Chapter 100

At first, Mugino thought the girl’s translation into Japanese was wrong, but that wasn’t the case. “Gremlin’s main force has activated. They’re planning something in Academy City. I surmised the most efficient way of Gremlin for betraying us was to make contact with the ones who were part of the Hawaii affair.” The girl in the bath towel who had called herself Cendrillon grabbed the cardboard box that had once looked like it contained mail-order teaching materials. The box was separated into several layers. She started pulling them off, as though disassembling a sandwich or a hamburger, looking through them. Out from it came a large thin sheet of paper that looked sort of like a pattern for making Western-style clothing. Mugino was getting irritated at this point. “…A dress pattern?” she demanded. “I have one more task for you,” Cendrillon said, not turning around. “You’re finished cooking. Now it’s on to dressmaking. Perfect wife training for a bored girl, don’t you agree?” Mugino finally lost it. Without any warning, she blew away a whole portion of the apartment complex. The toweled girl, holding the pattern, took a big leap right off the veranda. 4 His destination was in District 7’s central area. The Windowless Building wasn’t open to the public and had a strict security contingent keeping constant watch over it. Still, it wasn’t surrounded by vacant lots or anything, either; it was sitting in the middle of the city, after all. Things like shopping malls and hotels stood nearby. Kamijou was headed for a parking garage near the Windowless Building after getting an explanation from Thor. That said… “We can’t afford to get spotted by Anti-Skill or anyone more annoying than them. We won’t get anywhere being chased all over the city. Let’s split up for now instead and meet back up at the destination.” That was the idea. Nevertheless, Kamijou didn’t know the details of whatever plan Thor had thought up. If he got captured, Kamijou wouldn’t be able to do anything on his own. “In that case, I’ll do whatever I can to contact you. And then you’re on your own.” …Then why not just tell him up front? Kamijou lived in District 7 but wasn’t familiar with the neighborhood containing the Windowless Building. There were plenty of businesses here, sure, but he never had any reason to make the trek from his dorm just to buy school supplies. He could get the same stuff much closer to home. “Can’t decide if this place is neat and tidy or just bleak,” Kamijou muttered as he took a look around. Stores that met living and entertainment needs lined the streets, and at a glance, it all seemed utterly normal. But the signboards and decorative lights all tended toward a unified color scheme. In simpler terms, they were located in places where they wouldn’t exhaust a viewer’s eye. …Which might sound basic enough, until you realized that the owner of a privately owned plot of land was free to build whatever they wanted on it. This level of standardization was unusual. To wash away individual wants to this degree, you’d need the strong arm of the government. And the person responsible was obvious in this case: the chairperson of the Academy City General Board. The exterior color palettes were just the tip of the iceberg. Perhaps even the positioning and height of the buildings—as well as the flow of foot traffic they created—had been expertly tailored, in such a way a casual observer wouldn’t even notice. “Parking garage, parking garage…” Kamijou would easily be able to find the place with a cell phone GPS, but considering what they were about to do, he didn’t feel like using a service that could allow a third party to pinpoint his location. Instead, he looked at all the signboards—covertly enough that other pedestrians wouldn’t all turn and look at him—as he walked down the street. Suddenly, he heard a voice from behind him. “Why, you little… So this is where you were!!!” “?” It was a girl’s voice. Kamijou turned around, looking confused. A girl with short brown hair stood there, wearing the uniform of Tokiwadai Middle School, which was widely renowned for its Ability Development. Mikoto Misaka. …Or, to be precise, someone who looked like her. She spotted him and stormed up to him. “Don’t you see the Ichihanaran Festival prep going on? Why the heck aren’t you at school? Also, I heard Anti-Skill arrested you! What the heck did you even do?! And how did you even get back to Academy City after all that stuff in Hawaii?!” Kamijou sighed, then shook his head. “I’m tired of this joke, Thor.” “Uh, what? Thor???” “C’mon, quit it! Now isn’t the time. You’re the one who said we’d take separate routes to the destination!!!” “Uh, hold on, could you explain things one at a time? What on earth—?” The girl was confused, but Kamijou didn’t care. He carelessly reached out with his right hand, then touched her upper body with his palm, using about the same amount of force one would use to push someone out of the way. More precisely, he touched the center of her chest. “Wh-wha…wha…?!” “Yeah, yeah. Killing illusions and all that. Y’know, the ole I.B.” “Lay off the weird abbreviations! Also where the heck do you think you’re touching?!”