Misaka Mikoto stood in the plaza in front of a concert hall.
That was where they had agreed to meet.
"…Where is he?"
She was getting tired of standing alone a bit away from the plaza while watching friends and lovers meeting up.
Mikoto was still wearing Tokiwadai Middle School's uniform. She was also still carrying her thin school bag and violin case. They would get in the way while having fun, but dropping them off at her dorm would be a pain in its own way. She could normally enter and leave as she pleased, but she was sometimes thoroughly questioned about where she was headed when she had the bad luck to be caught by someone like the dorm supervisor.
And so instead of heading back to her dorm, she had headed straight to the spot they had agreed to meet at. That way she knew she would not be late. It seemed Shirai Kuroko was nearby, so she had called the other girl to take her things back to their dorm room, but…
"Why are neither of them coming?" muttered Mikoto blankly.
She had hoped to quickly force her baggage onto Shirai and then kill the rest of the time in a café, but she ended up just standing there the entire time because not even Shirai arrived.
She sighed and wondered why she had gone to such a great effort to ensure she was not late when Kamijou did not seem to have a problem with running late himself.
But even if she wished she could take her baggage back to the dorm, the appointed time had already passed. If she left now, they might just miss each other.
Mikoto sighed again and her shoulders drooped exhaustedly.
"Come to think of it, I don't even know that idiot's number. …But asking him myself would piss me off too much."
She was tired of standing, so she placed her thin school bag and violin case on the ground and crouched down. The bag was fine, but the case looked like it had antique value. Nevertheless, Mikoto did not seem to care. It merely functioned as a case in her mind.
And as weariness wrapped around that rich girl…
"There you are! You are Misaka Mikoto-san, right!?"
A bright girl's voice came her way. Hearing her name, Mikoto looked up with a look that seemed to say "What's this?"
A middle school girl smaller than Mikoto stood there. She wore a sailor uniform and had lots of artificial flowers on top of her short, black hair. Mikoto thought she was a member of Judgment just like Shirai Kuroko. She had a tendency to hang around Shirai more than speak to Mikoto directly.
"It's…Uiharu Kazari-san, right?"
"Wow, you remembered!"
Uiharu's eyes sparkled.
The look in her eyes was one of pure envy. However, she longed for the world of rich girls she saw in this "upperclassman from Tokiwadai Middle School" rather than for Mikoto herself, so those sparkling eyes were of a different sort from Shirai's. This was nothing more than healthy admiration.
Uiharu timidly asked, "Um…Shirai-san was supposed to come get your things, right?"
"Hm?" Mikoto frowned.
Uiharu was looking at the school bag and violin case lying on the ground.
"Well…You see… Shirai-san had some Judgment work forced onto her…no, I mean she is working very hard, so she will probably be a bit late. She really wants to come here herself, but I came instead because it did not look like that was going to happen anytime soon."
Mikoto was about to accept that explanation, but she stopped.
Shirai was a close (strictly in a completely normal sense) friend of hers, so she did not hesitate to ask something like that of her, but she could not leave that job to this innocent girl. Also, Uiharu was not a student of Tokiwadai Middle School. She could not enter the dorm, so she would have to hand it off to someone at the dorm to bring it to Mikoto's room.
In the worst case scenario, that could even be the dorm supervisor.
The dorm supervisor was mature enough to cheerfully accept the items from Uiharu with a smile, but she would become a demon king of rage once Mikoto returned to the dorm.
And so Mikoto casually waved her hand.
"If Kuroko isn't coming, that's fine. I can leave it with a cloakroom at a nearby hotel. They'll let me as long as I rent out a room."
"Yes… I guess you can't just leave those in a coin locker."
Uiharu looked at the violin case with nervous eyes. Her entire body made it clear she assumed that decision was made because a normal person like her could not be allowed to touch something of such value.
Mikoto waved her hand even more.
"No, no, no! I'm not doubting your ability to carry it, so don't get so down!!"
"But…"
Uiharu trailed off.
And when she spoke again, she had changed the subject.
"Tokiwadai Middle School really is amazing. It isn't normal to use a violin in school lessons."
"Really? If you tried it, I think you'd find it isn't that hard." Mikoto noticed a hint of envy in Uiharu's eyes as she looked at the violin. "Um…By any chance, do you wish you could go to our school?"
"N-no, no! Don't be ridiculous!!" She was so flustered it was obvious what she actually thought. "A completely normal person like me could never even set foot in a rich girl place like that!!"
"Actually, if you have the ability, they'll cover as much of the finances as you need. The school focuses more on what's inside than on appearances. I've actually heard that some royal daughter was rejected right away."
"I-if they do not even let royalty in, there is definitely no way I could get in… I have never even touched a violin. I think I would look pretty cool if I could play one though."
"I don't think you would find it as amazing as you think if you tried it." Mikoto grabbed the violin case from the ground. "Here, I'll prove it."
"Eh!? You'll play for me?"
"No, you'll play it."
"Bwehh!?"
Uiharu looked at Mikoto with her eyes opened wide in shock, but that young lady of Tokiwadai Middle School had already undone the case's latch and pulled out a violin that had the old shine of an antique as well as the bow to play it with.
"Here you go."
"Bh!? D-don't just throw it at me!!"
Uiharu nervously took that item that's value she could not even imagine. She stiffened up because she thought its value would go down even if she got her sweat on it, not to mention if she broke it.
Mikoto stood next to Uiharu and casually pointed at the various parts of the violin.
"Okay, just do what I tell you. Hold the violin in your left hand and use your right hand to play it with that stick-like thing. Hold the bottom of the instrument between your chin and collarbone. It's a pretty cheap violin, so don't worry about holding it too tightly."
But even if it was cheap, it was cheap according to the values of a rich girl. Uiharu was about ready to shove that bomb back into Mikoto's arms and run away, but she could not bear to take any bold actions because she felt it would affect the rest of her life if she broke the instrument in the process.
Mikoto was puzzled as to why Uiharu was standing there not moving a muscle.
"Sorry, sorry. I guess it isn't enough to just tell you."
"Y-yes."
"Then I'll show you directly. Go like this."
"Wehhh!?"
Uiharu cried out because Mikoto gently wrapped her arms around her from behind and grabbed the violin. It looked like a mother kindly teaching her young child.
Uiharu froze up even further at this unexpected intimacy, but Mikoto did not seem to notice. It was a complete coincidence, but when Mikoto began her lecture, she did so with her breath blowing right into Uiharu's ear.
"Holding the strings with your left hand is important, but let's start with how to use the bow with your right hand. It might look hard at first, but all you really have to do is hold it at the correct angle to the strings while you play."
Mikoto gently moved her hands that were placed over Uiharu's hands. A single quiet tone came from the violin like when it was being tuned.
Uiharu's face had gone beet red and her eyes were spinning, so she was not listening to a thing Mikoto said, but Mikoto was completely unaware of this. With the exception of people like Shirai, Mikoto was generally kind to girls.
"The sound changes depending on how you use your left hand. Pizzicato, glissando, flageolet. Well, there are a lot of different methods, but none of them are particularly hard. How about we try them all one at a time? Oh, you'll get used to it in no time. Don't worry."
Uiharu could feel Mikoto's body heat on her back, her sweet breath on her ear, and her soft fingers around Uiharu's own hands.
(S-so this is the hierarchy of rich girls that Shirai-san has fallen for!!)
At that point, Mikoto finally noticed how stiff Uiharu was.
In an attempt to help the other girl relax, she said, "Don't worry. This is a large plaza so it has no regulations regarding performances. No one's going to get after you for using an instrument."
"N-no, that is not what I-…Wait, performance!? Hyah! When did all these people gather around? Why am I the center of atten-…"
Uiharu's shocked cry cut off partway through.
This was because she spotted Shirai Kuroko in the crowd and she had quite a magnificent expression on her face.
"Gyaaaaaahhhhhhh!!"
Uiharu's shoulder's jumped in shock.
Unnatural strength entered her arm and a horrible screeching noise came from the instrument.
As Shirai watched on, she projected her thoughts toward her colleague who was standing in the center of the crowed.
"(Oh, so that's it. You acted like you were being admirable by helping me out, but you actually had this ulterior motive. I can't take my eyes of you for even a second, can I? And I have never had such a wonderful experience myself. Why, onee-sama?)"
Were it being shown on television, her expression would likely have violated the broadcasting rules and been blurred out.
A cold sweat started to drip down Uiharu Kazari's body, but Misaka Mikoto was clueless once again.
"What's wrong?"
"N-nothing!!"
"Is someone suspicious staring at you or something?"
"Don't say it like that!!"
Uiharu was almost in tears, but Mikoto never even thought of the possibility of Shirai being there.