Greetings. I'm releasing 3rd chapter earlier than I planned, but I didn't see any reason to delay its release. It takes place at the same time as the events in Hawaii in chapter 2.
Chapter 3: A New Card
It was the early morning of November 6 in Japan. Touma and Mikoto were just looking out the window of a plane flying to Hawaii. They had no idea what was waiting for them there and what the world would witness.
At that time, a girl was walking through morning streets of Academy City. She was invisible to those around her and even the highest authorities did not know about her presence.
She wanted to search for the School District 7 where is Kamijou Touma's dormitory. According to the map, she knew approximately where she was, but she was looking around the city out of sheer curiosity. People's conversations, the noise of cars, far less clean air than this girl is used to, but also the smell of bakeries and mobile food stalls... The life and environment of the big city were foreign to her.
As she slowly walked, the sounds of explosions, gunshots and people screaming began to echo down the street. Small groups of civilians fled in panic from the direction of a nearby underground shopping mall. She originally had a different goal, but she didn't ignore the situation.
She walked quickly to the main entrance. None of the Anti-Skill could see her, even though they passed her, she was still cloaked in invisibility. The girl entered the underground spaces, in which only the emergency lights worked.
She walked over to the scene of the fight and saw the burning wreckage of a car and near it an eight-legged battle mech, the Powered Suit. Three people started running away from it. Hamazura Shiage, Hattori Hanzou, and a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes that they were protecting. Her name is Fremea Seivelun. They suddenly stopped so fast that they almost fell. In front of them, as if out of nowhere, a strange girl appeared in the middle of the corridor.
Hattori stood in front of Hamazuru, who crouched and held Fremea in his arms to protect her.
"Who is it?!" Hattori shouted.
Hamazura just answered uncertainly "I have no idea!"
Meanwhile, the pilot controlling the Powered Suit tried to attack them, but his war machine suddenly disintegrated and he fell to the ground in a pile of small debris. Before he could recover, he was telekinetically lifted into the air. He felt pain, as a force was applied to his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe and almost crushing his whole body.
They both looked towards the girl who slowly walked past them, closer to the pilot of the machine. As she passed them, she looked a little suspiciously at Fremea. She stopped after a few meters.
Flames from earlier explosion were quickly inexplicably smothered. The place with the wreckage of the machine began to be separated by a wall of ice from where Hamazura, Hattori and Fremea were standing. The ice wall was created practically immediately.
After Hattori and Hamazura recovered from shock, the trio on the other side of the ice wall began to run away from the mall.
The pilot of destroyed Powered Suit gritted his teeth and his face was frowned.
Then the girl asked a question. "Tell me, who is behind this attack and why?"
The man could hardly breathe.
"Khaa...guh...p-please, stop!"
The girl let go of him and he fell to the ground. He was coughing and panting. The girl asked him again in a calm voice.
"Just answer me."
"I don't kno— Huh?!"
He looked to see his body slowly sinking into the concrete, which had lost its density, as if turning into a thick liquid.
He started screaming in panic.
"WHAT IS IT?! WAIT! I'll tell everything, I promise!"
It was lifted and the floor changed back to solid concrete. The man was trembling.
"We're...we're Freshmen. We were given the task of... e-eliminating that girl. But I don't know the reasons, I swear!"
"What is your leader's name and where is he?"
"Kuroyoru… Kuroyoru. I don't know where she is, she usually drinks black tea in a cafe. Please, I said what I know, so please let me go!" The man said in a frightened voice and closed his eyes at the last words.
"So Umidori…" she said to herself.
He heard the crack of ice. He opened his eyes and saw all the ice walls collapsed. After that the members of the Anti-Skill, who were previously separated from him by an ice wall about two meters thick, were walking towards him. They were as confused as he was. They assumed, however, that the ice wall was caused by some esper. The girl who got the information from the man was gone.
When Hamazura, Hanzou, and Fremea were all on the street, outside of the underground mall, Hamazura and Fremea separated from Hanzou. Hamazura had a priority plan to go to the hideout with Fremea.
At that moment he was carrying her on his back. But suddenly he stopped and thought. Alone against a well-equipped organization from the dark side of Academy City. He turned with one last look towards the smoking exit from underground mall. He was thinking. Who helped them and why? But he reminded himself that he had to get Fremea to safety and continue his escape. As he ran, he considered where to hide her.
"(Item members are strong. But Item has enough dangerous enemies. Plus, she is Frenda's younger sister. I don't know how Mugino will react. It's best to bring her to one of my hideouts.)"
Meanwhile, their escape was watched by their savior. She was standing in the middle of the street, a few meters from the entrance to the underground. Anti-Skill members were running around and their other vehicles were coming at high speed. But none of them could see her.
"Nyah, my ears still hurt from that explosion!" said a little girl on Hamazura's back.
"Don't worry, they stop hurting... You are safe, I promise!"
"Where are we going?"
"To the home. It will be fine there," he answered while still runing.
As Hamazura ran away with Fremea, that girl suddenly appeared in front of them. Hamazura immediately stopped. He was short of breath. He was worried. He doubted whether a stranger would help them out of good will. What is she has her own plans with Fremea?
"What... What do you want from us?!"
He slowly placed Fremea on the ground and stood in front of her.
"Do you know those who attacked you?"
"No. I have no idea who they are or what they want," Hamazura replied.
"I see."
"May I know why you saved us? You had no reason to."
"Does there have to be a reason to save someone?"
"Well, you know…"
"This is how the world you live in has shaped you. I have to go. You focus on protecting that girl. And stay away from the darkness."
"Wait! I– Huh?"
Suddenly there was no one in front of them.
"Teleporter?" He said thoughtfully. "But there in the mall... Espers can't use more than one ability after all."
After thinking for a moment, he took Fremea's hand and decided to go with her to the hideout. He didn't know he was still not alone. The girl did not leave them. They were watched from tall buildings all the way in case any of the Freshmen tried to attack them. Once they got to the hideout, she went after her second objective. To take care of Freshmen organization.
Meanwhile, a bus stopped a street away. It looked like an ordinary tourist bus. But it had blacked out windows. The bus was parked inconspicuously in the city parking lot, in a place reserved for buses.
At the corner of a building in a narrow alley, a girl with a hanging black jacket and a flashlight strapped to her hip was watching the bus.
She took two metal pipes and teleported to the bus. Instead of seats, the bus had technical equipment and a massive Powered Suit inside.
"Hello," she said mockingly.
The bus crew of five men immediately looked in her direction.
Someone shouted, "Movie Point!"
Musujime Awaki sneered, dropping the metal bars to the ground, which clattered to the floor, and before they could grab their weapons, their submachine guns were damaged by small metal bars that appeared right in the weapons. She then teleported the metal pipes directly into the Powered Suit, destroying it.
"I have to admit Shirai-san has some good ideas," she said to herself.
She then teleported out of the bus, back to the street. She was satisfied with result of her attack. However, another person appeared near her. A girl with white and black hair. Awaki was surprised.
"Huh?! Who are you?"
Before answering, the girl looked at the bus and used telekinesis to tear it into dozens of pieces. But the crew just fell to the ground and started to run away in panic.
Awaki was shocked. She freaked out and tried to teleport away. But she couldn't. She was held in place by a telekinetic force. Her eyes narrowed in fear.
"What?!"
The girl who tore up the bus just told her calmly. "I won't hurt you. I just want to know what you know about the group that bus belongs to. You are fighting against them, so you know something."
Awaki felt how that force stop working on her. She wasted no time and immediately teleported away to one of her hideouts in the form of an abandoned old morgue. She didn't want to risk being attacked. As soon as she appeared in her hideout, she began to think.
"(How is that possible? Was it telekinetic or psychokinetic? If she wanted to, I'd be dead by now. I have to be more careful. But she attacked the Freshmen. Maybe they are her enemies too, but I don't want to risk that she belongs to some other group. Who was she actually?)"
The Anti-Skill group, commanded by Kouji Masakage, promptly came to the destroyed bus. Together with him, four members of the unit got out of two cars. They saw four unconscious men near the wreckage of the bus and the Powered Suite pierced with rods.
The fifth of them was sitting on the ground and just mumbling to himself.
"I said everything… She has the information she wanted, right? Right?! Right?!"
Kouji Masakage just watched with frowning eyes.
"Didn't they report that there was also a big fire? I see nothing like that." He told his squad members. He then walked over to the lying man.
"What happened here?"
"I say I said everything she wanted, so now get me out of here! Quick, before she comes back!"
Kouji leaned over to the man and began to ask more detailed questions.
"Who are you talking about? Who did it? What did you say to who?"
The man looked at Kouji with scared eyes.
"About Freshmen… Where did we come from with this bus. Where is our base. She... everything around me burst into flames. There was fire everywhere... The air was hot."
One of the members of Anti-Skill was listening.
"Apparently he was interrogated by a pyrokinetic."
"No!" Said a frightened Freshmen member. "Move Point...and..."
"Move Point?! She did this?"
"No. I mean–"
"Sit him down so he can lean against that wall," Kouji ordered his men.
"Are you hurt?"
"No. I just…"
"Go on. Move Point and then?"
The man continued in a shaky voice.
"Movie Point attacked us. She destroyed that Powered Suit and immediately left. Right after that I remember screeching of metal. Before I knew what was happening, I saw sunlight illuminating the inside of the torn bus. We ran away, but it started to get dark in front of my eyes. The next thing I remember was lying on the ground and a girl standing next to me. She had black and white hair and red eyes. Suddenly I saw fire appear all around, not even the sky could be seen. The flames were inches from my body. It was like standing in the middle of a forest fire. But I didn't feel any heat. She started asking me questions. If I didn't answer, I gradually began to feel the heat of the fire stronger and stronger. When she got her answers, the flames disappeared and so did she."
"Black and white hair, red eyes. Someone like that won't be hard to find. People definitely noticed her," said one of the members of Anti-Skill.
Kouji thought. "About how old was she?"
"I have no idea, maybe around seventeen. Judging by her face, she probably comes from Europe. Her Japanese also had an unusual accent."
"Would Move Point cooperate with telekinetic and pyrokinetic? And at least with Level 3 or 4?"
Kouji turned to his men. Sirens of approaching fire engines could already be heard in the background.
"We need a list of all students with these two abilities with Level 3 and above! She has a unique appearance and a high Level, she cannot be easily missed. We also need to find Movie Point! Also inform Judgment about everything."
He looked at the sitting man leaning against the wall, who was just staring resignedly into the unknown.
"And take him for further questioning, or let him look into his memories. About organization he belongs to, what do they want, where did they get the machine and why did they attack them."
. . .
About an hour has passed since the attack in the underground shopping center and bus. The Judgment 177 Branch Office was therefore busy. Konori Mii received a message from Anti-Skill about wanted espers.
"Uiharu, I'm sending you another file from Anti-Skill for today's attack. They are looking for specific espers, can you look into it?" She called to Uihara Kazari who was sitting at the computer.
"Leave it to me!" Uiharu said enthusiastically. "So...Musujime Awaki?!"
"What's going on?" Konori asked.
"Huh? Nothing... nothing at all." Said Uiharu with forced smile. "(Shirai won't be happy to be involved with Musujime again.)"
Uiharu continued to read from the computer monitor.
"So, next we have... telekinetic, pyrokinetic, all the usual abilities, but a special description of the person. You will definitely not miss such a person on a street."
"Exactly." Konori said standing next to the seated Uiharu. "But it's as if no one has ever seen her. We will try to call the principals of the schools to see if they do or did not have such student."
After Mii left, Shirai immediately took out her phone and called Shirai Kuroko.
Kuroko was moving near the explosion in the mall at the time. She was helping Anti-Skill to keep order, but she was interrupted by the ringing of the phone.
"Hello, Uiharu?"
"Shiari, Musujime Awaki is also involved in today's attacks!"
Kuroko looked ahead with a frown. She remembered her recent encounter with Move Point. Besides, she was her rival, she was the only one who surpassed her in teleportation ability.
"I understand Uihara. I'll manage somehow."
"Be careful, don't act too foolishly."
"Thank you Uihara, don't worry."
Then she hung up and thought.
"(Musujime Awaki… What are you planning again?)"
. . .
The entire original Freshmen plan was disrupted because of one unknown person. Kuroyoru Umidori decided to find out who was responsible for that and confront that person. Umidori didn't have a hard time. The unknown girl looked for her alone.
One Freshmen's base was destroyed, the location of which was revealed by a member of the bus crew. In it, the same person who destroyed the base obtained information about the location of Umidori.
Umidori was sitting at a table in the coffee bar and sipping tea. Next to her, a plastic dolphin was placed on the second chair.
A girl with two-colored hair appeared near the coffee bar. She started walking towards the table where Umidori was sitting. The Freshmen leader's two subordinates wanted to stop her, but suddenly they couldn't even move. The other subordinates immediately reacted and began to gather around the table with their leader.
As she reached her desk, Umidori asked her with a cup held close to her lips. "Won't you sit down?"
The unknown girl stared at her without saying a word. Umidori continued to speak, holding the cup close to her lips.
"Haha, I have to compliment you on your hairdo. You know, things didn't go as they were supposed to from the beginning, but you ruined our plans completely.''
"And what was your plan?" The unknown intruder asked.
"Did you destroy that base?"
"Yes. Now I just want to know why you attacked that girl. You're holding me back. I'm not in this city because of some Freshmen or you."
Umidori drank the last bit of tea that was left in the cup and placed it on the saucer. Then she looked into dark red eyes. She began to speak in exasperation.
"Then why are you here and want to fight against us, the followers of the darkness of Academy City?!"
In emotion, she tried to attack with a nitrogen spear thanks to her Bomber Lance ability. But the spear immediately vanished into thin air. Umidori's eyes widened in surprise. But that was the smallest surprise. She suddenly found herself with the entire table and chair high above the Academy City at cloud level. Shock was replaced by panic. But she didn't fall, she just floated. She had enough oxygen, she wasn't cold and she didn't feel the strong wind. It looked like she was on an invisible floor in some kind of invisible bubble. She started looking around scared.
"What is this?! Stop now! Bring me back!"
Suddenly she started falling. She screamed, but after a few seconds the fall stopped. She was shaking all over with fear.
"The next destination will be Sun's surface. So, what was your original plan?"
"OKAY! OKAY! That– That attack of ours was just to attract various espers playing heroes. The ones we wanted didn't come, but the goal was partially achieved. For example, you came. That girl has some kind of psychic ability. At least as far as I can tell, this mission comes from the highest levels of leadership. We just…"
"I'm not an esper. And I'm not just protecting that girl, but everyone you've endangered and will endanger. And no, I didn't come because I was called, but because I wanted to. I blocked the spread of her AIM field during the attack. I was suspicious as to why that strange energy had such a variance. Now tell all your members to leave their bases."
Before Umidori could recover what was happening and what she was saying to her, she was back at the coffee bar. She was shaking all over and breathing fast. She had a frightened expression and put her hand on the left side of her face. Then she looked around. She saw other members of Freshmen who were also confused and worried. She was told that she suddenly disappeared and reappeared after a while. Everyone correctly assumed it was teleportation.
Umidori then said in an uneasy voice. "Inform all bases! Let them prepare. She will probably attack them."
. . .
In her hideout, Awaki planned her next move. But she didn't know how to decide. She considered possibilities, assumptions, questions, threats. Several hours have passed since the events of the morning, it was already afternoon.
She was sitting on a simple chair at a small table with a cooked vegetable dish that teacher Komoe had taught her. She picked up her flashlight and flashed it a few times as she thought.
"(Against the Freshmen she would be a significant reinforcement. But I don't know who she belongs to and it's a risk to get close to her. But. I couldn't even move then, and... she didn't do anything and almost immediately let me go. But what if it's a trap and she is only pretending that she is not my enemy?)"
Then she stood up and said aloud. "When I meet her again, I will try to learn more about her. Now is the time to take care of the next Freshmen base."
Awaki teleported to the nearest Freshmen base she knew of. It was hidden up in School District 10, which is one of the worse areas in town. She was in a small abandoned and dilapidated shop. Awaki slowly walked in. In the corner of the shop she saw a door leading to a small warehouse. When she entered the warehouse, she looked around. Her source said the base should be behind a metal door. But she did not see them anywhere. She looked around a bit until she finally noticed that an eye scanning device was hidden behind a metal shelf. She moved shelf and behind it was the door she was looking for. Awaki simply teleported behind this door. There was no one in the room, but it was full of computers, hi-tech equipment, weapons, and battle suits in addition to more computers. She noticed that there was a small elevator on the left side. The top was closed. She assumed that is an elevator to the back of the building, in which there is a store, which was originally used for food supply. Awaki then used various teleported objects to destroy all the equipment in the base.
"(One small base gone. Time to take care of another one. I just don't know if I can take them all out. As a Group we could do it in a few hours. This was easy. Time to try sabotaging a bigger one.)"
She teleported to School District 11 near the office building that was only about four floors high. Another Freshmen base was to be located in its underground premises. But the situation was different than she expected. The building was on fire, fire teams and Anti-Skill were all around.
Awaki didn't understand what happened. She just stared in disbelief. Suddenly she heard a girl's voice behind her. The same voice that had called her that morning.
"You don't have to fight that organization anymore..."
Awaki immediately turned around with concern in her eyes.
"…Soon it will have no power."
"Did you destroy that base?"
"Yes. This is the sixth in a row."
"Huh?! What? I don't believe that. How could you do that?"
"I can get information. And destroying some bases is a small thing."
"A small thing? I found and destroyed only three bases in a few days. Why are you fighting the Freshmen anyway?"
"And why you?" asked the girl.
Awaki turned and looked at the burning building in the background.
"It wasn't that long ago, but they attacked my friends. Some are in the Reformatory, two died fighting." She turned back to the unknown girl. "So what is your reason?"
"Today they wanted to kill the little girl and the people who protected her."
"Ah, I see. Are they your friends?"
"They don't know me."
"Then why are you willing to do all this?" Awaki smiled slightly. "Though I still have my doubts as to whether you really destroyed that many bases."
"You're asking the same thing he asked. Now they wanted to kill a child. It wouldn't be the last. This way, this organization will no longer harm anyone. It's just a drop in the ocean, but it's still something. But I am here for different and at the same time the same reasons."
Awaki listened intently.
"For different reasons and the same time the same reasons... I don't know what you mean, but I still don't know who you are or what your abilities are. What level are you? Four?"
"I'm not an esper. I didn't want you to be associated with me, it will only bring you more problems. Stay away from Freshmen bases. Stay away from the darkness you have lived in all your life."
The girl then suddenly disappeared.
"Wait!" Awaki called, but it was too late. She was gone.
Awaki wasn't a beginner, she could tell when someone was using a teleportation ability.
"(How... she had a multi-skill? But no one could do that. Also, this ability looked different from someone using the 11th dimension. Like really different. Every teleporter will notice it.)"
She took one last look at the burning building and then left. As she walked down the street in city, she saw a massive screen on the wall of a building. An emergency news broadcast was in progress. Various shots of destroyed buildings and other facilities were shown. Some buildings burned, mostly destroyed underground spaces appeared, after which a crater remained on the surface.
An announcer's comment could be heard from the television.
'...Reports on the number of attackers vary, some say there was only one. The motive for the attacks is not clear. It is not clear who or why destroyed these buildings and the underground service areas of the Academy City. The extent of damage and methods of attacks varied, some buildings were destroyed by a sudden fire, others collapsed for unknown reasons. The most surprising thing is that there were no casualties.'
Awaki couldn't believe it.
"(So she was telling the truth... Who the hell is that?)"
. . .
Hamazura was also watching the same news on the screen. Fremea ignored them, but Hamazura couldn't tear his eyes away from the news. He was torn from his hypnotic watching of television by the ringing of the phone, and when he picked it up, he heard the voice of his beloved Takitsubo Rika.
"Hamazura, do you know what's going on in the city?"
"Yeah, I'm looking at it right now."
"Our sources say someone destroyed the Freshmen organization's bases. Mugino supposes that maybe they will call us to solve this problem. But no one knows who it was yet. You should come as soon as possible."
Hamazura looked at Fremea who was currently eating the soup from which all the cooked peas had been picked out on the table next to the plate.
"I can't come now. In addition, due to the scale of the entire attack, maybe they will also call some other groups. We Item could then end up fighting them. I don't want a repeat of the events of October 9."
"Are you worried?"
Hamazura looked at Fremea.
"Yes. Worries about what might happen to those I care about. You and others."
"Hamazura, are you talking as if it directly concerns us? You know you can tell me."
"I'll explain it to you later. But don't tell anything to anyone in Item yet."
"I understand. As I said, you always have my support."
"Thank you, Takitsubo."
Hamazura put the phone down and looked at the television again. Collapsed underground spaces, destroyed and burning buildings... He remembered the person who had saved them from the Freshmen in the underground complex. He had a logical hunch that she had something to do with it.
. . .
Judgment members at the Judgment 177 Branch Office were on full alert. Within a few hours, someone managed to destroy the entire buildings and facilities without being able to determine who it was.
Uiharu was reading at a fast pace and her voice getting stronger.
"...An industrial hall in District 17, a small store in District 11, a bar in District 8, a theater and part of a service tunnel in District 9. These places have been added in the last two hours."
Konori Mii got up from her office chair and walked over to the window.
"We don't even remember something like that here. It happened that there was destruction of buildings, but on such a scale. It looks like an attack by an entire organized group. But no one can even tell who it is."
Uiharu suddenly cried out.
"Another attack! Right now! Underground warehouse in District 23, people are escaping through the exits, fire is slowly spreading in the facility."
Kuroko immediately ran to the computer screen and looked at the location of the warehouse on the map.
"Uiharu, what about security cameras?"
"I'm working on it. Huh? Sorry, they're all... off."
"I'm going there, maybe I'll finally run into the attackers." Kuroko said and immediately teleported away.
When she teleported to the scene, she saw several unconscious people outside. She didn't know they were members of the Freshmen. The first fire teams and Anti-Skill members were just approaching the scene.
Kuroko stood in front of the main supply entrance where the trucks entered the underground. It had dimensions of approximately 8x6 meters. Suddenly, the entire entrance collapsed before her eyes. But the interior spaces still remained standing. Kuroko wasted no time. She teleported to the warehouse. There was nothing suspicious. Only shipping containers, massive boxes and tons of products of various needs for city residents.
Kuroko had no idea that among ordinary stuff, some of the containers were hiding an advanced military equipment of the Academy City used by the Freshmen. As she walked through the warehouse, she noticed computer screens lit up in the background. At the table where the computers were placed, someone was standing and touching the monitor. Before she could react, she heard a girl's voice.
"It's time to go, soon it's going to be ruined."
Kuroko immediately prepared to fight.
"Who are you?!" she shouted.
"Again, you should leave. I just read what I need to."
In a moment, the person let go of the screen and the computers shut down. Kuroko came closer. She noticed that the hair color matched the description given by Anti-Skill. The girl turned and looked at Kuroko.
"Are you part of the group that's causing this chaos?" Kuroko asked.
"I don't belong to any group. What I'm trying to do is eliminate an organization from the dark side of your city, the Freshmen. Anyway, this should be their last base, at least from the big ones. See for yourself."
Massive containers began to disintegrate, metal plates broke like glass. With that, the Freshmen's various hi-tech combat equipment was revealed.
Kuroko looked around. "Freshmen.? And this is..."
She looked again at the girl in front of her. Her eyes frowned. "I don't know who you are or what your ability is, but you should have reported it to the Anti-Skill. Not wreaking havoc as a vigilante."
"Anti-Skill sometimes have their hands tied. If you are looking for someone for this, look at the highest superiors, especially Yakumi Hisako. You don't know it, but the high council is the source of this city's darkness. This whole city has darkness inside, you're just trying to convince yourself that the darkness and evil that's here comes from outside."
"Isn't that just your excuse to do what you're doing? What is your reason for fighting so persistently against those Freshmen? Revenge? It is Judgment and Anti-Skill that is meant to keep security."
"They wanted to kill a little girl. The Freshmen, like most dark organizations, were subordinate to the city leadership. Neither Anti-Skill nor Judgment will do anything against them."
"I'm not going to argue with you anymore. What about Musujime Awaki? We know that she is involved in this as well. Did she teleport those men out of the buildings?"
"No, I did it. I have no intention of taking random lives. Although we are not talking about good people here. But I see you noticed her. It's unfortunate, I didn't want to cause her problems, so I tried to minimize contact. Awaki got into this before I did, but she doesn't have enough power to resolve the situation quickly. It would be best if she kept her hands off it. For her own good."
"Noble." Kuroko said ironically. "As I said, there is Anti-Skill and Judgment to take down dark organizations, you can't destroy everything arbitrarily. So now I have to arrest you."
"I understand you. People operating within the laws of this system always think that way. Kuroko, you are a good person, I wish you nothing but the best. I have to go now. This delayed me several hours."
"(How does she know my name?)" Kuroko then shouted. "Hold on, I said I was arresting you!"
She tried to teleport to the girl standing in front of her, but she couldn't even move. She looked ahead with an expression of shock, but suddenly appeared in front of the demolished warehouse entrance. The sudden change of environment from the dark warehouse to daylight blinded her for a short while. As her eyes adjusted to the daylight, she saw the first rescue and security forces on the scene.
"(She… teleported me away?)"
While Kuroko was trying to make sense of it, she suddenly heard a loud sound of cracking concrete. The warehouse began to disintegrate with a loud rumbling, until it finally collapsed entirely. Firefighters, paramedics, and Anti-Skill were running around in a daze.
Kuroko looked at the reinforced concrete rubble. When she came to her senses after a while, she called Uihara.
"Uiharu, can you see this via satellite?"
"Yes, we watched it the whole time. Shirai-san, at the moment of the collapse of that warehouse, the satellite showed local unreal values of gravity. It was as if the gravitational force directly under the warehouse had increased by a thousand times its normal value! What happened there, some gravity control device activated?!"
"Gravity..."
"Shirai-san? Can you hear me?"
"Uiharu, I saw her!"
"Who did you see?"
"The girl we're supposed to be looking for! It's not a group, it's just her, she does everything! I'll tell you more later."
Kuroko hung up the phone and kept staring at the destruction in front of her.
. . .
Index just ate food heated in the microwave oven. The television was on and news from Academy City was being broadcast. The news mainly focused on two events. First, some buildings and facilities in the city were destroyed. While Index was eating, she didn't pay much attention to them. She thought about Touma and the delicious food. Meanwhile, the newscaster was speaking the official version of events to cover up the fact that the council had no idea who had destroyed a well-equipped and organized group in a matter of hours.
'...According to the statement of the city management, a group of criminals who called themselves Freshmen were caught by the Anti-Skill unit. Dozens of people responsible for planning and carrying out the attacks were arrested. Other news are from abroad. Terrorist attacks did not take place only here, in Academy City. There were explosions in some places in Hawaii and groups of armed attackers appeared in towns. Daniel K. Inouye Airport suffered the most damage. The American army and local security forces were deployed against them. Their goals are not yet known, but according to information, the events in Hawaii are not related to the attacks in Academy City.'
At the mention of Hawaii, Index immediately looked at the television with a worried look on her face. She was still holding a fork in her hand, from which the food was falling back onto the plate. But Index didn't notice because her concerns were once again focused on Touma. While she was watching broadcasts and fresh videos from Hawaii, where pillars, smoke from explosions, running teams of soldiers could be seen, sometimes flying helicopters came into view.
"Touma… Do you see that Sphynx?! Always! I always have to worry about him! Wherever he goes."
Then she heard the sound of knocking on the door. She sat motionless for a while, looking at the door. She wasn't sure who it could be. Suddenly, a girl's voice came from behind the door.
"Sorry to interrupt, but does Kamijou Touma live here?"
Index slowly got up and started walking towards the door. She didn't know who it could be, she assumed it was someone she knew. It wasn't unusual for Touma to be visited by people she didn't know, he often saved someone after all.
She slowly opened the door. Before her eyes stood a girl with an unusual appearance. Index was mesmerized, she had never seen someone like that. But at the same time she was a little scared, the unusual appearance usually indicates that the person is a mage.
"Who are you?" Index asked.
"Nice to meet you, Index. I am Nobilis."
"Nobilis...?" Index frowned. "And how do you know me?! Are you a mage?!"
"I know you, but you don't have to be afraid, I'm not a magician. I'm looking for Kamijou Touma. Is he here?"
"No, he isn't."
"Can you tell me where it is?"
"Why are you looking for him?"
"He has something that needs to be resolved."
Index became even more suspicious.
"And that is what?"
"Index, you don't have to answer me if you don't want to. But I still want to ask you. Can you tell me where he is? I know he was with the mage Leivinia Birdway. Where are they now?"
"I... You still haven't told me why you're looking for him."
Nobilis peeked slightly into the room through the open door.
"Bags, various things not yet stored. They traveled somewhere, didn't they?" Nobilis looked at Index with a small smile. She told her something that worried her a little. "Don't blame yourself, Index."
She immediately teleported to the airport in Academy City. Concealed by invisibility, she touched one computer monitor with her fingers. Computers throughout the whole airport flashed slightly. She used technokinesis to search for passenger Kamijou Touma's data. She finally found him in the system. He went to Hawaii.
Nobilis immediately appeared in Hawaii through her teleportation. The volcano erupted a little while ago.
"I'm a little late," she said in a low tone.
She put her hand on the ground and closed her eyes. After a while she opened them. She could feel a powerful source of power being released to cause the volcano to erupt. Nobilis teleported as close as she could to the place where the energy that caused this disaster was released. There she saw an approaching pyroclastic cloud in front of her. She looked around and in the distance, by the small geological research station, she saw Touma and Mikoto holding hands, waiting for the end. She immediately teleported a few tens of meters in front of them.
That's when she intervened and prevented the entire disaster. She telekinetically stopped millions of tons of cloud mass and then pressed that mass to the ground. By manipulating gaseous substances, she cleaned the surrounding air, and then by manipulating thermal energy, she turned lava flows into rivers of stone. With geokinesis, she stabilized the volcanic activity to its original state, and subsequently, by manipulating matter, she turned volcanic ash into snow.
She turned to the pair she had saved. Nobilis saw that Touma and Mikoto had already opened their eyes. She found him, but did nothing. Hawaii, the suffering he experienced, Mikoto by his side with tears in her eyes. Now was not the right time.