An ordinary high school student, Kamijou Touma, walked slowly down the street in the evening.
Some cylindrical cleaning machines passed by him. The windmills, which had replaced transmission towers, spun their blades like they were chasing away the crows in the city. There were many hot-air balloons floating in the orange sky, but the things hanging below them were not ordinary billboards, but the latest ultra-thin screens. Like an electronic billboard with vertical marquees, the text read from bottom to top: "Be prepared! Let's work hard for Daihaseisai! –Judgment"
Daihaseisai was basically a sports carnival. But, as Academy City had several million students and all the schools were participating, the scale of the event was extremely large. All the students were espers, and the management committee of Academy City used the excuse of "collecting data when there was mutual interference between different powers" to encourage the students to use their powers during Daihaseisai. Thus, intensive battles between different espers could be expected. For example, during soccer or dodgeball matches, it was common to see vanishing balls, fireballs, and iceballs.
Daihaseisai lasted one week, and during that time, Academy City was open to the public; even television cameras were allowed. It was said that the viewer ratings for the esper showdowns--which could not be seen during normal sports matches--were rather high. Because of that, Judgment was putting all its effort into preparing for Daihaseisai. Also, Academy City hoped to use the few days that it was open to the public to improve its image. Of course, Academy City did not forget about terrorists, as Anti-Skill would be deployed at several important power development facilities, preventing such people from entering these secret areas.
"This… this is so tiring…"
That was what Kamijou had learned this past week.
Due to certain circumstances, Kamijou had lost his memories, and had thus forgotten everything about Daihaseisai. According to what Touma had heard, though, this activity would be extremely dangerous for him. The design of Daihaseisai was not just "no restraint of powers", but rather "if you do not use your powers, you're going to be friends with the medical squad". In other words, even in a war horse game, there may be fireballs, lightning strikes, and flying knives.
Kamijou looked at his hand. That hand had the Imagine Breaker ability. No matter if they were magical or psychic powers, once they touched that hand, they would disappear without a trace. But a power like that was not going to help Kamijou survive in a war zone between several espers.
…Why must I be exhausted in preparing for this event that will send me to hell…?
Today, Kamijou had set up a tent in the campus set aside for visitors. Just after finishing, a female PE teacher had come with a wry smile and had said, "Sorry, we won't be using this tent." Touma had then taken it down. When he had finally finished, a female teacher who looked like a primary school student had angrily run over and had shouted, "Ah! What are you doing, Kamijou!? Haven't you heard the news? We still need this tent!" In any case, "Such misfortune" was not enough to describe Kamijou's life today.
After meaninglessly toiling for a long time, Kamijou finally started dragging his tired body back to the student dormitory.
"Oh, yeah, there didn't seem to be anything left in the fridge."
The supermarket was just in front of him, but Touma was penniless and would have to go back to his dorm to get money first. The thought of having to go out again after returning home made Kamijou extremely frustrated.
The soles of his cheap basketball shoes were rather hard, making his legs extremely tired as he walked.
When he finally approached the student dormitory, Kamijou heard a girl's shout from above.
"Ah...Ka…Ka-ka…Kamijou Touma, Kamijou Touma!"
"Hm?"
Kamijou looked up and saw Tsuchimikado Maika sticking her head out and waving her right arm from the seventh floor. She was still sitting on top of the cleaning robot, so what she was doing seemed rather dangerous. She had grabbed a mop and had laid it on the ground, however, to prevent the robot from advancing.
"It…it's terrible! Why did you turn off your phone!?"
"?"
Kamijou heard that and pulled his cell phone--with a GPS function--out of his pocket. Sure enough, the power was off. After turning on the cell phone, he saw several messages from Tsuchimikado Maika. Though her expression was pale, Maika slowly continued to speak. Although suspicious, Kamijou still ran to the elevator.
Kamijou arrived at his room on the seventh floor. Maika removed the mop and the cleaning robot slowly moved towards the elevator. For some reason, the calico cat that would normally be with Index was now sitting alone in the corridor. The cleaning robot arrived in front of Kamijou, and Maika again prevented it from moving forward by putting the mop in front of it.
"It's an emergency! The silver-haired nun has been taken away!"
"What?"
Kamijou could not help but shout. Maika's face looked pale as she continued on.
"It's a kidnapping, abduction! The culprit said that if I call the guards, he'd kill her, so I didn't do anything... I'm sorry, Kamijou Touma!"
The silver-haired girl she was talking about should be Index. Maika did not look like she was joking. Moreover, there were too many possible reasons why Index would be kidnapped.
She was a magical library with 103,000 grimoires memorized in her head. All the magicians in the world wanted the knowledge in her brain, and on August 31st, she had already been kidnapped once because of that reason.
"Wait a minute, what's going on? Could you explain?"
Asked by Kamijou, Maika stuttered as she explained the details.
Two hours ago, Maika had come to the student dormitory for practical work. While sweeping the floor, she had caught sight of a bored Index in the corridor of the seventh floor, and had gone to talk to her. In the middle of their chat, someone had suddenly covered Index's mouth from behind and abducted her.
"When the kidnapper left, he gave me an envelope. There's something written on the letter inside…"
Maika handed over a long, rectangular envelope normally used for sending advertisements. Her voice was trembling, likely not just due to fear, but probably because she was also blaming herself for her uselessness.
Kamijou lowered his head, looking at the letter, and said,
"You don't have to blame yourself; it's better than doing something and making the situation worse."
Although it was intended to console Maika, that statement made her even more distressed. It could not be helped, since in an ordinary school life, there were very few chances to feel this kind of burning tension.
"Oh, yeah, what does that bastard look like?"
Maika looked up, thought for a while, and said,
"Uhm… His height was above 1.8 meters; he was white, but his Japanese was still very fluent; and I couldn't tell what country he was from just from his appearance…"
"Uh huh."
"He was wearing priest's robes."
"Hm?"
"But he had a strong perfume smell. His hair was dyed red and reached his shoulders. There was a silver ring on each of his fingers, and a tattoo that looked like a bar code under his right eye. He had a cigarette in his mouth, and he wore earrings…"
"…Oi, I'm rather familiar with that bastardly British priest."
Maika revealed a look of suspicion. Kamijou opened the envelope and found a letter inside. On the letter were neat rows of words, which seemed to have been written with a mechanical pencil. It looked like a ruler had been used to make them neat.
"Kamijou Touma: if you want her alive, go to the abandoned theater 'Gloaming House' outside Academy City at seven tonight. Alone."
"…there're still people nowadays who'd use a ruler to disguise their handwriting?"
In this age, it was naive to believe that using a ruler disguised someone's handwriting. Based on the technology of the laser that read the information on a CD's surface, investigators have developed a way to identify the different characteristics of when a person's fingers slightly trembled using the grooves in the text. Not to mention, many people in Academy City were mind-readers.
This guy might have done everything properly, but to Kamijou, it was just a lame joke.
What on earth is that idiot doing? Don't tell me he came to play with us just because it's summer holidays now?
According to Maika's testimony, the culprit who had abducted Index was her colleague, Stiyl Magnus. But that guy would never do anything to endanger her; on the contrary, that guy would rush into enemy territory to protect her.
The tension vanished in an instant.
Kamijou could not help but feel sympathy for the distressed Maika.
"Erm… Maika, don't worry. The culprit should be a friend of Index's and mine, so don't worry…"
"The cul…culprit is a friend? Then isn't the motive twisted love?"
"Ah, erm…it isn't really that sort of thing…though it's true that this twisted love may exist…"
Seeing Maika's face become even paler, Kamijou sighed.
When he flipped the envelope upside down, a stack of papers fell out. Opening and looking at them, Kamijou realized that they were exit permits and other related documents. All the blanks had been filled in. Kamijou could not help but think, How did they do all these? It's true that one can easily leave Academy City with these documents, but to request for all these would require a serious examination…
The strong contrast between the stupidity of the threatening letter and the well-preparedness of the required documents stunned Kamijou.
What on Earth is that priest thinking?