In front of Kamijou Touma, the lady in workers' clothes—likely to be the courier, Oriana Thomson—turned at a corner.
(...Have I been found out!?)
Anyway, he couldn't lose her. Kamijou gave up on stalking her, something he was not good at anyway, and started to run among the crowd. He didn't know whether there was a television interview somewhere, as this path wasn't crowded with people.
He ran along the building, and turned around the right-angled corner.
Kamijou could see the blonde hair swaying about in a location further than he expected. He passed through a child holding a balloon and a couple holding hands, and began to speed up. He thought,
(Luckily, I'm wearing sportswear for the competitions.)
Although these clothes weren't made from some high-tech material that used aviation mechanics to reduce the air-resistance, it was better than the school pants.
Though he was trying his best to run hard, nobody was looking at him like a weirdo. The pedestrians may have thought that he was in the Scavenger Hunt. He was moving faster now, and he was 1 kilometer away from where he had collided with the blonde lady and split up with Fukiyose.
Not to mention that Botany test field where Index was changing clothes, it was now bothersome for him to even walk back.
A cell phone ring could be heard from Kamijou's pants.
It'd be tiring if he talked while he was running. Kamijou wondered if he should answer the phone as he was keeping his eyes on the target. The caller was Tsuchimikado Motoharu.
He hastily picked up the phone.
"Kami-yan, where are you!? Why aren't you waiting for me there!?"
"Sorry, I'm afraid that I'll lose her if this keeps up!"
As they were talking, the figure wearing worker clothes turned again at a corner 20 meters in front.
"Bastard, where now? Where are you right now?"
Turning around the corner, Kamijou gave a low moan. The street in front was split into 3 different alleys. He pricked his ears, and could hear where the footsteps were headed. It was the middle alley.
"The location...There's no road sign around!! I'll send my GPS password to you through SMS. Look for me there!!"
The GPS function of the cell phone had a service of 'showing where one's friend was,' but they had to use the special password sent over by the target. The code would change automatically every 30 minutes.
Kamijou sent the required code to Tsuchimikado's phone, and hung up. Of course, the power must remain on in order to allow the GPS function to work properly.
He continued to run in the alley. This stretch was really long, as the small space between the towers soon became a gradual arc. Rushing forward, he finally heard the voices of the crowd and their footsteps in front.
"Eh!!"
Running out of the alley, he found another road. Kamijou looked around, before spotting Oriana running away on the right side of a trail that extended to both left and right of him.
The distance was rather long now, about 50 meters. It was pretty fast for her to run while holding such a large billboard (or it's disguised as one, it should be something else though, right?).
Kamijou frantically chased after Oriana.
Luckily, the billboard of hers was rather large, and obvious, so she couldn't mix into the crowd easily. In this situation, Kamijou would lose sight of her the moment he lost a teeny-weeny bit of concentration, meaning that he had to focus on her. This psychological thought narrowed Kamijou's vision, as not only did he nearly knock into the people walking around, he didn't notice the unevenness of the ground and nearly fell down.
"Damn it!!"
Kamijou shouted out. As he was about to run forward, someone tapped him on his shoulder.
It was Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Stiyl Magnus.
They were fast.
They hadn't chased him from behind; they had come out from the side alleys. It was likely that after they had looked at the GPS map, they guessed where Kamijou would be from looking at where Kamijou was and where he was running.
"Which one, Kami-yan? You just said that the 'Stab Sword' was disguised as a billboard, right?"
"It's that...that person...that blonde lady wearing workers' clothes."
Tsuchimikado and Stiyl then proceeded to run where Kamijou was pointing at. The reason why they left him behind was because they'd say that it was the work of the experts now. But Kamijou didn't bother adjusting his breathing as he proceeded to run after Stiyl and the rest.
(Cheh, they're tough...!)
Oriana muttered as she continued to run while glancing backwards. Though the distance between them was about 50 meters, conversely, they only needed to run 50 meters in order to catch up to her. She continued to run, and ran into several alleys where it would be easy for them to get lost, as she tried to shake them off, but there didn't seem to be any effect.
The reason why she was disguised as a painter holding a billboard was because she wanted people to think that she was 'working'. No matter whether it was a hotel, department store, or a restaurant, if there was no billboard, others would think that 'she's here to rest in the shop.' She'd be questioned by the employees if she walked into a shop together with the customers like this. Even if they were to ask for an explanation, she wouldn't have time to reply. She'd be noticed if she got away from the employees several times.
Even if she disguised herself as a worker and walked in from the back door, she'd need keys and an ID card. Thus, she could only run on the streets outside. This was one of the reasons why she couldn't shake them off though.
Even so, with this distance, it was abnormal for the other party to catch up with her so accurately.
And, the moment she turned back, the number of people chasing after her was now three!
The first one looked like an amateur, but the precision required now had increased by a lot now that two more people were chasing her. They were likely experts. The opponent should have read her trail of thoughts and predicted how she was going to escape.
(Although I heard that Academy City and various Christian organisations cannot take action on these busy streets now, it seems that I was too naïve...!)
Suddenly, Oriana stopped moving. There seemed to be a television broadcasting crew doing an interview ahead, as there was quite a group of people around. Oriana, who was holding the large 'billboard', was unable to pass through. The billboard was jammed inside the crowd, and she couldn't move about freely. Of course, she could abandon the billboard, but doing so would defeat the entire objective as to why she was running about with it.
She looked around, and thought,
(Although it's difficult, looks like that road is the safest...)
After thinking, calculating and making a decision, Oriana ran onto another road on the side.
Tsuchimikado was running the fastest, and was followed by Stiyl, then Kamijou. That was because Kamijou had used up quite a bit of energy, as he should be running faster than Stiyl.
Right now, Oriana, who was 30 meters in front, stopped in the middle of the road. Looking around, she decided to run into another road on the side. Tsuchimikado frowned as he ran,
"What now, it's different from her usual modus operandi nya...did she change her mind?"
He continued to maintain his breathing as he ran after her, feeling that he'd lose her if there was a slight error. Kamijou increased the power of his legs as well as he chased after Tsuchimikado.
Arriving at where Oriana had stopped just now, they found out that there was a broadcasting agency carrying out an interview. One could hear the reporter reporting the news excitedly, and to the residents of Academy City, it seemed that he was confusing the situation. The people around him were packed together as if he was in a train. Oriana must be afraid of getting blocked by them, so she changed her direction.
Kamijou's view turned towards Oriana.
"...Where is this place, a bus depot?"
It was an empty place with asphalt on the ground.
It was an enclosed rectangular area that was surrounded on all sides. It seemed like they had bulldozed and leveled the abandoned buildings that had originally been there in preparing for Daihaseisai.
It was 30 meters wide, and several hundred meters long. There was no impression of it being 'wide', though. Many large buses were stacked tightly together like oil tankers. At first glance, there were about 50–70 of these buses. There were metal pillars everywhere, and the entire place was covered with a galvanized iron roof. There were robotic arms that were used in car repairs hanging from the ceiling.
All the vehicles were unmanned automatic buses.
It should be a temporary depot for automatic buses. There had to be a place to refuel the buses, to wash them, and do repairs when needed. Maybe they were using a three-shift rotation system or some other measures during this period. So all the buses here were on standby.
The automatic buses were only in use during Daihaseisai, and such a large amount of preparation was done for this. Kamijou re-realized the scale of this operation.
An auto-bus marked as 'return' silently passed by Kamijou and company into the depot. Tsuchimikado followed the auto-bus that was slowly moving, and just as he was about to step silently into the depot—
BOOM!!
Suddenly, blue and white explosions occurred underneath the ceiling.
The unnaturally-colored flame continued to fall directly onto Tsuchimikado's face like a transparent cylinder. It may be a magical attack — although it was a magical flame, it was definitely not caused by Stiyl. If so, who did this?
"Bastard, is she trying to stop us by using runes? Get down, Kami-yan!"
Tsuchimikado jumped backwards, and was about to push Kamijou down, but—
"What are you saying? Shouldn't we be relying on him in this kind of situation?"
Stiyl grabbed Kamijou's collar and tossed him in front.
"Ah?"
Tsuchimikado rolled sideways, not knowing how far he would roll, and in place, Kamijou was standing under the blue and white flames.
Looking up, Kamijou saw a flaming pillar that was coming down like a guillotine swinging downwards.
"Eh? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Kamijou frantically swung his right hand up like a hook. The blue and white flames dispersed in many different directions, and vanished before it could spread.
Stiyl shook the cigarette in his mouth, and said,
"My my, to think that even I couldn't think of this perfect teamwork. To be able to share the work like this, you can really understand the situation and take action."
"You...you...you...!!"
Kamijou was trembling, and without hesitation, was about to hit the red-haired priest.
"Hurry up and finish your work."
Stiyl kicked him, and pushed him backwards.
PEW!! The sound of wind being cut could be heard, as blocks of rocks that were as big as baseballs passed through the underside of the auto-bus that was moving forward. Suddenly, the surface of these rocks became sharp and edgy, like a sea-urchin, as they bounced up towards Kamijou's jaw.
"Wait...wait a sec!!"
Kamijou quickly stretched his right hand out, and the rock bullets vanished in the air like an ice sculpture breaking. Tsuchimikado and Stiyl were using the auto-bus parked nearby as a shield, and jumped away left and right respectively. Kamijou, who was unable to trust them any further, jumped in Tsuchimikado's direction.
Tsuchimikado, whose back was resting on the bus, said to Stiyl, who was leaning his back on the bus opposite,
"Stiyl, stay here, set up the runes, and stand by. I'll catch the courier inside."
"Roger that. Do I have to use the people clearing field?"
"I'll leave it to you. Though I don't want to use too much magic, it'll be bad if this uproar is to build on. It's alright as long as Index doesn't arrive here."
I see, Kamijou just realized this. Right now, they weren't fighting in a 'win or lose' battle, but a war about 'arrest or escape'. Once the objectives were different, the ways to tackle it were different.
Tsuchimikado stared at Kamijou's face, and asked,
"Oh yeah, Kami-yan. What do you want to do? I feel that it's safer for you to stay here..."
Stiyl stared at Kamijou, and grinned,
"Yeah, to me, it's better if you stay here. Not for your safety, but mine."
Kamijou picked up an empty can on the ground, and threw it at Stiyl, wanting to proceed on with Tsuchimikado. From a blind corner of the bus, Tsuchimikado stared inside the depot, and dashed out.
Kamijou followed him, thinking, if I have the Imagine Breaker ability, shouldn't I be using myself as a shield?
BOOM!!
As this sound was heard, a yellow flame flew towards them. 10 meters in front, a flame appeared out of nowhere.
Right when Kamijou stretched out his right hand, a high pressure wind cut between the buses on the left and right side of him like a scalpel.
"!?"
Just when Kamijou was unable to respond, Tsuchimikado grabbed his collar, avoided the scalpels that were flying over, and ran in an arc to avoid the flames. He then let go of Kamijou's collar, and said,
"Kami-yan, you don't have to take them all on! These are traps that the enemy set up. She'll escape if you take them on seriously!!"
"Although you say that...!!"
Five blocks of ice that were as big as balloons came descending from the ceiling. Kamijou tried hard to resist using his right hand as he dashed forward. The shockwaves and sounds created by the heavy blocks of ice landing caused him to feel chilly on his back.
Passing through a row of parked auto-buses, he saw a large machine that was used to wash the buses. It was about as tall as two stories of a building, and there were machines that were used for washing. It was not those drum-shaped brushes, but rather a flat sponge that used ultrasonic vibration.
Oriana seemed to have ran into a dark corner, and he could see her blonde hair swaying about.
"Over there!!"
When Kamijou jumped out from the blind corner, the ground started to uplift in a row, as if it was trying to get in between him and the huge washing machine. It was a 5 meter tall ground wall, and it swept his legs over like a tsunami.
The wall extended from one end of the depot to another. This was unavoidable, as he'd be crushed even if he hid behind a blind corner. What was more dangerous was that if the metal pillar supporting the ceiling was broken, the entire depot would collapse.
"Kami-yan, I'll leave it to you. It's some provisional material that's like ectoplasm. Your right hand will definitely settle it!!"
As Tsuchimikado shouted out, Kamijou came forward. Facing this large target, his teeth started to clatter, but it was not the time to run away crying. He reached the base of the wall, and hit it with his right hand.
POW!!
With the sound of glass breaking, the 5 meter tall wall collapsed. The wall seemed to have dissolved in the air, and there didn't seem to be any changes. The asphalt ground returned to its original state as well.
Kamijou was about to pull back his right arm when Tsuchimikado ran past him to the place opposite the large washing machine.
He stopped.
Oriana wasn't there anymore.
A thick piece of paper that was as big as a chewing gum wrapper was stuck on the body of the machine. Kamijou rushed past Tsuchimikado, and looked around. There was a backdoor in the corner of the machine, but further down, a manhole was opened, and the windows of the buildings were broken. Basically, it was impossible to tell which way she escaped.
"'Route Disturb' Oriana Thomson huh...what a joke!!"
Tsuchimikado angrily tore down the piece of paper. The ordinary boy Kamijou Touma could tell from his actions how critical the situation was.
(Ara ara. I don't know if I lost them...)
Oriana Thomson looked behind for a while, and walked on the road.
She had stopped running the moment she lost sight of her pursuers. Since the opponent lost her, it was more important that she was not found than to put distance between them. It'd be very obvious if she was to run in the crowd.
Even so, she was rather satisfied. Oriana held on to the billboard that was covered with white cloth, and reconfirmed everything again.
(...Even if I lost them for now, it doesn't mean that the matter is over. I have to set up the next piece.)
Oriana, who was only caring about what was happening behind, knocked into someone in front. Her exposed navel felt not human skin, but metal. Two boys that seemed to be committee members of the Daihaseisai were setting a pole horizontally for a ball tossing contest, and she had knocked into them.
"Aiya, I'm really sorry."
Oriana gently apologized and left, leaving the boys dumbfounded as they stared at her huge breasts.
Too soft, she said softly, forcing back the urge to laugh.
(I've just set up my next piece, it'll likely give them some hell.)
Tsuchimikado had pulled out his phone and was talking to someone. It seemed to be Stiyl. Although both of them were magicians,
Tsuchimikado couldn't use magic, or strictly speaking, he could use it, but it'd cause a rejection due to his esper powers, which was the risk of a small-scale explosion.
Tsuchimikado said "come quickly," and hung up the phone.
Kamijou looked at the piece of paper that Tsuchimikado was holding.
"Oi, what's that?"
"O, that's the spiritual item that Oriana uses."
Tsuchimikado said in a frustrated tone, and let Kamijou see that paper. Some blue colored words were written on it in a hard to read font, 'Soil Symbol.' Of course, Kamijou, whose English was atrocious, didn't understand what it meant.
"It means, 'the Symbol of Soil.' You've probably heard of the five main elements in RPGs, nya? Fire, water, earth, wind, whatever. It's referring to that."
"So this is a 'Soil card'? I don't understand."
"No, not only that. The color of earth is 'green', but this is written in blue."
Tsuchimikado turned the card around, saying,
"'Blue' is the color of water, and normally, it wouldn't be used on earth-based magic. If one wanted to use earth, they'd put matching features like 'green' or 'disc-shaped'. It's like how Stiyl uses red cards to control flames."
"...Did that woman make a mistake?"
"Impossible, she's doing this on purpose. She's using incompatible colors and uses the reaction as an attack. Basically, this is risky, as a bad mix will result in a bad effect."
As Tsuchimikado said this, Stiyl ran over from the other side of the depot.
Tsuchimikado waved the thick piece of paper, and said,
"I found her magical spirit tool. If Oriana is to use this while she's running, this will receive it like a cell phone. I'd like to use this method, can you guys give me a hand, nya?"