Toaru Majutsu no Index SS

Volume 2, Chapter 11: Every Field has Exceptions. The Second Friday of July.

A girl was taking a nap in the cafeteria after the lunch break was over and everyone should have left.

“Hey. Hey you. You’re fairly conspicuous there.”

A male teacher who had happened by yelled at her, but the girl wearing a white short-sleeved sailor uniform did not respond. She had lined up 3 or 4 of the cafeteria chairs and was lying sprawled out on top of them.

Once she had confirmed that the teacher wasn’t going to just leave, the girl finally drowsily turned her gaze towards him.

“...The infirmary beds are the best, but you get kicked out of there right away.”

“You’re taking the life of a student lightly, aren’t you?”

“No, not at all. In fact, I love this life.”

“Yes, you probably are enjoying what you’re doing, but the life of a student isn’t one of pure enjoyment. What year are you and what class are you in? I’m going to go call your homeroom tea—”

The male teacher’s words were cut off by his phone ringing. He looked annoyed and hit the talk button, but his back straightened at the first word he heard.

“Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I will check on it immediately,” he said politely and then hung up.

The girl spoke in an uninterested fashion with her expression still one of drowsiness.

“It seems you have some urgent business.”

“Damn it. I’ll be calling in another teacher to deal with you. Someone’ll be here right away!”

The male teacher left the cafeteria sounding like he had lost but was unwilling to admit it. When the girl told him not to run in the hallway, she received a shout of anger in response.

(Looks like he was at his wit’s end.)

The girl checked that no one was in the cafeteria and then reached up to the handheld terminal on the table while still lying in the chairs.

The line was already connected.

The girl yawned slightly and spoke towards the terminal.

“Let’s get started, old man.”

“Get what started?”

“Our dangerous conversation.”

The girl’s name was Kumokawa Seria.

And the old man on the other end of the handheld terminal was Kaizumi Tsugutoshi.

“I hear things have been getting noisy ‘outside’ recently,” she said, getting down to business.

“As usual, it’s a complete mystery where you get your information from. ...I assume you’re talking about the gemstones?”

“You should be glad that your ‘brain’ is so excellent.”

“Yes, well you ruin it by digressing so much.” Kaizumi sighed in a manner that he would never show his secretaries or other subordinates and continued. “What are your thoughts?”

“We should leave it be. They can’t do anything.”

“...Do you really think there’s an idiot out there who would accept that kind of report?”

“Sigh. You’re quite the petit bourgeois, aren’t you?” Kumokawa tapped her temple with her fingers while still lying on the chairs. “What if one of the 12 members of the Board of Directors, one of the leaders of Academy City, was to write that report? If you just stared them down, you could suppress any complaints those around you would have.”

“Bureaucracy isn’t that easy.”

“As bureaucratic positions go, you have a pretty major one, you know.”

As Kumokawa spoke, she reached up to a convenience store bag sitting on the table. In it was a dessert-like sandwich with whipped cream and fruit in it.

“Fine, then. I’ll think about this seriously.”

“Don’t speak with food in your mouth.”

“About those gemstones,” continued Kumokawa lying down with her mouth full of sandwich. “It’s true that the creation of the list is a little late. Because of this, America and Russia have gotten wind that Academy City is making it. Instead of cooperating, they have started making lists for themselves. At this rate, they might even get in the way of our work.”

“...If you knew that, how did you end up with ‘We should leave it be. They can’t do anything.’?”

“I’m not finished,” said Kumokawa bluntly. “Am I correct in assuming that our current issue is finding a way to efficiently ‘eliminate’ the problem presented by the gemstones scattered around the world?”

“Yes.”

“And what you all are worried about is other organizations acquiring and analyzing these gemstones and then creating their own psychic power development institutions?”

“Yes.”

“Then it isn’t a problem. Right now, American and Russia are the ones on the move. Heh heh. They failed during the cold war and they still haven’t given up that dream. However, they can’t complete the research. No matter how many samples they gather up, they don’t even have a way of knowing what the data means.”

“How can you be so sure?” a slightly puzzled Kaizumi asked.

“Let’s talk about Russia’s research. The ‘esper’ they claim to have created through a crystallization of all their greatest technology is someone who activates his special power by fervently praying to Mary. ...Well, I’m not really trying to deny religion, but that kind of focus on the spirit will only get you so far. Do you understand what I’m trying to say? Why did they establish a ‘scientific’ research institution? They can’t distinguish between what is miraculous and what is not. They don’t even know what kind of miraculous thing they’re searching for. If they just treat everything miraculous as the same, they’ll never catch up to us.”

“...”

“Anyone can eventually catch up to a type of human skill, but someone that doesn’t even know what path to go down can’t do anything.”

Kumokawa Seria’s expression was one of boredom.

Her drowsiness was leaving bit by bit as if she was sipping on some unpleasant tea.

“Are you still not willing to accept it?”

“Of course not. You have no proof.”

“Then you just have to prepare the proof yourself.” Kumokawa’s words were as blunt as ever. “There have been any number of institutions claiming to be developing psychic powers, but gemstones are actually quite rare. There are probably only 50 of them in the entire world. Unlike the strange scientists, you can’t find gemstones just anywhere. Which group do you think would be easier to take care of: the irregulars who wouldn’t even fill 2 classrooms or the eccentrics who are crawling around everywhere like bugs?”

“...So that’s your conclusion.”

“I don’t think it’s necessary, but, if you really won’t accept my view, it’s the only option. Just bear with the extra paperwork. That’s all I’m going to tell you as your brain.”

There was a short period of silence.

Finally, Kaizumi spoke.

“What exactly is a gemstone?”

“That question is one only someone influenced by Academy City science would ask. You’ve always assumed that espers could only be created here.”

“No, I understand the theory behind it.”

It seemed Kaizumi was choosing his words carefully. However, the very fact that Kumokawa had picked up on that meant he had failed. Because he had employed the use of her as his brain, he didn’t need to act smart around her.

“I know that, if what Academy City creates are artificial diamonds, then gemstones are natural diamonds created when the exact same circumstances are recreated in the natural world. Given that, what is a gemstone?”

“...”

“We have a few here in Academy City. Deep Blood and Imagine Breaker for example. ...But they just don’t seem like proper powers. It feels like those powers lie in a different direction than the easily displayed powers that create fire or electricity or something.”

“Heh. It seems idiots worry about idiotic things,” responded Kumokawa. “If we add in Academy City’s Number 7 that you wanted an explanation for, it seems that’s a special characteristic of theirs. It isn’t that they’re powerful; they’re just rare. But that alone gives them value to us.”

(But the obvious problem with espers that are useful because they’re rare is that there aren’t very many of them,) Kumokawa added silently.

“There’s one more thing I should tell you as your brain.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s probably best if you don’t put Imagine Breaker in the category of gemstones. I don’t know the details, but he’s probably something...much more interesting than we think.”

“...”

Kaizumi Tsugutoshi remained silent for a short bit.

His brain had said there was something she didn’t know. He thought about what that meant before speaking again.

“...You sound like you’re enjoying yourself.”

“Of course. Thinking is my job.”

Let us move the stage to after school. A boy with spiky black hair was walking with a large number of other students as they headed to their club activities or out to have some fun.

However, that boy had the misfortune of having the sprinkler malfunction in a way that caused it to spray him and him alone directly on the head. When the one-person shower came down on the boy’s head like a theater spotlight, he yelled out in surprise.

“Fbaahh!?”

That was when a girl in a white short-sleeved sailor uniform showed up.

She came over next to the boy with the wet spiky hair and just laughed at him without lending him a towel or a handkerchief or anything.

“The most meaningless things always happen to you, don’t they?”

“...Shut up. It’s just my usual misfortune.”

“I wonder how that misfortune works. If you looked into it, you might be able to find an interesting set of rules behind it.”

“You certainly seem to be enjoying yourself, senpai.”

“Oh, I am. It’s because of things like this that I love this life so much.”

She giggled and then continued speaking.

“This school is overflowing with exciting things.”