g what she should get mad about first.

Normally, Mikoto might have used her control over massive amounts of magnetism to rip the entire bench up into the air and shout “Ventura, Ventura!!” while launching it high into the sky. However, she was different today.

She spoke in a low, quiet voice that was almost a groan.

“...I’m sick of this position.”

“Oh? Is that Misaka-san standing here all alone and trembling☆?”

Mikoto’s shoulders jumped at that sudden sugary voice.

She frantically turned around and found an unfamiliar woman in a showy suit. However, Mikoto put her guard up even further when she saw the star-like object twinkling in the woman’s eyes.

She was being controlled by the #5, Mental Out.

“What are you doing here, Shokuhou?”

“Nothing really. And does it really matter? But what are you doing here, Misaka-san? Does it have to do with the gentleman sitting on that bench? Sniff sniff. Sniff sniff sniff sniff...”

“Don’t smell me! Don’t smell me! What do you hope to learn from that!?”

“If you want to know what’s going on, why don’t you just go over and ask him?” said the woman in a whisper.

“Wha-!? Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-wha-what!?”

Mikoto’s entire face explosively turned red. The woman in the showy suit who looked either like a career woman or a sexy teacher lightly clenched her fists and rubbed them together up near her mouth.

“Aren’t you curious? Aren’t you curious?”

“N-no, I’m not!! Not at all and not one bit!!”

Mikoto could not afford to show the slightest opening to this expert in controlling minds, so she denied it as much as she could.

However, the #5 Level 5 outdid her.

“Well, I am curious.”

“What!?”

“And so I think I’ll go check on this issue that Misaka-san is not at all and not one bit curious about. After all, if I smile at him with ‘her’ appearance ability, I should be able to win over most any guy.”

The woman in the showy suit struck a pose and pressed a sideways peace sign against her eye.

“And even if an adult woman isn’t in his strike zone...”

“If I bring in this much variation...”

“He’s sure to like at least one of them☆”

Another nine girls lined up next to the woman and struck the same pose. There was everything from a literary girl with braided hair to a sports girl with brown skin.

Mikoto was reminded of the skits put on by connecting puppets to one’s arms and legs with long horizontal rods so they would dance along with you.

The girls spoke with star-like objects glittering in their eyes.

“Fwa ha ha ha ha! If I use the same barrage ability as a fighting game with only girl characters, not even his denseness can save him!! I will be able to control everything, Misaka-saaaan!!”

“Stop that! If you destroy the male-female ratio any further, this will fall into complete chaos!! And don’t tell me you have some strange connection with him from the past!”

Mikoto would gain nothing by letting her cause any more trouble.

In fact, she had a distinct feeling that if she let those ten girls and women continue on, that idiot would miraculously win over all ten of them and somehow manage to drag Shokuhou Misaki herself out onto the stage as well.

And so...

In order to prevent unnecessary interference from the #5, Academy City’s #3 Level 5, Misaka Mikoto, thrust her hands forward, controlled a massive amount of magnetic power, and targeted the metallic portions of the bus stop bench.

She let out a shout from the bottom of her gut.

“Ventura, Venturaaaaa!!!!!”

Part 7

The nun named Agnese Sanctis was in the giant library connected to the UN Headquarters building.

During the night, the number of people inside fell drastically.

However, that silence seemed appropriate for a nun.

She was officially a member of the Anglican Church, but ever since World War Three, she had been working to return to the Roman Catholic Church.

She had transferred from the Roman Catholic Church to the Anglican Church under special circumstances and her current work was one step in the process to return now that the friction between the two churches had lessened.

The work she had been left with was very simple.

“Nothing here. There’s no danger of any magic power or anything else having been hidden inside.”

“Ugh. They’ve gathered over 300 pages from newspapers alone today, haven’t they?”

“Yes, and that is why there is a risk of malicious magical symbols or circles slipping through.”

Working with Agnese was Lucia and Angelene. They were also nuns who had moved from the Roman Catholic Church to the Anglican Church and were now working to return.

The tall one with long blonde hair was Lucia.

The stooped one with braided blonde hair was Angelene.

“Honestly, if they’re really afraid of an attack from Gremlin, they should stop anyone from bringing published items in during the meeting.”

“Doing that on ‘our’ authority would cause other problems. UN headquarters is fundamentally neutral. If a single religion began selecting what published materials could be brought inside, it could lead to an international issue.”

“I-in other words, the normal people don’t understand the danger of the problem we’re dealing with.”

World War Three had been a large-scale conflict in which science and magic had directly clashed.

Towards the end, cover-up efforts had not made it in time and a lot of people had seen magic. However, it seemed no one had incorporated magic into their proper studies, technology, or everyday lives. As far as the churches could tell, no one had even tried. All that had cropped up were small spiritual and eschatological groups.

“What do you think about this united attack on Gremlin?”

“I think it all hinges on whether they can locate Sargasso. It seems they are using a large-scale ceremonial ground to search out all the suspicious points around the world, but the real deciding factor is probably that spy who has slipped into Gremlin.”

“Th-that spy will send a signal from Sargasso and our search team will detect it, right?”

The conversation trailed off there and Agnese let out a sigh.

She spoke with the sharpness of driving in a wedge.

“How far we can trust this spy is an unknown factor.”

“True. I think you almost have to be suspicious when you hear that this person has a way of sneaking into Gremlin’s headquarters and has in fact already done so.”

“B-but it is true that it would be hard to find anyone else who can deceive a group as elusive as Gremlin, right? More importantly, this spy has no reason to betray us...”

“I’d say it’s more accurate to say that Gremlin has no reason to make a bluff like this right now.”

“So we have no choice but to trust this person because they want the same thing we do. Is that it?”

Up to this point, Gremlin had perfectly hidden themselves despite having a large-scale force including a magic god. Searching for them with normal means was unlikely to turn up any results.

They had no idea how this spy had infiltrated Gremlin, but sending the signal would have to be a great risk for him.

If Gremlin grew suspicious of him partway through, it would all be for naught.

And if Gremlin detected the signal after it had been sent, they would begin to search for the traitor. If he could not ensure his safety on his own until the attack began, there was no guarantee he would survive.

Just checking the records concerning Hawaii and Baggage City was enough to know Gremlin was a merciless organization.

Lucia stood tall and spoke.

“And even if we locate Sargasso without issue, that leaves the unified attack. That will mean both sides must wear each other down until this is resolved. Our opponents are thoroughly trained magicians and a true magic god. ...I doubt this is an enemy we can defeat without sacrifices.”

“But keep in mind that Gremlin is currently hiding,” said Agnese. “In other words, they think it is to their benefit to remain hidden. They aren’t descending grandly into the middle of the battlefield like Fiamma did. At the very least, locating Sargasso will crush one of the advantages Gremlin assumes they will have.”

“I-I just hope this isn’t a case of poking at a bush and having a snake come out.”

Everyone there thought the same thing.

However...

It was also true that being afraid of a snake was no reason to leave the bush alone and allow the snakes to breed inside. If that would happen, someone needed to take the risk of sticking their hand into the bush, grabbing the snake, and exterminating it.

The problem was that someone had to push the branches aside, knowing they would be bitten.

Part 8

In that moment as Kamijou Touma stared into the distance, the image of a boy flying through the night sky with an alien friend in his bicycle basket appeared clearly in the back of his mind.

Here is why:

Before he knew what was happening, the bench shot to the side like a shell. Kamijou was still sitting politely on the bench, Birdway was still sitting right on top of his lap, Lessar was still nestling up against him, Index was biting onto him from behind, and the calico cat was digging into her white hood with his front claws. They all crashed into a nearby river.

But there was no great splash and they did not sink into the river.

With a few smaller splashes, the bench flew in low arcs and jumped back up whenever it touched the water’s surface. It was similar to a skipping stone. Not a single drop of water reached Kamijou Touma as he sat on the bench. The bench crossed to the opposite bank of the river, decelerated as its legs scraped across the asphalt and sent orange sparks trailing after it, and ultimately came to a stop.

Kamijou then shouted out at the unfairness of it all.

“What the hell was that!? Has Kamijou-san’s misfortune finally become completely indiscriminate!? And Index! Don’t support your entire body by biting into the back of my head! Are you trying to finally rip off my scalp today!?”

Birdway’s expression remained relatively unchanged as she let her crossed legs dangle down from Kamijou’s lap.

“Hey. Academy City’s technology is twenty or thirty years ahead of the rest of the world, right?”

“Is it normal for benches to fly through the air and skip across rivers in the future?”

It seemed the two girls had made a fundamental misunderstanding, but Kamijou did not have it in him to join the discussion.

A new enemy had appeared.

This new enemy descended from the heavens.

Two legs landed on the back of the bench as if driving stakes down into the ground. Misaka Mikoto bent over and peered upside down through the tunnel she had created by spreading her legs apart. And she glared at Kamijou Touma.

She asked a blunt question.

“Explain this.”

“That’s my line!!”

Between the Lines 1

Musicians had a difficult life.

Those who played instruments, conductors, lyric writers, and composers were all referred to as musicians and they all possessed a common dilemma.

All musicians loved music.

They could identify sounds more accurately than anyone else, they researched sound more than anyone else, and they could produce more wonderful sounds than anyone else.

As a result, they would use their ears more than a normal person, so it was not uncommon for them to go deaf.

Due to pursuing beautiful sounds more than anyone else in the world, they would wear out their ability to detect sounds.

However, this irony was not limited to musicians.

Artists would wear out their eyes and cooks would taste their food so much they would lose any balance to their nutrients and health. Baseball players would ruin their shoulders and soccer players their knees.

Anyone who continued down a single path far enough was destined to have their body worn down by that path.

Understanding that yet still being prepared to continue down that path may have been the very first condition for one who wished to master a certain path.

And in that case...

“...”

A man known as Kihara Kagun in Academy City and as Bersi in Gremlin was silently working on Sargasso, a pile of many ruined ships on the ocean.

It was November and a white haze was rising from the ocean surface as if visually representing the chill of the air. Sargasso was wrapped in that thin mist, but no white breaths could be seen leaving that man’s mouth.

He was not breathing.

He did not show any signs of feeling this biting cold air or any sign of the normal reflexes and reactions of a living creature.

He was an Einherjar.

He was an emotionless object that carried out precise movements based on the magic power externally poured into him instead of the life force at the core of a living being.

He had joined Gremlin for a single purpose.

And in exchange for (in a way) perfectly achieving that purpose, Kihara Kagun had worn down all of his sensory organs and lost the spirit needed to receive those stimuli. Even though his heart was beating and his brain continued producing thoughts, he was essentially “something that was already dead”.

Kihara Kagun worked with the uniform speed of a clock’s hand and the precision of a loom.

His job was to find the computers from the radios, fishfinders, navigation control systems, and other devices installed on the dozens or even hundreds of ruined ships that had drifted to Sargasso. Once he found them, he would connect them with cables and make some programming adjustments so they could function as a parallel processor. This high-speed and large-scale processor was necessary to use the empty husk of the #2 which had been retrieved from Academy City.

This was the other side of Gremlin.

This man was the cornerstone of their science side technology.

He was completing the final preparations needed to construct the lance. Kihara Kagun had lost the mind he needed to think about what his actions meant, so he merely silently connected the cables to create the giant processor.

This would most likely swallow up something he had once wanted to protect, and yet he continued.

He spoke into the small radio in his hand.

“I’m done here. The refrigerated organs can be used at any time to remake the empty husk of the #2 into the machine to create the lance.”