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

The afternoon sun had weakened slightly, and the shadows of the abandoned low-rise buildings covered the alley, making it particularly shady. A rugged, dark blue police vehicle was parked at the alley entrance, its rotary police lights flashing red and blue.

After helping the suspect into the vehicle, Shirai Kuroko watched as the security guards secured the thug to the car before slowly walking back. Cold sweat soaked her hair, and a bloodstain marked her face. Clutching her ribs with one hand, she looked at the gray-haired girl before her.

She recognized the person in front of her; it was the girl who had come to save her older sister when she went to the restaurant to find information about the Phantasmagoria. Although she might have been able to win if she had delayed a little longer, a savior was a savior, and she should at least express her gratitude.

"Thank you so much for your help... I'm Shirai Kuroko from Tokiwadai Middle School. Please tell me your name so I can visit you another day to express my gratitude..." As Shirai Kuroko was speaking, a sudden pain shot through her. She gritted her teeth. "Of course, if I could inform your school, I could also commend you as a member of the Disciplinary Committee..."

"Name..." The gray-haired girl paused, stopping in her tracks. "I don't know..."

"ha……?"

Shirai Kuroko sat on the bus, gazing out the window at the scenery she hadn't seen in a long time. Ever since gaining the ability to teleport, she had been developing her power and how to use it, trying to advance it further, but she always remained at LV4.

She usually uses her spatial teleportation ability to travel, which made her long-unused public transport card, which she got when she first arrived in Academy City, come in handy again.

Sitting next to him was the gray-haired girl, and there couldn't possibly be any information in Academy City that couldn't be found in the "Library." She probably didn't know her name because of amnesia, so he could just go to the Disciplinary Committee and check the Library.

Thinking this, Shirai Kuroko took her phone out of her skirt pocket. She pried open the clasp with her fingernail, then gently pulled, revealing a semi-transparent screen.

"Wow... what's this?"

The gray-haired girl's question came through the phone; Shirai Kuroko had heard this question countless times. Ever since she arrived in Academy City, a city decades ahead of the outside world in terms of technology, her pursuit of advanced technology had compelled her to buy this latest roll-up phone.

Its advantages are its exceptional portability and the ability to be used as headphones with accessories; its disadvantages are slow response, difficulty seeing the screen in bright sunlight, sluggish and occasional malfunctions when tapping the screen, and particularly difficult-to-press buttons. I've been constantly asked about this ever since I bought this phone.

"Ah... this is a cell phone..." Shirai Kuroko put the translucent screen of the cell phone back, then turned the knob on the earpiece to reveal an earphone shape.

"oh oh…"

"Hey? Haru..." Shirai Kuroko put the earphone in her ear, as if she were making a phone call. The gray-haired girl turned her head away; Kamijou Touma had once said that you shouldn't eavesdrop on other people's phone calls.

"Yes, that's right... I've got the 'Imagine Master'. I'm going back now. Please prepare the first-aid kit for me. Oh... and by the way, please grant me access to the 'Library'. There's a civilian here who seems to have amnesia." Shirai Kuroko sighed as she felt the scrapes and possible bone fractures on her body, and the wound on her head that she was using a handkerchief to stop the bleeding.

"Um..." Shirai Kuroko looked at the gray-haired girl beside her and finally asked the question that had been troubling her for so long: "Um... classmate? You said before... Professor Kiyama Harumi was related to that 'Imagine Master' user... what's that about?"

"It's a 'thread'," the gray-haired girl turned her head and looked at Shirai Kuroko's ashen face, speaking calmly, "I saw her this morning... She has the feeling of many different people about her, as if she's possessed by different people."

"Possession?" Shirai Kuroko frowned. She had heard this kind of talk more than once or twice. As a disciplinary committee member, she did some volunteer work and had seen too many children reporting cases because they had misread things, or teenagers with chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) fabricating incidents to report cases just to show off.

She had long since become indifferent to those vague and unrealistic things, and even when Saten Ruiko told her about urban legends like "strippers," she hadn't easily believed them. As a law enforcement officer, she needed to present evidence.

The 177th branch of the Academy City Disciplinary Committee is a branch of the Disciplinary Committee, but usually only two people are on duty here. These are Uiharu Kazari and Kofun Miwa, while Shirai Kuroko is from the 3rd branch of Tokiwadai Middle School. This time, they're here on official business, and they also have evidence to submit.

Shirai Kuroko entered the room, pulled the gray-haired girl behind her inside, and then closed the door. The gray-haired girl, unaware of what had happened, was already sitting in a chair with a glass of warm water in front of her.

"Ah... hello, I'm Uiharu Kazari, you can call me Uiharu." Uiharu Kazari handed a large medical kit to Shirai Kuroko, then sat down opposite the gray-haired girl.

She wore a classic blue and white sailor uniform with a red scarf tied around her neck. Her short black hair was topped with colorful flowers that looked almost real.

"Are your flowers... real?" The gray-haired girl looked at Uiharu Shiori in front of her, completely confused, and asked in bewilderment.

"Ugh... Why does everyone who sees me ask me that..." Uiharu Kazari lay on the table, then sat up straight and looked at the person in front of her whom Shirai Kuroko had told her to check the "library".

"Let me check your past records first~ There are many cases of amnesia in our Academy City, so there's no need to rush..." Uiharu Kazari reassured her while quickly accessing the "Library" with unusually fast hand speed.

"Let me see..." Shiori Haru took a screenshot of the gray-haired girl's face from the surveillance footage and went through the personnel list. She didn't find her among the researchers, and then checked the student list, but couldn't find her there either.

"Um... are you a tourist from out of town?" A bad feeling welled up inside Uiharu Kazari. The girl in front of her wasn't a researcher or a student, yet she had lost her memory in Academy City. If this kind of news got out, the Disciplinary Committee members and security guards would definitely be in trouble. With so many deaths and injuries already due to the "Void Explosion" case, plus the traffic control and searches during the power outage in the residential area, the Disciplinary Committee members, who were already few and far between, were going to be even more deserted now.

"I don't know... I just woke up in an alley..." The gray-haired girl shook her head, answering honestly.

"ah…"

Haru Shiori slumped in her chair. She wasn't from this city and had no memory of what happened after arriving in Academy City. She was thrown into an alley, a rather unusual situation even in horror movies.

Is Academy City some kind of hellhole?

Haru Shiori wanted to continue her investigation, but found that the list of outsiders seemed inaccessible, as if someone was accessing the data. She closed the page, told the gray-haired girl to wait a moment, and went to the infirmary.

Inside the infirmary, Shirai Kuroko took off her shirt and was using tweezers to pick out pebbles from her wound. She then rinsed it with saline solution, applied hydrogen peroxide, and as her expression contorted, a string of bubbles appeared from the wound.

"Um... Shirai-san... do you need my help?" Uiharu Kazari came up behind her and tore open the bandage packaging.

"Early Spring? Have they found that person's family?" Shirai Kuroko nodded silently, raising her hands high.

"Uh... the list of external personnel can't be opened... it's currently in use..." Shiori Uiharu unwrapped the bandages and began wrapping them around Kuroko Shirai's body.

"Hmm... This time we got the original 'Imagine Mage'. According to the prisoner's confession, the way to use it is to just keep playing it in the player. You will see your ability increase after a while. The lower your ability was before, the better the effect."

Shirai Kuroko gently touched her skirt, which was lying to the side, and an MP3 player appeared in her hand. Uiharu Kazari took it and examined it, only to find that it was just an ordinary media player.

"Music? How could just sound affect abilities?" Shiori Hatsuharu finished bandaging the wound and then rinsed it with saline solution after washing it with hydrogen peroxide.

"Who knows... Anyway, everyone has their own personal methods. Maybe there are people who can improve their abilities by listening to music?" Shirai Kuroko felt much more relaxed, took off the belt from her leg, and placed it on the table.

"Shirai-kun, really... Personal Reality is the foundation of superpower development... Maybe it's related to things like the AIM diffusion field?" Uiharu Kazari gently applied the wound dressing to her arm, then held up a finger and pressed it against her lips.

Just then, the branch office door opened, and Misaka Mikoto poked her head in, showing off the dessert box she was carrying. She then discovered that only the gray-haired girl was sitting in a chair, and a commotion was coming from the infirmary.

"Um... I feel like I've seen you somewhere before..." Misaka Mikoto ignored the other voices and went straight to the gray-haired girl. She bent down and carefully examined the face.

"Ah! I remember now, you're the one who ate with that idiot!" Misaka Mikoto suddenly remembered that she had been caught by Kamijou Touma a few days ago while she was looking for clues, and that Kamijou Touma insisted on luring those thugs away, which caused her to use a very large lightning bolt that day.

"Hello..." The gray-haired girl nodded quietly and pulled over a stool for her. "Uiharu Shiori just went into the infirmary, please wait a moment..."

"Oh... thank you..." Misaka Mikoto took the stool, sat down, and then realized, "Wait, why should I listen to you?"

She stood up angrily, only to find Uiharu Kazari coming out of the infirmary. She quickly ran over to her, calling out, "Uiharu-san? Are you alright?"

Shirai Kuroko emerged from the tea room, carrying a pot of hot water, her clothes neatly dressed as if she had just arrived. "Oh...onea-sama...would you like a cup of black tea?"

"Oh...Kuroko, you're here too." Misaka Mikoto smiled as she straddled the chair, her face pressed against the backrest, and slid across the floor with her feet. She picked up the sweets she had brought from the floor and handed them to Kuroko.

"These are desserts I bought on the way, everyone should try them..."

Misaka Mikoto opened the box, revealing sweets like yokan and sago dumplings. Shirai Kuroko couldn't help but stare, but her hand gripped her other wrist tightly, shaking her head in trembling as she did so. Uiharu Kazari glanced at the price tag at the bottom of the box, gasped, and then stared at the sweets.

"Kuroko~ The school can tell students they can't diet... It's okay to eat these desserts..."

"Hmph...hmph~ Big sister underestimates Kuroko's determination. For the sake of her precious body, which is still unmarried, Kuroko will not submit, even if it's...even if it's sweets!"

"Is that so?" Misaka Mikoto didn't insist. She popped a piece into her mouth and then handed the box to Uiharu Kazari. After bowing gratefully, Uiharu took a piece and treasured it like a precious gem.

"Ah...this is the young lady's dessert..."

"Ah...right, right..." Misaka Mikoto turned around and handed over a piece of yokan (sweet bean jelly) wrapped in a paper bag. "Have a try? It's delicious~"

"Thank you..." The gray-haired girl also took a piece, took a small bite, and the amazing sweetness made her throat feel almost dehydrated, like the kind of food that sprinkles sugar into condensed milk and then pours on syrup. Just one bite made her feel like she was drowning in syrup.

"By the way, what's your relationship with that idiot?" Misaka Mikoto seemed to have something she was hiding, her choice of words hesitant.

"Who's that idiot?" The gray-haired girl didn't understand who the idiot was referring to. She looked over with her pure gray eyes.

"Uh... it's Touma Kamijou..." Misaka Mikoto scratched her cheek. She was a little embarrassed to be asked how she addressed someone, and since she was the one who gave him that title, she could only accept it.

The gray-haired girl pondered for a few seconds, picked up her teacup, took a sip of the bitter tea, swallowed the sweet taste in her throat, and her mind cleared. "He is my savior."

Misaka Mikoto sipped her tea while munching on a piece of yokan (sweet bean jelly). This combination of bitter tea and sweets was always one of her favorite ways to enjoy tea, and she happily discussed it with Kuroko.

"You mean you don't know why sound can transmit information?" Misaka Mikoto took a sip of tea. "Well, um, we talked about that when we were eating shaved ice..."

"It was an exchange of tastes... an indirect kiss..." Shirai Kuroko recalled, only to receive a look of fear from Misaka Mikoto. She quickly shut her mouth and gave an awkward laugh.

"It's synesthesia..." Misaka Mikoto put her tea aside and took a bite of yokan. "It refers to how a sensory stimulus can spontaneously and involuntarily trigger one or more other sensory experiences."

"Could this 'Imagine Master' also be using this?" Shirai Kuroko sipped her tea, her eyes lingering on the desserts, before closing them in anticipation.