The school bus that Shirai Kuroko was riding was shared by the five schools in the School Garden.
With the financial power that each school had, having their own buses wasn't a problem. However, each school had the ideal of 'letting students engage society more for their own safety', and gathered the bus system as one.
The buses owned by the five schools had large and luxurious interiors, earning it the moniker 'double procession limo'. The student seats were located below, while the top was a café. The bus would always move in a fixed route, down the roads to the five dormitories.
The place where Shirai Kuroko was alighting wasn't in front of the Tokiwadai Middle School dormitory.
She alighted in front of another school's dormitory, mixing together with female students from other schools, stretched her back and gently sighed, thinking, "Does that kind of bus really allow 'students to interact more with society'?". There were other bus services passing through in front of the Tokiwadai dormitory, and they were ordinary buses. There was absolutely no comparison between the school buses and these ordinary buses.
The time was 7:30 PM.
They could still see the sunset at this time during summer vacation, but since it was the middle of September, the sky was completely dark now. Shirai pulled out the Judgment armband from her bag, put it on the sleeve of her uniform, and headed off in a completely different direction from where the girls around her were moving to. Once the mood changed from 'after school' to 'work', the shriveled bag became even more cumbersome. Because what she needed wasn't 'items required for school', but 'items required for battle'.
Beside the student dormitory, there was another school.
It was an ordinary rectangular concrete school compound, completely different from the School Garden. Shirai walked inside, getting a pair of slippers at the staff entrance, where there were hardly any students around, and headed down the corridor lit by a neat row of overhead lamps. After walking on the icy and hard plastic floor for a while, one could see a door with a signboard. The words on the signboard read 'Judgment 177th Branch'.
There was a glass board beside the door. After going through a fingerprint, pulse and finger motion scan, Shirai Kuroko didn't knock on the door, but choose to push the door forcefully.
BAM! The door created a loud noise.
The girl behind the door was terrified. Her name was Uiharu Kazari. She was of similar age as Shirai, but as her body frame was more petite, and her shoulders were narrow; she looked somewhat child-like. It was rare to see someone like her who, despite wearing a summer sailor uniform, didn't look like a middle school student. She wore decorations of roses, hibiscus and other flowers on her short black hair, and from afar, it looked like a colorful flower vase.
Uiharu looked absolutely terrified as Shirai stormed into the '177th Branch Office'.
"What's going on? There're so many Judgment members, so why look for me?"
"Hm, thinking about it again, it need not necessarily be Shirai-san."
"…You knew that I was shopping with Onee-sama. Since you stubbornly called me over, shouldn't you say something?"
"BANZAI—!"
"You have got to be kidding me! Why are you raising your hands and cheering?"
Shirai used her teleport, got right in front of Uiharu, and used both fists to squeeze her temples. As Shirai was still holding onto the shriveled bag, the buttons on it were touching Uiharu's ear slightly.
They were both first-year students.
But as Shirai was a Level 4 esper from Tokiwadai Middle School, there was a significant difference between both of them. Besides, while Shirai had been working on her first mission after joining Judgment, she had saved Uiharu, who had still been an ordinary student. Shirai herself didn't mind at all, it was just that it bothered Uiharu a lot.
The 177th Branch Office didn't look like a school classroom, but rather like an office. There were many of those metal desks seen in a city hall, and there were several sets of computers on them.
Uiharu was facing a computer, sitting on a chair. The ergonomic chair had curvy lines on it, making it look like a clock that Dali designed (Note: Salvador Dali, 1904-1989, the famous Spanish surrealist painter). It was a scientific chair that was hailed to be able to 'reduce fatigue to the minimum. As Shirai moved behind Uiharu and pressed on her temples, her narrowed eyes naturally saw the computer screen.
The screen seemed to be showing a GPS satellite map. On it, there was a red X; seemed like something happened. Other places were also being indicated on the map, and in other windows, there were photographs or something like that.
What did these things mean, Shirai could only learn by asking Uiharu.
However, Shirai just glanced at it for a while, and said,
"Ah, isn't that happening in school?"
If it was something that was happening in school, they would be using a school map, and not a GPS map.
Judgment was basically an organization meant to maintain law and order inside school compounds. Thus, Judgment had a branch office in every single school. It was also unlike Anti-Skill, which operated on a 24 hours basis without rest. Everyday, till school ended for the day, the office would be locked, and there wouldn't be anyone inside guarding (today was an exception).
Unless it was an emergency situation, anything that happened 'outside school' was basically Anti-Skill's responsibility. It was because the adults felt that they shouldn't allow students to patrol around in dangerous alleys or in the middle of the night. Shirai stopped pressing onto Uiharu's temples, and Uiharu seemed to be relieved.
"I've already followed through the procedures and contacted Anti-Skill. However, the situation does seem really weird. Anti-Skill will immediately ask us to provide the relevant information. I thought that Shirai-san would be clearer on how to answer this. Ah, I'll prepare some red tea."
"No need, I don't like to have tea with my stomach empty."
To Shirai, red tea was just a supplement to snacks or sweets. Afternoon tea or anything that had tea as the main course wasn't Shirai's type.
Hearing Shirai's casual reply, Uiharu was nevertheless shocked, her face turning pale.
"Ugh…uuu…! I studied books about red tea in order to follow a rich lady's lifestyle, and even prepared special aromatic stuff like rose oil…only for you to reject it with an even more lady-like sentence! Doesn't it sound nice to drink red tea in school? It really feels posh!"
The rich ojous of Tokiwadai Middle School were the idols of all the girls in Academy City. However, most of them did not know what kind of life the Tokiwadai students went through. Thus, some of them became fanatical regarding these elite girls schools and would often learn some strange things, ending up in this situation like Uiharu.
"Sigh, such formality can only be done by upstarts. Anyway, what's going on?"
"Ah, to be able to be rich, it's alright to be an upstart…to have these kind of thoughts, I'm really just a girl from the streets. As for what happened, it isn't anything major, basically, it's just a robbery on the street. However, there are many of these robbers, it's not really a smart way to do it."
Shirai digested Uiharu's words in her mind, placed the dry and shriveled bag on the chair, and focused on the screen.
The computer screen displayed the map of the District 7, and in a corner on the road in front of a bus station, there was an 'X'. On the road nearby, there were some colored arrowheads, which probably indicated where the robbers ran.
Shirai revealed an intrigued look.
"We shouldn't be settling this, should we?"
"But there are several suspicious things about this case. According to eyewitnesses, what was stolen was a luggage bag."
"A luggage bag?"
"Ah, Shirai-san, don't you know? They're as big as a suitcase, only that they have wheels underneath. It's not often for people to use this when they're travelling alone, so most of the time, it's the air hostesses that are using it."
Uiharu explained simply yet effectively.
"According to the eyewitness, there is also an invitation slip on it."
"So basically, it's just a luggage bag that has an invitation slip on it? What's so strange about this?"
"Eh, anyway, just look at this image. This is a photograph taken by a self-defense type robot; I'll enlarge the part where the luggage bag is."
Uiharu pressed a few buttons, and a new window opened. On it, one could see the serial number, owner and destination on the slip.
On seeing the 'destination', Shirai couldn't help but frown.
"Subsidiary calculus facility of Tokiwadai Middle School…? I've never heard of this before."
"Ah, so there's no such place, is there? It's hard for us to contact the School Garden, so we couldn't confirm it. Oh yeah, even when Daihaseisai is approaching, the School Garden isn't an arena, so it's not open to outsiders."
From how Uiharu said this, it seemed like Shirai was making her even more bothered.
"I've checked the serial number on the slip, and it doesn't seem right. Even though it's true that there is a good with this serial number that is to be delivered, the contents seem to be a cooling device that's to be installed on a computer simulator. No matter what, that kind of thing can't just be stuffed in a luggage bag?"
"What did you say…? It's alright if it's just metal parts, but I've never heard about the School Garden using any machinery from the outside world."
"Just by analyzing the image of this slip, it's hard to tell whether it's a fake. Maybe it is just that someone just randomly placed a slip on it."
"…Wait a sec, instead of asking around for eyewitnesses' testimony, why not ask the person who was robbed to make things simpler?"
"Because the person is missing…"
Uiharu casually explained.
Shirai gasped and turned around to look at Uiharu.
Uiharu then explained,
"Seems like this victim doesn't want to rely on us, but to use his own power. Do you want to see the actual video? There are more than ten criminals, and only one victim. But after the incident, it looks like he made a call, and even pursued them."
Uiharu pressed a few buttons, and another window appeared on the screen full of windows. The location seemed to be a road in front of the bus stop, as a man wearing a classy Western outfit looked around before making a call urgently. He was not using a cell phone, but radio equipment.
"It's here."
Uiharu suddenly stopped the video temporarily.
"Is there anything strange that you captured?"
Shirai gazed at the still screen, but she couldn't see anything strange. The man in Western clothes holding the radio equipment was shaking his head around, so his face couldn't be seen clearly.
"Shirai-san, when the victim's Western clothes flip up, is there something underneath?"
"Eh, now that you mention it, actually…"
Underneath the Western clothes, which were flipped up due to the man shaking about, a black tape-like thing was beside his stomach.
"By widening the image, we can see the model number. L_Y010021. A special large-scale manufactured gun strap, one that can be hidden underneath the clothes. Don't the policemen in those cop shows pull out their guns from their clothes? It's that thing."
Uiharu said after enlarging the image of the gun strap. Shirai smiled,
"Maybe it's just a decoration."
"Yeah, maybe so, including this."
Next, Uiharu pressed another few buttons. The area of the chest of the man wearing Western clothing was enlarged, and there were several hundred arrowheads pointing at it. These arrowheads indicated the slight movement of the clothes. As if they were being attracted by a magnet, the numerous arrowheads formed the shape of a pistol.
"We got very few images here…these are all we have. Shirai-san, what do you think?"
If it was not that man trying to avoid being caught on camera all this time, it was while the criminals were running away and avoiding the cameras, with the man chasing after them, which ended up with that man not getting caught on camera. Shirai thought of this, and said,
"Haiz, I have a feeling that this is going to be one really tough case."
"Huh? Shirai-san, did a Far Vision type power awaken within you?"
"Stop going off topic. The gun, it's hard to tell whether it's real with these pictures alone. However, that radio equipment looks similar to those that the experts use during my Judgment training. If so…I see, this is truly a troublesome case. Besides, it's also suspicious that the victim didn't report the case to us."
A victim who acted on his own.
And a luggage bag that was related to Tokiwadai Middle School.
A full suit preparation that was too professional.
The case did seem weird. Also, if there was the possibility of a gunfight, Anti-Skill would have to change their armor equipment. The chances of Judgment taking part in this were slim (since not all of them were Level 4s like Shirai), but it was beneficial to have someone who knew the situation inside the School Garden and Tokiwadai Middle School.
"Shirai-san, should we focus more on the robbers or the victim?"
"We should chase both sides. If we can't do that, we'll take the robbers first. Besides, we don't have to chase after the victim once we get the luggage bag back. Without pursuing the victim, the victim will still come over and contact us."
Shirai sighed and took a step back.
Next, she ordered Uiharu.
"Alright, can we check where the robbers ran? Come to think of it, it took me 30 minutes to get here, we should have their whereabouts now, right?"
"I don't think so."
Uiharu said casually.
"After stealing the luggage bag, they didn't use a vehicle, but ran away into the underground. Maybe they want to avoid satellite surveillance."
"…Avoid satellite surveillance? But aren't there many cameras underground? Besides the fixed ones, there are also many self-defense robots patrolling around, aren't there?"
"Yes, however, it's easier to hide underground. As long as they don't get caught on tape by the satellite camera, they can use the blind spots caused by the presence of the crowd to avoid getting caught on camera. Also, it's faster for them to go underground now. Right now, the electricity isn't working properly, causing the traffic lights to not function, and now, there are traffic jams around lines 3, 48, 131, and the area around the crime scene. So it's beneficial for the robbers to run away underground, in terms of speed and stealth."
"I see."
Shirai gently nodded her head.
After being contacted by Uiharu, Anti-Skill should be getting to work. The problem was, in this traffic congestion, Anti-Skill's vehicles couldn't reach the scene. Also, they couldn't tell how serious this situation was, so it might take some time for them before they could even request for helicopter assistance. Though the complicated procedures were meant to prevent members from taking actions on their own, it took up a lot of time when they had to adapt quickly. This was a disadvantage of working as a group.
"Sigh, looks like it'll be faster for me to make a personal trip."
"Eh? Shirai-san is leaving? Wouldn't I have to face Anti-Skill's interrogation alone? So troublesome—!"
Uiharu loudly protested. However, Shirai just replied calmly.
"Don't worry, I'll settle it immediately."
Shirai Kuroko grabbed the shriveled bag that was lying on the chair and headed towards the exit.
Without turning her head back, she said,
"Who do you think I am? No matter whether it's underground or anywhere else, it's all the same to me."