If you walk along the street, this five-storeyed brick building would least likely catch your attention. But this doesn't mean that this building is insignificant; in fact, this one houses one of the many branches of the city's civic order regulatory agency, Judgement. To be precise, the 177th, which is staffed by Konori Mii, the most senior, followed by Kuroko Shirai and her partner Uiharu Kazari, is located here.

Although it was quite late, the building was still bright with all lights on. But it was quite empty inside, as there was nobody except a girl. She was short, modest-looking, and artificial flowers that stretched from one side of her head to the other decorated her head. Sitting in front of her monitor, she was staring intently at the webpages flashed on it.

This was Uiharu. She was usually kind, gentle and soft-tempered, but she could get quite serious when it comes to her responsibilities.

The recent days had been hectic for her. Undeniably, Judgement was always quite busy, but those days were even worse because of the serial terrorist attacks on labs and universities all around Academy City. At that time, Uiharu was investigating the most recent one - an attack on yet another laboratory in the 23rd district that very afternoon.

Uiharu tried to obtain security camera footage to find out who the perpetrator was. However, when the attack took place, all cameras there were damaged due to electrical fault, just like all previous cases.

'Just when will this investigation end...' Uiharu felt tired as she allowed gravity to take over her body, which gently fell onto the table as Uiharu let out a tired sigh.

'No... Uiharu must not lose heart as a Judgement officer!'

Uiharu got up, and her phone rang at that time.

'Hello, this is Uiharu Kazari and-'

'UIHARU, I want you to investigate something NOW!' That was Kuroko's seemingly calm but abnormally anxious, tensed voice, which seemed to conceal life-and-death urgency.

'Ehh... Shirai-san? What is the matter?'

'Can you investigate an incident,' Kuroko's voice tensed up even more, as Uiharu noticed, 'which supposedly occurred this afternoon in the back alleys near the Book-On store in the 7th District for me?'

'What is the time it occurred?'

'Around 5 to 6 pm.'

'Understood. But what is the nature of that incident?' Uiharu inquired.

'...'

'Shirai-san?'

'Murder.'

Uiharu gasped. 'We should just report to the Anti-skill and start a police investigation if someone has been killed! Why should we be-'

'It's uncertain whether this incident has occurred. Just investigate a bit to ascertain its authenticity,' Kuroko interrupted Uiharu and instructed.

'Ah it's bad! It's the Dorm Mistress's footsteps! It will turn ugly if she discovers a boy in the girls' dormitory! I'm sorry but I will hang up Uiharu!'

'Ehh..'

And the call ended.

Uiharu put down her phone. A murder? How can it be? And not sure whether a person has died? What is going on?

Despite her questions, Uiharu immediately started a search. It took her just a few minutes (as you would expect of the IT-savvy Uiharu) to hack into the security cameras in and around the black alleys Kuroko mentioned. She began watching the footage recording from 5 pm onwards.

The alleys were initially quiet and tranquil with few passers-by - like they usually were - and they remained like that for around half an hour. But a fight broke out. Some gangsters encircled a student and seemed to be trying to get his money, and they started punching him when he refused.

This is something noteworthy. I should capture these people's faces and later report-

Uiharu's thought of arresting those delinquents was interrupted as a white-haired boy, who wore black and white from top to toe, appeared on the monitor. He started beating those gangsters without seeming to break a sweat. Indeed, it appeared that those gangsters' punches did no damage to the boy at all.

But the boy was soon distracted. He let go of the guy he was dealing with at the time and turned to go to the main street.

He was back again a few minutes later.

But he was not alone.

That was Tokiwadai's uniform, wasn't it? And wait...is that brunette Misaka-san?

Was that a violin case she was carrying? Who really was-

Uiharu was yanked out of her thoughts as gunshots suddenly blasted out of the monitor.

What the...

She saw Misaka(?) shooting the white-haired guy with an auto-rifle, but the guy didn't seem to be injured at all.

Who on earth can be immune from such intense gunfire? Just what kind of esper power is that?

Shooting paused, and then...

'BOOM'

An explosion. A grenade was detonated at the boy.

In the middle of a City? This has definitely gone overboard. So thought Uiharu.

But to Uiharu's amazement, which began to turn into horror, the boy was still unscathed.

He started pursuing and attacking Misaka(?), who was injured in the process and could be seen bleeding from her forehead.

'No...' The girl in front of the monitor murmured.

Misaka(?) continued shooting the guy, who was approaching her, but all the bullets were reflected back at her. One of them pierced through Misaka(?)'s shoulder, causing her to bleed out of the wound and fall onto the floor.

'No... No...'

The white-haired guy paused for a moment, and slowly approached her.

'Please... no! This should not happen. Don't kill...'

His fingers were stuffed inside the hole in Misaka(?)'s shoulder.

'Don't kill anyone...'

From a point at the centre, red spread. In an instant, all Uiharu could see on the screen was red.

Crimson red.

The colour of human blood perfectly matches that red.

'NOOO...'

She broke into screams and tears, in a room which seemed emptier than it was.

Uiharu knew what happened at last—

And she could confirm that—

Shirai-san was right.

I didn't know that appeasing an annoyed Dorm Supervisor could be such a hassle...

Kuroko was finally done following the Mistress to all the other rooms, checking whether they had been making noise, and finally alleviated her suspicion of Kuroko. Kuroko, who made such a big noise when stuffing Kamijou under the bed to hide him, must ensure that the Mistress won't snap her neck and cause her a few more days of neck pain.

But since it's all done, I need to get back and address the real issue-

eh?

The room was empty as the boy who was supposed to be there was not. Mikoto toy bear was on the bed and looked messy with all the zips undone, and the window was open too, which supposedly was where Kamijou broke out of the room and fled.

'Where did that guy go? Does he think this is the jungle where he can choose to disappear?'

What is he planning to do?

And... What about the issue?

Then her phone rang. It's Uiharu, whom Kuroko most wanted to hear from.

'Hey, Uiharu. How's the investigation?'

'I was initially too shocked by what I saw, but I must inform you, as a member of Judgement, that...'

Kuroko's heart sank.

'Whatever you said was genuine. A horrific murder occurred, and someone who looks very like Misaka-san suffered an atrocity.'

Kuroko's wish that the boy was lying was proved wrong.

Something was really wrong.