A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 8 by Kazuma Kamachi Read Free Book Online

witnesses…Shouldn’t you just be asking the person directly about what happened when their luggage was stolen? Wouldn’t that be faster?”
    “Said person isn’t around.” Shirai did a double take, surprised at Uiharu’s quick response. She spoke again. “Apparently the victim is conducting his own pursuit, separate from us. See the image right before this? There were over ten robbers, and yet here, he’s contacting someone and chasing on his own.”
    Uiharu typed something and brought up a new window in the mess of windows already on the screen. It was a vivid video recording. There was a rich-looking man wearing a suit at what seemed to be a road in front of a station. He looked around, then used a wireless radio instead of a cell phone and contacted someone.
    “Right here,” said Uiharu, suddenly pausing the video. “Do you notice anything strange?”
    Shirai looked at the still image, but nothing particularly stood out to her. There was a slight blur on his face as she’d stopped the video right when the man in the suit with the wireless radio suddenly shook his head, so she couldn’t make that out very well.
    “Shirai, do you see how the victim’s suit is turned up a little?”
    “Huh. Well, now that you mention it.” The ends of the man’s suit were turned up slightly due to his movement. And near his side, she could see a blackish, suspender-like thing.
    “You can make out the serial number if you enlarge it. L_Y010021. It’s an official shoulder holster made by a big-name gun manufacturer. It’s the kind for hiding a handgun inside your clothing. You know how on detective shows when the guy pulls a handgun out of his clothes? That’s what it is,” finished Uiharu, enlarging the holster’s belt.
    Shirai smiled a little. “It could just be an accessory.”
    “Yes. It may just be an accessory—and this could be, too.” Uiharu did something. It zoomed in on the chest of the man in the suit, and hundreds of thin arrows appeared. It was detecting the subtle unevenness in the clothing. It looked like a magnet attracting iron filings. The innumerable arrows created the vague outline of a handgun. “That’s all this image has to offer…It would have been nice to have some more pictures. What do you think, Shirai?”
    Shirai thought. Was the man trying to avoid cameras? Or did he just happen to go out of sight as a result of chasing the fleeing robbers? “Good grief. I get the feeling this is going to be a huge pain, like always.”
    “Huh? Shirai, I didn’t know you had farvision.”
    “Oh, be quiet. I can’t say much for sure about the handgun with only this data, but the wireless radio—it looks like the professional kind I saw during Judgment training. Which means…I get it. It would appear these are some quite troubling circumstances. Even the fact that we didn’t get a report is odd.”
    The victim was moving alone.
    The carry-on luggage had something to do with Tokiwadai Middle School.
    The things the man had on him seemed unnatural.
    It was certainly different from your regular old incident. And if there really was a handgun involved, it would probably change what Anti-Skill would bring into it. At that point, Judgment would have no place in the incident (not every member of Judgment had reached Level Four power levels like Shirai had), so maybe having someone familiar with the Garden of Learning or Tokiwadai Middle School would help somewhat.
    “So, Shirai…Between the culprits and the victim, which should we focus on getting information about?”
    “I’d like to tell you to investigate both, but if I had to choose, it would be the ones who committed the robbery,” she ordered, taking a step back. “If we recover the luggage, then the victim would eventually get to us without us having to chase him down. Do we know where the culprits fled? Well, I mean, it took me thirty minutes to get here, so I’m sure you don’t know exactly where they are.”
    “That’s not true,”