Published at 13th of December 2021 2:47 pm

Volume 5, Chapter 1: A Year Ending, a Wallet Emptying, a Struggle Ensuing – Winter_Vacation.

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Part 1

The girl wore a white apron over a blue dress.

She wore short sleeves even in late December. She wore white tights over her skinny legs and she wore black patent leather shoes even though this was Japan and she was indoors. Her long blonde hair was decorated with a pair of pointy curls that resembled animal ears. The round white fluffball on the back of her apron may have been meant as a rabbit tail.

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………What I’m getting from this is it’s time for some Toumacide.”

“Index-san, you already chomped me on the back of the head a few times, so could you not invent an ugly new word right now?”

Kamijou Touma was so far past his limit he only smiled gently while making his suggestion.

“This is yummy!!”

The Western girl understood Japanese yet refused to remove her shoes no matter how many times she was asked. Presently, she was kicking her little feet below the glass table. She was already in a good mood and she smiled innocently when her eyes met Kamijou’s. She looked like a perfect little doll, but when she spoke, she demonstrated a warmth that swept aside that cold image.

Index glared over at her.

“How did this small child get in our room?”

“Pff. Says a girl who looks like she would land on the balcony after collapsing from hunger.”

“Shut up!! L-l-l-l-like I would ever do that!!”

“Now, now. You both seem about the same to me,” said Kamijou, hoping to mediate the situation. He ended up rolling on the floor from an Index bite.

The mug the blonde girl held in her little hands contained the Kamijou Touma Special Blend – a dark sludge brewed from black tea leaves reused well past their limit with a drop of caramel and the little bit of potato starch leftover at the bottom of the bag. If classy Misaka Mikoto had seen this, she might just have fainted (both from the horrific contents and the fact that he just dumped the tea in a mug), but this was a trick he had learned during his New Year’s Tokyo survival life. From a cabbage core to a fish head, even the toughest and bitterest ingredient could be made edible if you softened it up in a pressure cooker and added something sweet or spicy! Humanity, now is the time to praise honey-flavored ultra-sweet syrup (flavored with god knows what) and discount curry powder (containing a mystery blend of spices)!! Kamijou Touma would be dead right now if not for them!!!!!

It was eight in the morning.

He would need to leave soon for Komoe-sensei’s rundown apartment for a winter break supplementary lesson. But he needed to deal with this girl first. After all, this was a matter of life or death for him.

In fact, he was a little afraid to make a hasty decision here.

Eh? Where did this girl even come from?

And wait. Does this mean we have to look after her now? He was starting to act so unusual that Anti-Skill would have taken him in for questioning if he were outside. See, it was December 29 and he only had 1580 yen left. That was all he had to keep himself, Index, Othinus, and the cat alive until the ATMs started back up on January 4, so why did he have to have a mystery guest now!? Wasn’t this as much of a threat as looking down and finding a colorful snake sinking its fangs into his foot!?

“So who even is this extreme lost girl?”

“The girl’s name is Alice.”

“Index, explain.”

“With only that to go on? That’s probably the 1st or 2nd most popular girl’s name in the UK. I think it’s even used as a sample name on government forms.”

So it was like Tarou or Hanako. Which meant it wasn’t much of a hint.

Alice referred to herself as “the girl”.

Almost like she was talking about someone else. She had an otherworldly quality to her and she showed no caution around strangers like Kamijou and Index. It was like she alone was weirdly detached from reality. Yes, she felt like Snow White, Red Riding Hood, or another character from a fairy tale where no real danger existed.

Kamijou Touma held a hand to his chin and groaned with a serious look on his face.

“None of this makes sense. This is Academy City in Japan. My room smells like soy sauce. Why would I wake up and randomly find a British girl here?”

“Touma, I’m feeling kind of attacked over here.”

Come to think of it, he had no actual proof that Alice was British. Kamijou Touma, you gave her that sorry excuse for black tea yourself, so don’t let it influence your impression of her.

(What do I even do? We don’t have a gentle and beautiful dorm manger here, so should I call Anti-Skill? But I want to avoid trouble if I can. Oh, but if they take me in for questioning, they might serve me katsudon?)

Whatever he was going to do, he had a supplementary lesson to get to.

But before that, he had to prepare some breakfast or Index would starve while he was out.

“I don’t have much of a choice. I’ll figure out what to do with Alice later, so for now I’ll break out the bread I was keeping in reserve. So the time has come to open our final loaf. These six slices are the last real food we have left. Our path forward gets a lot worse at lunch today, so prepare yourself, Inde-”

He trailed off.

It was gone.

The bag had been right there next to the rice cooker that was dead weight now that they were out of rice. Well, the plastic bag was technically still there. The problem was how it was balled up and shoved into a small gap with the crucial six slices of bread nowhere to be found!

When he turned to look at Index, she refused to look him in the eye.

Come to think of it, Index had spent the night tending to an empty stomach just like he had, so where had she found the excess energy for all that anger?

15cm Othinus was lying face down on a shelf nearby and she used the strawberry jam on her index finger to write out a message on the shelf: Index.

“H-how…how could you do this? You got up in the middle of the night and ate all six slices of bread while I was in the bathroom and wouldn’t notiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!???”

“There are no rules in the life-or-death struggle of our New Year’s Tokyo survival life, Touma. And if you’re that keen on being honorable, then what ever happened to lady’s first?”

Part 2

Real name unknown. Commonly known as Accelerator.

He has been found guilty of 36,025 charges including killing more than 10 thousand people, organized crime such as aiding and abetting the creation of clone humans for experimental purposes, assault, bodily harm, property damage, and violation of the Swords and Firearms Control Law. Altogether, he has been sentenced to 12 thousand years. The Juvenile Act provides some hope for a minor defendant’s future, but there is no chance of overturning a sentence that large.

The time limit for filing an appeal has passed, so the sentence will stand.

A hard, cold sound echoed out.

It was followed by more of the same, but too irregularly to call a rhythm.

This was District 10’s Special Criminal Adult Correctional Facility.

80% of Academy City’s residents were students, but it still needed a prison to hold adults. It was also a giant cage for secretly holding the monsters the ordinary juvenile hall couldn’t manage. Although that second part was a system secretly created specifically for Accelerator.

The sound traveled down an underground passageway not found on the official plans.

“…”

“…”

An androgynous monster walked down the passageway flanked by strict uniformed prison guards. But the two guards did not exchange any words – only the occasional sidelong glance. Their orderly footsteps were disturbed by the third set between them. It threw them off their tempo and took control of the space.

The clacking of a cane was joined by the jangling of thick chains.

The monster had white hair and red eyes.

The passageway was long and straight. The place was known as a correctional facility, but letting a criminal see this floor, which wasn’t even supposed to exist, was as good as saying they would never see the light of day again. And if the people who went in here never left, the thick metal doors lining the walls might as well have been a sterile graveyard.

(They’re ready to put some others in here as planned. But the official juvenile hall would have sufficed if not for me.)

At the very end of the passageway was a thick circular door, much like a bank vault. And it had two layers just like at a semiconductor plant.

“D-door open.”

“Bringing in Prisoner #1890. E-enter. R-right nyow!”

He almost felt bad hearing the guard’s voice cracking like that.

Quiet metallic sounds continued for a while afterwards. It took 20 full seconds for the guard to get the key in the keyhole on the handcuffs. Unlike a cell with ordinary metal bars, the prisoner couldn’t be put in and then stick out just their hands to have the cuffs removed. Instead, they used that massive door which felt like it would cause security problems of its own.

The space inside was about the size of a school classroom. It had no windows, so it could be immediately rendered pitch black if the power was shut off, robbing its occupant of all forms of freedom.

Accelerator took a look around and sighed in exasperation.

“The hell is this?”

He saw some things that shouldn’t be here.

In fact, the place was flooded with stuff.

A home theater’s big screen TV and vacuum tube audio system, a microwave, a fridge, a leather chair, a large ebony desk with a computer and tablet sitting on it, bookshelves covered in specialty books, and strange artwork. The phone on the wall suggested he could order room service 24/7. He even had an ornate tea set and a selection of tea leaves from around the world. He didn’t even want to consider how much clothing there was in the closet.

It looked like the jailors had outdone themselves in welcoming their new Board Chairman.

(God, it feels like I wanted to go meditate in the mountains and they leveled an entire forest to build an Olympic Village for me.)

Disgusted, Accelerator threw himself onto the king size bed without even removing his shoes. He stared up at the ceiling and snapped his fingers.

Several loud and distorted sounds mixed together like space itself was straining under some kind of pressure. That was his vector control. Academy City’s #1 Level 5 had redirected the sound waves in a single direction and the result finally earned a satisfied nod from him.

His disgust would have grown if that had blown open the wall or door, but it had all held.

“I suppose it meets my minimum specifications.”

Board Chairman Aleister had worked from deep inside the Windowless Building. Accelerator had once used the earth’s rotational energy to attack that building, but he had failed to bring down the skyscraper.

That meant Academy City had the technology needed to forcibly suppress and counteract the #1’s power.

This was all meaningless if he was granted exceptions and could come and go if the situation demanded it. At the very least, he needed this to function as a cage.

Massive inward-facing armor surrounded him in all directions.

This was his life now. He had accepted his sentence and cast out his own freedom, but he had not turned in his authority as the city’s ruler.

It was time to get started on his work as the new Board Chairman.

Still lying in the king size bed, he grabbed the TV remote and twirled it in his hand. He didn’t even need to press the button. His vector control power could redirect just the IR wavelength of the overhead fluorescent lights to send a simple signal to switch on the TV hanging on the wall.

“There is admittedly no material evidence like bloodstains, but Accelerator himself admitted to killing the clones and he was found guilty in a court of law. This will inevitably dampen the sensitive students’ desire to learn.”

“It is late December, the final stretch for students preparing for entrance exams. This distrust in not just one of Academy City’s Level 5s but the #1 is worrying.”

“Due to the time of year, these demonstrations are being spread under the hashtag ‘Winter Cleaning’ and dedicated communities are popping up all over the internet. In fact, if you look at Academy City’s shopping district right now…”

(Another peaceful day.)

He snorted in laughter, but he realized he wasn’t much better since he was using his power for trivialities without worrying about his electrode battery. Noting that being surrounded by thick walls has its pros and its cons, the white monster growled a name. The door had opened, so he knew she would have entered with him.

“Show yourself, Qliphah Puzzle 545.”

Part 3

Whatever else was going on, he still had his supplementary lesson to get to.

Not only was he teetering on the precipice of being held back, he was cautiously hopeful that he might get some snacks to eat at Komoe-sensei’s rundown apartment.

He was accompanied by a girl who looked ready to skip if he took his eyes off her for a moment. In fact, the round white fluffball on the back of her apron was already wiggling side to side. He wasn’t sure if that doll-like dress would be too warm or too cold, but she seemed happy enough. Still, her short sleeves made him wonder if she had no fear of the north wind. Her skirt was fairly long, but that hardly mattered with how fluttery it was. If it caught on a fence or tree branch, he would be able to see everything. Even now, it was providing glimpses of her thighs in the white tights.

“Hm, hm, hm, hm.”

“It doesn’t really matter, but why did you come with me, Alice?”

“Um, why didn’t you bring the nun girl with you?”

Because she would make it really hard to focus on his lesson.

Alice didn’t understand that and just looked confused. She still had that gentle, otherworldly atmosphere to her. Then again, staying in the dreary dorm would have meant staying with Index who had eaten the last real calorie source outside of the mixed fish crunchy cat food, so joining Kamijou may have been the right choice.

(What do I do with her anyway?)

Kamijou Touma was at a loss.

He had lost sight of what was normal after taking in Index, a cat, and a god, but there had to be a serious story behind this mystery girl. When he asked her about it, she only gave him a smile of 100% optimism, which didn’t tell him much. Was she lost? Had she run away from home? He wasn’t sure how to describe the situation on the paperwork, but wasn’t this worth a visit to an Anti-Skill station?

“Wait, this is actually perfect timing. Komoe-sensei is an adult even if she doesn’t look it and informing a teacher at school would be my best bet here.”

“?”

Whether she understood the situation or not, Alice cutely tilted her head while walking by his side.

“A biochemistry group comprised mostly of college students was just arrested in Nuremberg, Germany. They allegedly purchased and operated lab equipment in order to manipulate human DNA and create a human with less than 50% water content.”

“I told you. I told all of you. This is a grave situation. Recognizing the human rights of clones sounds nice, but that also lowers the psychological barriers for those who would create them.”

“There are rumors that the speedy arrest was thanks to benevolent and unofficial cooperation from Academy City, but the press officer strongly denies it and says we must pay careful attention to the changes in science ethics in academia.”

The news was playing on the large screen installed on the belly of a blimp floating by in the chilly sky overhead.

Alice ignored it all and focused on a nearby convenience store instead. More specifically, on the banner set up in front of the store.

“Look, they have a new marmalade shark fin-”

“No.”

“They have a new marmalade shark fin foie gras bun!!”

“Don’t plow on through it with a smile after I stop you! The answer is no! I only have 1580 yen left to get through this New Year’s Tokyo survival life! And why the hell are they putting shark fin in meat buns and soup cups!? That price is way too low for comfort! And the marmalade up front would definitely ruin the rest of it!!”

“Ehh?”

“Don’t tilt your head with that ‘what are you good for then’ look, Alice. Nothing’s as scary as a girl lowering her voice when she questions you. It’s a one-hit kill for any teenage boy’s heart.”

“But the girl wants a dangerous adventure.”

“Yeah, I’m sure an adventure paid for out of someone else’s pocket is a whole lot of fun!! I get that you’re hungry after Index hoovered up all the bread, but convenience stores are not the answer. As long as you know how to cook, the supermarket or the discount store’s family-sized items are the most cost effective options. Um, Alice? Wait, stop! Don’t order it! As soon as the clerk picks up one of the hot snacks, you can’t return it! Noooooooooooooooooo!?”

And.

After knocking since the doorbell was broken, the door opened and the 135cm teacher, Tsukuyomi Komoe, emerged looking puzzled.

“Sniff, sniff. What’s that wonderful smell? Kamijou-chan, you stopped for some food on the way, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, and now I’m not going to live to see the new year.”

“?”

She looked even more puzzled as she welcomed them into the small room.

Alice tilted her head while clinging to Kamijou’s side.

“She’s the same height as the girl, but she seems different somehow.”

“Trust your intuition there, Alice. Do you see the empty beer cans in the corner of the room? Those aren’t a non-alcoholic trick. Also take note of the very full ashtray on the tea table. You’re looking at the sorrow of a grown teacher – not something either of us would be familiar with.”

Komoe-sensei screamed and scrambled to clean up her room.

And eventually…

“Ahem. Now, Kamijou-chan, please open your textbook to page 58. We’re still talking about esper development, but this section is about the changes in biological and chemical applied technology, so try not to get confused.”

“Ugh, what a pain. Which is which again?”

“Screw this up and you will be doomed to a second freshman year before the third term even begins.”

“I’m prepared to pour every effort into this, so please don’t give up on me already!!”

Alice was still smiling. She was also still wearing her shoes.

With no chairs, Kamijou was seated on the tatami mat floor with his textbook and notes spread out on the tea table, but then Alice attacked his spiky head from behind. He suddenly felt something smooth against his cheeks. By the time he realized that was her legs in the white tights, he felt a weight and a higher body temperature on his shoulders and the back of his neck.

She had decided to hop up on his shoulders for a piggyback ride.

She didn’t seem to care she was wearing a frilly dress. In fact, he didn’t feel that thick skirt, only her thighs squeezing against his cheeks. Did that mean he had been directly invited into that longish skirt given extra volume with panniers!? The instant he focused on that idea, he could have sworn the air rose in temperature like he was in a greenhouse. He felt very trapped.

On top of him, Alice was licking the thin paper for her meat bun like it was the underside of an ice cream cup lid.

“Munch, munch. Yeah, that was pretty bad, teacher☆ The shark fin and foie gras just tasted like marmalade.”

“Do you understand my predicament here, girl!? I’m down to 1160 yen because of you!”

She complained about the flavor, but her little tongue kept teasing the thin paper.

“Surprises like this are fun. That’s what makes it an adventure.”

“Also, why am I your teacher?”

“Kamijou Touma is the girl’s teacher.”

???

Did she mean in Japanese culture, or in having fun in Academy City? He couldn’t always figure out what girls that age were thinking. But was age really the issue here? She seemed a lot more like the kind of incautious 12-year-old you would find in a fairy tale, not like the kind of 12-year-old you would find in the real world. For one thing, what was even the point of this piggyback ride when he was sitting down and it didn’t lift her any higher than standing up would?

“Anyway, you need to get off of me, Alice! I’m on the verge of getting held back, so don’t get in the way!!”

“Yay, it’s the Tick Tock Bunny☆”

“Don’t shake me side to side!! Yikes, yikes, yikes!! If you fall over with my head between your thighs, you’ll snap my neck!!”

“Oh?”

She must not have been that attached to her own idea because the soft weight left him as soon as he made his request.

But not because she was interested in behaving.

“Sneak, sneak, sneak.”

“Alice, what are you- ahh? Don’t crawl under the tea table!”

“Heh heh. Teacher’s lap pillow☆”

She grinned and kept the mischief coming as thick as a barrage of machinegun fire. Silky gold hair fell onto his thighs. The pointy curls resembling animal ears poked gently at his stomach. She had no conception of caution and carried an overall gentle atmosphere. He would be here all day if he tried to get after her for every little thing.

What was happening here, anyway? He was taking his required supplementary lesson and an innocent blonde girl was crawling under his table while his teacher watched. Yet the girl was so oblivious to the problem there that she smiled and squirmed around in a rather disturbing way!

Worse, the tea table was far too small to hide what was going on.

It was more like a tortoise shell than anything, so Alice’s hands and legs stuck out from below. Komoe-sensei could see it all from her position.

For once, that teacher had the eyes of a dead fish.

“Um, Kamijou-chan? Do you care so little about staying at school that you’re willing to play sea turtle during your supplementary lesson?”

“Wait, are you suggesting I could end up expelled and not just held back!? Okay, I’ll study, I’ll study! Please don’t give up on me!!”

Part 4

A heavy metal thud echoed out.

The words spoken by the non-Anti-Skill guards in charge of locking up the metal bars were powerful but cold. They were like an icy shout that squeezed the hearts of all who heard it. Watching over cells was an ancient job dating back to BCE times. In children’s books, they sometimes took the form of monsters whose screams or songs could take lives – an idea that may have come from hearing voices like this.

“Lock ABC check!”

“Repeat. Lock ABC check!”

“Repeat confirmed. Next!! #0003, check lock and restraints!!”

However, this was not the giant prison in District 10.

It was a prison transport train named Overhunting.

Its composite armor was 200mm thick on the sides, 120mm thick on the roof where it was thinnest, and more than 800mm thick on the front. It was built more like a shelter than a train. Increase it any further and it would be so heavy it would damage the metal wheels and rails.

It had a special 7-car design, but not all of those were packed full of prisoners. The front and back cars were both engine cars containing a massive motor and an emergency battery. The 2nd and 6th cars were weapon cars loaded with containers of ground-attack rockets and a domed anti-air optical weapon built to glass laser standards. The 3rd car was a waiting area for the armed guards. So despite the large size of the armored train, only the 4th and 5th cars were used to carry prisoners.

The city’s administrative functions were gathered in District 1, so it was no stranger to amusing rumors regarding the railway and subway system. But did any of those government workers with suits and perfectly parted hair know there were subway platforms below the prisons and courthouses that were missing from all of the official diagrams?

“Sigh.”

“What’s wrong, Matsuriba? Did your pick-me-up coffee upset your stomach?”

The young newcomer waved a dismissive hand at the female driver’s cold question. They were walking across the special platform to the driver’s compartment in the front, but seeing that black and blue train covered in thick armor made him feel blue himself. Opening the door during the final check had been a bad idea.

He had seen something he very much wished he hadn’t.

It had looked an awful lot like the small food cart wheeled down the aisle on a normal train, but this was very different. It was the kind of thick cage used to transport animals. You weren’t supposed to use something like that to hold a human being. Worse, the person crammed inside the much-too-small space had looked like a girl of only 10 or 12.

“Hanatsuyu Youen. They called her a ghost of Operation Handcuffs, didn’t they?”

The young driver absentmindedly placed his hand on the side of his pants.

It was an easy mistake to make since they worked in a public facility and wore uniforms, but Japan’s railroad workers worked for private companies, not the government. They had none of the authority of law enforcement groups like Anti-Skill and Judgment.

Nevertheless, he wore two black synthetic leather holsters on the side of his pants. They held nonmetal handcuffs and a cheap 5-shot revolver.

He knew things were a mess aboveground. District 1 was normally peaceful, but it was also a prime target for protests.

This special subway station never saw any ordinary customers, but the LCD advertisements wrapped around the pillars were as lively as ever.

“The Winter Cleaning begins now!!”

“Just look at R&C Occultics and Academy City’s #1! We can’t let the tyranny of those elites continue! The harmless average citizen like us need to keep those monsters in check!!”

“Don’t let them hoard power! Tax the rich! It’s all that excess wealth that lets them cover up their misdeeds. Return that money to the people!!”

That was the public opinion these days. It hadn’t helped that the breakup of R&C Occultics and the arrest of the #1 had happened at the same time. The young driver knew the special prisoners who survived Handcuffs would be torn to pieces by the angry students if they weren’t defended, but he hated how he became a target of their anger too just because he was carrying special extralegal equipment like handcuffs and a handgun. The deluge of angry voices coming from the monitor distracted him to no end.

Once he set foot on this train, the protections of Academy City’s Swords and Firearms Control Law no longer applied. It was governed by entirely different rules, like an embassy or consulate. The train qualified as part of a special prison where taking one step out of line would get you shot.

The female driver, who also carried a revolver fixed to herself with a cord, seemed much more accustomed to it.

“Don’t let it get to you. The difficulty of the driving is the same whether we’re transporting powdered milk or fuel rods.”

There were a few more inhumane pushcart cages, but they all carried villains who couldn’t be transported in ordinary prisoner transport vehicles.

These were the survivors of the sweep of the cruel and violent dark side.

They had been safely captured by Anti-Skill, but according to rumor, they had gone through hell on earth and it was a miracle they were still alive at all. Their survival itself was all the proof anyone needed they were indeed monsters. The damage would be devastating if they were allowed to escape.

“Matsuriba.”

“Yes, yes. I know!”

The young driver adjusted his flat hat and hurried after the more experienced woman. She didn’t look back as she gave him an instruction in a low voice.

“Repeat our schedule for me one last time.”

“I’m not a trainee who freezes up in the simulator. Ahem, the Overhunting is scheduled to depart at precisely 1700 hours. We will travel south from District 1, pass through District 7, and arrive in District 10. Our final stop is the unofficial station below the Special Criminal Adult Correctional Facility. It should be a pleasant 30-minute trip.”

“Very good.”

The city’s subways only covered a third of Tokyo. They weren’t going to have a Siberian-style train journey.

Of course, maintaining a railroad at usable levels was very expensive. Look into the struggles of the rural routes that were always in the red and that becomes readily apparent. Normally, no one would even consider a prisoner transport train that might only be used a few times a year. Without regular traffic from travelers and freight, rail travel just wasn’t realistic.

That meant someone considered this to be worth the cost.

Someone wanted to safely and reliably transport violent criminals by train even if it was like shoveling stacks of cash into the fire instead of coal.

“It’s impressive when you think about it.” The young driver was not talking about the abnormal amount of weaponry installed on the armored train. “Trains are the easiest type of vehicle to ambush. If you know where they’re going, you can derail it by removing a piece of the rail somewhere along the way. So to make this trip ‘safe and reliable’, they’re really telling us to keep going full speed ahead even if the light changes or the crossing is malfunctioning. That way, if someone does attack to try and rescue the prisoners, they’ll only cause a devastating accident that kills everyone onboard. It’s a suicidal message to any would-be attackers: you won’t get what you want, so don’t even try it. In other words…”

He couldn’t bring himself to say the rest.

Academy City’s higher ups were telling the drivers to ensure they would be torn to mincemeat along with the criminals if anything happened. Their lives were considered a small price to pay to ensure those criminals did not escape. Not a pleasant message for someone who had lived a good and honest life.

The somewhat older female driver adjusted the angle of her flat hat and responded in an exasperated tone.

“That’s why operating the Overhunting comes with a juicy bonus on top of the ordinary pay. This one 30-minute trip earns us enough to buy a cruiser. Not even operating a luxury European sleeper train pays that well.”

“What, are you strapped for cash? Personally, getting paid this much for train operation scares me. This isn’t like being passed a basket and tongs and told to go catch some tuna.”

“I’ve gotten tangled up in my fair share of trouble during my decade working on the railroad, but I’ve never seen a job like this before. And if I needed money, I’d start trading stocks instead of risking my life. Did you know Australia’s railroad construction industry is hot right now?”

“Then why?”

“The same reason people still tinker with old steam locomotives in this age of CO2 hate and even make their own reproductions of parts that aren’t manufactured any longer. It’s an armored train! These inefficient and unprofitable toys are as rare as a Yamato-class battleship nowadays. This might be the only place still running one.”

“Wait, don’t tell me…”

“I have a feeling getting into this business for nonweird reasons puts you in the minority, Matsuriba. We all have the same sign carved into our souls, but tread carefully when you choose whether to call us railfans, train buffs, train otaku, train girls, train brains, or whatever else. Now, let’s get to work!”

Part 5

The supplementary lesson did not end until evening.

Komoe-sensei was being especially strict today, so there was no snack break. Kamijou Touma had failed to acquire a crucial source of nutrition. Alice had enjoyed herself with a smile on her face throughout, so she may have confused the apartment with an amusement park.

(Ugh, what do I do now? I just hope Index and Othinus haven’t cast out their dignity and started eating the cat food.)

“By the way, Komoe-sensei, what are you doing for dinner?”

“Well, since looking after you took up my entire day, I don’t have time to fix anything, so I’m having something delivered. Oh, here it is. Thank goodness for smartphones.”

The doorbell did not ring, so she must have noticed the quiet click of the broken button. The 135cm teacher walked to the thin front door. The bicycle delivery person was another high schooler who must have decided their New Year’s money wouldn’t be enough.

(Huh, so you can work jobs like that as long as you have a phone? Wow, modern technology opens up so many opportunities.)

Kamijou was legitimately impressed, but then he realized he didn’t have a bicycle. He checked the mall website with his old folks phone, found they cost 5000 yen even on sale, and fell further into depression.

He stared intently at what his teacher received.

“Wh-what!? Those boxy cardboard packages… Wait just a second! Am I dreaming? Those are the legendary Chinese takeout boxes I thought only existed in movies!!”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Kamijou-chan, do not assume your narrow view of the world has shown you everything the planet has to offer. Red Town is in fact a monstrous global chain that made the word yakisoba a household term across the globe. Really, Japan is behind the times here.”

Komoe-sensei opened the top of the tall package like a blossoming flower.

It was red.

“Eh? Huh?”

Kamijou Touma wasn’t sure he really wanted to see this. He felt faint as the toxic red of ketchup stabbed into his eyeballs. This was supposed to be yakisoba, but for whatever reason it had a ton of sliced olives in it, that stuff melted on the top had to be pizza cheese, and his nose detected the sweet aroma of cinnamon. Sprinkled on top where you might expect red pickled ginger were red cranberries. If they had to go with something Western, couldn’t they have at least used some kind of pickle?

“Um, Sensei? You’re, uh, sure this is supposed to be yakisoba?”

“Mmm, there’s nothing quite like Los Angeles style☆ I wonder if it goes well with beer?”

Amazingly, this didn’t appear to be a bad joke.

Really, he should have expected something that barely resembled real Chinese food when they started using a Japanese word like yakisoba instead of an actual Chinese dish name written with complicated hanzi. Like a game of telephone, something had gone horribly wrong as things moved from one country to another. He was no longer willing to try and get a bite of her food. This was a culinary bucking bronco that would throw off any beginner who tried it. His chance at some zero-cost nutrition had gone out the window.

After nervously leaving the apartment with Alice (who was still grinning like she hadn’t noticed the threat), he tilted his head.

“Wait, was that something like udon carbonara? It might have been perfectly fine if I threw out my rigid Japanese preconceptions.”

“Udon carbonara!!”

“I’m not buying you any, Alice. No, stop! Don’t throw your hands in the air and run over to that convenience store!”

After the financial blow that had cost him earlier, he quickly grabbed the collar of her dress to stop her. That was enough for her fine blonde hair to spread out and give him a glimpse of her slender nape. Was charging in headfirst the only card in this girl’s deck? But unlike the comfy neighborhood supermarket, convenience stores didn’t have free samples for kids to munch on.

She seemed to mistake this for some kind of game because she laughed and flailed her arms and legs around, the fluffball on the back of her apron shaking every which way. She still had the gentle atmosphere of a storybook character.

“Then what will you get to eat on the way home?”

“Do you see what’s inside my wallet here, you stupid girl? I only have one 1000 yen bill and enough to cover the sales tax! And why are you still with me!? I thought I left you in Komoe-sensei’s care!”

“Tsukuyomi Komoe is not the teacher.”

“What? Um, Alice, I know she’s only 135cm, but she is a schoolteacher.”

“But she is not the girl’s teacher.”

???

Did she just have a weird way of talking, or was this supposed to be some kind of riddle? She seemed to operate on some unique fairy tale logic. She always smiled innocently and had no hesitation in her eyes. She didn’t seem to just be making it up as she went along and there did seem to be some internally consistent rules that worked as her own 1+1=2, but Kamijou couldn’t imagine what they were.

(Well, classes are out for the break, so unless they have club activities to supervise, the adults of Anti-Skill will be out patrolling. They are teachers on the inside.)

“Teacher, what is wrong?”

“Nothing…”

He wasn’t sure why he was so hesitant to say it out loud. He had already left Alice in Komoe-sensei’s care only for the girl to escape. He didn’t know where she came from, but could she have carefreely slipped away from somewhere before ending up at his dorm room? Saying he was going to leave her with someone else might just give her time to prepare to escape again.

“To the station! Everyone to the station! They’re broadcasting live!”

“You mean there are TV cameras there? Now’s our chance to get our voices heard!”

Some young people ran by carrying homemade signs talking about the Winter Cleaning. They were hiding their identities with scarves and construction masks over their mouths and sunglasses and ski goggles over their eyes, but it looked more like they were putting on a show for the cameras than participating in any kind of serious underground activities. The college students hanging out on the roadside drinking cans of a fruity alcoholic drink didn’t seem connected to that in any way. The city looked peaceful at first, but there were signs it was on edge. There was a risk of trouble unrelated to the Winter Cleaning cropping up somewhere. Night was falling, so he was honestly afraid to leave young Alice alone out here even if she wasn’t strictly his problem.

(If it wouldn’t cause any trouble, I’d be fine looking after her for a few days, but wouldn’t her parents or dorm manager be worried once it gets dark? Especially with how things are right now.)

“Alice, do you have a phone with you?”

“Phone?”

She tilted her head at his question.

It was unusual to find someone without any kind of mobile device these days, but her clothing was unusual too. Was she someone’s sheltered daughter? He understood being concerned about what your child might see online, but…no, that wasn’t the point. He decided to focus on something else here.

“Hm? Heh heh. Do you like the dress?”

She spread her arms and innocently showed herself off, but he was more interested in the fact that he couldn’t see any kind of GPS security buzzer on her doll dress. That suggested her unseen parents hadn’t just cautiously cut her off from the internet. It felt careless.

Anyway, it wasn’t looking like he could get her to show him her address book so he could call whoever looked after her.

(This is looking worse all the time. But I can’t just leave her out in the city for the night.)

“The ATMs start back up on January 4. That’s about a week from now. And if she keeps buying food, the 0-yen lifestyle of my nightmares will be here by the end of the day!!”

“Hmm?” Alice walked alongside Kamijou, a small index finger on her lips and her head tilting. “But you don’t seem to be returning to your dorm room.”

Of course he wasn’t.

He was living the New Year’s Tokyo survival life with no food back at the dorm since Index had devoured all six slices of bread in a single night. The 1160 yen in his wallet was all he had. If he didn’t secure some highly cost effective food immediately, he would be starving to death not in the sweltering desert or on an icy mountain but in his own dorm room. He would have to resort to licking the ketchup out of the leftover packets that came with convenience store frankfurters.

“If I don’t want Index to eat it all, it can’t be bread, cookies, or anything else edible as is. I need uncooked ingredients like rice, meat, and vegetables. And the longer they keep, the more I can buy at a bulk discount price!! Now we’re talking!!”

“Wow, they have a multi-tiered osechi set!”

“Did a convenience store send you as a financial saboteur!? And that thing only has fish paste and small fish in it, but they’re still charging more than 5000 yen for it!! Which is more than I can afford, by the way!!”

This time, convenience stores were truly off limits.

Discount stores had more premade stuff, so even if he bought a large discount package, it would probably all be in Index’s stomach by tomorrow morning. That meant his best bet was stopping by a supermarket and buying rice, meat, or other ingredients that couldn’t be cooked before eating, but he had to be careful there as well. Yes, if he let the 10% off sticker distract him, he might overlook the expiration date and up with nothing but food that needed to be eaten by the end of the day.

Kamijou Touma could not just survive the day.

His only path to survival was a long-term plan that brought him through to January 4, so rushing toward a really good sale could be dangerous.

(If I want ingredients at rock bottom prices, an industrial supermarket is apparently best, but…ugh, I don’t like the looks of this video. There’s an army of murderous middle-aged women grabbing all the products from the shelves.)

All the good stuff would be gone by now and joining that nightmare difficulty battle without the proper resolve could get him crushed to death by the crowd. Grabbing at clothing and hair looked like the norm, so it was much too dangerous to attempt with a baby bird like young Alice in tow. Which meant…

“I guess that would be the only realistic option.”

“Hm?”

Alice cutely tilted her head as Kamijou led the way to a large train station in District 7. However, he was not interested in the proud and judgmental brand-name shops in the station building.

An 18-car train was stopped at the general-use platform that divided up the overcrowded trains.

But this was not a passenger train or a freight train.

It was a large commercial train that functioned like a shopping center.

Alice’s eyes sparkled like a child at the entrance to an amusement park.

“Wh-what is this place?”

“The Delivery Go Round. It’s apparently classified as a larger version of a mobile sales truck. I heard it copied an older izakaya train that traveled between stations doing business.”

“Look, teacher! That’s Japan’s 5-star hamburger steak restaurant!!”

“Are you trying to bankrupt me, girl!? In real life, they don’t send you to the kitchen to wash dishes – they just call Anti-Skill to have you arrested!!”

“That might not be a bad adventure!!”

“If it’s a one-way trip, it isn’t an adventure – it’s called game over.”

At any rate, he had to buy two tickets just to get them through the ticket gate and onto the platform. That left him with 980 yen. If he couldn’t find anything here, he was well and truly screwed.

“Hey, stop right there, Alice. She looks so innocent, but I swear everything she does costs money.”

“What goes best with tea? Hm, this rich cheesecake looks good. But a simple shortcake would be fine just this once.”

Alice was turning into Little Miss Antoinette as he guided her through the cramped platform door and into the stopped train. She hummed a song while twirling in front of a boutique and accessory shop and pressing her tiny hands against the glass cases.

He was afraid of what might happen if he didn’t caution her.

“I don’t have the money to buy anything nonedible.”

“Heh heh. The girl only wants to look. It’s called window shopping! A good way to spend a lazy day off☆”

“Then stop trying to pull me into that pet shop. I said stop, Alice! No, the puppy dog eyes will not work! Beg all you want, I’m not buying you a bunny!!”

Alice looked like she had stepped out of a picture book, so she did make a beautiful image playing with the animals in front of the shop. The manager must have agreed and thought she would help bring in customers because the friendly young man gave her a fluffy white rabbit to hold.

“It’s so cute!!”

“I’m not buying it.”

“The girl wants a rabbit foot. They’re good luck.”

“Eh? Um, Alice-san?”

She was smiling so sweetly, so he wasn’t sure if he had misheard or this was the kind of dark joke only a child could make.

She played with the rabbit for a while, but Kamijou wasn’t buying what he wasn’t buying. She reluctantly waved goodbye and they finally arrived at the 6th and 7th cars. That was the fresh foods section.

To secure more space, the train cars had two levels. The aisle was at the side of the car and the rest of the area was divided into booths. The design may have been based on a foreign sleeper train, but with a plastic shopping basket in hand, it wasn’t that much different from walking through a somewhat cramped shopping district.

“Beef and pork are both out. To maximize cost performance, it’s gotta be chicken. Fools, you think you can trick Kamijou-san by throwing the sinewy, hard-to-cook chicken breasts in the discount section? Heh heh heh.”

“Heh heh.”

“Alice, where did you even find that chocolate? Put it back.”

“Heh heh☆”

“No!! Do not approach me with that big smile, Alice!!”

The trick to cooking on an extreme budget was to make sure you felt full. That was why people tended to focus on udon and pasta. Or they would move from there to konjac and tofu. But that was the standard and the standard wasn’t enough to survive this New Year’s Tokyo survival life.

“Ho ho? What is this oatmeal? It looks like some kind of oat dish.”

After taking a careful look around, he found something cheap enough for his purposes. But he doubted that was the actual price. It was probably being sold below cost to get more people in the habit of buying it.

For vegetables, he had to go for the flawed ones. That would normally lead you to search out the oversized cabbages and lettuces, but leafy vegetables were all water and did little to fill the stomach. He also skipped right past the out-of-season summer vegetables like tomatoes and bell peppers since they were all expensive this time of year. Even though they could be grown year-round in the agro-buildings.

He instead chose a radish that also had edible leaves and a red cabbage that was kept cheap to help expand the market.

Once he was done, the contents of his basket would cost 978 yen after tax. If they ate just two meals a day, it was looking possible to survive until the fourth of the next year when the ATMs started back up.

The young wife cashier (in a bullet train attendant uniform) smiled and gave him his total.

“That will be 1200 yen.”

“Huh? Eh!?”

He had overrun the 980 yen in his wallet.

Had he miscalculated? No, he had carefully checked each price tag, so it should have come out to 978 yen. So what had happened? Confused Kamijou Touma finally noticed a candy box among the products he had removed from his basket and lined up on the checkout counter.

“Alice!! You snuck this into my basket, didn’t you!? Put it back!”

“Why? It’s already open. Munch, munch.”

“I can’t even return it!? Who taught you that trick!?”

“Heh heh☆ Say ‘ah’, teacher.”

Alice smiled and held out one of the candies between her little fingers, but the supermarket was Kamijou Touma’s holy ground and he refused to do anything as rude as eat the food in the store.

But this extra expense required cancelling either the meat or some of the veggies. He knew he couldn’t abandon the chicken. Nor could he send back the carrots and their high beta-carotene content. That left him with no choice but to tearfully release the green onions. He could use as many of them as he could get, but he wouldn’t die without them. It especially hurt that they were only sold in sets of two. He might have been able to afford just the one!

Once he was done shopping, the regret hit him hard.

“C-crap. I shouldn’t have returned the green onions. Goodbye, miso soup. Farewell, hotpot. I should have held onto that all-purpose ingredient!!”

“This says it has healthy GABA in it. Here, teacher. The girl wants you to say ‘ah’.”

“Heh heh heh. What do you need a stress reducer for when you’ve never had a care in the world, Alice?”

“Mhh. Here.”

“Why did you just shut your eyes? Wait, don’t feed it to me mouth-to-mouth!”

The assassin spread her little arms and approached him, but he managed to dodge out of the way. She had caught him completely off guard, so it had been a close call. If she hadn’t shut her eyes, the added homing skill might have given her a direct hit.

“Kisses on the lips are special. They’re not like on the forehead or cheek!”

“Sorry. Mouth-to-mouth feeding brings back some bad memories for me.”

And a chocolate that melts in the mouth seemed like an especially bad idea. He was pretty sure it would remind him of harsh reality more than sweet romance.

Plus, he couldn’t afford to joke around. No amount of mourning would bring back his money.

He had a grand total of 29 yen left. That simply wasn’t enough to buy green onions.

However.

“I-I just remembered. We still have my Tatuya point card!”

“What?”

A shiny card was inserted into one of his wallet’s card slots.

He had 1705 points on it. Each point was worth a yen, but it could only be used at affiliated stores. Buying books and CDs wasn’t going to fill his stomach. A drugstore might sell snacks and cup noodles, but only at a markup.

Fortunately, he had a plan.

Kamijou Touma gave a snort.

“First, I buy a random DVD with my Tatuya points!!”

“?”

“Then I return it to another store for some cold, hard cash!! Mwa ha ha!! That paper money is as good as mine now!! This New Year’s Tokyo survival life is finally turning around!! What was I so worried about!? Wait for me, supermarket! I’ll be back and I’ll buy as many green onions as I want!!”

“ ‘Kay, your total comes out to 120 yen.”

Reduced to raw garbage in front of the register, Kamijou Touma fell to his knees. Alice crouched down and amused herself by poking him.

The reseller had been struck down by divine punishment.

Part 6

“Cloning tech isn’t some special magic – it’s just a human approach at reproducing the natural self-replication of genes. So there’s no reason to fear it!”

“This is all going way over my head, miss!”

“I wonder if people fear cloning because they see it as creating an entire human being. I mean, we already mass-produce amino acids and alcohol with bioreactors made from artificially modified microbes. They’re even testing missile therapy using monoclonal antibodies. …Oh, but stuffed animals like you don’t have genes, do you, Subscrip-kun?”

Evening had arrived.

Shirai Kuroko was working on some paperwork in a shared office, a booth the size of a shower stall found inside the subway station. She only had her phone’s 1seg TV on for some background noise, so she didn’t notice what they were talking about at first.

She wasn’t really interested in the TV – she simply couldn’t focus without something to drown out the noise of the station outside. The walls of the booth were far from soundproof for safety reasons and every district’s stations were especially noisy at the moment thanks to the Winter Cleaning demonstrations.

“Next up is the news and the weather. Here is our top headline: the United States House of Representatives has just proposed a new bill to investigate all corporations with capital above a certain threshold and another new bill to amend the laws protecting gifted children.”

“I’m sure this is only a bluff meant to get in the headlines. If those actually pass, the original proposer has the most to lose. And I doubt President Roberto Katze will be too happy then either. Restricting the exceptional and artificially creating a level playing field contradicts the very foundation of capitalism.”

“Ironically, it’s people’s frustrations over the inconvenience of R&C Occultics shutting down that has led them towards this Winter Cleaning movement that wants to further restrict corporate activities. Also, there is no connection between R&C Occultics and the Academy City #1’s clone killings, yet we keep seeing people conflate the two since they both entered the public conscience at the same time. We’re seeing a social phenomenon I would call an ‘elite allergy’ on social media, where Winter Cleaning and related terms fill the trending lists.”

She couldn’t seem to organize her feelings.

That was why she had used her phone (which doubled as a transportation smart card) to rent out this booth instead of doing her paperwork in the familiar Branch 177.

She sighed. Discussions like this had grown much more frequent of late. All the commentators were either sweetly pro-clone or harshly anti-elite.

It felt like they were trying to alter public opinion for someone’s convenience.

At least it felt like there were multiple opinions in conflict there.

(Onee-sama.)

“Argh, why am I so horny? Maybe I should take advantage of this modern blind spot to deal with that real quick.”

But she was interrupted by a phone call.

She gasped when she saw the number. It wasn’t someone who called often. This was from Anti-Skill, that adult law enforcement agency she normally didn’t get along with.

She shut off her phone’s 1seg TV and answered the call.

“A prisoner transport train?” she parroted with confusion on her face.

To be honest, this wasn’t the kind of job Judgment was meant to do. Anti-Skill and Judgment were only in charge of capturing suspects. The transport of tried and convicted prisoners was a job for the prison guards. She had never even heard of an armored train for transporting special prisoners. That sounded like it introduced a lot more risk of attack and escape than driving an ordinary prisoner transport truck along the ordinary roads.

The shared office cost 300 yen for every fifteen minutes, so stopping her work for a phone call felt like having her time stolen by the unseen person on the other end. That irritated her more than the actual cost.

“The prisoners are from Operation Handcuffs? Thank you for informing me, but there isn’t anything I can do.”

She gave a polite response while thinking back on the events of December 25.

That mission to clean up the dark side had ended in the worst way possible.

She had gone up against the twins known as Kaai the Decomposer and Youen the Carrier and the murderous paparazzo named Benizome Jellyfish.

Not to mention Rakuoka Houfu, the Anti-Skill officer she thought was helping her pursue the case.

She of course had her thoughts on the matter. For one thing, she wasn’t confident she had actually seen the incident through to its ultimate conclusion. That may have been why the adults of Anti-Skill had gone against protocol to contact her this time.

Or so she thought.

But she was wrong.

The officer on the phone gave a hurried report.

“Eh?”

Part 7

Goodbye, green onions.

It isn’t that I can’t eat without you, but any soup or hotpot I make now isn’t going to taste right.

Kamijou Touma squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth.

The sweaty pointy-haired boy cried out in frustration with the face of a gambling story protagonist upon realizing he had chosen the wrong tactic way back at the very start of the game.

“Dammit! Why would I buy the chicken but still let go of the green onions!? Am I stupid!? Stupid, stupid, stupid! How careless can you be!? That rules out grilled chicken as an out if I get sick of soups!!”

He had eliminated his own last hope.

Or so he thought until he glanced down at the receipt he still clutched reluctantly in his hand.

The very bottom of the supermarket receipt contained a ticket with a number and barcode on it. It apparently gave him one go at the supermarket lottery. They had one of those boxes with a round hole in the top like you saw at parties sometimes.

His face went dark.

They did have luxury rice and beef on the prize list. However…

“You’re kidding me, right? You want me, Mr. Misfortune, to rely on a luck-based lottery as my final hope? This will never work out. I can already see myself stuck with nothing but an empty stomach and a pack of tissues.”

“Then let the girl do it☆”

Alice stuck her little hand in the hole of the box and yanked out a scrap of paper. Unlike Mr. Misfortune, the smiling blonde girl showed no hesitation whatsoever.

She and Kamijou opened the folded paper to see what it said.

“Let’s see. Multiple Climax♂(x3)?”

“???”

“Bffff!! Wait, what!? What is that doing in there!? E-excuse me, sir, but that is the ‘for couples’ prize box!!”

Kamijou ended up learning something he would rather not about the short middle-aged clerk (who was apparently dating a very carnivorous young woman).

Later, Alice was smiling in a chain café on the 2nd floor of the shopping train.

“This tea is really good.”

“Glad to hear it. It cost me my last 100yen coin.”

Thanks to the mystery man’s eager insistence, Kamijou had been given some luxury caviar as a “special prize”. In the adult world, that might have been called buying his silence.

(But what do I even do with caviar? I feel like anything I do with it would only harm it. I’ve only mastered budget cooking, so this is more than I can handle!! If I’m going to get through this New Year’s Tokyo survival life, I’d prefer something filling, like udon or mochi!)

“By the away, Alice, I notice you’re fine with instant tea and don’t insist on brand-name leaves or anything. I’m sure that stuff was steeped in ordinary Japanese soft water.”

“Huh? Why are you only drinking water, teacher?”

Because he was completely broke.

Even the tea Alice held carefully between her little hands wasn’t in one of the big, decorative cups meant to make a good photo. It was the cheapest and smallest option on the menu. It was cheap enough he had his doubts it was actually Darjeeling like they claimed.

He viewed the platform from the unmoving train’s second floor window.

(The city is normally crawling with Anti-Skill, but I haven’t seen one all day. Are the railroads and stations under different jurisdiction or something?)

He didn’t know where Alice lived, but her guardian had to be worried. He wanted to leave her in adult care as soon as possible. But…

“Hmm. Hm?”

He saw something in the reflection. Alice’s pouting lips were reflected in the glass. He knew by this point that was a bad sign, but she was already on the move before he could react.

“This side of the table is too boring. Hiya!”

“Wait, Alice! Don’t climb under the table!!”

“Hello. Hee hee. Now the girl can be with you forever, teacher☆”

“You’re too heavy.”

“Not true.”

Everything he said got an immediate reaction. She apparently enjoyed anything as long as he was paying attention to her.

After climbing below the table, she resurfaced between his legs, made a 180-degree turn, and sat down in his lap.

She was just like a pet cat when its owner was reading an article in the newspaper or on a tablet. The cat would mistake that for being ignored and get on top of the article or screen to block their view.

Satisfied, Alice leaned back against him. He could feel her higher body temperature and she acted like she was seated in the throne of a fairy tale castle.

“Hee hee hee☆”

“Hey, wait, Alice. Don’t grab your teacup again. You definitely touched the floor with your hands, so you need to wipe them off first.”

“Really? What a pain. You do it, teacher.”

The teacup in question was not a delicate piece of porcelain. It was only a paper cup with a drinking lid on top. He had a feeling she would start poking at the lid’s opening if he didn’t do it, so he obeyed. He reached past her to grab a paper towel soaked with ethanol and wiped off Alice’s small hands. Her skin felt nothing like his own. Her palms reminded him of a sweet dessert like custard or bavarois. They were so soft he feared a paper’s edge would easily slice into them.

Young Alice let him do it.

She laughed and kicked her legs ticklishly below the table while her fine blonde hair brushed across his chest. The attention from him must have been enough for her because she didn’t pick up the teacup afterwards.

“You can have the girl’s tea. As thanks for helping her.”

“Alice, why do you keep trying to set up indirect kisses?”

“Because she loves you.”

That blunt statement made his breath catch in his throat. He had thought she was the kind of person who would jump on anyone’s back and ask for a piggyback ride if she was feeling tired, so he was surprised to hear her say she loved anyone in particular.

But after a moment, he realized what this was.

“Oh, I get it now. This is that ‘I want to marry you when I grow up’ thing that all the dads and big brothers out there have to deal with. This doesn’t mean anything, so I won’t let it affect me!”

“Mh. The girl is being honest, but you don’t believe her.”

She kicked her little legs and pouted her lips in displeasure.

He did still have a question.

Why was this girl so attached to him? He still didn’t know why she had been in his dorm when he woke up. This wasn’t like happening across her on the roadside. Theirs hadn’t been a chance encounter – she had come to him.

(Could I have met her before?)

That seemed unlikely when Index and her perfect memory hadn’t appeared to recognize Alice, but that said nothing about the possibility of meeting her before he had met Index.

In other words…

(Did I know her before I lost my memories?)

“Hey, Alice.”

He was just about to ask, when he heard the buzzing of a small motor.

It was his phone. He pulled the old folks phone from his pocket, checked the screen, and saw an unfamiliar popup on the lock screen.

“A break alert has been issued (tap for details)”

“?”

“This is an emergency alert from your location service. You have received this alert because your GPS location matches the affected region. Please leave your present location and find safe shelter immediately.”

What was this?

Old Man Kamijou was new to this whole smartphone business, so he wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

“Hey, Alice- ew, I just got your pointy curl in my mouth. Anyway, do you know what this means?”

“Wow! Is this one of those fabled smartphones! The girl wants to play games! And watch videos!!”

Come to think of it, Alice didn’t have a phone.

She did seem familiar with smartphones, though. The mismatch may have come from gathering information on something she didn’t have herself. Maybe from ads on TV and in subway stations.

Kamijou looked puzzled, but something seemed off beyond the incomprehensible message. All around him, the other café customers’ phones began to buzz or play their notification melody.

Then they all stood up and rushed off the train. There was even a college girl who left behind her ice coffee decorated with lots of whipped cream and chocolate sauce before she could snap a photo of it. In fact, the part-timer at the register was fleeing with the rest.

“Huh?”

The next thing he knew, he and Alice were the only two left in the café. Everything around him felt ice cold except for Alice on his lap.

What had that alert meant?

Based on this, it couldn’t be anything good.

He was unsure what to do, but then he saw someone running along the platform directly outside. The girl wore her chestnut hair in twintails and wore a distinctive armband.

“Oh, is she from Judgment? She’s not an adult, but she’s the next best thing.”

“Hmph! The girl wants you to look at her, teacher!!”

Alice sulked in his lap, so a head pat was his only recourse. The twintails girl on the platform seemed to notice them. Her eyes widened and she shouted up at them with panic in her voice.

“Geh, it’s the ape who won’t leave Onee-sama alone,” groaned Shirai Kuroko. “Hey, you there!! I am Shirai Kuroko of Judgment. Didn’t you receive the break alert!? You need to get off the train and evacuate!!”

“Evacuate?”

That was too dangerous a word to overlook.

But he still wasn’t sure what the danger actually was. Evacuate from what? What kind of disaster could hit this sturdy train platform along an elevated track? He couldn’t imagine powerful winds or flooding affecting it.

Shirai Kuroko formed a megaphone with her hands and shouted the crucial words up at him.

“A train is about to crash into that one!! We’re looking at a head-on collision with a prisoner transport train!!”

The Overhunting prisoner transport train crashed full speed into the shopping train stopped at the station platform.

The Delivery Go Round’s first car was crushed like an empty can and the impact rapidly propagated down to the very last car. A few of the cars in between were pushed unnaturally up, making the train look like a caterpillar or inchworm.

The jailbreak had begun.

Between the Lines 2

The Overhunting prisoner transport train has issued a break alert and the actual jailbreak has been confirmed.

The jailbreak occurred within South District 7 Station.

A tip hotline for civilians is being set up to allow a swift resolution. Anti-Skill and Judgment are to understand their roles, cooperate with the civilian freelancers, and fulfill their duty.

The next section describes the new bounty system and provides tentative values for the escapees.

Directly capturing an escapee earns the full listed bounty and providing information crucial to their capture provides 1/10 of the listed bounty. Bounties will be paid from public funds and will be tax exempt. The bounties will be listed on the public website, but additional rewards may be considered depending on the situation.

The escapees are all from the few survivors of the harsh and unpredictable Operation Handcuffs. Their very survival is proof enough they are extremely dangerous and violent criminals. Be very careful when dealing with them.

Benizome Jellyfish

Bounty: 150 million yen

A freelance paparazzo and a top-level sniper. This journalist will cause moral hazards by firing on her photography target from long distance to inspire confusion and acquire a special scoop. She will not commit crimes herself, but she will manipulate crimes in progress to the point of doubling the damage.

She has developed a unique fighting style that combines photography tools like camera flashes and infrared lights with a sniper rifle. Attempt to engage her in a firefight based on your training and she will mess with your senses and use special targeting devices to counterattack.

Hanatsuyu Youen

Bounty: 300 million yen

Also known as the Carrier. She is an expert at spreading harmful substances and microbes using insects and small animals. When active, she did more than engage in direct combat or attacks. There are signs of other criminals hiring her to dispose of corpses and other evidence. (All of which was destroyed too thoroughly to prove anything in court).

Her twin sister Kaai the Decomposer went missing during Operation Handcuffs and has yet to be found. There is unconfirmed information suggesting she decomposed her own body and escaped into the sewers where she now lives within the sludge, but it is unknown if that is even technologically and biologically possible. The search is still underway.

Her primary weapon is her test tubes full of liquid.

They contain pheromones, nectar, and other substances used to control various lifeforms. Your location might look clean, but she can secure a seemingly endless fighting force from all the pests and vermin living in Academy City.

Rakuoka Houfu

Bounty: 80 million yen

Guilty of aggravated breach of trust and malfeasance for committing crimes while serving as an Anti-Skill officer. His involvement is also suspected in a murder and subsequent hiding of the body from before he joined Anti-Skill. (The body was fully destroyed, so this cannot be proven.)

Belonged to Anti-Skill Aggressor, a group within Anti-Skill whose combat training was increased to bring them closer to the mentality and skill level of the criminals. A digestive enzyme is used to artificially increase the size of his muscles, so his body itself functions as a powerful weapon. His muscular strength is estimated to be over 70 tons in weightlifting terms. He can tear off the side of an armored truck like it was made of clay.

That sums up the personal data on the escapees who have gone missing from the Overhunting after its collision with the Delivery Go Round.

Also, several inexplicable and unanalyzed phenomena have been detected near the crash site, including the cause of the crash. Reports and witness information on Operation Handcuffs suggest the involvement of the Kihara family, an artificial ghost, and an android. A lot about that incident remains unknown, information from those on the scene is extremely confusing, and many questions remain, including whether several of those involved are still alive. Thus, we cannot deny the possibility of this incident being the work of an outside accomplice or someone else entirely.

Carelessness will mean losing your life on the job. Throw out all preconceptions and respond to any threat that presents itself.

Operation Handcuffs has already ended. We cannot allow any further losses now.

This time, we will bring an end to Academy City’s nightmare.

Good luck out there.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Kamijou Touma: The girl’s teacher. He teaches her all sorts of things.

Shirai Kuroko: Judgment girl. She can teleport.

Accelerator: Academy City’s biggest VIP.

Hanatsuyu Youen: Fugitive. Uses chemicals.

Benizome Jellyfish: Fugitive. A camera lady.

Rakuoka Houfu: Fugitive. Muscular combover guy.

Frillsand #G: An Academy City ghost.

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