A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 8 (3 page)

She stopped, bringing her hand to her mouth. She felt her lips split a little.

Mikoto watched her and asked, “Why not put on some lip balm? Air conditioning dries you out pretty badly.”

“Th-that is all right. In fact, I’ve been fresh out of it since yesterday.”

Makeup in general was prohibited at Tokiwadai Middle School. The regulations were recklessly strict, too—obvious lipstick and mascara went without saying, but even practical, medicinal lip balm and hand cream (which everyone doubted even fell into the category of “makeup”) would be targeted by the rule.

Therefore, it had become tradition among the girls to use just little enough of it so that normal people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. One might notice it if they got up close, but the color and gloss of Mikoto’s and Shirai’s lips were very slightly different. Though it had originally been a compromise out of necessity, this style was steadily becoming a little popular even outside Tokiwadai, along with the mysterious words of “ladylike manners.”

“Hmm…” Mikoto fished through her bag and came out with a stick of medicinal lip balm. “Then let’s drop by the cosmetics shop after this and get some things. You can use this in the meantime if you want.”

“?!” Kuroko Shirai gave a start when she looked at the lip balm, devoid of any sexiness, that was being nonchalantly held out for her.

Her eyes opened wide and she began to tremble all over.
L-lip balm. Big, Big Sister’s…Big Sister’s, her, her lips, they’ve been on it every day, it’s been on her beautiful lips, this lip balm!! Ah, ah. Kuroko, yes, Kuroko, yeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!

“Huh? What? H-hey, why did you make the whole thing come out—Hey, wait, wait, stop, stop, Kuroko! Why the heck are you trying to eat the stupid thing?!”

“Hah!!…I-I am so suddenly surprised and stunned at this that I think I may accidentally devour the entire thing.”

“I have a good guess as to
why
, but that is a new one. It was in a three-pack. Besides, normally people don’t want to use lip balm other people have used.”

“Eh…A new one?” She clicked her tongue. “…What a disappointment. Ah, however! Then if I give the lip balm I used back to Big Sister, then…!”

“I don’t need it back. I have two others anyway, so you can have it. Hey, stop that! Don’t try to put lip balm you just used on my lips by force!”

Shirai and Mikoto began to fight like main characters of a Hollywood movie where one grabs a handgun and they start to wrestle. Suddenly, though, Mikoto stopped dead.

That’s when Shirai realized it—Mikoto wasn’t looking at her. Her eyes had been stolen by something else, something behind her.

“?” Dubious, she turned around to look.

They were breast pads.

Mainly worn underneath underwear by girls without confidence in their own chest, said to preserve their pride and dignity—yes,
those
breast pads. In actuality, however, in the Garden of Learning, populated only by girls—in other words, with no one to be prideful toward—they were not particularly in demand; they were leftover products sitting in the corner, their sorrow floating around them.

A bit confused, Shirai cocked her head just a little…and then remembered.

Mikoto had said something while they were walking through town, hadn’t she?

But I heard once you start a diet, the first thing you lose is fat from your chest.

“Ha-ha, so it was bothering you! Oh, Big Sister,
pfft.
I suppose you have weighed your bust and waist on a scale and chosen the former, yes?”

“Wha…?” Mikoto stiffened.

“No…That is not it. You would not have such attachment to your breast growth, Big Sister. Which means you probably harbor slightly ambiguous hopes, such as wanting to have an adult body quickly or wanting people to stop treating you like a child. Ahh, how praiseworthy you are, Big Sister! Who could possibly be the lucky gentleman you want to go that far to present yourself to? Could the one in your heart really be an older man? Come to think of it, you seemed to be waiting for someone in front of the dormitory on the last day of summer vacation. He certainly did not appear to be a middle school student, did he?”

A provocation with this sort of timing? Shirai thought for sure she’d earn a punch from the girl. And she already had the entire conversation after the punch planned out in her head.

However…

Mikoto Misaka was a Level Five esper in Academy City, even called the ace of Tokiwadai Middle School. And instead, her face went red, and she looked down, not saying a word.

“Oh? Big Sister? Hey, Big Sister—”

Then Kuroko Shirai’s face went pale.
I-I meant it as a joke, but she’s taking it so seriously! Is she really, seriously, truly…Him?! That gentleman?!—huh. That freaking monkeeeeeeeeeey!!

The face of a certain youth came to her mind and she bit into her handkerchief. Actually, she was practically tearing the thing apart. In her brain, she ripped the handkerchief to pieces. It took some time for her to calm down. When she finally did, she saw Mikoto looking at the breast pads in their vinyl packaging out of the corner of her eye, pretending not to be interested at all. She muttered something along the lines of, “H-huh, so some people do seriously use those things,” working very hard to keep the interest from her face but still obviously extremely interested.

“…Breast pads come in all varieties. Whoa, like this one—it’s like water balloons, or it has gel inside or something.”

Mikoto’s engrossment got Shirai angry, but she would never ignore something her beloved big sister said. Feeling gloomy about a number of things now, she sighed. “Apparently they stuff vinyl bags with gel in them when you get breast implants, too. I mean, most people would need some sort of device to have them swaying all over the place.”

“Swaying all over the place…Th-they have a lot of different shapes, too.”

“Everyone has their own needs, I suppose. Oh, Big Sister, I think yours would become that type after your modest chest grows some more, do you not?”

“Don’t point to it! There are other customers in here!!”

Mikoto hastily pushed Shirai’s finger away, but she kept her eyes and attention on the product Shirai had pointed out. Shirai, looking distant, sighed—if she shoved such a gigantic breast pad into her bra, everyone would clearly notice.

For a few moments, Mikoto forgot about the time, single-mindedly observing the breast pads. Then, suddenly, she took a step back from the shelf they were on and tilted her head. “But in the end, as soon as you took your clothes off, the truth would come out.”

“…?! B-Big Sister. D-do not tell me that you have already planned so far into the future?!”

“Eh? Uh, oh! No, that’s not it, Kuroko!! Gym class! I’m talking about changing during gym class!!” Mikoto insisted, shaking her head in a fluster. Shirai’s face remained comically locked in an expression of surprise.

Academy City bathed in the evening glow.

The Garden of Learning used white as its standard color for buildings. They were extremely good at reflecting the color of the sky. The traffic flow of the young ladies, separated into five different school uniforms, was gathering at the terminal—the time of the last bus was approaching. Like Mikoto and Shirai, their dorms were probably outside of the Garden of Learning.

They weren’t required to use the bus, but some of these young ladies were ignorant of the ways of the world, scared even of Academy City, from which they were isolated. Some even lived in a mental bubble containing only their dormitory, the bus, and the Garden of Learning.

Shirai and Mikoto walked leisurely through the frantic going-home rush. Actually, it was more like they were exhausted and unable to join the rush. The flimsy bags in their hands swayed to and fro without energy.

“I-I told you a hundred times, I’m only talking about when I get changed for gym. I-I mean, th-th-there’s no guy I’m into or not into—you know what, it doesn’t matter at all anyway.”

“A-and as I’ve said a thousand times, it is certainly too early for you to plan for a future that involves taking off your clothes in front of a gentleman, yes?”

“Argh! You’re so bad at listening, you bad-taste full-exposure lace-underwear buyer!”

“B-bad taste?! Th-that underwear
you
found was so cutesy it was just childish instead, and as a fellow girl, it creeps me out!”

They began struggling with each other again. They didn’t last long, though, since their protracted argument earlier had drained their stamina. They both sighed and fell limp again.

They didn’t use the bus to begin with, so they didn’t mind when the last bus came. With the passing of the students on their way home, stores were already beginning to close up. Shirai glanced at the cozy shops as she went by. “Big Sister, I will without a doubt make further inquiries into the truth of this matter at a later time. But what shall we do now? A good amount of time has passed because of our arguing. My current Kuroko Plan was to go for a light meal after shopping.”

“I see. I’ll certainly clear up the misunderstanding later, then. Shouldn’t we call it quits for today? Everything in the Garden of Learning closes up early.”

“Hmmmm. There are plenty of shops outside, though. Things only just begin when we leave. We could go for a dessert course at the Kuromitsu House.”

“Umm, Kuroko, it’s because you give in to these temptations that you’ll end up being happy and plump in places you don’t want—
Eek?!
”

Before Mikoto could finish, she sensed a menacing outburst. Next to her, Shirai’s face was down, so she couldn’t see her expression well. She was muttering to herself.

“K-Kuroko? I promise, I was about to wrap that up by saying if you eat that stuff, you’d really just need to exercise a little!”

“Big Sister…If you continue to say things that wound a maiden’s heart like that, I will gladly teleport your clothing away in a busy street in broad daylight.”

Shirai, her hands out and fingers wiggling, was the natural enemy of girls everywhere. If she touched anything with those hands, whether it was a skirt or underwear, it’d be warped to wherever she liked. Half-naked or fully nude—everything was completely in her control.

As Mikoto feared the approaching stripping disaster, a cell phone ringtone suddenly went off. Its melody loosened the tension between them.

Mikoto listened to it—it was different from her own ringtone. “Kuroko…You still have all that useless stuff on your phone? Do you really need to have so many ringtones?”

“Heh-heh. And despite that, it’s too small, too easy to lose, too hard to press the buttons, and too hard to see the screen.” Shirai chuckled, exhausted, and took out her cell phone.

It, however, was vastly different from the general idea of what cell phones should be. It was cylindrical, like a tube of lipstick, one centimeter in diameter and five centimeters long. The actual part of it, clear and thin as a piece of paper, slid out from a slit on the side.

“That thing looks so futuristic, and yet it has no functionality at all,” remarked Mikoto. “What a sham of a phone.”

“Nobody asked you! I happen to like silly futuristic things. One day I want to ride a train that goes through a clear tube, too…Oh, excuse me for a moment, please.”

Shirai turned her back to Mikoto. She looked at the screen, then put the actual phone part of it to her ear. It was a phone number in her contacts list. The numbers displayed on the screen belonged to an Academy City security group called Judgment, a police-like, anti-esper organization formed to solve problems in the city that Shirai belonged to.

“Yes, this is Shirai! I will have you know that I have finally gone shopping with Big Sister today and had just gotten to a good part. What could possibly be important enough to get in the way of that?”

“Wah…I’m relieved I was able to protect Miss Misaka’s chastity.”

The one on the phone was, of course, a colleague of hers from Judgment. The girl’s voice was sweet like candy rolling around. Shirai considered immediately hanging up.

“Shirai, I ran into kind of a problem that a newcomer like me can’t handle all alone. I’d like to get a veteran’s opinion.”

“You mean in terms of Level?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Even though I am currently standing next to Big Sister and having the best time of my life?”

“Uh-huh. This really was an excellent coincidence in terms of timing. I’m surprised myself! Is this when I should laugh really loudly because I won? Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”

Shirai slammed the cell phone microphone against a shop wall nearby.

“Ow?! M-my ears are ringing; the receiver’s all weird…”

“If you make any more fun of me, I’ll give you a nice present. How does nails on glass sound?”

“A-anyway, I’ll be waiting at Branch 177. The situation is accelerating relatively quickly, so please come within thirty minutes.”

Click
. The girl hung up.

Kuroko Shirai sighed, putting back her cell phone. Regretfully, she turned back to Mikoto Misaka. “I do apologize for this, Big Sister. This is—Well, it is very difficult for me to say, but a rude idiot from Judgment has assigned me a job…”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you off with my great big smile.”

“…I could cry right now. I have no regrets. Please take care of yourself, Big Sister.”

Shirai headed off for the bus terminal, her destination changed. She could use the last bus to cut down on time compared to walking through Academy City.

Then, suddenly, Mikoto said something. “Kuroko, I know you have to go do your job, but try your best to get back early tonight. The weather might go bad once night falls.”

“Oh, I had not noticed. I forgot to check the weather report for today. Thank you very much. I will see you back at the dormitory, Big Sister.”

Shirai gave a short bow, then turned around and headed for the bus terminal. She heard Mikoto’s footsteps walking away, too, but those eventually faded.

Now worried about the look of the sky, she gazed upward. It didn’t seem like it was going to rain, but—

Hm…?

She suddenly felt that something had been wrong with what Mikoto just said.

The weather might go bad once night falls.

At first, that might have sounded like an everyday thing to say. But among the three satellites Academy City had launched into space, one of them, the Tree Diagram, was supposed to be a perfect simulation machine. Weather forecasting was no exception. Her usage of the vague word
might
was not something you heard every day here.

That would mean Big Sister…

Bothered though she was by what Mikoto had said, she had her hands full dealing with the immediate problem. The last bus would depart in less than ten minutes. She adjusted her grip on her cheap bag and began an outright sprint toward her destination. Soon the little inconsistency had all but slipped her mind.