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

The afternoon sun scorched the ground, and a faint layer of steam rose from the asphalt. The distant horizon became distorted and blurred in the heat. A blue Pegassi bull was speeding across the toll gate at a speed far exceeding the speed limit, its engine roaring low.

In the driver's seat, Kiyama Harumi was expressionless, her chestnut hair flying wildly in the hot wind pouring in through the car windows, a few strands clinging to her bloodless cheeks. In the passenger seat, Uiharu Kazari's eyes were closed, seemingly asleep, but upon closer inspection, one could see her eyelids twitching slightly, a sign that she was about to wake up.

This is near the highway entrance connecting District 7 to District 10. Just keep following this road, and you'll be directly within District 10's jurisdiction. From there, you're free to roam.

"What exactly... do you want to do?" Shiori Haru stared blankly at the glare shield rushing past the car window, her voice hoarse and dry from prolonged dehydration.

"Awake...you're really energetic." Kiyama Harumi noticed that Uiharu Kazari squinted because of the wind blowing in, reached out and pressed a button to slowly raise the car window a little, and the howling wind immediately subsided a bit.

"Answer my question!" Seeing Kiyama Harumi trying to change the subject again, Uiharu Kazari, overwhelmed by the fear of losing her friend and the sharp regret of trusting the wrong person, finally unleashed her suppressed emotions into an angry roar.

"It's a computing device..."

"A computing device?"

"Yes, a network is constructed using the AIM diffusion stance as a medium, and then processed by multiple brains, making the calculation of complex code possible..." Kiyama Harumi gripped the steering wheel with both hands, glancing at the rearview mirror every now and then: "This is the true face of 'Imagine Master'..."

Shiori's handcuffed hands gripped the hem of her skirt above her knees tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. "Why?"

"I submitted a request to use the tree diagram designer's software for a simulation experiment... but it was rejected for some reason, so I need a replacement calculation device."

Hearing this, Uiharu Kazari was so shocked she couldn't speak. Her lips parted slightly, then closed again, finally managing to squeeze out a sound: "It's for this... that's why you targeted those ability users..."

"We've collected about ten thousand people, that should be enough." Kiyama Harumi caught a glimpse of the sudden surge of anger in Uiharu Kazari's eyes after hearing the number, but simply looked away calmly. "Don't look at me like that. It will all be over soon, and then everyone will be free."

Reaching into the pocket of his white coat, he pulled out a memory card and placed it in Uiharu Kazari's hand. "This is the treatment program used to uninstall 'Phantom Hand'... Here you go. There will be no aftereffects, everything will return to normal, and no one will die..."

"Why should I believe you!" Shiori Uiharu looked down at the thin memory card in her hand, then clenched her fist tightly. "Even if you say this procedure, which hasn't undergone clinical trials, is safe, isn't it even less than a placebo?!"

"Haha, quite strict." Kiyama Harumi's lips curled up slightly, letting out a very faint laugh.

Her gaze returned to the rearview mirror. Three black police vehicles were about 500 meters behind, hot on her. The red and blue rotating police lights on the roofs flickered erratically in the glaring afternoon sunlight, almost invisible unless one looked closely.

"trouble…"

"Vehicle ahead! Pull over immediately! Repeat, pull over immediately!" The security guard's voice through the car window pierced through the glass, carrying an undeniable sense of pressure.

Kiyama Harumi stepped on the brakes. The vehicle slowly came to a stop.

She looked up and saw three police vehicles lined up horizontally, completely blocking the road. Behind the vehicles stood a row of fully armed police officers, their riot shields and tactical vests reflecting a cold, matte texture in the sunlight, forming a dark, imposing wall of men.

Even in front of the human wall, several specially modified cleaning robots were humming with low motors, their heavy armored shells covered in battle scratches, advancing step by step with a steady pace. They were likely tactical support models issued to the security forces, their shells strong enough to withstand direct impacts below level 3, and capable of detonating their internal battery packs for self-destruction if necessary.

There is no escape.

No, there was no escaping it from the very beginning…

Kiyama Harumi unbuckled her seatbelt, her movements unhurried. She turned her head and glanced at Uiharu Kazari beside her. The moment the girl saw the array of security personnel ahead, the fear on her face subsided somewhat, replaced by a resigned calm. "What to do? Looks like it's time to settle things..."

Kiyama Harumi leaned her upper body against the steering wheel, her shoulders slightly lowered. However, a slow smile crept onto her lips.

"The 'Imagine Master' is a device that connects the human brain in parallel as a calculation tool. However, it also brings some... byproducts to the user."

"Huh?" Haruharu was stunned. The situation before them was hopeless, but instead of being discouraged, Kiyama Harumi wore a smile as if an experiment had yielded an unexpectedly interesting result. An indescribable sense of foreboding rose from the depths of Haruharu's heart.

"Let me show you something interesting."

Kiyama Harumi pressed a button on the car door, and the door opened. She slowly got out of the car, her expression natural, as if she weren't the one being arrested by the security guards this time.

After getting off the car, she seemed to have given up resisting, obeying the guards' instructions and putting her hands behind her head.

Meanwhile, at the 177th branch of the Disciplinary Committee, Shirai Kuroko had just ended a communication with the security command center, her face ashen as she ripped off her earpiece.

"Confirmed... Kiyama Harumi has taken Hatsuharu hostage at the entrance to the 7th School District Expressway and is currently in a standoff with security personnel. On-site reports indicate that she is using a large-scale ability... suspected to be related to the 'Phantom Mage' network."

She stood up, and a sharp pain immediately shot through the bandages under her ribs. The bone fracture she had sustained during the battle with the user of the Illusionist last night hadn't healed yet, and she could feel a dull ache from the friction of her ribs with every step she took.

But early spring is there.

The Chuchun who always smiled as she organized the documents, brewed black tea in the branch office and waited for her to return; the Chuchun who would rush to get the first-aid kit when she found out she was injured; the Chuchun who persisted in following the clues even when she was scared during the "Void Explosion" incident...

Shirai Kuroko gritted her teeth and pulled three steel needles from the belt under her skirt.

"Kuroko...where are you going?" The branch office door was pushed open, and Misaka Mikoto stood in the doorway. She had obviously run over; her short, brown hair was slightly disheveled, and her chest was rising and falling slightly.

"Big sister..." Shirai Kuroko paused, but quickly continued packing her gear. "Hatsuharu has been taken hostage by Kiyama Harumi. I have to go to the scene now."

"Then I'll go..." Misaka Mikoto's voice was calm, but her gaze was fixed on Shirai Kuroko: "Your injuries from yesterday haven't healed yet? Are you really going to face Kiyama Harumi in this state?"

"Then I'm going too!" Shirai Kuroko turned around abruptly, her voice trembling with excitement. "Hatsuharu is my partner! I'm the one who dragged her into this investigation! If I hadn't asked her to analyze 'Phantom Hunter,' if I hadn't sent her to contact Kiyama Harumi! She wouldn't have—!"

She stopped mid-sentence, or rather, she choked up. Misaka Mikoto entered the branch office and closed the door. Her footsteps were exceptionally clear in the quiet space.

"Kuroko..." She looked at the petite junior in front of Shirai Kuroko, and at the "Disciplinary Committee Member" armband pinned to her sleeve.

Shirai Kuroko looked up at Misaka Mikoto, at the person she admired and loved. But she couldn't. This was a matter for the security guards and disciplinary committee members, not something an ordinary citizen like her sister could get involved in.

Just as she opened her mouth, about to say something, Misaka Mikoto patted her shoulder. The pat wasn't hard, but it was a wound from Shirai Kuroko's fight with dozens of Devil Fruit users. Her teeth gritted, her brow twitched, and she barely managed to suppress the pain.

"Big sister..."

"Look... you're injured... your body's like this, do you still want to push yourself?"

"Big sister...did you notice?"

"Do you even need to ask..." Misaka Mikoto tapped Shirai Kuroko's forehead with her finger. "You're my junior, so rely on me for a moment like this..."

Shirai Kuroko's lips moved, but no sound came out.

Kiyama Harumi stood rooted to the spot, her hands covering her head. Her left eye trembled and moved slowly. Blood welled up in her sclera, making her eye appear abnormally red.

The highway patrol officers suddenly felt short of breath, as if the oxygen around them had been instantly sucked out. Several officers instinctively pulled off their riot helmets and gasped for air, only to find that the air they were breathing had a sweet, metallic smell.

"What's going on—!"

Before the words were even finished, the second wave arrived. The asphalt began to soften and bulge. It wasn't just a localized area; the entire road surface within a 50-meter radius of Kiyama Haruo writhed as if alive. The asphalt surged like a black tide, engulfing and anchoring the tires of the security personnel's vehicle.

"The ground is moving! Retreat! Retreat now—!"

The sky darkened, not because it got dark, but because countless tiny metal fragments—shards of streetlights, debris from guardrails, and parts detached from vehicles—were pulled into the air by an invisible force, forming a "metal cloud" several meters thick.

The clouds hung low, no more than ten meters above the ground, with unstable electric sparks flickering at their edges.

A guard raised his rifle and aimed it at Kiyama Haruo's position, but the moment the trigger was pulled, the barrel suddenly twisted and deformed, as if it had been twisted into a pretzel by an invisible hand.

"An ability user! It's an attack by an ability user!"

"But the report says the target is just a researcher! How could this be..."

Misaka Mikoto was sitting in a taxi when she heard Shirai Kuroko's startled cry over the phone. Looking ahead at the debris suddenly flying everywhere, she realized they were probably still several hundred meters away.

"Don't bother looking! It's dangerous! Get out of here right now!" Misaka Mikoto pulled out several ten-thousand-yuan bills from her wallet and threw them over, then opened the car door and ran out.

She used magnetism to pull herself up the stairs filled with barbed wire, pulling out her phone as she asked, "Hey? Kuroko! What happened?"

"Kiyama is fighting with the security guards..." Shirai Kuroko stared blankly at the surveillance footage, as if she had witnessed something unbelievable. "And... he's using his ability..."

"Huh? Kiyama is an esper?"

"There's no record of Kiyama Harumi developing superpowers in the 'Library'..." Kofumi Miwa adjusted her glasses. "But... it is definitely a power... and it looks like she has multiple powers..."

"How could that be!" The words were barely out of her mouth before Misaka Mikoto instinctively rejected them, because as a psychic, no one understood better than her what multiple abilities meant. "Each person only has one ability; there shouldn't be any exceptions..."

"Could it be because of 'Imagine Master'?" Miyuki Kofun expressed her speculation, and Kuroko Shirai followed up with her argument, "The network of neural synapses connecting those ten thousand espers can be seen as a complete brain. If we manipulate it, we might be able to do things that an ordinary brain cannot..."

"If this speculation is correct, then Kiyama Harumi is now known as an unattainable, purely fantastical... multiple ability user—a dual skill!"

Misaka Mikoto climbed onto the highway and looked at the security guard's vehicle that had been torn to pieces, the robot vacuum cleaner lying flat on the ground, and the security guard lying crookedly on the ground.

"The security guards... were all wiped out?"

This was something Misaka Mikoto could never have imagined. All along, those powerful security guards had been synonymous with safety in her mind, but she never expected that they would all be wiped out today.

She looked around anxiously and found a blue sports car parked nearby. Shiori Ueharu was sitting in the passenger seat with her eyes closed, as if she were unconscious.

"Hatsuharu-kun!" Misaka Mikoto rushed over, just about to check Hatsuharu Kazari's vital signs. But then the smoke behind her cleared, and clear footsteps could be heard.

"Don't worry..." Kiyama Harumi's words were completely calm. "She just fainted from the aftershocks of the battle... She's not in any danger."

"Misaka Mikoto, one of only seven Level 5 espers in Academy City, even you haven't met an opponent like me, have you..." Kiyama Harumi turned around, her bloodshot eyes wide open. "You think you can stop me, who controls the minds of ten thousand people?"

"They actually said 'Can you stop it?' Of course!" Misaka Mikoto charged towards Kiyama Harumi. Suddenly, a circular area of ​​the ground beneath her feet disappeared, and before she could even regain her footing, an explosion followed immediately behind her.

"That's amazing! It seems like she really can use a lot of different abilities, like multiple abilities or something..." Misaka Mikoto used her magnetic powers to pull herself apart, barely avoiding the explosion. "That looks pretty interesting!"

"My ability is different from that theoretically impossible ability..." Kiyama Harumi squinted, clenched his right fist, and a cutting blade of air flew out quickly.

"That is... multi-skilled..."