compared to other urban centers, this one had less artificial lights. The view of a sky full of stars tonight meant it was clear out, which implied there were no thunderheads—nothing to make lightning strike.
Then where had the scream of high-voltage electricity originated?
“Shirai, we have reports of a large-scale battle between espers happening in District 7, Area 1. It’s right on Musujime’s predicted escape route!” To overshadow the volume of Uiharu’s voice and to block the transmission of electromagnetic waves, thunder roared once again.
She knew for sure. There was no mistaking that tone color. “Big Sister!!” she shouted, changing course. While she felt carelessly exposing herself to Mikoto went against her style, when she imagined the girl being attacked by someone, she could no longer choose the option of staying put.
She used teleportation to move from point to point through space, one after another.
As she did, the sounds of seemingly violent sparks rang out like a bombing attack.
The men and women out, all older than Shirai, were looking that way dubiously, their night walks interrupted.
Shirai advanced on and on as though hurried by both of these things, discovering her destination was near at hand. She quit using her high-speed movement via continuous teleportation, moving toward the corner of the building—right where the blind spot was—from where she’d heard the immense sounds of electrical attacks.
As a detective might do when tailing a suspect, she poked her head around the side of the building to take a look.
And then she saw it.
3
It was a battlefield.
A battlefield created by a single girl.
Its location: a building under construction. Thinking back, it was the same place as the accident where the steel framework had collapsed on August 31st. They had removed the broken pieces of frame getting in the way and looked into strengthening the remaining sections already—and they had just begun to rebuild it…or so she recalled.
A minibus lay on its side in front of the building’s entrance.
Its windows were broken and its contents were strewn, but nobody was inside it.
Everyone who had been riding it had dived for cover inside the building under construction, hoping the scattered mess of steel frames would give them some kind of barrier.
All in all, about thirty men and women were hiding in the building. Some were armed with guns, and others were Academy City espers.
Those guns! I remember them. They’re the ones those guys I wrecked with the luggage were carrying…!!
Shirai sucked in her breath as she peeked out from the building’s shadows. Both the guns’ design and the way they held them were similar.
Nevertheless, Mikoto Misaka was just standing there next to the toppled bus.
I know who those people with the guns are. And that idiot woman said Big Sister was deeply involved with that luggage. Which means…
Given the format of all this, she could guess these were the guys trying to give the remnant to the outside organization.
Someone she knew was among them.
Awaki Musujime.
None could present an obstacle to Mikoto. There may have been a fallen minibus right there, but she wasn’t trying to use it as a shield. Common sense would suggest how utterly defenseless she was when faced with dozens of enemies all with ranged weapons…
…but she easily crushed that common sense, showing them what the nickname Railgun really meant.
Light erupted from Mikoto Misaka’s fingertips.
Her coin was launched at three times the speed of sound, easily slicing through the thick steel frames supporting the building. The men with the guns took a blast from the slight fragments, swept away just like that as the esper who’d been aiming at Mikoto’s head from an upper story lost his footing on the crumbling supports and was swallowed down into it. The single Railgun had crushed through almost twenty steel frames, finally coming to a stop after inflicting cracks on the
Then where had the scream of high-voltage electricity originated?
“Shirai, we have reports of a large-scale battle between espers happening in District 7, Area 1. It’s right on Musujime’s predicted escape route!” To overshadow the volume of Uiharu’s voice and to block the transmission of electromagnetic waves, thunder roared once again.
She knew for sure. There was no mistaking that tone color. “Big Sister!!” she shouted, changing course. While she felt carelessly exposing herself to Mikoto went against her style, when she imagined the girl being attacked by someone, she could no longer choose the option of staying put.
She used teleportation to move from point to point through space, one after another.
As she did, the sounds of seemingly violent sparks rang out like a bombing attack.
The men and women out, all older than Shirai, were looking that way dubiously, their night walks interrupted.
Shirai advanced on and on as though hurried by both of these things, discovering her destination was near at hand. She quit using her high-speed movement via continuous teleportation, moving toward the corner of the building—right where the blind spot was—from where she’d heard the immense sounds of electrical attacks.
As a detective might do when tailing a suspect, she poked her head around the side of the building to take a look.
And then she saw it.
3
It was a battlefield.
A battlefield created by a single girl.
Its location: a building under construction. Thinking back, it was the same place as the accident where the steel framework had collapsed on August 31st. They had removed the broken pieces of frame getting in the way and looked into strengthening the remaining sections already—and they had just begun to rebuild it…or so she recalled.
A minibus lay on its side in front of the building’s entrance.
Its windows were broken and its contents were strewn, but nobody was inside it.
Everyone who had been riding it had dived for cover inside the building under construction, hoping the scattered mess of steel frames would give them some kind of barrier.
All in all, about thirty men and women were hiding in the building. Some were armed with guns, and others were Academy City espers.
Those guns! I remember them. They’re the ones those guys I wrecked with the luggage were carrying…!!
Shirai sucked in her breath as she peeked out from the building’s shadows. Both the guns’ design and the way they held them were similar.
Nevertheless, Mikoto Misaka was just standing there next to the toppled bus.
I know who those people with the guns are. And that idiot woman said Big Sister was deeply involved with that luggage. Which means…
Given the format of all this, she could guess these were the guys trying to give the remnant to the outside organization.
Someone she knew was among them.
Awaki Musujime.
None could present an obstacle to Mikoto. There may have been a fallen minibus right there, but she wasn’t trying to use it as a shield. Common sense would suggest how utterly defenseless she was when faced with dozens of enemies all with ranged weapons…
…but she easily crushed that common sense, showing them what the nickname Railgun really meant.
Light erupted from Mikoto Misaka’s fingertips.
Her coin was launched at three times the speed of sound, easily slicing through the thick steel frames supporting the building. The men with the guns took a blast from the slight fragments, swept away just like that as the esper who’d been aiming at Mikoto’s head from an upper story lost his footing on the crumbling supports and was swallowed down into it. The single Railgun had crushed through almost twenty steel frames, finally coming to a stop after inflicting cracks on the
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