Chapter 98

CHAPTER 3 Opening the Gate Impregnable. 1 It was now closer to nighttime than evening. Mikoto Misaka was in School District 7 visiting a certain coed high school. “…This is where that idiot goes to high school…” The Ichihanaran Festival was a lot like a school trial experience or an open campus. The students had a local rule, though: It wasn’t the day of the event, when everything was all neat and decorated, that mattered. Rather, it was the prep period, where students had so much to do they couldn’t afford to keep up appearances, that truly showed the essence of their school. You wouldn’t officially invite students from other schools to yours, but at this point, there was a tacit understanding that everyone would be checking out other schools on the down-low. …That said, because such visitors could always be spying for secrets, the more elite institutions would tighten their security as much as they could. Additionally, the city was overrun with dirty newspaper club types eager to throw themselves at those school security systems for a scoop—depending on exactly how tight the security was, of course—so the situation was a tangled one indeed. However. Huh? There doesn’t seem to be anyone on watch here… Mikoto Misaka was acting very suspicious as she took a look around the perimeter of campus, but the students barely spared a glance at her as they carried toolboxes and the wood for stalls every which way. In the Garden of Learning, there would have been security officers with simple cameras hanging from their necks who would come running… The school gate had been left open. Nervously, Mikoto stepped inside. To be perfectly honest, the facilities were of a much lower quality than the Garden of Learning or Tokiwadai Middle School, but apart from the apparent relative academic levels, it still felt pretty weird for a middle school student like her to step onto a high school campus. Her feet were oddly unsteady as she looked around some more. Ichihanaran Festival prep was well underway, so the place was laden with students carrying tools resembling close blood relatives of DIY carpentry implements. But these kids wore all identical uniforms, meaning nobody else was sneaking a peek at the place like Mikoto was. H-hmm… If there had been another group of people visiting, I could have blended in with them…, thought Mikoto. “Huh? What in the world are you doing here?” Suddenly, a soprano voice called out to her from right behind. Startled, Mikoto turned around to find a girl standing there at about 135 centimeters tall. Mikoto wondered if she was visiting the school like her, but for some reason, the girl had an attendance sheet tucked under one arm—the kind a teacher might use. The girl gave Mikoto’s uniform a close once-over. “Hmm…? Wait, isn’t that the Tokiwadai Middle School uniform?! Wouldn’t that make you an unofficial visitor to our school?! You can’t be here! If Anti-Skill finds you, they’ll give you such a scolding!!!” “Haah… Thank goodness.”