about Melzabeth Grocery?”
“?”
For a moment, he really thought he couldn’t breathe.
How had she known his question before he asked? Had she heard what he said to Mikoto? But he didn’t remember giving the Grocery last name. Why did someone know about Melzabeth Grocery all the way in Academy City!?
“Wait, um, why do you know about Melzabeth? Because, uh…”
“Sigh. You mean the president of Space Engage, don’t you? Then again, it’s one of that giant IT company’s slave companies now.”
Kamijou and Othinus exchanged a glance.
Why did someone on the other side of the globe – and a first year in middle school at that – know about this?
Shirai Kuroko replied before he could even ask and she made it sound like a silly question.
He was quickly reminded that the students of prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School really did live in another world.
“Um, why do you sound so surprised? My bank and investment firm contact me all the time about these things. And when they tell me about a promising new start-up with private equity, of course I’m going to check it out.”
“Investment firm? Private equity?”
Kamijou glanced down at his Transla-Pen.
But no. He couldn’t give up yet. This conversation was supposedly in Japanese, after all.
“To be clear, I am not an actual trader or marketer. It’s not about making money; it’s about getting a feel for how money moves around. Think of it like a form of social studies. The experts have already gone over all of this before introducing it to me and their reputation is riding on their recommendations. Maybe it’s like a fishing pond for special customers. This is entry level stuff that would get me a derisive snort from the actual mathematicians and financial engineers who are braving the tall mountain to go fishing in the most dangerous streams.”
Shirai Kuroko sounded utterly exasperated. When kids in the Tokiwadai world were taught the value of money, it apparently was not done by pedaling their bike around as a paperboy over winter break.
But even so…
“If you are interested in her keynote speech on private spaceflight, it should still be up on the video sites. You know, that thing so many American start-ups do, where they proudly announce their new project up on stage wearing a casual shirt and jeans. Of course, her corporate policies and principles were wiped out once she sold that new tech to that IT company, so I sold all my stock then. In fact, it doesn’t look like R&C Occultics even intends to let the company survive. They were only interested in the distribution infrastructure and rights to the technology, so they aren’t expected to actually produce those new products. They probably see her company like an empty candy wrapper now.”
A shareholder.
It was a completely different tug-of-war compared to the connections he was more accustomed to, like enemy, ally, family, or stranger.
“W-wait!! Are you saying you know a lot about Space Engage? I know they’re completely subservient now, but do you know where their office or lab was during the initial start-up days!?”
“Of course I do. Investigating a company’s assets and equipment is the least you should do before investing. Any prospective shareholder will ask for that data first and foremost. Without that, you wouldn’t know if their proud presentation is within their means or a complete bluff.”
Part 3
Tokyo was the capital of Japan. London was the capital of England. In most countries, the most developed city was also the capital, but there were exceptions. For example, what was the capital of Brazil? Some might say Rio de Janeiro, but they would be wrong. The correct answer was Brasilia.
Similarly, the world’s most famous man lived in a city much more minor than LA or New York.
The city was Washington DC and his home was known as the White House.
That building was packed full of so much history and tradition, but right now it rang with an intellectual woman’s shouting voice. Her name was Roseline Krackhart and she was a presidential aide with a specialty in national security. Although at the moment, she felt more like the babysitter for an abnormally large baby.
“Why was there a call girl waiting outside!? How many times are you going to do this!? You can’t just pick up your phone and call one here whenever you’re feeling bored!!”
“Now, hold on. Are you saying you sent her away? This is my home and I’m allowed to order whatever I want. Speaking of, what happened to my four cheese and soft-boiled egg carbonara pizza? Really, you sent that back too!? I need my fuelllllll!”
The large Hispanic man added “you could have at least given them a tip” while Roseline silently formed two fists and began pummeling the balance ball in a corner of the room. The White House actually had more stress relief products for the staff than it did its actual resident’s personal possessions.
The bearded man named Roberto Katze would likely have been terrorizing the seven seas as a pirate if he hadn’t become president. In fact, Roseline sometimes wondered if that was the real timeline and his presence in the oval office with his leather shoes up on the desk was proof that this was an unnatural parallel timeline.
“It’s a free country and I’m single, so it’s not even cheating if I decide to cut loose and have some fun.”
“And what if she is a honey trap sent by the opposition party? Besides, the profiles on those sites are all self-reported, so you can’t trust any of it. Oh, god. What if people start to suspect you’re carelessly leaking information to foreign spies? Your political career will be ruined…”
“Quit your bellyaching. Miss Jane I met the other day was a real adult who understands how society works, not some kid like you who never stops complaining. So it’s fine.”
“When and where did you sneak out to meet with this woman!!!???”
The White House was protected inside and out by the secret service and the marines, but this man had developed escape skills straight out of a ninja action film. Whenever justice or his libido were on the line, he had the uncanny ability to transform into a shirtless, Gatling-gun-toting monster who could fight space aliens head on.
Currently, he switched gears to the non-libido side of things.
“How are things in LA?”
“Did you really expect any progress? We still can’t reach the state governor or legislature.” Roseline answered his question with a question of her own and placed her shapely butt atop the balance ball. “Fortunately, Overlord Revenge was run by England and Academy City, so America was not directly involved.”
That was the only way it could have worked. The US military could not fire on their own citizens in their own country, with one exception: if that citizen broke into one of their bases. So they could not make a preemptive strike inside the country. That restriction felt downright silly now that 30 million people had disappeared, though.
Could the actions of a single company really be called a civil war or a revolution?
To answer that, they had to determine what exactly R&C Occultics had done. If it involved nuclear or chemical weapons, they might have the excuse they needed to deploy the military, but so far, they just had an inexplicable mass disappearance. As silly as it seemed, the law could do nothing until they figured out how it had happened. With disappearances alone, they had to seriously consider the possibility of people running away from home en masse. Legally speaking, anyway.
So they could not authorize military action, leaving them stuck and unable to act.
It was true police special forces had militarized a lot in recent years, but they were not trained to endure a real war.
The aide breathed a heavy sigh.
“On the other hand, you will be publicly criticized for authorizing an attack by foreign troops, even if they are allies. I will put together a flowchart of expected questions and their answers, giving you a political defense that will withstand at least 256 different branching possibilities. The Vice President says he will play the role of your criticizer to help you practice.”
“Bleh, that’s not fortunate or unfortunate. It’s trivial.” The President made a verbal attack with his feet up on the desk. “What matters is figuring out what happened to those 30 million. I want to know for sure if they’re alive or dead and, if possible, drag them all out of the darkness alive and well. Only then can we talk about what’s fortunate and unfortunate. Don’t give up on the most important part before you know how it’s gonna turn out.”
The intellectual aide sighed too quietly for anyone to hear.
She was especially careful to make sure the president didn’t hear.
It was his ability to talk boldly here that earned him so many votes despite his unprecedented behavior. He was nothing like the other politicians who always said they would do their best and work towards everyone’s happiness but who were too afraid of going too far or saying the wrong thing to actually give a straight answer when it counted.
The words of this president left a solid footprint in the ground.
And it was that trail of footprints that was defining the future of this country and the world as a whole. So everyone in the United States, regardless of gender, generation, race, or religion, wanted to see where this man would take them.
The way he elevated the country made the election fun for once and he convinced all of the people that they were lucky to have a say in electing him.
And now Roberto Katze took another step forward.
“What about the NSA?”
“They are waiting outside of LA.”
“The CIA?”
“Keeping them from recklessly rushing in there has not been easy. If they did that, they would probably only disappear along with everyone else.”
“Then we just have to find someone who knows what’s going on.”
Telling Roberto there was nothing they could do was not enough to stop him.
The mysterious occult were not the only ones with secret forces they could covertly send out.
“Still no word from our Overlord Revenge contact? Then we’ll have to contact the people in charge.”
“You’ve heard what’s going on in Academy City. I doubt we would have a chance to speak with the defendant while he’s cut off from the outside world for the trial.”
“What about England?”
“Our hotline is up and running, but who is even in charge of that country? Their elected head of state is already begging our operator to pick up the phone.”
“It would have to be whoever was in charge of Overlord Revenge and whoever would know how things stood right up to the end.”
“That would be the church then,” readily answered Roseline. “You want the Anglicans.”
