Part 1
(November 10 – Oahu – New Honolulu International Airport Customs Gate – From security camera footage.)
Though it was neither the middle of the summer tourist season nor the middle of the winter tourist season, the area around the gate was packed with people. Since one of Hawaii's main industries was tourism, holding that many people up for so long could easily be seen as a breakdown in the system.
The crowd was mostly made up of tourists, businessmen, transportation workers, and people with cards hanging from their necks that were here most likely to conduct research into volcanoes or tropical fish. However a few people in the crowd clearly did not fit into any of those categories.
For instance, there was a spiky-haired Asian.
And there was the #3 Level 5 walking beside him.
While the two could probably be classified as tourists, a boy and girl wandering through an international airport without a guide or parents was peculiar.
"…I guess Birdway and the others aren't here yet. This is where we were supposed to meet up with them, though," muttered the boy, Kamijou Touma.
For how little of the English language he knew, he seemed oddly used to being overseas. However, just a few minutes before while on the plane, he had been trembling in his seat. From what he muttered about things like parachutes and speeds of 7,000 kph, he must have had some dreadful memories related to airplanes.
As for the girl, Misaka Mikoto…
"(…Wah wah wah!! I-I did spontaneously tell him that he wouldn't be alone this time, but I didn't expect to end up overseas all of a sudden! The dorm supervisor and Kuroko aren't watching. What do I do!? I doubt this is just a day trip; we're probably going to be spending the night. What do I do, what do I do!?)"
The unparalleled "Onee-sama"—when viewed from the eyes of a middle school girl—was blushing and panicking, but Kamijou showed no sign of noticing as he sat on his suitcase and fanned himself with his hand.
The girl was so psyched that she could barely keep up with the present, so she was wholly incapable of asking herself questions about what they were doing there, and why they were meeting up with others who had flown in small groups on separate flights.
An electronic tone sounded from the announcement speakers set up in various places around the airport.
Kamijou Touma looked up, but he frowned upon hearing a woman's voice speaking fluent English.
"…What is she saying?"
"I can't believe you would cross the ocean without knowing that much. How did you manage to answer the questions of the officials at customs?" Mikoto muttered in disbelief, but she added more quietly to herself, "(…Does that mean he has no choice but to rely on my knowledge of English? Fwoh!? Has the time finally come for me to seize the initiative in our actions here!?)"
As she mumbled to herself, she started to tremble for some reason.
Part 2
(November 10 – Oahu – New Honolulu International Airport Terminal Three – Café Simple Coconut – From the camera in a pet robot in the café.)
In the sort of airport café where four-fifths of the price was due to the location alone, Leivinia Birdway took a sip from a coffee cup and grimaced.
"…I expected this to be sweet, but not this much. It has enough calories to rival an energy drink for a marathon runner."
"You should've been able to tell that from the way it looks. It's pure white. And how about you read the name of the place aloud too," spat out Accelerator, Academy City's #1 Level 5.
Birdway started shoveling in some tapioca which had come with her drink and said, "What a gentle tone of voice."
"Ahn?"
"You seem used to dealing with kids, but you don't need to switch over to that mode with me."
"…"
"If you're going to act as my escort, it would help if you would treat me like a lady. Especially regarding my personal pride."
"Tch," Accelerator clicked his tongue and took a sip of weak coffee.
It seemed like he hadn't noticed how he was acting until she pointed it out.
He decided it would be best not to use his cell phone. He did not want anyone to know that he was contemplating whether he could contact "that brat" or not.
The enemy was already on the island.
It was possible their conversation was being monitored even now, and anything he let them know could possibly be used against him.
"So when are the others going to meet up with us?"
"I have no way of knowing when their flights arrived or how busy their gates are," Birdway said simply as she battled with the contents of her cup that she was treating as a dessert. "Even if Aleister's influence has weakened, it was difficult to get that many people out of Academy City. If you had all gotten on the same flight, we would have been tracked for sure. I had us split into small groups in order to eliminate the risk as much as possible. I bought our safety with money and time, so quit complaining."
That must have been why the men wearing black that usually surrounded her were nowhere to be seen.
It seemed their absence did not bother Birdway too much.
"Now that Gremlin has confirmed Imagine Breaker's survival using Radiosonde Castle, they will be preparing themselves for interference from and coming up with countermeasures against that natural enemy of magic. They are sure to carry out something big here in Hawaii. We followed them here in order to stop them, but we are not the world police. We cannot slip past everything by using special rules, so we need to make the proper preparations before beginning the fight."
"…Can't you pull it off somehow with that magic of yours?"
"I probably could if it came to it, but it comes down to the dilemma of a phantom thief. Any method I use once will be analyzed. If I have a different way of dealing with it, I don't want to use any of my major techniques."
"So it's all for your convenience," Accelerator muttered in annoyance. "You said Gremlin is hiding here in Hawaii, right?"
"Yes, in all likelihood."
"But how are we supposed to find them? There are eight main islands, and if you count the small ones, there are around 130. There are over 1.4 million residents alone and adding in the temporary visitors gives you a total of over three million people. I doubt we're gonna find these hidden people just by running around randomly."
"I have an idea of how to deal with that."
At the same time, Accelerator heard an electronic tone.
Birdway looked up toward the ceiling.
"Looks like it's starting."
Part 3
(November 10 – Oahu – New Honolulu International Airport Terminal Two – From the camera in an automatic guidance kiosk.)
Hamazura Shiage was standing before a large board within the airport.
To be precise, it was an electronic guidance board. Instead of just showing a map, it had a keyboard that allowed entry of one's destination so it could display the way there. It also had a voice recognition function so that users could be connected to an operator, but that was no help for Hamazura because he could not speak English at all.
Not to mention that something else was further inhibiting his already regrettable level of knowledge.
It was a girl of about twelve that stood next to him.
She was Kuroyoru Umidori.
She was a cyborg girl who had been at the center of the Freshmen, an organization from the dark side of Academy City, and whose body itself was a mass of engineering secrets.
"…Why did I have to end up grouped with you of all people!? Wasn't there some better combination that had a little less bad blood from the past, or at least someone I could overpower if it came to it!?"
"I'm the one that was fucking kidnapped, Haaamaaa-chaaaan!"
"Nooo!! Your speech pattern has changed by default!!"
"God dammit. First you say you can't just leave me be in Academy City cause I'm likely to attack Fremea again, but you also couldn't bring yourself to kill me. You were a little too optimistic to think you could solve that conundrum just by bringing me with you. You didn't think about the fact that you'd then have to worry about the possibility of me ripping your fucking throat out at any time, did you!?"
"Normally, my biggest worry about a trip to Hawaii would've been what souvenir to get my lovely Takitsubo-chan!! I'd be wondering if she would think something like macadamia nuts is too clichéd, or if she would be glad I was sticking to the basics! So why is my life endangered before I've even left the airport!?"
And like that, Hamazura Shiage was already thrust into grave danger.
He had thought that Kuroyoru had not attacked him up to that point because she thought it would be easier to escape if she was outside of Japan first.
However, the deadly cyborg did not carry out a terrorist attack with her Bomber Lance.
Before she could, another figure approached from behind.
It was Misaka Worst.
The ao dai-wearing girl with a mischievous glint in her eyes and her dominant hand in a cast wrapped one arm around the cyborg's neck.
"Kuro-nyaaan."
"!?"
"You can do whatever you want, but do you really think we would've put together this plan if we had no way of winning?"
"Gyah gyah gyah gyah gyah!?"
Kuroyoru suddenly started howling because Misaka Worst had used her ability to manipulate electricity on the cyborg control mechanisms.
The usually cool girl may have suddenly shouted "Trans☆form!!" and made a strange pose, but there were valid reasons for doing so. It was not a prank that would have helped a school counselor to earn his keep.
"Nyah nyah… gyah…"
"Ha ha ha. You should count yourself lucky that Misaka didn't mess with the ones for your organs. Mechas like you just aren't suited for facing electricity-type espers like Misaka. Did you not do your research beforehand, nyan?"
"D-damn those bastards on the board of directors…"
"Oh? Do you think the ban on cyborg development was lifted in order to back the Third Season project? It's possible, but there's no proof, so it's really nothing but unjustified resentment. And really, this kind of security hole could probably be closed in two weeks or so if they actually bothered. Misaka had a selector put inside her, after all."
However, no matter how easily-fillable a hole it was, it was still a major weakness until it was filled.
And Hawaii did not have anything like Academy City's research facilities.
"I-I'm saved…" said Hamazura as he wiped sweat from his brow.
"Hmm? Misaka never said anything about being on your side, nyahh."
"I was right! Someone made a serious error when they made these groups!!" shouted Hamazura, but the two girls soaked in darkness didn't appear to react.
Like a delinquent, Misaka Worst leaned up with overt familiarity against Kuroyoru as the other girl's arms continued to convulse slightly. Misaka Worst then spoke to the cyborg with a stifling sense of superiority at having complete control over the situation.
"Y'know, how are we supposed to search for someone suspicious with so many tourists around? With so many unfamiliar outsiders all over the place, even asking around doesn't sound like much help."
"…What would you do if it was fucking up to you?"
"You just don't have the right edge to your voice when you do it. Are you sure you had his thought patterns implanted?" Misaka Worst said as she cackled. "Anyway, it seems Gremlin is an ideological criminal group."
"So they're overly sensitive?"
"Yes, and that's what Misaka would try to take advantage of if Misaka had to."
As the two girls continued their conversation, they heard an electronic tone.
Afterwards, a woman's voice gave an announcement in fluent English.
Hamazura looked up.
"Is there a lost child or something?"
"It's something a hell of a lot more dangerous than that," spat out Kuroyoru. "It's begun."
Part 4
(November 10 – Oahu – New Honolulu International Airport Terminal Three – Cafe Simple Coconut – From the camera in a pet robot in the café.)
The first to notice the oddity was Accelerator, who put his coffee cup down on the table.
"So you've figured it out?" asked Birdway, while having not finished her sweet drink. "At first, it just sounds like an announcement telling you not to dirty your shoes on the newly waxed floors. But there is no reason to announce that over here, since the area they mentioned is three blocks away. That was an anti-terrorism warning. They want people to stay clear of that area, while also reducing secondary damages from a panic."
"They couldn't pull that off if some idiot was shooting up the place, so they must have found a conspicuous suitcase or something."
"Yes, something like that." Birdway sipped at her too-sweet drink. "But it was not necessarily Gremlin that left the suitcase there."
For an instant, Accelerator thought she was suggesting that it might be some other terror group, but he immediately corrected himself.
There was another possibility as to what she meant.
"…You…"
"I'll ask again: so you've figured it out?"
"Since finding Gremlin amid all these people would be difficult, you set something up on our end!?"
"It's merely a matter of efficiency." Birdway was still completely relaxed. "If we do nothing, Gremlin will do something. That will cause a great number of people to suffer. As such, we need to draw them out beforehand. Whether they use methods that your common sense will help you comprehend or not, Gremlin is an ideological terror group. That means…"
"They can be overly sensitive when it comes to their ideology," finished Accelerator as he became profoundly aware of the electrode on his neck.
The men in black suits must have been the ones who had actually set up the suitcase.
"If that's what they're like, we can really get to them. If they know someone else is going to use their name in a copycat attack, they'll try to stop it even if it puts them at the disadvantage…"
"Gremlin is going to do something here in Hawaii," Birdway said with a grin. "But that doesn't mean we have to wait for them to attack first, does it?"
The current commotion had a high probability of drawing out someone from Gremlin.
If they could capture that person, they had a chance of finding Gremlin's hideout or learning of their plan.
It was true that, as a mere "matter of efficiency" as Birdway had put it, that was the best method.
However…
"I have one question."
"And what would that be?"
"What is inside the suitcase you're using as a dummy?"
Birdway shrugged and said, "Reality always works best. If the police aren't panicking, Gremlin might get suspicious before they interfere."
Accelerator felt that he had truly grown, since he did not break the table in half.