Part 5[edit]
A Judgment armband was quite convenient.
Even if it was past time to be back at one’s dorm, the adults would overlook you as long as you walked around with a serious expression. Even if you stayed at a café for a long time or told a taxi driver to follow a certain car, others would go along with it.
However, there were times when that would not work.
For example…
(…Oh, dear. They have a manager’s room at the self-locking entrance and a guard patrolling around.)
s.h.i.+rai walked around the apartment building as she checked on the situation. Those things seemed to have originally been to give one a feeling of safety knowing that the security there was strict, but that was what had made people look to that place for extra storage. Either way, it made things more difficult.
(Well, I can just teleport in.)
“Uiharu, do you know what room they are in? From the number of windows, there are 20 rooms on each floor. There are 20 floors, so there should be about 400 rooms.”
“There is a camera near the entrance, but the rest is rather difficult. Out of a sense of privacy, it’s only natural for there to be no cameras inside the apartment building.”
“…There are 18 of them. How did they all get in there?”
“Eh? What do you mean…? They just all entered through the entrance like normal.”
“…”
That building was an apartment building not a hotel. Basically, it rented out 2DKs. It was not a place 18 people would enter, so normally the manager would find it suspicious and try to stop them.
That meant…
(…The manager is in on it…?)
For an instant, an aggressive light filled s.h.i.+rai’s eyes, but…
“No, no.”
“?”
“If the place truly is being used primarily for storage, groups of movers bringing in or taking out luggage wouldn’t be too rare.” s.h.i.+rai looked up at the building and looked at the many windows lined up there. “Searching each and every one would be a pain. Is there no other way of figuring out where they are?”
“Sigh. As I told you, it would be difficult to pursue them using the camera footage.”
“But there are other ways, right?”
“Like?”
“How do you make a contract for one of the apartments? If they’re just being used for storage, the inspection must be fairly simple. If they’re the type where you can rent them out monthly over the internet, wouldn’t it be easy to check the records?”
“Umm…”
“And as for cameras, you don’t have to use the ones from the apartment building. You might be able to find a hint by using ones from other nearby buildings or even nearby ATMs or vending machines. Even if they value privacy here, cleaning robots will still come and go and…oh, I know. You can use the satellite to check for heat sources and figure out where the people inside are…”
“I think there may be an easier method,” said Uiharu cutting her off. “Those apartments are being used for storage, so no one lives there. Won’t you be able to tell by checking to see which window has light coming from it?”
“…”
s.h.i.+rai cleared her throat after being given that elementary instruction.
She carefully looked up at the apartment building. None of the fluorescent lights seemed to be on, but there was a different paler light. It seemed to be from a flashlight.
It was on the third floor.
It was the 12th window from the right.
(That was incredibly easy…)
s.h.i.+rai sighed and her body disappeared into thin air.
In the next instant, she arrived in the third floor pa.s.sageway.
Once she had actually made it inside, she could immediately tell where her targets were. She heard a noise. It was the sound of someone trying to hide the sound of their breathing. Normally, she would not have noticed it. It was quiet enough that it would have blended into the usual background noise of an apartment building. However, even that small noise was audible as there was almost no one there due to the apartments being used for storage. It was about the same as hearing a mosquito flying near one’s ear on a summer night.
As she approached the door, s.h.i.+rai spoke into her cell phone.
“I’m going in. Uiharu, you keep an eye around the building. Check to see if anyone flees the building and if they do, make sure to track them.”
“W-wait, s.h.i.+rai-san. Will you be okay on your own?”
“…”
According to Mikoto, an incident involving living bombs that used crimson long-legged army ants had occurred in the Russian shopping mall right after the urban legend of the very valuable orange had spread throughout the area.
That incident had been carried out by a third party which had led to a lot happening, but the people truly behind it all were thinking of doing something similar.
In other words, now that the urban legend of the necklace of death had been spread through both Academy City and the shopping mall, they would be trying to carry out an incident related to that story in Academy City.
A group thinking of doing that truly existed.
In that case, necklaces would of course be the most suspicious, but it could also be harmful high frequency electromagnetic waves. Something invisible and therefore something there was no good way of taking counter measures against was scary, but…
(Well, I have this.)
s.h.i.+rai lightly touched the cell phone at her ear that had the simple detection tool connected to it.
(They are likely finis.h.i.+ng their preparations for bringing whatever it is in safely. Normally thinking, it should be in a lead package or something.)
s.h.i.+rai Kuroko may have been able to come to that simple conclusion because she had no real sense of danger when it came to something she could not see.
“Here I go,” s.h.i.+rai said while pressing up against the wall next to the door.
That was when she felt that something was off.
s.h.i.+rai had known where her target was from the moment she had entered that hallway. After all, that room had been the only one with sounds of people moving around inside it within that apartment building that was being almost completely used for storage.
If she could hear the noises they made, then they may have been able to hear the noises she made.
(Oh, no…)
A window made of frosted gla.s.s on the side of the entrance broke from the inside. Cracks spread all across the window, but the actual hole opened was rather small. A cylindrical object flew through that hole and rolled into the hallway s.h.i.+rai was in.
The small cell phone on her ear gave off a sharp electronic tone.
The simple detection tool was giving a warning.
“s.h.i.+rai-san! The tool has detected SC39!!”
“?”
“It’s a type of detector for harmful electromagnetic waves. With the proper amount, it changes color related to the presence, wavelength, and strength of electromagnetic waves.”
While listening to Uiharu’s explanation, s.h.i.+rai remembered what it was herself.
She was pretty sure she had heard of it in a Judgment joint lesson.
RAILGUN SS2 05 013.jpg
“It was recalled quite some time ago because there was a danger of it catching fire or exploding when a large amount of the detector was bathed in strong electromagnetic waves with an extremely high frequency!!”
That was when s.h.i.+rai noticed something giving off light in the broken window. It was not just a flashlight. The light was an ominous purple.
As it was frosted gla.s.s, she could not see the details, but whatever it was seemed to be attached to the end of some kind of pole.
A chill ran down her spine.
She accurately read what the enemy was intending to do.
She immediately teleported at about the same time as the ominous purple light took action.
Suddenly, a small scale explosion occurred in the building’s hallway.
Crimson flames lit up the walls and ceiling and a colorless shockwave spread to either end of the hallway in an instant. A few alarms started ringing, but no residents opened their doors to see what was going on. All the rooms truly seemed to be nothing more than storage areas. The manager or the guard would likely be there soon, but s.h.i.+rai did not especially care.
A strange sweat was coming from s.h.i.+rai Kuroko’s body as she stood in a spot a bit away.
She was almost in a panic.
She had not been injured by the explosion. The shockwave had struck her body, but it had been well within a safe level. Her eardrums and organs were likely undamaged.
That was not the problem.
Because s.h.i.+rai knew how that explosion had been caused, she could not relax even though she was not in any pain.
She knew.
Just before the explosion, she had heard a noise like a camera flash.
And she had an idea what that had been.
The urban legend they were using was the necklace of death.
They had used the harmful electromagnetic wave detector SC39 to cause that explosion.
Which meant…
(…An ultra high frequency electromagnetic weapon!?)
“Wh-what was that just now, s.h.i.+rai-san!? A strange line ran across the image from the satellite! I can’t scan in your area!!”
“Tch. It seems to be a relative of the microwave oven!!”
“P-please get out of there, s.h.i.+rai-san!! You can’t do anything without protective clothing!!”
That was exactly what she intended to do.
She was also afraid of the explosions created using the harmful electromagnetic wave detector, but the greatest threat was the invisible radiation that could pierce straight through any obstacle.
But her opponents were faster.
She heard another sound from a room that should have been far away from where the room they were in. It was a very quiet electronic noise. s.h.i.+rai felt she had only been able to hear it because her senses had been heightened due to her peril in addition to the lack of other noises.
(Don’t tell me they placed SC39 all over the place in case something unexpected happened!!)
Whether they had detected where she was or they were simply firing randomly, she would be taken out.
Their weapons used electromagnetic waves, so they could go straight through solid objects.
Wherever s.h.i.+rai ran, there was no point if more of the detector was set up there already. If they just bathed the detector in the ultra high frequency electromagnetic waves, s.h.i.+rai’s body would be blown to pieces.
“…!!”
As such, s.h.i.+rai escaped using a mental blind spot.
Instead of moving horizontally, she teleported down to the second floor.
Immediately afterwards, she heard the camera flash-like sound of the waves being fired. Following it came numerous explosions. If they a.s.sumed their target would only be able to move through the hallways, stairways, and elevators, she could wait them out there.
(The ultra high frequency electromagnetic waves that act as the trigger are more frightening than the explosive itself! A killer weapon that gives no pain is enough to make one quite uneasy! I need to get a detailed examination done after this is over!!)
She heard multiple metallic noises.
It sounded like something was jumping down from the balcony onto the top of a car roof. s.h.i.+rai recalled where she and her opponents were.
She was on the second floor and the attackers were on the third floor.
(There are 18 of them.)
“(…Uiharu, some of them are leaving! Don’t let them escape!!)”
“More importantly, s.h.i.+rai-san, I’m detecting some waves other than the ultra high frequency ones!”
“…?”
“They seem to be searching for the pattern of slight distortion a human’s magnetism causes in electromagnetic waves and are aiming for that! They will find you even if you are behind the cover of a wall or a ceiling!!”
“Please just tell me that part first!!”
s.h.i.+rai frantically teleported away before she had even finished speaking.
She moved from room to room.
The mysterious camera flash-like firing sound accurately followed her as she went.
At that rate, she would end up being hit.