Toaru Majutsu no Index:Volume SP Chapter3

Kamijou Touma

“…Ksshh…Can you…hear this? …Is this…ksshh…language…you…ksshh…speak? My…ksshh…from Earth to Mars…ksshh…”

A normal high school student named Kamijou Touma leaned against the wall and looked down at his cell phone. He was watching the evening news on it.

“That is the result gained from analysis of the signal coming from the direction of Mars. No official announcement has been made by the special committee in Academy City’s District 23 and speculation is rampant.”

A girl stood next to Kamijou.

The girl peering at his cell phone had the odd name of Index. She had white skin, a short build, long silver hair that reached her waist, and green eyes. She also wore a showy white nun’s habit with gold embroidery that was reminiscent of a nouveau riche teacup. She would have stood out anywhere.

She trembled while watching the news.

“Aliens… There really are octopus-like aliens!!”

“Ehh…?” said Kamijou (an alien denier) in an exhausted voice within a pristine, white corridor.

Index (an alien believer) had been acting like that ever since that news had first come out a few days prior. UFOs and aliens may have seemed scientific, but it seemed wrong to seriously say that octopus-like aliens or silver aliens with huge heads were part of the science side.

Even if it was from a proper news organization, things were often reported before credible proof had been obtained. There were all sorts of stories about UFO photos being faked.

However, Index’s green eyes were opened wide.

“Since the message was in Japanese, they might be coming here soon. O-oh, no. There’s nothing in my 103,000 grimoires about what to say when you meet an octopus alien!!”

“Ehh…?” said Kamijou in a disheartened voice.

Index may have been able to use her knowledge from over 100,000 grimoires to defeat nasty magicians, but she did not know much when it came to aerospace concepts.

(She isn’t going to start saying something about nearby crop circles being linked to the sinking of Atlantis, is she?)

Kamijou looked down at the digital clock displayed at the edge of his cell phone’s screen.

It was 8:10 PM.

(She’s late. How long do those preparations take?)

Just as he thought that, he heard footsteps from further back in the building. Kamijou and Index looked over and saw a woman of about 20 approaching.

She was out of breath.

“Sorry, young Kamijou. The preparations took longer than I expected!”

“So you got the car ready, Fleiss-san?”

“Yes, somehow or other. The engine’s already started. C’mon, we need to get out of here!!”

Kamijou and Index followed the older Fleiss down the dark passageway. On the way, Kamijou glanced out a window. What he saw was not the normal nighttime scenery of the city.

He saw special vehicles arranged to surround the building. Lights much brighter than the ones used in theatres were pointed toward the building, making it difficult to see out, but he could see people moving about and watching the building through the gaps in the light.

(…Can we really escape from this?)

Kamijou was half in shock.

The three of them were currently on the run from Academy City.

It had all started with what Index had said a few hours earlier after dinner.

Normally, the girl only asked for dessert or to have tempura in her udon, but she had given a rare request that could have even been called romantic: I want to see some pretty stars. Needless to say, Kamijou had been shocked.

Academy City had been created out of the western portion of Tokyo, so it gave the image of being level all the way across. However, District 21 was exceptionally mountainous as it held the many dams that acted as the city’s water sources. The elevation only reached about 200 meters, but the stars could be seen more clearly there than in the city with its streetlights and neon. As such, they headed there.

Their destination was an observatory at the top of one of those slopes.

It was a fairly nice observatory that even had a mid-range radio telescope, but it was open to the public. It even had some of the kind of telescope on any popular elevated tourist destination that could be used for a limited amount of time for 100 yen.

The observatory was filled with people enjoying their evening and Kamijou assumed it was due to the news about Mars (although he had no idea how many people normally went there).

However, a battle had suddenly broken out between Anti-Skill, an organization that acted both as police and special forces within Academy City, and Fleiss-san, a woman with the strange occupation of “magician”. (Anti-Skill did not know of magic, so they seemed to be treating her as a mere terrorist.) Apparently Anti-Skill had found Fleiss-san mixed in with the normal people in the observatory and a skirmish had broken out.

It was a battle between science and magic.

That was a problem, but it was not too far out of hand. This one would resolve itself. There were plenty of incidents and battles in the world, but you just had to make sure you did not get involved in them. There was no need to stick one’s nose in other people’s business. That was why Kamijou and Index just needed to escape to a safe place and not take part in that ridiculous battle.

The problem was…

“Oh, c’mon… But wow. That really is a heated battle. Well, I have a bad feeling about this, so let’s go hide.”

“Mh, Touma! That expensive-looking suit of armor is about to fall over!!”

“Ahh!! Hoo, got the spear at the last second!!”

And like that, Kamijou was holding the thick spear that had fallen from the overly expensive and in-the-way suit of armor. Kamijou was breathing a sigh of relief that the nouveau riche antique was not damaged when…

“…”

A few Anti-Skill members suddenly looked over at him.

One of them turned toward his radio and said something.

“I’ve spotted reinforcements for the target!! He’s armed with a heavy-looking spear, possibly to use against our bulletproof vests! He looks ready to attack!!”

“Ehh!? W-wait a second…!! Hey, magician!! Don’t get that hopeful look on your face!! I’m not trying to join in…!!”

“The new target has a medium build and black, spiky hair! …There could be other terrorists around. We should assume we’re up against a group here!!”

“Eeee!? You’ve got it all wrong, Anti-Skill-san! We have nothing to do with that kind of supernatural fighter…Gaaahhhhh!?”

Kamijou’s sentence turned into some sort of yell at the end because he only got a stream of bullets as a response and had to frantically grab Index’s hand and head for cover. They were rubber bullets for suppressing riots, but they would still hurt if they hit you. It was not a good idea to just stand there when a shower of them was headed your way.

During all that, the rest of the crowd was quickly evacuated from the observatory guided by Anti-Skill. Thanks to that, Kamijou, Index, and the mysterious magician were the only three left inside. Kamijou wanted to yell at Anti-Skill telling them to at least treat him like he was the magician’s hostage, but it seemed they were just planning to shoot first and ask questions later.

“Sorry about that. It looks like I’ve gotten you wrapped up in all sorts of trouble.”

“Oh, yes, I suppose so. I’ve had a lot of practice though, so I can handle this much misfortune.”

And so they ended up carrying out their escape plan with Fleiss-san, the magician that had suddenly started talking to them like she knew them.

There was no real reason Kamijou had to escape, but he had a feeling misfortune would rear its ugly head if he did not get to some place where he could safely clear up the misunderstandings. If he simply headed out with his hands up, he could just see someone’s finger slipping and shooting him accidentally.