Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume16 Prologue
Prologue: The Third Term He Won – January.[edit]
“Index.”
It was January 15.
Kamijou Touma sat in the middle of the room.
He was serious.
“We can’t let these harsh conditions win. We’re hungry. Nothing we think here can change that fact. So enough emotional arguments – we need to physically stand up to this!!”
“I can’t… Touma, I can’t fight like this…”
“You can’t act like some frail maiden and fade away into nothing!! Don’t accept a moving defeat all on your own here. Listen, Index, we have a water heater! That means we can use the pasta sauce that only needs to be heated with hot water. We can’t keep the retort pouch curry boiling long enough to cook because the hot water will cool in no time after we remove it from the heater. But as long as we can heat the pasta sauce, there is hope and possibility left for us!!”
“Human. …That doesn’t give you any way to cook the pasta!! That’s just too much for our pathetically powerless group. We should have gone ahead and compromised on some crackers that are edible as is.”
“I happen to know some relevant survival trivia here, Othinus. Soak dry pasta in room-temperature water for half a day and you’ll have tasty spaghetti without any need for heat. So we haven’t done anything wrong at all! And I left them soaking overnight, so check it out: tah dah!!”
A giant plate sat before them.
It was loaded up with noodles.
Genovese sauce, mentaiko sauce, and a few more varieties of pasta sauce were separated out onto smaller plates, so it looked something like a Western version of somen or tsukemen. Why was Kamijou Touma, expert in student struggle meals, trying something so specialized today? Because pasta sauce is sold in small packets much like salad dressing!!
It was time to eat.
They had to eat or they would die. They would eventually die.
So they had to be thankful for the meal before them and enjoy it.
The trio prepared themselves.
It was time for the taste test!!
“Ubwoehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhgwehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoghhhhehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhbjbjbeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhbbhhehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!?”
Which of three that was will be omitted for the sake of their honor☆
There was one thing they could say for sure.
“H-human. This is not spaghetti. This is a nameless horror that was once wheat. It’s an insult to the farmers who grew it!!”
“Bhh, bbhh…”
“Even Index…isn’t going back for a second bite? Wait! Wait!! Do you know how much 215g of dried pasta grows after soaking for half a day? I made enough for myself, Index, and little Othinus, so we all need to work together to eat it! I tried my best to make something good, so leaving me to eat it all seems like violence to me. And violence is wrong!!”
“Touma… Forcing this mass of gluten with a tough center and slimy surface onto someone with a perfect memory…is an unforgivable and unforgettable form of violence…”
“Quit using your special trait as a shield when it’s convenient for you!! Okay, fine, I’ll admit it! This is rough even for a normal person!”
The calico cat alone looked happy with his normal cat food.
He mewed and showed no inclination to stand up to help his owner in his time of need.
…Now, why were Kamijou and the others forced into this life or death battle on the morning of January 15?
There was a simple answer to that.
This room had no kitchen.
The sky was clear outside the window. A passenger plane flew through that sky. They could see clearly outside the window. That would never happen in the boys dorm where you could jump to the neighboring building if you tried.
Why had this happened?
Because they weren’t in the usual boys dorm.
Yes.
The school’s boys dorm had been partially destroyed (mostly due to Stiyl’s attack and Magic Gods Niang-Niang and Nephthys’s rampage), leaving people with nowhere to live.
So more than a hundred homeless boys had been sent here on a temporary basis.
“Oh, come on. Why is this bringing me misfortune too!? Life in the girls dorm was supposed to be a dream come true, not thiiiiiis!”
That was where he was.
In his school’s girls dorm.