Chapter 73: The Second Day
《…Um, Shiren. This is a change of topic, but…》
I had a dream.
A dream of the day of the physical inspection system scan.
It was at the end of the day, when I was first told in detail about the Repaint. Out of nowhere, Reicia-chan suddenly said this:
《Shiren, if I really were an irredeemable, utterly despicable woman… what would you have done?》
It was a kind of thought experiment.
That’s how I took it at the time. But now—after facing Nurikae Furei, that man, and witnessing his downfall—it feels like those words take on a slightly different meaning.
《I was saved by you, Shiren. But I believe that’s only because there was still enough within me to be saved—to take in your words. If I had been the kind of person who refused to listen to anything you said, if I truly were the worst kind of human being…》
I reached out my hand to Reicia-chan.
And Reicia-chan, in turn, grasped the hand I offered her.
But that only happened because she had the will to grasp it—and because I had given her reasons to believe in taking hold of that hand.
If I hadn’t worked so hard in all sorts of ways, even if I had offered her my hand, Reicia-chan likely wouldn’t have wanted to take it.
She might even have seen the hand I extended as nothing more than a raised fist.
At the time, I didn’t understand what that truly meant.
《That is────》
And if I recall correctly, I answered like this:
《──I’d keep reaching out. Even if Reicia-chan were truly the worst kind of person, that wouldn’t be a reason to pull back the hand I’d already extended.》
It wasn’t because the one asking me was Reicia-chan.
I’m sure that, no matter who it was, I’d do the same.
Even if it were Nurikae Furei.
And let me repeat this: the only reason the hand I extended was taken was because of the history that had built up between Reicia-chan and me.
But then, what if?
What if Reicia-chan still hadn’t taken my hand?
What if the person before me would never grasp it, no matter how long I waited?
What would I do then?
Would I still keep reaching out without giving up?
Or else…
Chapter Two – I Won’t Choose Between Two Options – PHASE-NEXT.
Episode 62: The Second Day – Restart.
"That’s why I said you went way overboard!!"
"Ah, right. About that, we already…"
Day two of the Daihaseisai.
Before the opening ceremony for the second day began (yes, the Daihaseisai has an opening ceremony at the start of each day—though the second day’s is a bit more low-key than the first), we had been summoned by Shokuhou-san. And now, there we were, being scolded half to death by her in this half-furious, half-panicked state.
And the reason for her outrage was—
"It’s true!! I did say I wanted to stand out at the Daihaseisai, to draw attention from the public, but…! I never said you could turn the entire Academy City upside down, did I!? This is obviously way too much, isn’t it!?"
Shokuhou-san shoved her phone screen at me as she said that.
On the screen was the front page of a well-known Academy City news site.
『A New Level 5 Esper is Born!!』
Then Shokuhou-san swiped through the articles, showing me more.
『The New Level 5 Is a Multiple Personality – A Breakthrough in Ability Development?』
『The Journey of a Girl Who Reached Level 5 – An Inspiring Story』
『On the Principles Behind “Black-and-White Jagged Edge”』
『What About the Ranking? Opinions From Kihara Researchers』
『The New Level 5 Esper, Reicia = Blackguard – Who Is She? Which School? What Ability? We Investigated!』
After flashing all those headlines at us, Shokuhou-san stuffed her heavily decorated phone back into her bag and snapped:
"You see the problem now!? The whole city’s attention is glued to you! And worse, the ripple effect has spread even into the Kihara clan! Thanks to you, all my carefully laid plans are…!"
"But I told you, didn’t I? Since my ex-fiancé went on the attack with gossip, I would counter with a bombshell of my own, yes?"
Reicia-chan replied smoothly, while Shokuhou-san’s eyes brimmed with frustrated tears.
Yeah, to be fair, we had said that much. The agreement was basically “fine, whatever,” and she even sent Hokaze-san as her representative, so we’d assumed she understood what we were doing… but apparently not.
"This isn’t just a bombshell, it’s a nuclear explosion!! A brand new Level 5!? I mean, sure, I knew your ability had been enhanced, but jumping all the way to Level 5? That’s just ridiculous growth, don’t you think!?"
"You’re absolutely right…" "It couldn’t be helped, could it? And I did tell you in advance. I specifically mentioned the Level 5 matter, didn’t I?"
"I didn’t have the luxury to process that at the time!!!"
And… there she went, collapsing into a heap.
From the look of things, she’d been drowning in other business, too overwhelmed to properly take in the reports from her faction. So when she gave us the go-ahead, she didn’t realize she was greenlighting an outright catastrophe.
…Honestly, this girl is kind of a mess. I’d always pictured her as someone a lot more collected, but right now she feels exactly like the Shokuhou-san who showed up in those past arcs.
"Ugh…! And now, thanks to this, I’ve lost track of Gensei…!"
…Gensei?
"Wait a second. Did you just say Gensei?"
That has to mean that Gensei.
Kihara Gensei.
Even I, who only watched the Railgun anime, know him. The guy who was Kiyama-sensei’s superior… and Telestina’s grandfather.
"…Ah."
"Looks like I let something slip, didn’t I…?"
Yeah, Shokuhou-san, that “ah” was definitely the wrong move.
Sure, for an ordinary student it might just be some random name they wouldn’t recognize. But for any high-level esper involved in serious development work, it’s a name everyone hears at least once: Kihara Gensei. Even I’ve heard it a few times since coming here.
If she had just brushed it off normally, she could’ve gotten away with it. But making that blatantly guilty face—like she’d just leaked state secrets—well, there’s no way I wouldn’t assume I just found her Achilles’ heel.
"Shokuhou-san. I know you probably don’t trust us, but… if you’d like, maybe you could share what’s going on? I mean, we’ve caused plenty of chaos already, and I’d like to at least make up for it…"
"I, for one, don’t think I did anything wrong, nor do I feel guilty about it, mind you."
Reicia-chan, come on, that’s too harsh for Shokuhou-san right now.
It’s not harsh—it’s necessary! If you casually admit fault here, she’ll take that statement and use it to bleed us dry later! I’m preventing that! Honestly, Shiren, you’re way too careless! Remember, you’re the head of a major faction now! If you slip up, it won’t just be you who suffers—it’ll drag the rest of us down too!
Ah, right… sorry…
Ugh… yeah, I’ve got no real defense in this kind of situation.
Still, Reicia-chan has a point. I should be more careful. Once we get closer to Shokuhou-san, I’m sure she’ll be easier to deal with, but for now…
"………Well, I already knew you had some credibility in that area, didn’t I? It’s so—soooo infuriating for me, but fine. I’ll concede just this once and let you lend me a hand."
"What is wrong with this girl?"
"Now, now, Reicia-chan…"
I gently calmed Reicia-chan down and urged Shokuhou-san to continue.
"So? In the end, what exactly is your goal here, Shokuhou-san?"
"…That is—"
"……………………"
After hearing the story, both Reicia-chan and I fell silent.
Well, I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
Summing up what Shokuhou-san told us, it went like this:
──It all began with the laboratory Shokuhou-san belonged to.
High-ranking espers often aren’t just tied to schools, but also “belong” to research labs for ability development. Publicly, these are called “Special Classes”──but that’s just a front. In reality, experiments take priority far more than education.
By the way, those mock battles Reicia-chan sometimes does against the Hs-O series also fall into this category.
And it was in one such affiliated research facility that Shokuhou-san first heard about the existence of the 《Level 6 Shift Project》 for Absolute Ability Evolution.
It seems that while the experiment was running, information control by the dark side kept it under wraps, but once the project collapsed, word reached her ears.
While digging into it purely out of curiosity, she apparently discovered the existence of an organization searching for the Sisters.
That was Kihara Gensei.
This was news to me too, but unbelievably, this Kihara Gensei was the very man who originally proposed the 《Level 6 Shift Project》. Whether I’d just forgotten it or whether it was information filled in from elsewhere, I couldn’t say……
But this time, he himself isn’t directly moving. He seems to be using hired hands to run wild however he pleases. ……Still, since they’re targeting the Sisters, the objective is almost certainly the Misaka Network.
The Kihara family──and not just anyone, but a man known as one of the elders of SYSTEM research, the same man who proposed the 《Level 6 Shift Project》──is trying to do something with the Misaka Network. That’s basically the opening act of a full-on disaster.
So Shokuhou-san, too, has been desperately trying to keep it under control…… or so it seems.
《……Reicia-chan, what do you make of this?》
I was standing on the edge of complete confusion.
……………………No way──I’ve never heard of this storyline────!!
No no no, I knew this would happen, okay!? With me being here, the world’s situation was bound to shift, and incidents would start diverging! Especially this time, since I went and openly declared myself a Level 5 esper, of course things wouldn’t stay unaffected. I was prepared for that much!!
But! This! Is way too sudden!
Couldn’t we have eased into it a little more? This is the kind of thing that had already started even before I revealed myself, right!? This has nothing to do with our “divergence” at all!!
《It’s 《Railgun》, isn’t it?》
《Huh? Mikoto-san?》
《Not her. The series itself.》
Unlike me, flailing around, Reicia-chan stayed relatively calm.
《If I recall, even back when Shiren died in his previous life, the Railgun manga was still running, wasn’t it?》
《Yeah, well…… I didn’t read it myself, but…… oh, right, I do remember hearing it was covering the Daihaseisai arc around then. And come to think of it, that’s when Shokuhou-san first appeared too.》
《In that case, isn’t it possible that this “episode” is exactly that?》
《Eeeh…… no way, would they really run such a huge storyline in a spinoff? This feels like it could drag in the entire Academy City. Like the whole 0930 Incident all over again.》
《If you’re going to say that, then even the 《Level Upper》 arc of Level Upper dragged in ten thousand people, did it not?》
……Ugh. She had a point.
《Index is, after all, told entirely from the perspective of that idiot student Kamijou Touma. It’s only natural that the finer details of Academy City’s affairs get glossed over. Shiren, do you really picture that spiky-headed boy diligently gathering information about Academy City from the evening news like some analyst?》
《……Not at all.》
《Especially since this involves a Kihara, right? Ordinary students would never hear about it, so it’s hardly strange if episodes like this—ones not depicted in the “main canon”—end up appearing here and there.》
……Now that she said it, it made sense.
Thinking about it that way, my perspective shifted a bit. Yeah, that’s right. Toaru has always been a series with a ridiculous number of spinoffs and side stories. I’d never read any of the bonus novels that came bundled with the Blu-rays, and for all I knew, some of those episodes could end up mattering to us down the line……
So, when you looked at it like that, maybe there wasn’t much point in panicking over this level of surprise.
"Uh, hellooo? Blackguard-san? You’ve suddenly activated your Silence Mode, what’s the deal~?"
"Ah, sorry. I was just holding a little conference in my head……"
"You really are kind of a mystery, aren’t you. Too occult-ish to just call it a split personality……"
Shokuhou muttered, sounding exasperated. From the perspective of a mental specialist like her, I guess the quirks of our situation probably looked very different compared to ordinary people.
"Anyway, my circumstances are just what I explained. But you don’t need to go digging into Gensei yourself."
"What do you mean by that? Wouldn’t having the combat power of a Level 5 esper aiding in the investigation be beneficial to you as well?"
"…………Are you really asking that, after you ruined my plan with just a single move?"
……I had no comeback for that.
"If you get tangled up in the main plot, my careful planning will get shredded to pieces. That’s why I want you to put that overwhelming firepower of yours into defending me instead. For example……"
With that, Shokuhou pulled out her mobile device and tapped at it, then turned the screen to show me.
It looked like footage from a surveillance camera. On the screen was a single girl.
Misaka Mikoto, fiddling with some electronic device, apparently conducting some kind of investigation.
"……Looks like Misaka-san has caught onto my behind-the-scenes work too☆"
Comments (2)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.