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

In the heart of the Seventh School District, outside the School Garden, the roadside trees rustled in the breeze, and sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

Here stands the legendary Tokiwadai Women's Dormitory, Room 2, a Western-style building exuding a classical charm. The red brick exterior is gently entwined with vines, and the windows of the pointed attic reflect a soft glow in the afternoon sun.

The scenery is beautiful, needless to say. It's only a five-minute walk to the subway station, and the bus stop is less than 100 meters away from the gate, making transportation extremely convenient.

However, the daily life inside the dormitory is not as elegant as its exterior.

"Saten and I ran into that person at the supermarket today!"

In early spring, Shiori tore open a bag of potato chips and placed it on the table, the packaging making a crisp rustling sound. Then, without any hesitation, she grabbed a large stack of chips and stuffed them directly into her mouth, her cheeks puffing out like a hamster.

"Oh...you mean that woman with long gray hair?" Seeing that nearly half of the potato chips had disappeared in an instant, Saten Ruiko quickly reached out and grabbed a few chips, clutching them protectively in her palm.

"Yeah! Last time on the overpass, if it weren't for her help, I probably wouldn't be back alive..." Uiharu Shiori swallowed the potato chips in her mouth, gulped down the drink on the table, then turned to look at Saten Ruiko sitting next to her, her eyes filled with a serious reproach, "You can't even remember the face of your savior... don't you think that's a little bit much?"

"Haha...sorry, sorry..."

Saten Ruiko awkwardly waved her hands, almost flinging the potato chips in her palms away. She shrank her neck, about to stuff another chip into her mouth, when suddenly she paused, her brows furrowed slightly, and her fingers hovered in mid-air.

"Huh? Wait... I think I've seen her somewhere else before?"

Misaka Mikoto sat cross-legged on her bed, listening to the conversation between the two, her thoughts drifting back to the overpass that day.

The fantastical beast released by Kiyama Harumi was enormous, its body composed of twisted flesh and blood, emitting a deep hum. She could certainly destroy it, but she needed to lure it away from the direction of the nuclear power plant first. If she were to fire the railgun at full power from that location and it were to damage the facilities, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Drawing them away and then gathering strength again will create even more variables. To be honest, if that woman with long gray hair hadn't suddenly appeared that day, things probably wouldn't have ended so easily.

"ah--!"

Saten Ruiko suddenly gasped and jumped up from her chair. Uiharu Kazari was so startled that she almost dropped her potato chips, and even Shirai Kuroko, who was leisurely drinking red bean soup on the bed next to her, trembled and the can of food wobbled.

"That person—!" Saten Ruiko suddenly turned to Shirai Kuroko, pointing her finger directly at her. "Isn't that the person who saved me and Shirai-kun at the demolition site last time?!"

"Huh?"

Shirai Kuroko was startled by the sudden roll call, and choked on a mouthful of red bean soup. She bent over and coughed violently, her shoulders heaving, tears welling in her eyes. It took her a while to catch her breath, and she patted her chest to clear her throat as memories slowly surfaced.

"Ah...you mean that time?" Shirai Kuroko cleared her throat and placed the soup bowl on the bedside table. "Yes, we encountered quite a bit of trouble when we arrested that light-polarizing ability user. The suspect's ability was incredibly tricky; he could refract light at all sorts of tricky angles, making it impossible to find a breakthrough. Then that woman suddenly appeared, muttering something about 'connections of lines' or something that was hard to understand, and quickly took down the suspect. Her methods were clean and efficient, and the angles were quite tricky. Afterwards, we told her that we could send her a formal thank-you letter if we provided the school's name and our own name, but she didn't leave anything. We haven't received any further news since..."

"Wow... doing good deeds anonymously..." Uiharu Kazari's eyes lit up as she tore open the bag of fries, pulled out a golden fry, and popped it into her mouth, her voice becoming muffled. "She's just like a hero from a manga..."

"Well—" Shirai Kuroko stood up and downed the remaining red bean soup on the bedside table in one gulp. The liquid slid down her throat, making several clear and loud gurgling sounds. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before continuing, "While the use of violence by non-security personnel and disciplinary committee members to arrest suspects can be acknowledged from a righteous perspective, overstepping one's authority is ultimately unacceptable. However, since she didn't cause any substantial harm, not arresting her is... ah, this is a supplementary explanation I made in my capacity as a disciplinary committee member."

Misaka Mikoto, who had been silent until now, suddenly looked at Shirai Kuroko with a somewhat subtle expression.

"By the way... why were you making such a loud noise while drinking the red bean soup? Is it so bad that you have to gulp it down like that?"

"what……"

Shirai Kuroko's lips twitched. She glanced at Misaka Mikoto, who had asked the question with an innocent look on her face, and then at the harmonious scene of Saten Ruiko, Uiharu Kazari, and the other two happily sharing potato chips and fries. A subtle feeling welled up inside her. She was sitting on the edge of the bed drinking red bean soup, while the three of them huddled together, chattering away over snacks. The scene made it seem like she was being completely left out. Shirai Kuroko's expression stiffened. She silently considered that since the atmosphere had already reached this point, she might as well go all the way.

"That's just red bean soup..."

Shirai Kuroko muttered softly, her voice low and melancholic, the trailing syllable carrying an indescribable sense of grievance, like the low murmur of a lonely woman confined to her room. Her head was lowered, her short brown hair obscuring half her face, and she exuded an eerie aura.

"Huh?" Misaka Mikoto didn't hear clearly.

"Of course I'd be jealous."

Shirai Kuroko gave a soft snort, haughtily tilting her head to one side, her chin raised at a subtle angle. But this defiant look lasted less than two seconds before her expression quickly crumbled. Tears began to well up in her eyes, her lips trembled slightly, and her voice became heavy with sobs.

"A month...a whole month! Today marks exactly one month since my sister and I were bound together by the red thread of fate!"

Misaka Mikoto's expression froze.

"One month ago today, Kuroko and her older sister overcame countless coincidences and were destined to become roommates. From that day on, we ate together, slept together, and spent every day together, sharing the joys and sorrows of each other's lives..."

Tears welled up in Shirai Kuroko's eyes, threatening to spill over. She blinked hard, and the tears rolled down her cheeks. Her voice trembled, overflowing with emotion. She suddenly covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking. "But...but my sister...she completely forgot about such an important day! She was eating potato chips with other friends! Kuroko...Kuroko, I..."

Seeing Shirai Kuroko so heartbroken she was practically curling up in a ball, Uiharu Kazari's hand holding the fries froze in mid-air. She felt a pang of pity and secretly glanced at Saten Ruiko beside her, wanting to see the other's reaction. But Saten Ruiko was also looking at her.

Their eyes met, exchanging the same question. Saten Ruiko lowered her voice and cautiously whispered in Uiharu Kazari's ear, "Um...did we come at the wrong time today?"

"Kuroko..." Misaka Mikoto looked at her sobbing junior, her shoulders shaking, took a deep breath, and tried to suppress the surging emotions in her heart, keeping her voice as calm as possible. But if you listened carefully, you could hear a faint crackling of electricity beneath that calm.

"You... forced your way in, didn't you? On the first day of school, you blocked my room door with your luggage, refusing to leave no matter what I said. This has nothing to do with 'coincidence,' and please don't fabricate any inexplicable 'red thread of fate.'"

"Um... Onee-sama, I suddenly remembered that I seem to have something to take care of..." Shirai Kuroko's crying stopped abruptly, and she began to quietly move back.

"'Sharing joy and sorrow'? How could you say something like that!" Misaka Mikoto suddenly stood up, her fingers precisely pinching Shirai Kuroko's cheeks and forcefully pulling them apart. Shirai Kuroko's face was distorted by the pulling, like a goldfish with its cheeks pinched.

"This is the difference of the perverted..." Shirai Kuroko's cheeks were being pulled, and her words were already slurred and indistinct.

"Right? 'Perverts must be eliminated,' right?" Misaka Mikoto's smile was terrifyingly bright.

"I meant 'different perspectives'!" Shirai Kuroko struggled desperately, finally managing to break free from Misaka Mikoto's clutches. She stepped aside, covering her reddened cheeks with her hands, her eyes welling up with tears from the pain.

"Besides, I just... just wanted to celebrate this special day with my older sister... what's wrong with that..."

Ding-dong-

Before he could finish speaking, the intercom at the door rang crisply, interrupting the escalating situation inside the room.

"They're here—!"

Misaka Mikoto instinctively reached out and pressed the answer button. A young male voice came from the other end of the walkie-talkie, polite but formulaic, clearly a standard script he had repeated countless times.

"Hello, this is a delivery service. Are you Shirai Kuroko from room 208?"

"Yes... May I ask what was sent?"

"Uh... computer parts."

Upon hearing those four words, Shirai Kuroko secretly breathed a sigh of relief. These days, courier companies all use this kind of privacy-protecting shipping method, writing the names of sensitive goods as ordinary computer accessories. It's truly ingenious; it protects the buyer's privacy and avoids unnecessary misunderstandings. This logistics company deserves praise.

"Which company sent it?" Misaka Mikoto asked casually.

"Hmm, let me confirm..." The sound of paper being flipped through the delivery slip came from the other end of the walkie-talkie. After a pause of about two seconds, the deliveryman read aloud in his unguarded, clear voice, "Love and Traditional Chinese Medicine's Unparalleled Aphrodisiac Co., Ltd."

The atmosphere in the room felt as if it had been paused.

"What if we reveal the company name?!"

Shirai Kuroko's vision suddenly went black, her body swayed twice, and she almost fainted on the spot. She pressed her temples tightly, feeling as if her brain was undergoing an unprecedented shutdown. What kind of private shipping is this? What's the difference between this and printing product details on the outside of the package? Where did this genius come from to read out the entire company name with perfect accuracy during the private shipping process?!

Before Shirai Kuroko could even muster her last shred of sanity to ask the deliveryman to leave the package downstairs, a chilling aura rose from behind her. Something—no, she had a very bad premonition—was approaching from behind.

Sizzle—!

Sizzle sizzle—!

Blue and white sparks began to dance on Misaka Mikoto's forehead. A few strands of hair, pulled upwards by the static electricity from the arcs, floated slightly in the air. The corners of her mouth still held a smile, but her eyes were completely devoid of any joy.

She slowly opened her mouth, and a faint voice came from deep within her throat, as if it did not come from her mouth, but rather from some deeper, darker place.

"Kuroko~"

Just hearing her name called in that tone made Shirai Kuroko's back tense reflexively. She slowly turned her head in an extremely stiff posture, only to be met with a bright smile that was so dazzling it was chilling.

"Why...why would a small celebration need to involve aphrodisiacs?"

"That...this...actually...that is..."

"It seems that to completely eradicate your deeply ingrained perverted nature, we'll need to use a rather potent drug..."

Misaka Mikoto slowly raised her hands, her fingers opening and closing with a chilling crackling sound. The electric currents on her forehead grew more intense and dazzling, electrifying each strand of her hair and causing it to stand on end. The acrid smell of ozone began to permeate the air around her.

Her smile reached its chilling peak at that moment. "Just like your name... if I electrocuted you until you were completely charred, wouldn't that make you reflect on your actions?"

A bolt of blue-white lightning shot from Misaka Mikoto's fingertip, tearing through the air in the room and hurtling towards Shirai Kuroko at an astonishing speed. The lightning left a blinding afterimage in its path, illuminating the entire room with flickering light.

But Shirai Kuroko was prepared.

Having spent a full month living with this older sister who could strike at any moment, she had been shocked enough. She knew Misaka Mikoto's habits of striking, the subtle signs of her hand movements, even the detail of her eyebrows twitching slightly before she struck. Just before the lightning touched her body, Shirai Kuroko ducked and dodged, the bolt grazing her hair and striking the wall behind her, leaving a small charred spot on the wallpaper.

Missing her target, Misaka Mikoto simply stopped aiming. She suddenly spread her right hand, unleashing a massive, blue-white ball of electricity from her palm. This time, it was a wide-ranging discharge with no blind spots; the entire room was enveloped in current, arcs of electricity bouncing wildly between the walls and ceiling, emitting a sharp, piercing hiss. Now there was absolutely no physical space to dodge.

Shirai Kuroko vanished in an instant, throwing her coordinates directly into the eleventh-dimensional gap. She then moved again in a very short time, setting the exit coordinates to outside the room door. The entire operation was fluid and seamless, taking only a fraction of a second. The air in the corridor contrasted sharply with the ionized, scorching air inside the room.

However, just as she steadied herself outside the door, the door behind her was slammed shut by the shockwave of the lightning. The exquisitely carved walnut wood door first emitted a burst of white light from the inside, then shattered completely with a deafening crash. Wood chips flew everywhere, and acrid smoke filled the entire corridor. The carved door frame was torn to shreds by the violent blast, the edges jagged, and large, gruesome charred marks were left on the pristine white walls.

Looking at the horrific remains of the door, Shirai Kuroko reached out and gracefully covered her lips with the back of her hand, her shoulders trembling slightly.

"Oh—hohohohoho!"

A string of high-pitched, affected laughter, the kind of loud, arrogant laughter reserved for noble young ladies that only appears in some old-school anime, poured out of her mouth and echoed down the corridor.

"It seems you've forgotten, my ability is spatial teleportation. This kind of direct attack is completely ineffective against me..."

Shirai Kuroko looked at Misaka Mikoto, who was chasing after them through the broken door, her body still crackling with residual electricity. She calmly crouched down, knees slightly bent, right hand lightly pressing on the ground, assuming a ready-to-strike stance. A confident smile played on her lips.

"Since things have come to this, let's see who the prey is and who the real hunter is! If you, my dear sister, can't accept my sincere love no matter what, then let's settle it with our fists! Today, I, Kuroko, will have a fair and square showdown with you, my dear sister!"

This declaration of war was so powerful that it even echoed slightly in the corridor.

However, as soon as she finished speaking, Misaka Mikoto's expression changed drastically.

The flush of anger on her face vanished instantly, replaced by an even paler pallor. Her body began to tremble uncontrollably; her shoulders, arms, and even her lips shook violently to a visible degree. Then, even her pupils dilated slightly with immense fear. Her face was etched with terror, and she looked as if she were about to cry at any moment.

Shirai Kuroko froze. She looked down at her fighting stance and quickly reviewed her declaration of war in her mind. Sure, she had been a bit too assertive, but surely it hadn't scared her sister like this? Although she usually didn't hold back when it came to shocking her, Misaka Mikoto was, at heart, a soft-hearted person. If she had truly frightened her sister, the situation would be completely different. She'd better stop quickly and try to soothe her.

"Big sister? Actually, you don't need to be so scared. What I just said was just..."

"Dormitory Rules, Article 9"

A calm voice, almost devoid of any emotion, came from behind Shirai Kuroko, cutting her off precisely.

"The use of any abilities is strictly prohibited within the dormitory area. You haven't forgotten, have you? Shirai…"

In an instant, it was as if a user proficient in ice-type abilities silently pressed against Shirai Kuroko's back and then launched a maximum-output attack without any mercy.

Despite it being the height of summer, the air in the corridor was so stifling it felt almost stagnant, yet a chill ran down Shirai Kuroko's spine, penetrating to the very marrow. That coldness climbed upwards from the base of her spine, passing through each vertebra and reaching the back of her head.

Shirai Kuroko used the last of her willpower to force her almost uncontrollable neck to turn slowly, as if she wanted to confirm with her own eyes a fact that she already knew the answer to but had always refused to face.

She saw it.

A deep blue, peak-lapel, fitted long-sleeved blazer, its shoulders clean and sharp. A white pointed-collar shirt, meticulously tied with a neat white tie, the knot perfectly straight without a single wrinkle. A deep blue pencil skirt accentuated her sleek silhouette, and her legs, encased in black stockings, stood ramrod straight. Her high heels, somehow, made no sound as they clicked on the floor, which was why she hadn't noticed someone behind her until now.

Her long, neatly combed hair cascaded down her shoulders, not a single stray hair out of place. A pair of triangular-framed glasses sat atop her serious, almost frozen expression. The light from the upper side of the corridor shone down, illuminating the lenses completely, obscuring her eyes and making it impossible to see what kind of gaze lay hidden within.

He is the dormitory supervisor.

The being who has long occupied the top of the food chain in this dormitory building is the supreme authority who strikes fear into the hearts of hundreds of ability users in the entire building. She needs no abilities, nor any weapons. Simply standing there, merely being aware of her presence, is enough to make a Level 4 ability user's legs go weak.

Shirai Kuroko's mind underwent a series of extremely violent upheavals in a very short period of time. First, she froze, completely unable to move. Then, the chill suddenly vanished without a trace, as if the imagined ice-freezing ability user had suddenly withdrawn their power.

But what surged up after the chill disappeared was not a warm and comfortable feeling, but rather cold sweat that appeared simultaneously from millions of pores all over the body.

Ha ha--

So, the ice-freezing ability ended? No, there was no such thing as an ice-freezing ability. The chill down her back earlier was from being scared, and now she's sweating buckets because of it too. And to be honest, someone as kind and approachable as the dormitory supervisor… no, even she couldn't convince herself that "kind and approachable" applied to her, but… how could someone as respected as the dormitory supervisor make her sweat buckets just from a glance? Haha. Shirai Kuroko chuckled inwardly, realizing her inner monologue was starting to ramble.

Shirai Kuroko used all the etiquette she had ever learned in her life to stand at attention with a snap. Her hands were neatly placed in front of her, fingers together, palms touching, her posture so perfect it could be used as a demonstration in an etiquette class.

"This...this...this is such a coincidence, Dormitory Supervisor..." Her voice trembled as she desperately tried to force a nonchalant smile. However, the muscles in her face seemed to have a mind of their own, refusing to cooperate no matter how she tried to move them.

"As you've probably seen, we were indeed a little noisy just now... but, but! There's a very, very complicated reason behind it! It was definitely not just us playing around with our abilities, absolutely not!"

"I see..." The dormitory supervisor's tone was calm and composed, revealing no emotional fluctuation. "So it was a complicated reason...?"

"That's...that's exactly right! Actually—"

"but!"

Without warning, the dormitory supervisor's hands reached out and landed precisely on Shirai Kuroko's shoulders. His left hand slid up to firmly embrace the back of her neck, while his right hand gently rested on her chin.

"If I were to find out the reasons one by one and listen to everyone's explanation from beginning to end, then I would lose my authority as a dormitory supervisor."

A crisp click sounded particularly loud in the quiet corridor.

In an instant, Shirai Kuroko's body lost all strength. Her hands fell limply to her sides, her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings untied.

The dorm supervisor released her grip, letting Shirai Kuroko fall to the floor in a contorted position. She straightened up, wiped her hands with a handkerchief, and then slowly swept her gaze across the other three people present.

Misaka Mikoto stood ramrod straight, her feet together. The lingering sparks of electricity on her forehead had vanished the instant the dormitory supervisor appeared, more efficiently than if she had turned off a switch herself. Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko had already peeked out from behind the damaged door of their room, embracing each other tightly, barely daring to breathe.

"Where there is guilt, there is punishment..."

The dormitory supervisor pushed up her triangular-framed glasses, the corridor lights still illuminating the mirrors a blinding white. The corners of her mouth seemed to curve upwards at an almost imperceptible angle.

Don't you think so?

"Misaka?"

"Yes...yes!"