Toaru Majutsu no Index:Virtual On Chapter1
Chapter 1[edit]
Part 1[edit]
It was the first day of a rare long weekend.
In a certain student dorm in Academy City’s District 7, Index, a silver-haired nun in a pure white habit, rolled along the wooden floor.
“Toumaaa. The beepy thing isn’t doing anything anymore.”
“Hm? You’re afraid of the microwave and get dizzy watching the dryer, so why are you using a handheld game system? …In fact, it’s rare to see you messing with any kind of machine.”
The spiky-haired boy who responded was Kamijou Touma.
Index was swinging around a mobile device just a little larger than a pencil case.
“Some important person said each defeat in Virtual-On only makes you more powerful! So I have to keep fighting and fighting to get stronger!!”
“Who in the world is that ‘important person’? They must have quite an aura to get Index of all people to do what they say. Not that I’m entirely sure what this Virtual-On thing is.”
It seemed to be the latest fad, but Kamijou had never touched the video game and did not know too much about it. There were posters all over Academy City, so he just knew it had to do with colorful robots fighting each other.
He glanced down at the mobile device Index handed him and messed with it for a bit.
“Oh, it’s got a firmware update window. Looks like you’ll have to take it into the center, Index.”
“Farmware update…? But I’m not growing any grapes, Touma.”
“I said firmware, not farmware.” Kamijou sighed. “Well, I need to refill my credits soon anyway, so let’s head down to the center together.”
“Hm? You can’t update it here, Touma?”
“It says it won’t let you mess with anything inside to keep you from modifying any of the data.”
The ultimate security was to disconnect all internet connections and remove all external memory, but that meant it all had to be contained to one machine and it could not communicate with anything else. Safety measures had reached the point of seeing how much inconvenience people were willing to put up with, but this portable device seemed to have tilted the scales quite far toward safety.
“I don’t play games much, but I still find this device in my hands a fair bit. It’s not so much that holding it calms me down. It’s more like I can’t calm down without holding it. It’s a train pa.s.s, it controls ATMs, and it lets you access recipes… Oh, and I definitely can’t go without the coupon you get just by showing them the screen at the register.”
He used the hook-like strap to hang the portable device from his belt.
“Okay, let’s get ready to head out, Index. I’ll make sure the gas is off and everything’s locked up, so you go grab the cat.”
“Roger, Touma! Heh heh heh. I can’t wait to see Bal-Bados again.”
“All those names are pretty crazy. Maybe I shouldn’t say this when you’re a real grimoire library, but they sound like part of a magic spell made after drawing a magic circle on the ground.”
“Bal-Bados looks so tasty.”
“Tast-…what!?”
“Bal-Bados looks grape flavored. Raiden would be blood orange, Specineff would be vanilla and mint, and Grys-Vok would be lime cause its green! It’s so hard to choose…drool.”
“Oh, no. Do you think they’re gummies or sodas or something!? L-let’s calm down, Index. I know it’s rude of me to say anything when you’re in gamer mode and I barely know anything about this, but based on the posters I’ve seen around, aren’t the Virtuaroids generally mechs!?”
“There’s no right answer in Cyber Imaginary s.p.a.ce!”
“And now you’re throwing nonsensical terminology back at me? At any rate, I’m pretty sure you’re the only person who would think those things are humanoid candy houses!”
Meanwhile, the two of them left the dorm room.
On that long weekend morning, there was not a cloud in the sky and the streets were full of people since they did not have to go to school. There were all sorts of people: a girl was jogging perhaps as part of a diet, a boy was taking a large dog for a walk, and a young man was apparently broadcasting some kind of video because he slowly spun around while pointing the lens here and there. They all held the same portable device or had them attached to their waist.
“Those things sure have gotten popular lately. Not that I’m one to talk.”
The portable devices were not really handheld games systems or mobile devices. They were seen as small boxes that could do anything. It could measure your calories, carry music around, play movies, and relay a broadcast, so its cla.s.sification changed depending on who used it.
Just like people were starting to have trouble reading and writing kanji thanks to the kanji conversion on cellphones, some people were apparently having trouble with simple calculations and English words thanks to these.
“None of it can hope to match the jiggliness of the Virtuaroids. How can they stimulate my hunger so much when they’re just data?”
“As I said, they might move around smoothly, but I really don’t think they jiggle around like gummies or pudding!”
As soon as Kamijou shouted back at Index, a large shadow appeared overhead.
However, this was not due to a thick cloud covering the sun.
Two Virtuaroids bigger than school buildings were glaring at each other and clashing sword against staff.
One was Fei-Yen.
The Virtuaroid did not look much like a robot(?) thanks to its slender girl motif, its head parts were shaped like twintails, and it had special armor resembling a miniskirt around its waist. Its primary weapon was the rapier-style close-range sword in its right hand. That sword was named Kindness of the Fool and could be used both at close and long range.
The other was Angelan.
This Virtuaroid also had a girl motif, but its long ponytail and long skirt armor gave it a calmer look than Fei-Yen. Its main weapon was a staff-like device named the Staff of the Pair, but it used various long-range projectile attacks rather than fighting at close-range. In addition to simple destructive power, it gained an advantage by creating various interference effects and toying with the enemy.
They must have had some special customization done because neither one had its normal coloring. Fei-Yen had a bright purple cheerleader-like coloration and Angelan had yellow and black warning colors like a killer bee.
Kamijou did not know the details since he did not use his portable device as a game machine much, but those seemed to be the names of the Virtuaroids and weapons based on the posters he had seen around.
The machines approached and struck each other a few times with Kamijou and Index at their feet.
A gust of wind blew in and shook the leaves of the roadside trees.
With their weapons locked together, Fei-Yen and Angelan fired welding-like beams of light at each other and slid to the side.
Each increase in speed seemed to put some kind of burden on them because the giant disk-like objects attached to their backs grew ominously red with heat.
They expanded their path as if drawing a circle and finally moved behind the surrounding buildings.
A few seconds of silence followed.
Suddenly, they burst from behind different buildings and moved straight in for a clash with weapons locked together.
With their firepower, a single stray shot could bring down a building.
In fact, those overwhelmingly giant bodies would squash a human being with a careless step.
Nevertheless, Kamijou sounded carefree as he looked up at their battle.
“Ohh, they’re really going at it.”
Cyber Troopers Virtual-On.
That was the name of this next-generation contest.
At close range, the Virtuaroids wielded swords and staffs that looked like metal towers. At long range, they fired countless beams of light that seemed to be sources of intense heat. As if to represent their great ma.s.s, each movement shook the road and created a blast of wind like when a subway train pa.s.sed through the tunnel. Of course, their accuracy was not 100% and stray shots were landing here and there, but no buildings crumbled despite the great explosions. There were no cracks in the walls or even broken windows.
There were roadside trees, parked cars, and even a jogging middle school girl down below, but none of them were crushed underfoot. Some of the people were casually aiming their portable devices’ cameras at them, some were shrilly cheering one or the other on, and some were walking through the streets in accordance with their own lifestyle, without paying them any heed. They all utterly lacked any fear toward those giant weapons.
Opening one’s portable device and performing a search or aiming it toward the fighting machines would likely provide more detailed information.
Some of the people on the road wore cheap earphones that let Kamijou hear the voice they were listening to.
“Okay, okay. The live DJ is here to manage the inter-district preliminary battles and link the videos together. This is DJ Nakamura Mary, the ultimate cosplayer you know for boldly attempting a Dordray costume with the giant cardboard origami that’s become the norm for robot cosplay! I’m free, so send your work this way!!”
“That’s called a kigurumi, you uncultured old hag. And try to think about the tournament’s sponsors. You can’t just advertise yourself on the job like that.”
“Shut up. And call me a young woman, you goth loli middle schooler. I have my own issues to deal with.”
“Try to stay in character.”
“Ahem. As the preliminary tournament begins across all 23 districts, one battle in particular has gained overwhelming popular in the live viewing numbers! It’s this one here in District 7! It’s a clash between two young ladies from the prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School. They have an elegance all their own!!”
As the spherical devices that acted as judges floated in the air, two shrill voices filled the air.
“Keep going, keep going!! Win here and you clear the preliminaries and you have a chance to appear in the real deal!!”
“S-stop that, Saten-san. Don’t shake Misaka-san’s shoulders! She can’t see you with those goggles on, so it catches her off guard!”
“Oh, whoops.”
“Euhh… But if we end up in the main tournament, will we have to face some even more amazing opponents, Saten-san?”
“We live in an incredible age! Level 4s and Level 5s can fight it out in the streets without holding back. But the most unbelievable part is that Level 0s like us can fight on equal or greater footing if we’re skilled enough!”
“I’m not actually a Level 0, though.”
“Uiharu, I’ll let that slide for now since I don’t want to ruin the fun mood, but we need to have a chat later.”
A girl’s scream reached Kamijou’s ears from overhead. There may have been some cheerleaders or something on the building’s roof.
Despite the fierce fighting and intense bombardments, there was no tension whatsoever.
In a way, that was to be expected.
Just before a hit, something like unnatural compression artifacts raced through it and cut it off. There was wind and shaking, but anything that would cause serious damage was cut off with top priority. That was why no one would be hurt and nothing would be destroyed. No one cared even when those extraordinarily large ma.s.ses stepped over their heads. It felt more like riding an elevator than a rollercoaster. It may have been frightening if one calmly thought about it, but no one was afraid because they knew solid safety standards were being followed.
(Yet I have no idea what kind of tech is being used to make the machines float up like in the games.)
This too was the same as an elevator. Even if people knew the general idea behind it, they did not know how many safety measures were in place or what standards it had to follow. They could not list off the inspection process either, but human beings still felt like it was “safe”.
That was why the boy walking his dog and the young man broadcasting some kind of video did not tremble in fear as the giant Virtuaroids fired beams of light, created a great cacophony of noise, and shook the ground.
They were simply treated as a part of the background, so a lot of people did not bother to stop and look as they pa.s.sed right by the feet of the bright purple cheerleader named Fei-Yen and the killer bee named Angelan.
“Hmm.”
“What is it, Touma?”
“Well… Let me start by saying I know a Virtuaroid is a Virtuaroid and nothing more than a Virtuaroid.”
“?”
“By the way, what do you call that twintail one?”
“Fei-Yen.”
“I thought so. That’s what the posters said. …But when I look up at Fei-Yen from this angle – how should I put it? – I feel like I’m doing something wrong. I feel like finding a proper part-time job would be better than this blasphemous feeling…”
The girl-style Fei-Yen and Angelan were continuing their high-speed battle and they would sometimes “step over” Kamijou and Index.
And as previously stated, Fei-Yen barely looked like a robot. In fact, its silhouette almost looked like a twintailed magical girl.
“Touma, that is a Virtuaroid and nothing more than a Virtuaroid, so the concept of a skirt and panties doesn’t exist there. You couldn’t peep if you wanted to, so it doesn’t count.”
“I know that. I really do. But when I look at Fei-Yen from this viewpoint, I start to wonder if no one thought about this back when it was shipped out…”
“C’mon, Touma, you’re overthinking this. Fei-Yen is Fei-Yen and it’s Fei-Yen whether you look at it from above or below. See, look at those colors and jiggling movements. It looks so delicious…drool.”
“Index!! Don’t say Fei-Yen is ‘jiggling’ and ‘delicious’! It makes you sound like an incredibly unique sort of person!!”
“???”
Kamijou and Index pa.s.sed by below the two Virtuaroids on their way to District 7’s station area.
The center they were headed to was the closest supplier for the portable devices everyone had. They were technically rented, but just like train IC cards, it was more like they were given away for free. There were a lot of restrictions (such as only being able to update the firmware or refill the electronic credits at the center), but receiving such a useful device for an initial investment of zero yen did a good job of ridding people of any complaints.
Half of the center was a maintenance s.p.a.ce for firmware updates, electronic credit refills, and customizations. The other half was filled with high-power stations. The next-generation compet.i.tion of Virtual-On could be played on the portable devices, but a lot of people seemed to like closing themselves inside the egg-shaped cradle stations for higher resolution video and a greater sense of acceleration.
There were even people in the center sitting at normal benches and facing each other with their small portable devices instead of using the specialized cradle stations.
(Well, I guess it’s like the difference between a handheld player and a home theater. Everyone has their own goal.)
The large screen covering one wall was divided up into dozens of sections that showed the various Virtuaroids fighting in the vicinity of the center. It looked like a screen showing security camera footage, but was it all of the tournament’s preliminary contestants?
“No,” answered Index. “If you battle near the center, it’ll be sent here and there unless you do something special.”
“Why would they-…? Oh, I get it. They’ve opened up the channels for people who want to do a Let’s Play.”
The place seemed busy as it ran the tournament and showed people around. Employees were running around the center while contacting people with their portable devices and displaying the latest battle results on a large paper on the wall.
Based on the round-robin tournament display, that Fei-Yen and Angelan from before seemed to have progressed quite far. At this rate, one or the other had a good chance of being chosen as District 7’s representative.
“Hi, Kami-yan. What brings you here on our day off? Oh, were you caught in the rush to update to Ver. 20.5? C’mon, you’ve gotta manually click that ‘check for updates’ b.u.t.ton every day.”
“Aogami…? You work here?”
“I don’t care about the money. I just want to be as close as possible to the moe that’s in season. No one can stop these pure feelings! Ah hah hah!!”
“Uuh… So this is what happens to someone who really does go after Fei-Yen…”
“Don’t be stupid!! The real moe is found when you forcibly place Guarayakha’s girly motion patterns onto Dordray so that muscular construction machine wiggles cutely around!! And of course, you’ve gotta change the coloring and emblem!! Use all those services that are meant to give it a rough and cool emblem and make your own itasha machine with catgirls drawn all over it!!”
“I’m sorry for snapping back at you when I don’t know anything about this! But could you rephrase that for someone who hasn’t played the games!?”
“I’m talking about this!”
Aogami pointed at a poster on the wall. Dordray seemed to be short and stout machine that’s low center of gravity and great width resembled a wall. It also had a drill and a U-shaped arm attached to its hands. And Guarayakha was a…what? It was even smaller than the girly Fei-Wen and, um…
“Guarayakha-tan is Guarayakha-tan! There’s no other way to describe her!”
“I think I’m about to give in to that intensity on your face!!”
Kamijou was almost in tears, but Index cut in from the side while waving her hand.
She pushed her portable device forward.
“Anyway, take care of this please. I want to meet my Bal-Bados again soon!”
“Sure thing. It is my job, after all. But Bal-Bados? You’re headed in a pretty twisted direction yourself.”
“I’m surprised you were completely unfazed by his nonsense, Index. Is this the composure of those who share a common language?”
“If you just need to update the firmware, you only need to open the settings screen and hit ‘update to latest version’. See? Now hit the ‘agree’ b.u.t.ton on your own.”
No special cables were needed. A specialized wireless network for maintenance was set up inside the center.
Kamijou spoke up in exasperation as he watched the green bar move from one side of the screen to the other.
“Is there any reason to lock this thing down so much?”
“Kami-yan, you haven’t heard the rumors of the ‘defected’ portable devices? It’s gotten a lot of attention.”
“I don’t know much about the game itself, but I saw it mentioned here and there in the online news. That’s when someone intentionally switches off the safety regulations, right? Instead of adding in modified data, I think it was more bout unlocking features that were already there, just hidden. So what is it? A debug mode that lets you change all the values for testing purposes? Or maybe something a developer put in there like writing their complaints in the empty s.p.a.ce?”
“Either way, it lets people use all the services they normally couldn’t access. Of course, as the playerbase grows, the number of people doing stupid things will grow proportionally. 1% of 1000 people is 10 people, but 1% of 10,000 people is 100 people.”
“That’s a lot like turning off your computer’s security software, right? You can use these devices for anything, so they’re full of personal information. …Why would someone do something so risky?”
“Well, if it let me turn Dordray-tan into a cute girl, I’d ‘defect’ right this instant.”
“Sorry, but I still don’t share that common language of yours.”
“Yeah, Dordray’s got the aura of someone with a great body hidden below.”
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