A Certain Magical Index: The Primal Spirit Descends to My Side

September 19th, the day before summer vacation. The afternoon sun became even more scorching, and together with the humid air, it turned the entire dormitory into a giant steamer.

Kamijou Touma sat lazily on the tatami mat by the bed, reading a light novel he had borrowed from his classmate with blue hair and earrings.

If you're wondering why Touma isn't going crazy from the sweltering heat outside, it's because his house has cutting-edge technology—air conditioning.

The air conditioners in Academy City are different from those outside. Aside from the negligible advantage of being exceptionally energy-efficient, they are also remarkably quiet and cool down very quickly.

This is a godsend for students like Touma Kamijou. Although it's not very expensive in Academy City, Academy City uses a different currency than the outside world, so there might be an exchange rate.

Kamijou Touma tilted his head in confusion, glancing at the girl watching the technology channel on TV beside him. She was wearing Kamijou Touma's school uniform from last year: a white shirt and black pants.

It was just the simplest of clothes, but when the girl put it on and leaned behind the glass door of the balcony watching TV, the sunlight shone through the glass door and through her clothes, showing Touma the magic of light.

"Um..." Kamijou placed the mahjong book on the table beside him, where the finished meal and two bowls of instant noodles were.

"What's wrong, Touma Kamijou?" The girl turned her face to look at Touma Kamijou, but her other eye seemed to still be watching the TV.

"Uh..." Touma Kamijou scratched his head and crossed his legs. His expression became much more serious. He had rescued this girl on his way home from school. He had originally intended to help a wayward girl, but it seemed that she had no common sense. While watching TV, she even asked the people on TV why they were so small.

And she didn't have a name! This put Touma in a very difficult position. He had originally planned to take her to the security guards after dinner to help her find her identity information. Thanks to Academy City's vast database—the "Library"—he could search for anything that appeared in Academy City.

However, she currently has no name, and when the guards ask her about her identity, she can only answer that she doesn't know. Such a suspicious girl can only be locked up by the guards for observation.

"What a misfortune..." Touma Kamijou rested his hands behind his head and leaned against the bed behind him. After a few seconds of silence, Touma Kamijou straightened up and knelt down beside the girl.

"Forget it, if I send you to the security guards now, they'll just register you as a lost person and ask you a bunch of questions you can't answer, which will only make you feel worse..." Touma Kamijou's cheeks flushed slightly as he made what was probably the first invitation of his life.

"Would you like to stay in my dorm? My room is only 8 pings (approximately 3.3 square meters), but you can stay here as long as you like. It's okay if you can't remember my name right now; we can talk about it when you do..."

"But now, let me give you a nickname..." Touma Kamijou rested his chin on his hand, "How about I call you White-Haired Little Sister?"

"Thank you... Touma Kamijou." The girl, no, now the white-haired girl, lowered her head and spoke with a smile.

It was three in the afternoon. The midday sun had passed, leaving only the still suffocating heat. Touma Kamijou was washing dishes, glancing at the girl every now and then.

"Um...do you need some clothes? It's not really appropriate to keep wearing mine, is it?" Touma Kamijou had actually wanted to say this for a while, but the sun was too strong before, and if they went outside, they would both turn into dried-up husks.

"Clothes? Aren't I wearing them right now?" The girl lifted her collar, showing her clothes to Touma. As she moved, her white shirt was lifted, revealing her fair belly below.

Touma Kamijou quickly covered his eyes, but there was still a gap between his fingers. "Idiot! Put the clothes down already!"

"Okay..." The girl put down the white shirt in her hand and continued to sit in the same spot, looking at Kamijou Touma with a puzzled look in her eyes.

"Wow..." Kamijou Touma breathed in the fresh air, and he couldn't help but recall the last time the blue-haired man with earrings showed him a magazine and introduced him to a new fantasy.

"Hey! Did you see the shirt Tanaka-san is wearing? It's definitely a boyfriend shirt! That loose, baggy look, that languid, alluring vibe! It's like a cat just woken up wrapped in a blanket! There's definitely some romantic story behind this! Like what happened last night that made her wear her boyfriend's clothes to school today? These subtle hints are the essence of romantic comedies, right? Right?"

Even Tsuchimikado said he wanted to see his sister wear his shirt, but was immediately refuted by the blue-haired man with earrings who said that floral shirts were not suitable for girls.

As a hot-blooded high school boy, Touma Kamijou could no longer tolerate the girl wearing his old clothes in front of him.

Although the girl didn't know why Touma was covering his head and twisting his body in a strange dance, she understood his odd expression. So she went out with Touma to the clothing store.

The clothing store "Seventh Mist" in the Seventh School District is located inside the district's largest shopping mall. Touma Kamijou doesn't particularly like this place because he encountered a dangerous bomber there just a few days ago. However, other women's clothing stores always make Touma feel like he, as a man, can't step into them.

He would pull the girl into a women's clothing store on the second floor, push her into the lingerie section, and then have the shop assistant help her choose items. In the end, he would pay for them.

Amidst the shop assistant's strange expressions, the girl was pulled into the fitting room. Touma Kamijou sat down on a bench outside and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ah... Mr. Kamijou, is this your first time in a place like this..."

Time passed unusually slowly. The lingerie shop assistant had been leading the "white-haired girl" inside to try on clothes for a while now, during which time all that could be heard was the assistant's occasional low, indistinct voice, and the girl's brief, ethereal, and confused nasal tone.

"Seriously... what on earth has Mr. Kamijou been through today..." He covered his face with his hands, exhaling a hot breath through his fingers. Besides the embarrassing scene at home earlier, what lingered in his mind was his anxiety about the current situation. Was taking in a girl of unknown identity with almost zero common sense really the right decision?

The curtain in the fitting room was lifted slightly. A shop assistant peeked out, her face showing a mixture of helplessness and pity, and waved to him.

"Um...sir, could you please come over here for a moment?"

Kamijou's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly got up and went over.

The shop assistant gently pulled back the curtain. There she was, the "white-haired girl" had already changed into a beige hooded sweatshirt she had tried on.

"Um...where are your bottoms?" Kamijou Touma asked, somewhat surprised, noticing that she seemed to be wearing only a hooded sweatshirt.

"Underneath the hoodie, the waitress said it looks good and keeps you cool..." The white-haired girl lifted the hem of her hoodie, revealing her high-waisted casual shorts, and you could vaguely see her skin-colored sports bra.

"Don't lift up her clothes like that!" Touma Kamijou quickly covered his eyes and used his right hand to rip off the girl's hoodie, covering her body.

The clothes fit perfectly, but the problem lay elsewhere. The girl was looking down, intently rubbing the fabric of the sweatshirt cuffs with her fingers, her silver-gray eyes filled with pure curiosity, as if trying to understand the garment's construction through touch.

"Sir? What do you think of this lady's clothes?" the sales assistant asked softly. "While I was helping her get dressed, she kept trying to get your opinion..."

"Ah..." Touma Kamijou paused, looking at the white-haired girl's back as she stood in the doorway. He scratched his head sheepishly. "It's beautiful, thank you..."

As Kamijou looked at the girl's inquisitive expression, exploring even the most basic creations of the world, his initial agitation gradually subsided, replaced by a deeper sense of pity and confusion. From what kind of "blank" was she born?

He crouched down, bringing his gaze level with the girl's: "Um... little white-haired girl?" He tried using the term of address he had used since the afternoon.

The young girl—the white-haired girl—stopped what she was doing and turned her gaze to him.

"Do you like these clothes?" Kamijou pointed to the hoodie she was wearing.

She blinked, seemingly trying to understand the meaning of the word "like." After a few seconds, she slowly spoke: "It...is very soft, different from before, and has...many colors."

"Then... let's buy a few of these soft, colorful clothes, okay?"

She nodded, a slight smile playing on her lips. "Thank you, Touma Kamijou."

This thank you was smoother and more natural than ever before, making Touma pause for a moment, then scratch his spiky hair a little embarrassed. "It's nothing... Well, miss, could you please help her pick out a few outfits suitable for her everyday wear, something simple and comfortable? Uh, about the price..." He touched his wallet.

In the end, they purchased several basic sets of underwear, T-shirts, trousers, a light jacket, and even pajamas and towels. As they left [Seventh Mist] carrying their bags, the sun had set, night had fallen, and the neon lights and streetlights of Academy City outlined the mechanical forest.

She was still wearing her newly bought off-white hooded sweatshirt, light yellow wool socks, and dark brown Mary Jane shoes, her long silver hair swaying slightly in the night breeze. She stared intently at everything around her—the flowing car lights, the changing GG screens, even the sound of automatic doors opening and closing—each step as if she were exploring a new continent.

"Gurgle..."

A clear rumbling sound came from his stomach. Kamijou looked down at his own belly. He glanced at the girl, embarrassed, only to see her looking down at her abdomen with pure confusion on her face, as if she were hearing that sound for the first time.

"Haha... I haven't eaten anything since noon!" Kamijou slapped his forehead. "There's only instant noodles in the dorm... Oh well, I'll splurge today and take you to a nearby restaurant!"