Toaru Majutsu no Index SS

Volume 2, Chapter 5: What is it That the World Lacks? The First Friday of April.

Brazil.

Following China and India, it was the next country expected to have considerable economic growth, but that blessing was not yet shining upon all of the country. Even in the large city of Rio de Janeiro, the boundary between the poor and the wealthy was evident. This made it seem like there was an invisible line dividing people’s lives.

In that large Brazilian city, an Asian man was standing in an area that was dyed deeply in the color of shadows. He looked to be between his mid to late thirties, was of a reasonable height, and had a well-featured face. His appearance would have made him stand out in the country of his birth, but here he actually blended in.

However, he wasn’t exactly the kind of person you would feel the urge to approach.

He looked like he had plenty of money, but looked nothing like a sightseer who didn’t know what he was doing. He was the kind of good looking man who looked at home in the back alleys. No one knew what kind of trouble they would get caught up in if they approached him.

“Oh, miss. You’ve got something nice there,” said the man addressing the darkness.

No response came. However, there was an unmoving presence in the darkness. The sun did not reach that area much, but a human silhouette could be seen. A girl with a Latin face and light brown skin was standing there.

The girl seemed fairly tense and she stared at the man.

“What do you want? Are you going to go so far as to steal a kid’s money?”

“You have a gun in that handbag, don’t you?”

The man pointed and the girl gave a start. It was less that she moved and more that she tensed up further. The man didn’t seem to mind and continued speaking almost as if he were humming.

“Oh, so not just a suicide. A double suicide. And the other person isn’t a family member or a lover. It’s someone you hate. Perhaps you’re planning on killing a debt collector to help out your family.”

“...How do you know that?”

“I have a very discerning eye.”

The man pointed towards his right eye with his index finger and a mischievous expression came across his face.

“Let’s talk. Unfortunately, now that I know what you’re planning to do, I will be guilty of accessory to murder if I don’t stop you. This conversation might end up being a good thing for you.”

“Who are you?”

“Nn...Misaka. Misaka Tabigake.”

Now that the Asian man had given Misaka as his name, it was the girl’s turn. She said her name was Ines. It may have been a fake name, but Misaka’s instinct told him that wasn’t likely. Simply put, Ines wasn’t in the state of mind to even think of giving a fake name.

“Are you Japanese? What’s your job? And do you have money?”

“My job is...Well, I guess you could say I’m a consultant. I have no money. My job is to create money, not to save it up in the bank. I do receive rewards, but I leave the financial management to my wife. I have so little money to actually use that I’m seriously considering putting an end to my drinking habit.”

“You’re useless.”

“Oh, so two little words and you’re done with me? It’s too soon to give up. Your conversation with me could give you a hint towards a way out of this situation you’re stuck in. I know quite a few people who have broken out of problems in their lives like that.”

“?”

“My job is to point out what the world lacks.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Simply put, I present possibilities for new businesses. If you manage to pull off the idea I present, you’ll be the president of a company and rolling in a bed of money.”

“Ridiculous,” interrupted Ines.

She looked around the area and pointed toward an area piled high with electronic waste.

“Trash is all there is here. There are plenty of things in Rio de Janeiro, but all we can touch is that. Understand? We can’t afford to pay trash collectors, so it all just piles up. Even if there was a chance right in front of us, we would only be able to look on in envy.[1]That’s the difference between the poor and the rich. The wealthy don’t want anything to change, so they even take away any chances we might have.”

“Ah, an excuse. Excuses feel good, don’t they? I’d almost say they are the best entertainment there is. So you’ve gone for one about circumstances created by the government or society, have you?”

“What do you know?” Ines could only become enraged. However, it was a silent rage. “I’m young and have no education. All I can do is clean car windows or something like that. How am I supposed to live off of small change like that? I can’t even pay off the interest from the debts with that. It would be gone once I tipped the men who came to collect the debt.”

“That isn’t what I mean,” Misaka readily replied to her expression of resignation. “There is a chance lying all around you. You just aren’t seeing it. ...Oh, hey. Let me ask you one question. You don’t think I’m some saint overflowing with a virtuous volunteer spirit, do you? I have my own objective here, so don’t worry. Think about it. I’m not just going to say some useless things to you and then be satisfied with just that. I make sure to look after the people I use.”

“An objective? You’re not saying I should make money by sleeping with you, are you?”

“That’s a lovely offer, but I couldn’t do that to my wife and at your age you remind me of my daughter.”

“Well, what else is there? What kind of chance could there be here? The area’s nothing but a bunch of illegally dumped oversized trash! Don’t fuck around with me!”

“That’s exactly it.”

“?”

“To be completely honest, I received a request from a certain person. I was asked to do something about all the illegally dumped trash in Brazil, so I have to do something even if it is a pain-in-the-ass job.”

“Ridiculous. There’s nothing you can do. Are you going to put up signs that say “Don’t Litter”? No one’s going to obey them. The people dumping the trash aren’t doing it because they want to. They all know it isn’t right. The illegally dumped trash isn’t going anywhere. We don’t have the money to spare.”

“Is that really so?” Misaka smiled. “As I told you, my job is to point out what the world lacks. This small slum filled with illegally dumped electronic trash and poverty is a type of world. What is it that world lacks? Okay, Ines-kun, raise your hand if you know.”

“That’s obvious,” Ines immediately responded with a sigh. “It’s money.”

“Bingo!”

“...And that was when you met that Asian who called himself a consultant?”

“Yeah, I didn’t really believe him at first, but I decided I should bet on the possibility that he was right. At the very least, it seemed better than running towards a mafia-like debt collector while carrying a handgun.”

Ines was in the lounge of a high class hotel that was considered to be either the best or the second best in Rio de Janeiro. The writer with the recording equipment was dressed in a brand name suit, but Ines was dressed the same as ever. That said, no one was going to complain.

The writer spoke.

“So you decided to go into the business of collecting all of the rare metals inside the electronic trash?”

“Everyone knew that there were tiny amounts of gold inside the ICs and LSIs. It was only because of how much of a pain it is to collect it all that no one did it. I just didn’t have any other choice, so I did it. It’s not because I was especially determined or anything.”

At first, she hadn’t had any tools or a place to work. She had actually broken open the plastic of the ICs by hand and patiently gathered up the tiny fibers of pure gold. When she had gotten a pile the size of a bento box, she was finally able to exchange it for paper money. She used that to develop machine tools in order to more efficiently collect the rare metals. That let her gather even more gold. It hadn’t taken much time for this to continue until she had expanded enough for it to be called a business. It hadn’t even been a year since then.

“It was fairly difficult to prepare an arm machine that could accurately pry open the covers of integrated circuits of various different sizes, but, once I realized it could use ultrasonic waves to calculate the size, it was pretty simple.”

“Ultrasonic waves...?”

“Oh, you think that’s an idea a kid who never went to school couldn’t come up with? If you really want to learn, you can manage it somehow.”

The boundary between poor and rich in Rio de Janeiro was a difficult thing to cross, but that also meant that, once you had a foundation, you could expect to have stable growth. Ines had used that system well.

“It seems that illegal dumping of trash has gone down by about 70% not just here in Rio de Janeiro but all over Brazil. And I heard that the Minister of the Environment is going to be giving you a public commendation soon.”

“The people wouldn’t get paid if they didn’t throw the trash away. People who are driven into a corner aren’t going to listen to some moral speech about how people are fundamentally good. If you want to stop them, you have to tell them how they can make some money.”

“So you’ve changed the flow of the world by passing on the idea that trash can be made into money?”

“...”

Ines remained silent in response to that comment.

She realized that this was what the man calling himself Misaka had been talking about.

The world would change.

As long as the people who would change it stood up, it was sure to.

The important thing was to act.

It was his job to give people the power they needed to do so.

“Next, we’re going to use the funds we have to find a way to efficiently recycle plastic and metals like iron and copper. If we succeed in that, almost 100% of the electronic trash can be turned into usable resources.”

“Oh, I look forward to that. And I was just wanting to get on the topic of a bright future,” the writer said in an attempt to curry Ines’s favor.

Ines ignored her and suddenly recalled Misaka Tabigake’s words.

What is it that world lacks?

Most likely, he was battling the world even now.

He had said that was his job after all.

[edit] References

1. ↑ She uses the Japanese phrase "yubi wo kuwaeru (指をくわえる)" which is literally "to hold your finger in your mouth" but has the meaning of "to look on enviously while doing nothing".