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

declared Uiharu simply. “After they stole the carry-on luggage, they apparently went into the underground mall on foot, without using a car or anything. I think it was probably to get somewhere out of satellite view.”
    “…? To escape our sight? It isn’t like the underground is completely devoid of cameras. They’re set up all over, and there’re autonomous robots patrolling the place, too.”
    “Yes, but it is still easier to flee there than above ground. Without the bird’s-eye view from the satellite, he could blend in with the other people there and fool the cameras. And sometimes it’s faster to run through the underground, too. There’s currently congestion on the main lines in the area—#3, #48, #131—due to an electricity mishap to the traffic signals or something. And using a car would be particularly hopeless. Running in the underground would give both speed and stealth.”



“Is that right?” Shirai nodded.
    Anti-Skill, having received word from Shirai, was probably moving now as well. Any wheeled vehicles would find themselves stuck in the traffic, though. Considering they didn’t know how much importance to assign to this incident, it would take too long to go through paperwork to get a helicopter or the like. The many processes were to prevent individual troops from requisitioning equipment for personal use, but of course, organizations always came with the side effect of being inflexible.
    “Jeez. I suppose it would be best to go there posthaste.”
    “Ehh?! If you’re not here, Shirai, then I’ll have to give Anti-Skill an answer on my own!” complained Uiharu, truly against the idea. “That will be such a pain!”
    Shirai gave her a dull stare. “You needn’t worry about a thing. I’ll go clean up the
pain
right now.” She took her flimsy bag from the chair it was on and headed for the entrance. Without turning around, she said, “Just who do you think I am? Above ground, underground—it doesn’t matter to me.”
2
    Kuroko Shirai possessed an ability called teleportation.
    It wasn’t an all-powerful skill, though. The weight limit of what she could teleport was 130.7 kilograms, and its max range—regardless of the weight of the object—was 81.5 meters. Plus, she could only use the power on things she touched. She couldn’t bring something far away to her.
    On the other hand, though, that meant she had no trouble moving the constant reference point of the ability: herself.
    Shoom, shoom
, came the sounds splitting the air, over and over again.
    Every time she warped eighty meters, she’d designate her next destination eighty more meters away and jump again. Others would have been seeing her at a place, then not seeing her, then seeing her again somewhere else. Of course, it was far faster than traveling by foot. Translating it into velocity would mean she was reaching 288 kilometers a second.
    I’m not moving in a straight line; I’m moving from point to point
, she said to herself, crossing space again.
Luckily that means inertia has nothing to do with it. It would be no joke if I were to be affected by air resistance while wearing this skirt.
    She changed her foothold every jump, leaping from roads to railings to the tops of vending machines. There were voices of surprise around her, but they were espers all the same. It didn’t evolve into an especially big ruckus, probably because not only did she wear a Tokiwadai uniform but also a Judgment armband.
    In contrast to the robbers running underground, Shirai was flying around above ground. But the underground mall had a limited number of entrances, so as long as she accurately held them, they wouldn’t get by her. In fact, if she were to carelessly pursue them underground and drive them down mentally, they could end up inciting violence among the civilians down there. (It was still unknown as to whether they possessed weapons, but even barehanded, ten people were a pretty big threat to civilians.) Thinking sensibly,