Part 1
"They're late…" muttered an annoyed Yomikawa Aiho in a room of her apartment that was too high-class for a teacher's salary. "How long does it take to get groceries at a nearby supermarket?"
"There's nothing wrong with messing around," said Yoshikawa Kikyou, a former researcher who was sprawled out on a soft sofa watching a rerun of a drama. "They are kids after all."
"Well, yes, but…"
"Mmhhh."
Unlike the two languid adults, Last Order seemed quite upset. She was pacing back and forth between the window leading to the balcony and the TV.
"…Misaka has a bad feeling about this, says Misaka as Misaka thinks deeply about it."
"?"
"The new Misaka is always getting in the way around here and who knows what she could be doing to him right now…Ah, could Misaka be having her scenes taken from her!? says Misaka as Misaka expresses her shock!!"
"Kikyou, what do you think of this?"
"You mustn't underestimate the brain before the formation of the secondary sexual characteristics, Aiho. Broadness and discontinuity of thoughts aren't the norm then."
"But Misaka has no intention of inheriting those pitiful aspects from the original! says Misaka as Misaka quickly takes action!! Misaka is ready to find a solution at any time!!"
A metallic slam reached Yomikawa's ears.
It took her a second to realize it was the sound of the door being opened and closed.
"…Huh?"
The small girl had disappeared.
When the two women headed to the entrance and saw that the small shoes were missing, they frantically began the search.
Part 2
"Odd." Hanzou lowered his gaze to his cell phone in annoyance. "No matter how many times I try and how many different ways I try, I can't contact Kuruwa."
"Hey, does that mean…?"
"They know I ran off with Fremea. They may have picked up everyone that might help me."
"We should try to find her."
"How?" Hanzou responded. "We aren't likely to find her if we just randomly run around. Also…we don't even know if she's still alive."
"Then…!!" Hamazura said as if to interrupt him. "Then we should search for her now. Just because you can't contact her doesn't necessarily mean that Kuruwa-chan's fate is sealed. This could be the critical moment. Maybe she's too busy dealing with them to answer the phone. Whatever it is, we need to do something. If we don't do anything, her odds of survival aren't good."
But how exactly were they supposed to find her?
Hamazura slowly paced around the private salon thinking.
"Do you have an idea where she would go? Like a store she often goes to."
"If she really is in danger, she would avoid that kind of place."
"There has to be something we can use to find her… GPS, security cameras, security robots, anything. Is there any kind of system we can use?"
"Kuruwa always walks around choosing routes that won't be picked up by those kinds of things."
"That's it!" Hamazura spread a map out on the table. "Paths that aren't picked up by anything are actually pretty rare. Especially with the security robots. Hanzou, draw some lines on the map with a marker. We'll have much better odds if we search around certain lines rather than searching the entire city."
"Even if there aren't very many, it's like the holes in a net. It won't be that easy…"
"The security robots patrol according to a pattern. Depending on the times, the holes in the net are closed up. When I saw her before, Kuruwa-chan was in District 7. If we mark the safe paths in District 7 and the surrounding districts, we can then look at the security robot schedule to mark off the paths that were unusable at the time."
"I get it. I get it," said Hanzou as started drawing lines on the map.
Fremea looked at Hamazura and Hanzou with an anxious expression, but they didn't have time to care for her then.
Hamazura looked down at the marked map.
"What do I need to do?"
"No." Hanzou shook his head. "You stay here. Fremea's safety comes first."
"But you need help, right!?"
"We can't leave her alone! And taking her out into danger along with us is out of the question!"
The two boys glared at each other for a bit, but Hamazura finally averted his gaze.
"Dammit," he spat out and looked around the room. "…We can't stay here for too much longer."
"I'm leaving now. Take care of Fremea while I'm gone. This floor has three exits. Hamazura, if it comes to it, take her and run."
"I will. I promise." Hamazura nodded. "You make sure you bring Kuruwa-chan back with you, okay?"
They lightly hit their hands together and Hanzou left the private salon.
After the door closed, it felt like silence began oozing into the air.
It gave Hamazura a vision of them disappearing one by one.
Part 3
Kuroyoru Umidori was a girl that stood out quite a bit.
She was about twelve years old. Her black hair came down to about her shoulder-blades, but it was accented so that the hair near her ears was bleached blonde.
For clothing, she wore a white coat with only the hood over her head. Her arms were not in the sleeves. Below that…could perhaps be described as punk. Her small frame tightly fit inside clothing made of black leather and studs.
Her clothes looked more suited to someone on stage than someone walking around town.
The plastic dolphin doll under her arm went in a completely different vector than her odd outfit and it just felt out of place.
She didn't sneak around.
She walked openly into the private salon building through the main entrance.
She got on the escalator to the second floor. She approached the reception counter that was much like the front desk at a hotel and asked the young man working there part-time a question.
"I'm looking for some people. Hamazura Shiage and Fremea Seivelun. I know they're using this facility. I want to know what room of what floor they're using."
"Miss…"
At first, the young man put on a fake smile, but, once he saw that Kuroyoru's expression wasn't changing, he thought back to the manual for these kinds of situations.
"Our facility has a duty to protect the personal information of our customers. I'm very sorry, but I can't reveal information regarding to the usage of the rooms."
This was the very basic of the business especially because the private salons were secret hideouts used to be free of being observed by adults. If they gave away the information on what people were doing, it would defeat the entire purpose of going there.
However, Kuroyoru merely smiled.
"That's fine. They probably rented it under a fake name, but I thought I'd ask just to be sure."
"I-I see."
The young man was conflicted over whether he should confirm or deny that possibility.
Then Kuroyoru continued.
"Whether the answer is here or not doesn't change what I must do."
"?"
The young man didn't have time to express his question.
Directly afterwards, something shot directly by the side of his face at high speed and struck the wall behind him. It was an obsolete pay phone that had been set up in case of emergency.
It shot by at such high speed that the phone was smashed to pieces and a large dent a few centimeters in was made in the tough wall. That had been enough force to put a human's life in danger had they been directly hit.
"Ee…"
The young man was confused, but he knew that the girl hadn't thrown it.
The other customers didn't panic. They couldn't panic. The dangerous aura emitted by the girl and the unusual phenomenon had sealed their movements.
Something strange floated up behind the girl. It was a ring-shaped machine about seventy centimeters in diameter. Inside the ring was a propeller shaped similarly to a shampoo hat. It provided both lift and propulsion. A chainsaw-like blade was surrounding the outside of the ring.
Objects would get caught on the protruding parts of the blade and build up centrifugal force. Then the objects could be thrown with great destructive force if released with the proper timing.
As if to explain how it worked, the machine's blade "grabbed" a metal trash can and began rotating it at high speed. In a few seconds, it was moving so fast it could only be seen as an afterimage.
However, the young man didn't have time to scream.
From directly behind him, the horrible noise of gears meshing together could be heard. No, that wasn't what it was. Technically, it was the sound of numerous chainsaw blades tearing through the wall.
Tearing.
It was more destruction than it was cutting.
"Wh-wha—!?"
He wasn't even allowed to turn around.
Before he could, chainsaws came from a few different directions and stopped a few millimeters away from his neck.
Because he had four of those killer disks surrounding him and aiming for his neck, he couldn't even carelessly collapse. He was a sneeze away from decapitation.
"Don't kill him yet," said Kuroyoru in a bored sounding voice.
It sounded more like she was talking to someone controlling the machines than to the machines themselves.
(Now then, I suppose I should make this as easy to understand as possible.)
Kuroyoru arbitrarily decided to kick a metal magazine rack about as tall as she was. The metal fixture came to pieces and she pulled a rod-like piece from the various parts. She lightly tapped it against one of the killer disks that were next to the young man's neck.
"E-eeee!!"
A pathetic scream escaped his lips, but the killer disks didn't move. They must have had some way of maintaining their position, because the chainsaws were as stable as one bolted to a stand. The rod-shaped metal part Kuroyoru held let off sparks and a slicing noise was heard as part of it was sliced cleanly off at a diagonal.
She stuck the end that was now pointed like a bamboo spear between his eyes.
"You seem to be mistaken, so I'll correct you. This isn't the kind of torture scene you've likely seen in movies or TV dramas. This isn't a situation where I absolutely must get the information here by any means necessary."
Sweat was pouring from the young man due to tension and fear. From up in the floor above, he could hear screams and trampling feet. Disturbances were occurring elsewhere, too. The killer disks could fly through the air and freely cut through the walls and windows, so they could directly enter the upper floors.
"Whether you talk or not, I can still get my answer." Kuroyoru spoke calmly. "What'll you do? Either way's fine. Are you going to choose to die needlessly?"
Not only did he look up the room number, but he also lent her the employee master key.
With that so-so result, Kuroyoru tossed aside the metal rod and left the counter in a good mood. She took the plastic dolphin doll from under her arm and tossed it above her head. It must have had some Velcro on it or something, because it stuck to the coat on her back.
She spread out her now empty hands.
"Now then. I suppose it's about time I really got down to business."
With a slight noise, colorless and transparent spears shot out of her palms.
This was the weapon known as an esper power given only to the students in that city.
Part 4
Mugino Shizuri was stopped in the middle of the street.
It was partially due to having very few hints to help her with the Hamazura Search she had made a humiliating punishment game out of with the other members of Item.
However, there was a more immediate reason.
A girl around ten years old was grabbing at her coat.
The girl had short light brown hair.
She had a vigorous-looking face.
(…I feel like I've seen her before. Where was it? I think it was in some report…)
"What?"
"Stop that beeping, says Misaka as Misaka gives her request. It's a faint signal to begin with, so that just makes it even harder to find, says Misaka as Misaka explains the situation."
"…?"
Mugino's eyebrows lowered in a puzzled expression.
It wasn't because she didn't understand what the girl was talking about.
(…How does she know about my artificial eye and artificial arm?)
"That beep beep beep beep! No more beep beep beep beep!"
Mugino was getting fed up with having her coat tugged on, so she switched off her artificial eye. Her field of vision narrowed a bit and she lost her depth perception, but it wasn't enough to be an impediment in everyday life.
The mysterious mini-girl moved her head to the left and the right slowly as the ahoge on the top of her head swayed in the wind.
"Okay, Misaka has it, says Misaka as Misaka captures the location of her target. Really. Scanning for someone who doesn't have a proper network account is hard, says Misaka as Misaka says something controller-like."
(Does she have a search-type power like Takitsubo?)
However, Mugino was not at such a dead end with the Hamazura Search that she would recruit the girl for help.
Instead…
"…That's an amazing coat you have there. Woah, what's this? It's covered in thick fur."
"Hee hee hee. It was made in the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, says Misaka as Misaka boasts about her coat. But your coat looks pretty warm, too. That's the type of super lightweight cold-resistant fiber that traps air in tiny tubes, isn't it? says Misaka as Misaka acts like a know-it-all."
Last Order had grabbed the edge of Mugino's skirt along with the coat and she was swinging them up and down like flapping wings.
She then realized something.
"But your underwear looks chilly, says Misaka as Misaka expresses her surprise."
"That's because they're see-through. Being in charge of the sexy side of things has its hardships."
After that odd back and forth, the two parted ways.
They were both in search of someone.
Anyone who had known the #4 as she once was would have been astonished at this, but it was just yet another change in the personality of the person known as Mugino Shizuri.
Part 5
It had been a few minutes since Hanzou had left the room.
A type of discomfort was ever so slightly stabbing at Hamazura's nerves. After thinking about it for a short bit, he realized it was due to a noise. The room was soundproofed pretty well, but he could hear what sounded like a number of people making a racket. And it wasn't just from a single direction. It sounded like he was surrounded by the noise.
"Hamazura."
"It's fine," he responded to Fremea's uneasy voice.
He had no proof of that of course.
He grew very conscious of the presence of Takitsubo and the others' numbers in his phone, but he stifled his desire to call for help.
He couldn't get them wrapped up in a problem this big.
"Hanzou is out getting someone who will help us out. Once she's here, the situation will turn around. So it's fine."
Surely Hanzou would find Kuruwa safe and sound and bring her back. She had plenty of hideouts Hamazura and Hanzou didn't know about, so there was no reason to fear their pursuers. They didn't know how to "win" in their situation and it wasn't even clear what was required to "win", but, whether they would just continue hiding or counterattack, having a safe place was a major step in the right direction. As such, they could change the situation for the better if they could only meet up with Kuruwa.
That was how Hamazura saw the situation, but a sudden noise tore at his ears.
A loud noise like giant gears tearing at the wall came from the other side of the private salon's wall.
It didn't sound like some kind of machine moving in the hallway.
The door itself was clearly vibrating.
"Wh-what!? What in the first place is going on…!?"
"Get back!!" Hamazura immediately yelled and moved in front of Fremea, but he couldn't think of anything else to do.
He wasn't even sure what was going on. However, the situation advanced regardless.
It advanced in a way that helped their opponent.
With a loud crashing noise, the door collapsed inwards.
It hadn't been opened; it collapsed.
Hamazura realized the two hinges and the deadbolt near the knob had been sliced off once he saw the things that flew inside the room through the door.
A noise pounded the air that sounded like the sound of a bee's wings amplified a couple thousand times.
And the grating noise of gears and chains was mixed in.
The sources of the noise were disks.
They had a radius of about seventy centimeters. The inside of their metal "border" contained two sets of propellers that looked like shampoo hats. These propellers provided lift and propulsion. The center axis of the propellers was completely hollow. A single stake may have gone through that portion of them when they were stored.
They were unmanned scouting devices that were either remotely or AI controlled.
If that was all, it wouldn't have been so bad.
The problem was with the "border".
The source of the noise of gears and chains was the chainsaw surrounding the circular border. The name of the machines printed on the top of their borders, Edge Bee, gave Hamazura a really bad feeling about how they could be used.
"Fuck!?"
Three of them flew into the room. Instead of continuing on like bullets, they stopped in midair and then slowly floated around surrounding Hamazura. The action was similar that of hornets capturing their prey.
Even in Academy City, a city flooded with cleaning robots and security robots, one didn't often have a chance to see machines that dangerous.
There was really only one possibility that came to Hamazura's mind.
"The pursuers…? But how did they find us?"
Then he realized it.
(Was it from Hanzou leaving to go find Kuruwa-chan? They took the images of Hanzou's movements through the city from the security cameras and robots and traced where he came from!! That means the Kuruwa-chan thing was fake. They didn't need to go to the risk of capturing her. They probably just blocked our transmissions!!)
Of course, doing that wasn't exactly easy.
They had freely used the city's video surveillance network and communications network and they had found the specific cell phone their targets were using and blocked only it. They were most likely using the unmanned scouting devices to cover for the areas the surveillance network didn't.
Their pursuers had to be people who had the consent of those at the administrative level of the city and they could clearly use the facilities of that level of the city.
"I-in the first place, what are we going to do?"
"Run away, of course. We gain nothing by playing with toys this dangerous."
These were killer weapons that could freely fly through the sky and use their chainsaws to cut right through doors and walls.
Hamazura wasn't stupid enough to think he could destroy them in a fair fight.
Facing them would do nothing but get himself injured.
(…The exit.)
Hamazura looked around the area.
(…We have to get out of this room!!)
The private salon only had one door, but one of the Edge Bees was hovering near it, so they couldn't approach it.
They might not be able to get past it when the machines attacked.
They may not be able to run away, much less win.
(These unmanned scouting devices use contra-rotating propellers to maintain their position and to provide both lift and propulsion. That means their weakness is…)
"Listen up, Fremea. When I give the sign, you run full speed for the exit."
"But…"
"Don't worry."
Hamazura looked over at a floor lamp while keeping the movements of the Edge Bees in his peripheral vision. Their chainsaws continued to rotate making an ominous noise.
"I'll draw them in. So you head straight out the exit once that disk leaves it. Understand?"
Fremea gave a slight nod.
Hamazura slowly approached the table and reached for a plastic glass.
"Now!!"
As he yelled, Hamazura threw the glass at the Edge Bee hovering near the exit. The glass struck the wall next to the Edge Bee, but the Edge Bee still reacted. All three of them immediately took action in what seemed like an overreaction.
They moved to slice Hamazura.
"Run!!"
"But…what in the first place is going to happen to you!?"
"Just go! I'll make sure to catch up with you!!"
Hamazura grabbed the floor lamp with both hands and Fremea ran out the exit as if she had been pushed out by his yelling.
After ensuring she had made it out, he turned his gaze back to the approaching weapons. He threw the floor lamp at the Edge Bees as hard as he could.
This time, the object hit one of them, but that was all. As Hamazura had expected, it didn't take the Edge Bee out. In fact, the lamp stuck to the chainsaw surrounding the machine.
"Wha—?"
Hamazura looked on in surprise as the lamp revolved at high speed. It was gaining centrifugal force. And then the blunt object was accurately fired back at him.
Its speed rivaled that of an arrow.
Hamazura twisted his body with all his might and just barely managed to avoid it. The lamp struck the wall and pierced into it like a spear.
(The way the blade is set can be changed to either grab or cut!!)
When he thought about it, he realized that the cuts to the door hadn't been all that clean. It seemed less like the door had been cut by a normal saw that ripped with numerous sharp claws and more like it had been torn at by numerous fingers.
Hamazura grabbed a nearby ornamental parasol, but he didn't carelessly throw it.
The three Edge Bees did not wait. They may have been intending to defeat Hamazura first because he was actually attacking, because the killer disks aimed for him and attacked.
Hamazura restrained his faltering heart and just barely managed to rush forward.
The Edge Bees moved much faster than he had imagined from when they were just hovering. It was nowhere near the speed of the lamp one had thrown, but it was faster than a rock thrown in a sling.
They were moving fast enough that he would probably need an ambulance if one hit him and that wasn't even taking their special chainsaws into account. If one directly hit him, his flesh would be torn to pieces and the possibility that he would be chopped in two couldn't be denied.
It was important how they had cut through the door when they entered.
The issue wasn't with how clean a cut they had made.
The issue was that they had taken time to do it.
That meant…
(Whether they hit the wall or have something in their chainsaws, they don't lose their balance in midair. They must use gyros, image analysis, ultrasonic waves, or something to help ensure their position.)
It was possible he wouldn't even be able to take one out if he threw the parasol he was holding at them. And it was possible they would slightly evade it or even throw it back.
However…
As long as they had their contra-rotating propellers, they still had a weakness.
(No matter how high performance they are, they have to fall if the propellers stop moving!!)
"Hamazura! Watch out!!" yelled Fremea from the exit.
The Edge Bees simultaneously attacked Hamazura from three different directions
Just before one of the quickly rotating blades reached him, he ducked down.
That wasn't enough to avoid the Edge Bee.
However, before they could correct their trajectories, he stuck the end of the parasol up the middle of the Edge Bees as if he was stabbing it.
He was attempting to obstruct the two propellers rotating in opposite directions.
The horrible noise of the parasol's metal frame shattering could be heard. However, the Edge Bee wasn't unharmed. Orange sparks shot out, the propellers broke, and, most importantly, it stopped moving. The sudden obstruction of movement had a negative effect on the motor and gears inside.
The Edge Bee flew to the floor without having its momentum stopped.
The machine bounced and struck one of the other Edge Bees coming in to attack Hamazura from a different direction. The propeller had stopped, but the chainsaw was still functioning. The two Edge Bees' blades caught each other and the two machines flew into different corners of the room like billiards balls.
Hamazura used the opening this created to run towards the exit where Fremea waited.
The final remaining machine aimed for his back, but he stuck his foot under the door that was lying on the ground and forcefully kicked it up. He grabbed the side with both hands, turned around, and swung it full force.
He swung it down.
He wasn't just trying to swat the machine down with brute strength.
As had been previously established, the Edge Bees used their contra-rotating propellers for lift and propulsion. That meant that they couldn't fly if the artificial wind they blew down was obstructed.
This could be accomplished by blocking it with a giant board over the propellers.
After knocking the last one to the ground, Hamazura jumped up on the door covering the Edge Bee. He jumped up and down a couple of times using all of his weight to smash the collection of delicate machinery underneath.
Of course, military weapons were built to be tough, but, if the delicate propellers were bent even slightly, that was enough to deprive it of lift.
"Okay, now…"
"Hurry!! Hamazura, run!!"
He ran out of the room and met up with Fremea.
That was when the sound of a chainsaw came to his ears.
When he looked back in the room, he saw the first Edge Bee with the destroyed propellers getting up from the corner of the room it had been knocked to. The outer edge of the disk was pushed up against the floor and it was keeping its balance.
The Edge Bee then started rolling towards Hamazura using the chainsaw as a tire. It moved with tremendous speed.
(Shit!! What kind of position maintenance systems does that thing have?!)
Hamazura stepped back out of instinctual fear, but he hit the corridor wall. The impact on his back caused his feet to slip from the floor and he fell on his ass.
That was when yet another threat attacked.
The wall to his back was sliced diagonally.
A spear that appeared to be made of compressed air and was around three meters long appeared. It sliced through the wall and destroyed the advancing Edge Bee as well as the floor around it.
However, this did not make Hamazura happy.
That attack had only helped him because he had happened to fall on his ass. If he had still been standing, it definitely would have sliced right through his chest.
"Hamazura, no!! The wall is collapsing!!"
"Aaaahhhhh!?"
He hurriedly rolled to the side at about the same time as the wall collapsed into the corridor.
A single figure appeared on the other side of the dust.
The transparent spears in the figure's hands blew the dust away.
"Tch. Silver Cross, make sure you match your actions to mine. That was an unnecessary cost."
The figure was a girl of about twelve, but Hamazura felt a kind of slime within her at first glance. She had the atmosphere of someone used to killing and mayhem. She smelled of the darkness and didn't try to hide it. She was a different type from Hamazura or Hanzou. She was an outstanding darkness.
Hamazura stood up breathing erratically.
The spears coming from her hands that allowed her to easily damage the walls or floor with a slight shake of her hand looked familiar to him.
"That power…"
"Oh. It's Bomber Lance, a spear made of nitrogen. Does it look like the power of a friend of yours?" The girl smiled thinly as she swung the spear lightly and sliced the nearby wall further. "It's more or less the same as an APFSDS, one of the types of shells Silver Cross's Enemy Blaster uses with its smoothbore gun. It cuts objects using enormous pressure. There's something to think about."
The girl's words lacked any tension or even hostility.
And yet her spears held overwhelming destructive force.
"Is this really any time to be focusing on me? There are still more than thirty of Silver Cross's Edge Bees flying around. Or do you not mind if that brat is nothing but a hunk of meat next time you see her?"
"!? Fremea, escape through the north emergency staircase!!"
"…Hmm."
The Bomber Lance girl turned her head halfheartedly and spotted the small blonde doll of a girl hiding behind a pillar.
"Thanks for telling me where she was. I had thought you two had split up once she had gotten out of the room."
(…It's just like when they purposefully let Hanzou go so they could find this place…!!)
"Just go, Fremea!!"
Hamazura put the fact that he was up against a twelve year old girl out of his mind.
He jumped straight up.
He grabbed onto the edge of the fire shutter as if he was going in for a slam dunk. He put all his weight onto the shutter to force it down.
It headed down for the girl's head like a guillotine.
She looked up at him.
The metal shutter burst apart like a sponge packed full of gunpowder.
It was due to Bomber Lance.
Just by lifting her hand up, she had destroyed the thick blunt weapon. The spear itself didn't directly hit him, but metal fragments flew off and struck Hamazura's body knocking him back.
"Ghah!!"
(No good. This isn't someone I can face without a proper weapon!!)
"Hamazura!!"
"Go, Fremea!! Hurry!!"
Fremea tried to run over to Hamazura, but her shoulders shrunk down at his shout. She hesitated in the middle of the corridor, but she finally turned her back to him and ran for the emergency staircase.
Seeing that, the Bomber Lance girl gave a concise comment.
"Silver Cross."
"!!"
Hamazura immediately tried to jump at the girl, but she coldly swung her arm multiple times before he could.
With just that, the corridor's floor was cut into a block and fell to the floor below. The opening prevented Hamazura from approaching like a cliff.
Doing that hadn't been necessary.
With that much destructive force, the girl could kill Hamazura by directly aiming for him and then focus on finding Fremea.
She was clearly playing with him.
"I suppose I'll chase after her for now. If I don't find her, I'll switch to a scream tactic. Watching you flounder sounds more fun than just killing you."
"Dammit!!" Hamazura cursed and the girl turned her back on him.
He had to take a detour in order to meet up with Fremea and he needed a more powerful weapon in order to face the Edge Bees and the Bomber Lance girl.