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

The morning sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, dividing the dormitory room into two halves of light and shadow. The room was unusually stuffy due to the power outage the previous night, and even the dry quilts felt heavy and damp.

Today is July 20th, the first day of summer vacation.

Kamijou Touma woke up to a strange sensation, feeling the stuffiness from the broken air conditioner, and a soft, slightly cool weight with a faint, unfamiliar fragrance.

He groggily opened his eyes, the first thing he saw being a patch of long, grayish-white hair scattered on the pillow. Then, he realized that he was holding a warm body in his arms—the nameless girl he had brought back.

She curled up like a child lacking security, her cheek pressed against his chest, her breathing even and long. Touma's white shirt was too big for her; the collar had slipped down, revealing a section of her fair shoulder and delicate collarbone.

"Whoa—!!!"

Kamijou Touma's sleepiness was instantly shattered. He sat bolt upright as if electrocuted, scrambling to the side, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of his chest.

He clearly slept on the floor last night! When... how did he end up on the bed?! He frantically checked his clothes, then looked at the bed, only to find it empty; the girl was lying on his slept-on-the-floor bed.

The girl was startled awake by his movement. Her gray eyes slowly opened, revealing no trace of the confusion of just waking up, only their usual emptiness and calm. She sat up, her oversized shirt slipping down even further, but she seemed oblivious, simply watching Kamijou, whose face was flushed and who was at a loss for what to do.

"Good...good morning..." Touma Kamijou stammered, looking away, his cheeks burning hot. "You...how did you...get on the ground?"

The girl tilted her head, seemingly trying to understand. After a few seconds, she replied in standard, emotionless Japanese, "Hot...it's cool here...Touma, are you feeling unwell?"

"..." Touma Kamijou was speechless. He remembered that the dormitory air conditioner had also stopped working after the power outage last night, and the room was indeed very stuffy. But wasn't this reason a bit too direct? And what did "uncomfortable" even mean?

Just then, a shrill cell phone ringtone saved the extremely awkward atmosphere. Kamijou frantically found his phone, and the screen displayed "Komoe-sensei".

"Feed...feed?"

"Good morning, Kamijou-kun~" came the energetic voice from the other end of the phone, but to Kamijou it sounded like a devil's whisper. "First day of summer vacation, no slacking off! I've prepared a special 'Summer Tutoring Package' just for you! It's at 9:00 AM, at our usual spot at school, see you there! If you're late, there will be a 'punishment of love' waiting for you~!"

"Tutoring?!" Touma Kamijou felt a wave of dizziness. He'd almost forgotten about it! Before meeting the nameless girl, his life revolved around "misfortune" and "summer tutoring"!

"Yes! I'm working really hard to make sure my lovely students don't fall behind! See you later, Kamijou-kun!" Ms. Komoe cheerfully hung up the phone.

Touma Kamijou clutched his phone, on the verge of tears. Looking at this new nuisance in the room, and thinking about the upcoming tutoring session, he felt his misfortune had reached its peak.

"What a misfortune..." he sighed, resignedly starting to tidy up. At least he had to deal with the blankets that hadn't been aired out last night because of the mess.

He picked up the slightly damp quilt and walked towards the balcony, still muttering to himself about his troubles regarding tutoring, living expenses, and the mysterious girl beside him. He opened the glass door to the balcony.

Then, he froze.

What was drying there was not the empty railing he had imagined.

The person drying there was a girl dressed in a pure white nun's robe.

"ah!?"

The quilt in my hand fell to the ground with a "plop."

The scene before them was more bizarre than they could have imagined. A foreign girl who looked to be fourteen or fifteen years old leaned against the balcony railing, her body hunched over, her arms and legs hanging limply at her sides, as if she had fainted and was hanging there. Her waist-length silver hair, hanging down, obscured her face and swayed slightly in the morning breeze. Her pure white monastic robe, adorned with ornate gold embroidery, stood out starkly against the backdrop of Academy City.

Touma Kamijou's brain short-circuited for a moment. He hadn't even finished dealing with one nameless girl, and now another one was hanging on the balcony?! What day is today?!

He approached cautiously, tentatively asking, "Feed...feed? Are you alright? How did you end up hanging on my balcony...?"

Before she could finish speaking, the hanging girl suddenly moved. With incredible flexibility, she raised her head, her silver hair slid aside, revealing a fair and delicate face with cute freckles, and a pair of bright green eyes that were now sparkling with curiosity and hunger.

"My stomach...I'm hungry..."

"hello…?"

The girl hanging on the balcony repeated, "I'm hungry."

"She speaks Japanese?" Touma Kamijou looked at the white-haired girl who was putting on her clothes with a puzzled expression, and then looked at the white-haired nun in front of him.

"I said I'm hungry..." The white-haired nun repeated herself, seeing that Touma Kamijou didn't react much.

"Um... do you mean you're telling me you're someone who's starved to death on the street?" Touma Kamijou took a step back and asked, puzzled.

"You could say they starved to death on the street." The white-haired nun agreed with Touma Kamijou's assessment, but used a stronger adjective. "Um... if you could feed me, I'd be very grateful..."

Touma Kamijou gave a strange look, then went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. The refrigerator hadn't been powered on since the power outage last night, meaning the contents had been sitting unheated all night in the sweltering summer heat.

Kamijou Touma pinched his nose with his left hand and held the sour-smelling fried noodle bread in his right hand, then went to the balcony and handed it to the white-haired nun.

"If you don't mind, how about this?"

"Thank you so much, I'll start eating now!" The white-haired nun quickly finished thanking her and took a bite of the fried bread, along with Touma's hand.

"ah--!"

Kamijou placed a mahjong table beside the bed, and the three of them sat around it. The white-haired nun looked at Kamijou, blinked, and then said in clear Japanese:

"First, please allow me to introduce myself."

"..." Kamijou's lips twitched. "Why don't you explain why it's hanging on my balcony first..."

My name is Index.

"I hope someone will believe this is your real name! What Index? Should I just call you 'Catalogue' instead?"

"As you can see, I'm a clergyman. Ah, here's the important part. Not the Vatican system, but the Anglican system." Index leaned forward, as if this was the key point.

"I don't understand that stuff, and don't try to avoid my questions!" Touma Kamijou placed his hands on the round table, looking at the white-haired nun opposite him.

"Hmm... the Index of Forbidden Books thing is a bit hard to explain... Ah, my magic name is Dedictus545."

"Hey? Hello? Excuse me, which alien's radio waves am I receiving right now?"

Kamijou Touma looked at the silver-haired nun who called herself Index and acted strangely, then glanced back at the nameless girl in the room who had just gotten up and was sitting quietly to the side, observing everything with curious gray eyes.

On the morning of the first day of summer vacation, his dormitory was completely transformed into a shelter for paranormal phenomena.

His unfortunate daily life, accompanied by the call for tutoring and the arrival of two unusual girls, officially set the stage for chaos.