A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 15 Read online

  “Dealing with those shitheads’ decoy wouldn’t be my thing. I’m going to District 23. If I wreck the big ground antenna they use to communicate with the satellites, the hacking will stop, too. Meanwhile, you two can do the grunt work.”

  After saying his piece, Accelerator jumped out of the RV without hesitation.

  Flying in an unnatural trajectory, he passed over the median and came to a thud in the passenger seat of a convertible in the opposite lane. A normal person would have been crushed by the relative speed, but with all the vectors on his side, he had no problem.

  In fact, the one who flinched was the convertible’s driver.

  “Whoa, what?! Wh-what?”

  “I’ll pay for gas and labor.”

  He heard a small clicking sound.

  The driver felt something press against his cheek, but he didn’t move his neck. However, in the rearview mirror, he saw the dark shine of what looked like a small gun.

  “District 23. No detours.”

  7

  I’m bored, thought Shiage Hamazura idly in the driver’s seat of the parked car he’d stolen.

  They were near Kirigaoka Girls’ Academy in School District 18. The squarish building of the Particle Physics Institute was about a hundred meters ahead, inside which two organizations would be in the midst of a fierce battle—School, assaulting the institute, and Item, intercepting them.

  As he gazed that way, Hamazura was muttering to himself. “Wow, crazy…They wrecked half the building. And was that a beam cannon I saw flying out? That was Shizuri Mugino, right? Full steam ahead as usual, that Level Five.”

  The reinforced concrete building was leaning over, sending columns of gray dust billowing out. Earthquake-like tremors reached all the way to Hamazura’s stolen car.

  A Level Five, eh…?

  Had Ritoku Komaba, former leader of the armed Level Zero organization Skill-Out, really believed he could fight against that and win?

  And did Skill-Out, now without that leader, still think they could fight?

  “…Shit,” cursed Hamazura, smacking the steering wheel in annoyance. Either way, now that he had fled Skill-Out and surrendered at the espers’ gates, he didn’t have the right to talk about it.

  Frustrated, he opened the driver’s side door and stepped out.

  Considering how he had to prepare for Item so they could leave at any time, and how they’d started cracking down on no-parking zones, getting out of the car wasn’t a very good plan. But Hamazura wanted a mood change at any cost.

  Today was a holiday, so not many people were near Kirigaoka Girls’ Academy. And there were three sports cars parallel parked on the road.

  Hamazura’s eyes lit up. Whoa?! They’re ’89 Boosters!! They call it the emperor of four-doors!! W-wait, trying to steal such a remarkable car would just add to the risks…Aw, screw it, we’re going home in a Booster today!!

  Imagining the low exhaust of the famous car, one that would make a celebrity’s spirit waver, with strangely excited breaths coming from his nose, Hamazura took out his lock-opening tool. The sports cars were that much better than the rest—mature, high-grade vehicles, and he was just going up to one when…

  “Hamazura!!”

  “Y-yes?!”

  Suddenly, a woman’s shout came from right behind him, prompting him to hastily pocket the tool and turn around.

  It was a female teacher wearing a green tracksuit.

  Hamazura could tell how pretty she was despite the tracksuit…Actually, she was so beautiful he wanted to shout, Why a tracksuit, it makes no sense, let’s have sex! but that wasn’t the important thing.

  She was an Anti-Skill officer—a fated enemy of Skill-Out.

  Her name was Aiho Yomikawa, he recalled.

  “Huh? What’s the matter? I heard you were in custody after the Dangai University database center incident. Wasn’t you after all, hmm? Well, that’s good.”

  She was speaking casually for some reason, but not because they were friends. Her kindness was one-sided—besides, he’d never have a positive response for the woman who’d caught him fourteen times in the city at night and thrown him into a police cell.

  “What the hell are you doing here, you stupid hag?”

  “Well, can’t you see by looking?” said Yomikawa, pointing with her thumb at the Particle Physics Institute in question.

  Hamazura’s hand went to his forehead. Item’s ancillary organization was probably suppressing all sorts of things, but even they couldn’t perfectly hide an institute currently half-destroyed.

  Yomikawa put her hands on her hips and smiled at him. “You know, all I ever want is for you to be rehabilitated.”

  “What? What the hell are you talking ab—”

  “Bent over, staring at a car’s keyhole—for what? I know you don’t want to make me put you in cuffs out here in the open.”

  Hamazura’s shoulders jolted. He couldn’t afford to get locked up here, so he shook his head back and forth. “Y-you’ve got it all wrong! A baby!! They left a baby in the car!!”

  “What?!” Yomikawa hurriedly approached, then stuck her hands to the car’s window and tried to look in.

  The security system kicked in a moment later. The shrill wailing of the alarm flustered the woman. Meanwhile, Hamazura whistled, feigning ignorance, as a station wagon barreled toward him from the Particle Physics Institute that was about to be destroyed.

  The station wagon passed by, and then Shizuri Mugino came running from the institute, this time in pursuit. In one hand, she had another Item member, the airhead Rikou Takitsubo, by the neck.

  They dove into the original four-door’s rear seat, Mugino saying, “Hamazura!! You suck at hitting on women, so come on! Hurry and follow that station wagon!!”

  “I wasn’t hitting on her, you little twerp!!” Hamazura shouted back, returning to the car. He wished he could have had the ’89 Booster, but he obviously couldn’t steal it right in front of Yomikawa.

  After he got into the driver’s seat and the engine roared to life, Yomikawa finally shouted at him. “Hold on, Hamazura!! What’s with that car?!”

  “Can’t you tell?! I got my license!!” he cried, the biggest lie of all, before flooring it so they could get away from the woman as quickly as possible. The engine and tires squealed at the sudden departure, and the family car began to roar down the street, leaving the tracksuit-clad teacher in the dust.

  After leaving, Hamazura noticed something. “H-hey, what happened to Kinuhata and Frenda?!”

  “It’ll take more than that to kill them. That station wagon comes first!!” answered Mugino in irritation.

  Hamazura saw through the rearview mirror that the hem of her short-sleeved coat was burned, and her cheek was swollen as though someone had punched her. He tried to imagine what had happened in the institute. “How’d that happen? Thought you were number four.”

  “They had a Level Five, too. Teitoku Kakine, that number-two pile of shit,” she answered, petulant. “But we had something to say about that. We took out one of School’s members. Didn’t look like he was very strong inside the building.”

  As a war trophy, she shook a sturdy-looking mechanical piece of headgear at him. It went all around one’s head like the rings of Saturn, with what looked like lots of plugs. Cords hung from them, but they’d been severed like mowed grass. He didn’t know what the thing was used for, but he was horrifed at the blood stuck to it.

  “Anyway, what are we chasing that station wagon for?”

  “We’ve gotta crush the guy in it and grab their cargo.”

  “Cargo?”

  “The Tweezers. Super-precise granule-sized object interference absorption manipulators.”

  “…You don’t even want to explain, do you?”

  “Anyway, it’s what School was after!! You can chase that station wagon without knowing!! And can this car even catch up to it?!”

  “It’s all right.” This wasn’t Hamazura, but Takitsubo. She was sprawled out lazily in the back
seat. “My Ability Stalker will perfectly track any involuntary diffusion fields I record. I can always search and find them, even if they escape outside the solar system.”

  “Exactly,” muttered Hamazura. “They’re not getting away as long as we have such a good navigation system. More importantly, what are we doing after we stop—”

  He broke off. A huge truck had suddenly broken onto the road from the side.

  “?!”

  He didn’t even have time to swing the wheel.

  The gargantuan crane truck slammed headlong into the side of their four-door. The deafening crash rattled his brain. The sensors reacted, causing the steering wheel airbag to deploy, but given that it was a side impact, that didn’t seem to matter.

  Hamazura’s car, which had been traveling straight, skidded to the side, pushed by the truck. It continued, breaking through the guardrail, running onto the sidewalk, and impacting the side of a building.

  Caught between the yellow crane truck and the concrete wall, their car was completely unable to move.

  They hadn’t considered the show it would make or the collateral damage.

  They wanted to kill them, plain and simple, no matter what it took.

  “…Ow…”

  “Damn…that was School!” snapped Mugino. “They must really want that station wagon to get away. They’re stalling for time!!”

  The crane truck backed up about ten meters. A girl who looked about fourteen was in the driver’s seat behind the protective glass. Despite her petite, slender figure, she wore a short, open-backed dress like a barmaid.

  Is she gonna ram us again? thought Hamazura, still reeling from the pain, but that didn’t happen:

  The girl pulled a lever, and the crane arm extended. Attached to its end wasn’t a metal hook designed for lifting up objects.

  It was a giant wrecking ball, meters across, for destroying buildings.

  “Damn it!!” shouted Mugino, trying to open the rear door. It wouldn’t open, though, because the chassis was twisted.

  Hamazura used his own lever to put the passenger seat down. “Out through the windshield!! Hurry!!”

  He broke open the slightly fractured front windshield and jumped out onto the hood. Mugino and Takitsubo scrabbled over the passenger seat to get to the front.

  And then the iron ball started to swing like a pendulum.

  With a low, loud rumble, the giant thing headed straight for them. After Mugino climbed onto the hood, Hamazura panicked while grabbing Takitsubo’s hand to pull her out. But then the iron ball smashed into the car’s side.

  A tremendous crash rocked the air.

  The impact blew the three off the hood and onto the ground. As Hamazura tried to raise his head, Mugino grabbed the back of it. The next moment, he went fully prone on the ground when the passenger car exploded, shooting flames everywhere. It was a near miracle they were all still alive.

  The crane truck’s engine gave an eerie rumble.

  It was a reaction that paid no attention to the onlookers who had started to gather after hearing the explosion.

  Shizuri Mugino tsked in frustration. “We’re splitting into three.”

  “You’re not gonna fight, Level Five?!”

  “My goal is that station wagon and the Tweezers it’s carrying. I’m not about to let some grunt buy any more time—and the girl inside has a really annoying power.”

  No sooner had she finished than she’d crossed the road and gone into a narrow alley.

  Takitsubo, left behind, ran off in another direction.

  Hamazura followed suit, thrusting himself into an alley between buildings and running for his life. But behind him, he heard wet footsteps.

  Ah, shit, they caught up!!

  His throat dried as he ran. The crane truck’s operator was a girl with a small frame, but she was also a member of School, who had fought Item on even terms. He had no clue what kind of savage ability she had. Even Mugino, a Level Five, called it “annoying.”

  He continued to flee, running up a metal emergency staircase on the side of a building and going into a building on a random floor.

  It looked like a student dorm.

  He ran down the straight hallway, then heard the click of a door opening behind him.

  They’ve got me…?! thought Hamazura, reflexively looking back.

  It was indeed the small girl in the gaudy dress who had come out of the door. She held a handgun with an awfully small grip—it was made for women.

  I’m dead!! Hamazura slammed his palm into a wall.

  There was a button under it, and a steel shutter to protect against berserk espers dropped down like a guillotine. The girl’s eyes widened a little before she swiftly brought her gun up and fired at Hamazura.

  Bang, bang!! Two high-pitched shots.

  Hamazura instinctively shut his eyes, but when he opened them again, there was no hole in the steel shutter. He looked at the monitor next to the button on the wall and saw the girl click her tongue in annoyance. She checked her gun.

  It looked like she didn’t have enough firepower to get past this shutter.

  …Which means no matter what she tries to do, that woman can’t get past this wall.

  Relief washed over him.

  Then he made the world’s greatest look of sheer amusement at someone else’s stupidity, raised his hands, shook his butt, and shouted, “Eee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!!”

  “…”

  The girl in the dress, also looking at the monitor on the other side, put her gun away in a thigh holster and then reached behind her.

  Her hand came away from her hip with a handgun whose barrel was as thick as a coffee can.

  Actually, it was a small .40 grenade launcher.

  “Oh. Oh shit…Now I’m gonna die for sure!”

  Panicked, Hamazura tried to run farther down the hall, but the girl mercilessly pulled the grenade’s trigger.

  The shutter exploded and burst toward him, the fragments sending Hamazura five meters through the air.

  “G-gahhh?!”

  He somehow got himself up off the floor. Wobbling, holding the wall with one hand, he ran farther down.

  Beyond that was a terrace—a dead end.

  It didn’t look like the hallway had stairs or an elevator on this end.

  Past the railing was a drop about three stories high.

  But the unknown girl from School was behind him.

  He didn’t need to think twice about his choice.

  The three-story dive, absolutely!! Using my guts and willpower to jump is a hundred times better than standing up to someone obviously so strong! The small-fry have their own ways of surviving in this world!!

  “Ha-ha!! I’m fine being a loooooooooooseeeeeeeeeeeer!!” He laughed as he ran, before jumping up onto the railing and leaping off the third story.

  He hadn’t looked down before he jumped.

  Considering who was chasing him, he hadn’t had time to check. And besides, if he had, he knew he’d be too scared to go through with it.

  But three stories was no small height.

  Damn, anything down there to cushion my fall?!

  He looked down for the first time, in midair, to see a young mother happily pushing a stroller.

  As Shiage Hamazura fell through the blue sky, his brain shouted No! with all its might.

  “Gwooooooooooooooohhhhhhh?!”

  He started flapping his arms and legs, trying to airwalk himself out of the way. Fortunately, the move planted his large body five inches from the stroller.

  Keee-raaack!! A sharp pain shot through his heels and ankles.

  The young mother gracefully put a hand to her mouth in surprise. The baby in the stroller had forgotten to cry—he just stared, eyes wide.

  “U-um…Who might you be?”

  “The type of hero who falls out of the sky. It’s dangerous—please get out of here, miss!” said Hamazura casually with a cool smile, bursting into another alley nearby.

  8

  “
Tsk!!”

  The fourteen-year-old in the gaudy dress put away her grenade launcher and handgun, placed her hands on the terrace railing, and glanced down at the road from the third story.

  Her target with the stupid expression, the one she’d been chasing, was nowhere to be found.

  Only a mother pushing a pram.

  The girl took out her cell phone and called one of her allies at School.

  “I lost sight of the target. The only thing here is a woman with a stroller…Do you think the target could have disguised himself as a young wife or a stroller?”

  “Piss off, idiot” came the answer, so the girl ended the call and returned the phone to her pocket.

  I let my guard down because I thought he was a nobody. I should have used my ability to begin with…

  After one last hateful glance at the road, she gave up and turned around to look for the dorm’s elevator.

  9

  Accelerator and the convertible headed for District 23.

  Watching the panicky young man in the driver’s seat next to him out of the corner of his eye, he took his phone out of his pocket.

  After thinking for a moment, he punched in the three-digit number for reporting crimes to Anti-Skill.

  When he held the phone up to his ear, though, he didn’t get the operator at Anti-Skill’s call center. Somebody else, the “telephone man” giving orders to Group, broke in.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Just figured you’d have to intercept if I called ’em. If you don’t like other people manipulating you, maybe change your own actions,” he said with a shrug. “Anyway, shit’s hitting the fan now. School, or whatever they are—they’ve been busy, too, eh? Looks like you can’t completely control people just by talking to them on the phone, after all. If you couldn’t find the time to butt into our business until now, you must be in a lot of trouble.”

  “Do you really think so?”

  “Trying to smooth over your mistakes? Pathetic.”

  For a brief moment, both Accelerator and the man on the phone were silent.

  Eventually, Accelerator got to the point: “The satellites being hijacked—I want their data. Especially Altair II. How powerful is the military laser on that thing?”