Chapter 4: A Certain Freeloading Forbidden Index. Arrow_Made_of_AZUSA.[Part 1]

August 31, 3:15 PM.

Academy City.

The esper development city that was developed in Western Tokyo. It took up one third the size of Tokyo, and had a population of 2.3 million people. 80% of the residents were students. The 'powers' of the students could be classified into 6 levels, from Level 0 to Level 5.

In this city, the 'powers' weren't some abnormal spiritual power or anything. The 'powers' here had a scientific basis, and after a certain level of training, anyone could obtain one.

In a corner of this extremely conspicuous city, there was a student dormitory. The ordinary High School student Kamijou Touma was staying in this student dormitory, surrounded by summer vacation homework and grasping his head alone in agony.

"SAVE ME! DAMN IT! WHAT IS THIS FACTORIZATION ABOUT!? A MATH PROBLEM HAS 2 ANSWERS!? WHAT NONSENSE!?"

Kamijou cried out in agony as he bent his body back as if he was trying to escape from the math problems on the short glass table. He was a weirdo who would start to mutter to himself once he met difficulty. But even if he managed to deal with the 'mathematics', there was the book review assignment of 'modern Japanese' and 'English assignments' waiting for him, which caused Kamijou's mind to almost sink into distress.

(Uu...)

Kamijou lay on the floor and stared at his own right hand.

The Imagine Breaker—the power that was hidden in Kamijou's right hand. Any 'supernatural power', no matter whether it was an electrical shot of 1 billion volts or flames more than 3,000 degrees Celsius would be erased by his right hand and vanish without a trace. But such a great ability wasn't of any use in completing a summer assignment.

Right now, it was August 31, 3:15 PM 00 seconds.

This is a disaster...Kamijou said half-seriously with tears in his heart.

It could only be said that when it rains, it pours. He had gone out this morning to the convenience store to buy canned coffee, only to find out that they were sold out. And then he had been held up by Aogami Pierce and Tsuchimikado, and then he was forced by Mikoto to act as her lover, and then he was attacked and chased all over the city by that Aztec magician, who was disguised as Unabara Mitsuki. He hadn't made any progress in his homework at all.

As he turned around to look, he could see a girl who was staring intently at the television and a stupid cat who was burying itself into the bag of potato chips and wolfing the food in large gulps. Both of them seemed to be mocking him.

The girl's name was Index.

It was an abbreviation of the ridiculously long name 'Index Librorum Prohibitorum'.

The girl had white skin, silver hair, green eyes and foreigner's features; and she was also wearing a really glamorous white nun's habit that had gold embroidery on it, making it look like a teacup. She was completely in a 19th century Victorian atmosphere. Actually, he didn't know what a Victorian style was, he just randomly said it.

One could tell from her appearance that she was not a resident of Academy City, the leader of the science world.

And her position right now was of the complete opposite; she was of the magical world that was full of mystics.

She was a little different from a magical girl one would commonly think of, but that was not the only troublesome thing. It was because she was the only person in the world who had obtained all forms of magical knowledge in the entire world through 'a certain method'.

The authentic magical girl was now staring at the television and nodding her head away.

On a side note, what was on the television was a magical girl cartoon that was airing (summer vacation rerun).

"I see, so this Magical Powered Kanamin normally dresses like a student. No wonder even the Albigensian Crusaders of the Roman Catholic Church couldn't even get a trace of her. But what's that staff that gives out rainbow light...ah! It must be a wand that's the 5th cursed tool 'Lotus Wand' that includes the 5 elements and remade with modern materials! Ohh, as expected of Japan! Such impressive Japanese magic."

You're wrong, that's just the mental food of otakus that Japan is so proud of. Kamijou wanted to say something to the magical girl (the authentic one) who was staring at the television intently, but he thought that he should ignore it. Right now, he should focus on his homework.

"I say, I won't stop you from watching the television or talking, but you should at least lower the volume of the TV and speak softer! Right now, a tiny distraction for me is fatal enough!"

"What!"

Index unhappily turned her head back and said,

"It's because Touma won't play with me that I could only watch the TV. And where did you go at noon? What was that phone call about? Don't tell me that Touma's acting like usual and went to fight with a magician secretly without telling me?"

"Ah, no, don't worry don't worry, there wasn't any fight this time. We settled it through diplomatic means. Hm, the Aztecs really have a gentlemanly attitude."

"Then which unfortunate girl did Touma help this time?"

"Stop entering your own world! Since when did this 'I fight...save an unfortunate girl' formula appear?"

Kamijou shouted, only to see Index looking extremely tired and sighing.

"Oh well, no point talking about the past. But Touma, I was neglected for an entire morning, so I could only enter the TV world to escape from reality."

"Alright, then let's play the holiday homework game. I'll take math, you'll take English."

"..I don't want to play such a stupid game."

Index sighed again and said,

"Oh yeah, Touma, thank you for your manga. I placed the ones I borrowed over there."

"There—OI!"

Kamijou was speechless. The manga that should have been placed on the bookshelf were scattered all over the floor as if they had met an earthquake.

"Wh-why!? Why did you find more things for me to do in this situation!? Since you took them to read, you should put them back into their places, right?"

"Don't worry, I remember where to put each book."

Index casually said as she continued to watch the television.

Kamijou lowered his shoulders and sighed. The environment of the entire place was really to let one see 'where the items are'. To someone who could remember 'where the things should be put' flawlessly, it was meaningless to put the manga back in order.

Index was a library of magician books; 103,000 magical grimoires from all over the world like 'The Golden Bough', The 'Book of M', the 'Book of Hermes', the 'Secret Teachings' and the 'Tetrabiblos' were memorized in her brain. To her, even if the room was messed up, she could instantly remember the location of every single book.

"But is this the attitude you should show after borrowing from others?"

"Eh? But it's easier to look for stuff like this."

Index didn't look happy as she said,

"Besides, Touma, you don't consider where you should put your stuff when you arrange your room, so that's why you can't find your ball-point pen so often. If you don't believe me, let me ask you, Touma, where's your Ancient Literature assignment?"

"Eh?"

Kamijou sat up and looked on the glass table.

It was not that.

The large stack of Ancient Literature assignment that he had finally finished and stapled had disappeared.

"Ah? Wait a minute! Where did that Ancient Literature assignment I just finished go to?"

"In this situation, the stuff will appear in unexpected places."

"STOP STANDING AROUND WITH A GENTLE SMILE WHILE WATCHING THE SHOW! PLEASE HELP ME LOOK FOR IT!"

Kamijou's cry of agony rang throughout the student dormitory.

Logically speaking, it should have been in the room. But for some reason, Kamijou had a feeling that he wouldn't be reunited with his Ancient Literature assignment.