A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 19 Read online

  “Wait, she called me her brother just now, but our relationship in the magic society was more like teacher and student—that’s all!!”

  “In other words, a stepsister!! That’s actually even better, nya!!”

  Amid Unabara’s and Tsuchimikado’s cries, Awaki Musujime peered into the room from outside.

  We came here to gather everyone together for a job, but if it was going to be like this, wouldn’t solving this on my own have been a better idea?! she considered, relatively seriously.

  She spoke to Accelerator, who was leaning on the wall nearby, without looking at him.

  “Brother, sister—what are they even talking about? I swear, we’re about to head for a battlefield with bullets flying everywhere, so I wish they’d act a little more appropriately.”

  But there was no reaction from Accelerator.

  Dubiously, she looked over to him and realized his lips were moving slightly.

  She focused on listening to his whispers.

  “(…It’s every person’s fate to be pushed around by a younger brat at some point.

  It looks like things in there are getting ridiculous, but I don’t have the right to get in their way like an idiot.)”

  “Oh, how awful. Am I the only non-lolicon in Group?”

  Then, Accelerator, Motoharu Tsuchimikado, and Mitsuki Unabara all turned around and focused on the one who’d made the remark, Awaki Musujime.

  In their natural voices, without any particular prior planning, they said:

  “Great, the girl who is obviously a shotacon is calling us perverts.” “Yeah, nya.” “Indeed.”

  “Pfft?! Cough-cough!! Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what grounds do you have to prove that I’m a shota—mfgh—shotacon…?!”

  The upperclassman-type, huge-chested high school girl Awaki Musujime began to panic, but the other three, perhaps too tired to explain everything to her, merely shook their heads. The meaning was loud and clear: Did she really think she’d been successfully hiding it this whole time?

  …Xóchitl didn’t appreciate how their reactions had all been in unison, but Unabara didn’t notice that subtlety. After saying good-bye to the copper-skinned girl, he left the hospital room.

  As they walked down the hallway, he asked:

  “This job must be important if they called Group together. What is it?”

  “Oh, just resolving an incident, same as always,” answered Tsuchimikado, so casually that it seemed he might break out into a whistle at any moment.

  “Some terrorists have holed up with some hostages—and we’ve been ordered to kill them all.”

  2

  Meanwhile, two people, a boy and a girl, arrived at the store in the same hospital building. Basically, it was a shop mainly offering light snacks such as juice and sugary treats, but it also featured a lineup of novels for passing the time as well as water guns, though where someone would use one of those in the hospital was unclear.

  The girl’s head moved quickly, checking all the products, while the boy watched her idly from behind.

  The boy’s name was Shiage Hamazura. He had brown hair, and his outfit consisted of a beat-up tracksuit and jeans. He had the features of a dumb street thug, but that’s exactly what he was, so he couldn’t help it. A street thug who had taken out Academy City’s fourth-ranked Level Five, Shizuri Mugino.

  The girl’s name was Saiai Kinuhata.

  She was about twelve years old, also brunette, though her hair was far less frizzled and dry. She wore it in a bob cut that just barely reached her shoulders. Her outfit was a short wool dress that looked like a sweater, which exposed a dangerous amount of her white-skinned thighs. The sort of girl you’d feel constantly uncomfortable sitting across from during a train ride.

  As Kinuhata looked at the several kinds of flowers placed directly on the store’s floor, she said, “We came all this way to visit her, so, like, how could you forget flowers, Hamazura? Do you actually enjoy us always thinking you’re a total Hamazura, Hamazura?”

  “Hey, stop bending over to look at them. Your ass is basically putting on one hell of a show back here, you know.”

  “But you can’t quite see them clearly in this pose— Totally amazing, right? It’s a completely different league compared to your run-of-the-mill sluts.”

  Damn, cursed Hamazura to himself. It was planned all along!!

  After thinking hard for a few moments, Kinuhata picked out flowers he couldn’t name and called the store clerk over. Once she got them all bundled into a bouquet, it fell, of course, to Hamazura to carry them.

  As they walked to the elevator leading to the general hospital building, Kinuhata said, “All right, that does it for the flowers. Did you, like, remember to bring any other gifts for the visit?”

  “A couple. But Takitsubo’s getting discharged soon, so it’s not like I went all out trying to get my hands on crazy time-killing toys.”

  “I would super-appreciate it if you’d stop with the bunny suits.”

  “What kind of person do you think I am anyway?”

  “An absolute pervert who’s totally into bunny girls.”

  As they squabbled, Hamazura and Kinuhata got into the elevator and took it to their destination floor. After walking down the hallway and knocking on the door, a familiar voice came back at them.

  When they opened the door, they saw their friend, a comrade who had survived a fierce battle alongside them in the past.

  Rikou Takitsubo.

  Hamazura remembered her as a girl who always seemed sleepy. Her black hair was cut evenly at her shoulders. Normally, she wore a pink-colored tracksuit, which could apparently serve as hangout clothes as well as pajamas. Sitting up in bed, she was, again, in her usual tracksuit.

  “Hey, girl, how you feeling?!” asked Kinuhata with ease, already knowing things were getting better for her, as she swiftly dismantled the bouquet and put the flowers in a vase.

  In fact, Takitsubo herself didn’t think deeply on it, either, saying, “They say that I should be fine now. They’re already trying to make sure I can leave tonight.”

  “Uh—hey!! Why didn’t you tell us that earlier?!”

  “We bought you presents, too. I guess we shouldn’t have bothered, huh?”

  Kinuhata’s unnecessary remark forced Takitsubo to reply with “I’m sorry—I’ll still bring them home with me” and bow in apology. Hamazura pressed down on the crown of Kinuhata’s head like a contestant in one of those trivia game shows where you press the button as fast as you can.

  “No, that’s not it. I just meant now we won’t have time to set up a welcome-home party.”

  “…Hamazura, that aside, you’re, like, def getting punched for this later.”

  And so, my position stays exactly the same!! Hamazura screamed to himself.

  Kinuhata, who of course didn’t notice this, said, “They were talking about how you used the Crystals too much and just totally collapsed, so I was pretty worried. I mean, if it were some regular old-cold, then at least I would know what to expect. But with a condition like this, even if someone explains it, I still couldn’t even imagine what had happened. Anyway, I’m super-glad you can go home now.”

  Hamazura agreed. “Yeah. I know you can’t ever use your ability again, since it needs Crystals, but I’m relieved nothing else bad came out of this…Oh, right. You might not need this since you’re getting discharged, but a little something to pass the time. A jigsaw puzzle.”

  “It totally wasn’t a bunny suit, then…”

  “I seriously want to make you cry for acting so surprised, are you okay with that, I’ll assume you are!”

  “With your weak technique, you’d need more than a lifetime to do that. Oh, right. I, like, got you this thing. Ta-daa!” Kinuhata beamed as she took something out of her package (that she was making Hamazura carry). “It’s, like, a stuffed rabbit!!”

  It was indeed a stuffed animal about fifty centimeters in length. On the whole, it was fluffy and fanciful, but for some reason, there
was something that resembled human hair sticking out from its mouth, which really made one think Did … it just eat something?

  People didn’t choose surreal mascots—surreal mascots chose them. Hamazura was worried, but then Takitsubo said, “It’s cute.”

  “Whaaat?! I thought for sure you’d make a comment about it being impractical!! Is this the result of the former Item members having such a tight bond despite their personalities always clashing?!”

  “I want to make you cry like always for acting so surprised and totally trembling like that, are you okay with that, I assume you are, well here come the tears.”

  “He-he-he, with your frail body it would take more than a lifetime—dghaghaghaghaghaghagha?! Stop, you idiot, quit doing acupressure with my foot—gwahhh it hurts I’m gonna die okay okay I’m crying I’m really crying!!”

  Hamazura slapped the floor like a pro wrestler giving up to a strange technique, pinned as he was.

  Finished with her assault for now, Kinuhata wiped the sweat from her brow and said, “Actually, the real crime is how the totally perverted bunny girl maniac Hamazura apparently managed to forget even for a moment the respect and fear he should be showing us. So, like, do you get it now?”

  “…If you were a sheltered, arrogant rich girl, that might have made me squirm a bit, but it’s no joke coming from someone who’s maxed out her physical attack power while working her shady job. Besides, it’s not like bunny girls are the only thing I’m into.”

  “Really, now?” asked Kinuhata, grabbing the stuffed rabbit Takitsubo had been holding. Then she went around behind the other girl and positioned the stuffed rabbit so that her head eclipsed it.

  When she did, the stuffed animal’s ears alone looked like they were jutting out from the impassive patient’s head…And then Kinuhata, who had created the situation, delivered her finishing lines:

  “Ta-daa! Our best little wabbit. Li’l Rikou is the type who will die of loneliness. Is this the bunny girl you asked for?”

  A moment later.

  Something inadvertently dripped out of Shiage Hamazura’s nose.

  He swiped a hand up to his face unconsciously and was shocked to find that it wasn’t snot. But now wasn’t the time for that. When he looked, he saw Saiai Kinuhata, the one he was pretty sure had planned this all along, and Rikou Takitsubo, the one who’d been forcibly involved in the scheme, both drawing away.

  “…Hamazura…You…You, for real, like bunnies that much…?”

  “N-no!! It doesn’t make any sense for me to get a nosebleed right now!! This is something else, something… It must be because your damn foot massage went terribly wrong!! It has to be!! Bunnies, I don’t, not like…!!”

  As Hamazura desperately denied it, the impassive comforting presence, Rikou Takitsubo, softly put a hand on his shoulder.

  “It’s okay. Hamazura, this is a hospital. It’s fine if you get a nosebleed. A doctor will make you better right away.”

  “Oh, ohhh…!! You’re the only one who would worry about me at a time like this!!”

  Hamazura was about ready to collapse from this small act of kindness.

  “It’s okay, Hamazura,” she continued. “I’m pretty sure this hospital cares for mental sicknesses, too. Even if you get a nosebleed from a bunny, there’s nothing at all to worry about.”

  And now he was about to collapse for a different reason.

  3

  Four people were in the camper: Accelerator, Motoharu Tsuchimikado, Awaki Musujime, and Mitsuki Unabara.

  “The terrorists causing the incident are apparently a group called Spark Signal. It looks like one of the organizations operating behind the scenes in Academy City like we do has gone out of control,” said Tsuchimikado, as if it was all worthless to him.

  Unabara frowned. “What’s Spark Signal supposed to mean?”

  “The walls surrounding Academy City constantly emit highly directional electromagnetic interference at an extreme upward angle to prevent information from being sent and received through EM waves,” he explained. “Cell phones work all right even a meter away from the wall, but it basically cuts off all communications that would normally go past it. Our radars and stuff are based outside the wall, and normal communications have to be routed through the external connection terminals. There are security robots patrolling the top of the wall, though, and apparently they communicate with them via data cables that hang off them and connect with floor rails.

  “But there are exceptions. The higher-ups seem to have a secret way of sending messages. Plenty of people do all kinds of things to try to leak Academy City intel to the outside world, after all. Our terrorists are evidently experts at stopping that.”

  Musujime’s expression showed slight displeasure. She’d made contact with someone on the outside during the incident surrounding the holdout. Maybe she’d fought against Spark Signal in the past.

  “Apparently, they’re on the same level of secrecy as Hound Dog,” continued Tsuchimikado, causing Accelerator’s eyebrow to twitch. Tsuchimikado ignored him and continued. “And now the team formerly known as Spark Signal has created a hostage crisis. They’re holed up in the largest particle accelerator in the world, here in Academy City. It’s nicknamed the Hula Hoop.”

  As Tsuchimikado went on, he pressed a button on a device that seemed to be a TV remote.

  A map of Academy City came up on the large screen inside the vehicle. There was one section that had a different color. But it wasn’t one of the school districts. It was the ringed wall wrapped around Academy City’s border.

  “The city built a giant circular accelerator two hundred meters underground that goes along the outside wall. The former Spark Signal terrorists hijacked the control facility, also underground, removed the accelerator’s limiters, then booted it up. I hear they’re accelerating protons at thirty percent the speed of light right now…Naturally, if something happens that they’re not okay with, they’ll kick the output up past critical levels. That will apparently cause the circular accelerator tunnel to rupture, then blast the rest of it, plus one-third of Academy City, with radiation.

  “Though exactly where around the ring it’ll explode would be up to fate,” he added.

  In summary, everyone except for those in the most central areas of Academy City was in serious danger.

  While he listened, Unabara tilted his head. “The particle accelerator must use a lot of electricity, right? Couldn’t they just cut it off from the power plant?”

  “It takes a considerable amount of power to bring it to an emergency stop,” answered Tsuchimikado. “Because of that, the facility is equipped with an independent power plant. The former members of Spark Signal are, naturally, using it to keep the accelerator up and running.”

  “…So even though they have control of the building, they haven’t made it go haywire immediately,” Musujime murmured. “Which means they must have demands, right?”

  Tsuchimikado shook his head. “I’m sure the leaders in the Academy City General Board know what they are, but they didn’t let us in on that much intel. They’d probably tell us not to think about anything above our paygrade and that we should simply slaughter everyone opposing them.”

  “If there’s no time limit for resolving this,” Accelerator cut in, “the situation must not be that urgent.”

  As Tsuchimikado listened, he pressed another button on the remote. Separate from the large circle running around the outside of Academy City, two more rings appeared, each of them smaller. They were concentric rings, but tilted, so that they all met at one point on the perimeter.

  “Can’t say that for sure. The Hula Hoop accelerates particles through the first, second, and third rings, depending on what phase it’s in. It goes from smallest to largest. As far as we can confirm, the terrorists have already moved to the biggest one, the third circle—the accelerator running around the city’s edge.”

  “What does that mean?” Unabara demanded.

  Tsuchimikado grinned. “Judg
ing by the facility’s specs, the third circle doesn’t get used for low speeds like thirty percent the speed of light. It’s used for experiments that need at least seventy percent… It seems like we’re not being given all the information here. They could just be showing off, or it could be to hide information to keep a seriously crazy panic from breaking out.”

  “Meaning the situation might be even worse, but they didn’t bother to inform us,” spat Accelerator, sounding fed up indeed. “This ain’t doin’ it for me. Maybe it is serious, but it’s not like they came crying and begging without caring what it looked like. Just leave ’em alone. Until the leaders actually do that, we can just sit back and relax.”

  “There is one piece of intel that will convince you.”

  Tsuchimikado pressed a button on the remote, causing a new window to appear on the screen. It showed a school bus. One of its front tires had gone flat, and the door had been destroyed by something.

  “Before those former Spark Signal asses attacked the Hula Hoop, they captured about thirty elementary school kids who were going to go stargazing as an extracurricular activity, plus their teacher and the bus driver, taking them all hostage. Very convenient negotiation tool for them. The kind they can kill one by one as time passes and their demands continue to be refused.”

  “…”

  “They could have used the Hula Hoop employees as hostages, too, but they need them—they have to force them to actually use the accelerator. If they spent those resources as time went on, they wouldn’t be able to drag out this standoff. Instead, to avoid that, they increased their supply of hostages by searching elsewhere. The leaders probably have their collective panties in a bunch over the Hula Hoop facility’s time limit, but I wonder how they feel about this other limit…Do you think they care much about the lives of children?”

  “Bullshit,” interrupted Accelerator. “I don’t see why I have to go along with this.”