Uiharu Kazari was a first-year middle school girl who was part of Judgment, a group that protected the peace of Academy City (although they primarily dealt with issues within the schools). Normally, she wore a short-sleeved sailor uniform and had artificial flowers covering her head, but this day was a rare exception.
"Uuu… Is this kind of ability really needed for periodic Judgment training…?" muttered Uiharu dejectedly.
She was wearing what could perhaps be called a jumpsuit; the upper clothing and the pants were completely combined into one piece of clothing, and a zipper ran all the way from her neck down to her waist. It made her look something like an F1 racing driver. Since it was colored a bright orange, it also made her look like a member of a foreign rescue team.
This outfit gave her long sleeves and long pants despite the broiling hot weather of midsummer.
It's hot, it stinks, and it's stuffy!! Eee!! This is the worst!!
She was also wearing something similar to a backpack.
However, it had an excessive number of belts holding it on. It had the basic two over the shoulders, but belts made of synthetic fiber also stretched over the chest, stomach, and around the legs at the thighs.
It was a parachute.
If she pulled the string near her waist, it would open up like a giant umbrella, but it was currently contained within that bag.
Wait, how am I supposed to get this thing off…? Huh? This… no, this switch isn't enough…?
The reason Uiharu was struggling with it was simple.
She spoke this reason aloud with a puzzled look on her face.
"Why was the free fall training suddenly cancelled?"
The 73rd branch office of Anti-Skill in District 7 was as busy as a beehive.
Anti-Skill also protected the peace of Academy City, but it was a different organization from Judgment. While Judgment was made up of students, Anti-Skill was made up of trained teachers.
Uiharu Kazari arrived inside that area that looked like a police station. They had gone beyond their own organization and called her in due to the emergency situation.
A female Anti-Skill member who just so happened to be near the entrance looked at Uiharu with a puzzled expression.
"…What's with that look?"
"Oh, umm… sorry. I was suddenly called here while in the middle of my periodic training…" responded Uiharu as she shrunk down in her orange jumpsuit and parachute.
Hearing that, the woman frowned even further.
"What kind of training uses a whole bunch of flowers…?"
"Eh? That!? The flowers on my head are stranger than the parachute!?"
Uiharu's outburst drew the attention of a few more of the adults around her. She shrank down even further and snuck off further into the office.
The woman who had spoken to her before looked down at the student ID Uiharu held out.
"So you're Uiharu Kazari from Judgment's 177th Branch Office. We were hoping for Shirai Kuroko, the teleportation esper."
"S-sorry. I couldn't get a hold of her."
"If we had her, we would have a lot more options for how to deal with this… I guess I'll go search through the Bank for any other Judgment members who might be of some use. Anyway, they're having a meeting over there. You can get a grasp on the situation there."
Hearing that, Uiharu obediently headed on into the office.
Even if it was the investigation headquarters, they must not have had much time to spend on appearances. They were not using some grand meeting room. Instead, the strategy meeting was taking place in a corner of the office around a whiteboard with seats gathered around it.
"The special vehicle with the satellite aboard is currently out of control. It has strayed from its scheduled route and is currently heading north on line #49," said a man, his voice filling the office. "Technically, it is not a satellite in and of itself. It is only a module for Hikoboshi II to allow it to carry out additional experiments. However, it can separate and navigate on its own, so it is essentially the same as a satellite. It is only not classified as one to make things easier as far as international treaties are concerned."
The bespectacled teacher would normally be teaching classes, but now he was explaining the gist of the incident. One of the other Anti-Skill members raised his hand and asked a question like a student taking a class.
"Can we contact the driver?"
"There is no issue with the vehicle's radio, but what she has told us is the real issue." The bespectacled Anti-Skill member gave a sigh. "It seems a message appeared on the internet-connected GPS system in the vehicle. It said the car would be crashed using the remote control system if she did not follow the path displayed by the GPS system. Thanks to this, the driver can do nothing but keep the cursor showing the vehicle's location from exiting a moving red circle on the screen. She has no idea where she is going."
"…So it's a carjacking by an unknown criminal. This really is a convenient age we live in."
Uiharu had taken a seat in an arbitrary empty seat in the office, and she now asked a question.
"What did the message mean about crashing the vehicle using the remote control system?"
"Judgment, hm?"
The bespectacled Anti-Skill member who had given the explanation looked at Uiharu and her outfit with a puzzled look, but they had been the one to request help from Judgment in the first place. The man seemed to think she was butting into their turf, but he still answered her question.
"That vehicle has an automatic evasion system in case of emergencies. If the driver were to lose consciousness due to a heart attack or brain hemorrhage, the system can safely stop the vehicle on the side of the road. It seems that has been taken advantage of," he explained. "This evasion system can take control of the vehicle for only 100 seconds. However, that is more than enough time to cause some kind of accident. After all, it has complete control of the gas pedal and steering wheel."
"But this has never been tested before. It might just be an empty threat."
"We can't take that risk," said the man slightly angrily in response to the casual comment. "That satellite has 1500 kilograms of a toxic fuel known as hydrazine. If the vehicle does crash, the satellite could be destroyed and the fuel could catch fire. If that happens, that toxic substance will be sent into the air, contaminating everything within a one-kilometer radius. And the seasonal winds could spread the effects even further. If you breathe it in, everything from your throat to your lungs will become inflamed. This is not a situation where we can rely on 'mights'. The driver made the correct decision."
The suit-wearing adults either sighed or clicked their tongues.
Of course, this was not directed at their colleague who had asked a strange question. It was due to their dislike of the situation.
"The criminal hacked into the GPS system to display this message and to continually display this red circle on the screen in real time. This is clearly more than just a prank. …We should assume the criminal can actually carry out their threat if it comes to it."
Uiharu's breath caught in her throat at how bad the situation was.
"…Where is the criminal sending the vehicle?" she asked.
"That's what we need to find out. We would like some help from your information analysis abilities."
Uiharu faced her notebook computer within the 73rd Anti-Skill Branch Office. The adults surrounding her were overwhelming her. She had originally been called in to help with odd jobs in order to increase efficiency, but she dealt with things so quickly that it became difficult for others to cut in. She had almost complete control of the situation.
Suddenly, Uiharu looked up from the computer.
She had heard voices coming from the entrance to the office. One came from a girl about the same age as herself and another from a boy who seemed younger. At first, she thought they were reinforcements from Judgment, but they were acting oddly. Some kind of dispute had broken out and the children forced their way forward.
“…Those are children of the driver, Sangaku-san,” said the bespectacled Anti-Skill member so those around could not hear. “They are students in Academy City. I understand that they are worried about their mother, but we can’t have them in the investigation headquarters. It may be a bit cruel, but they need to be taken away from here.”
Uiharu bit her lip upon hearing that.
She had been speaking to Sangaku Youko through the radio, but that casual conversation would be quite precious indeed to the family members. And yet they were not being permitted to use it.
The voices at the entrance to the office gradually grew quieter and quieter.
Even so, Uiharu still clearly heard someone say “Save my mom.”
“…”
The bespectacled Anti-Skill member averted his gaze slightly.
Most likely, the Anti-Skill members who had dealt with the children had not made any promises either. Anti-Skill and all other modern organizations and companies would not make promises they were not sure they could keep. It was a means to prevent lawsuits.
Uiharu was a member of Judgment.
She had been taught how to deal with such situations during her training.
But…
“…I will save her,” Uiharu said quietly. “No matter what, I will make sure no one is lost including Sangaku-san.”
(I will write a formal explanation of my actions if necessary.)
If she could remain silent after hearing a child say something like that, she felt she should just quit Judgment.
“Okay, here I go.”
Yomikawa opened the passenger door of the satellite guidance vehicle, leaned out, and peered into the narrow space between the bottom of the vehicle and the road. The vehicle’s giant front wheel rotated next to her ear and the asphalt flew by like a chainsaw only a few centimeters below the top of her upside down head.
“There it is. I see a silver box 40 centimeters across and 10 centimeters thick.”
“That is the electronics control box. It should be held closed by screws on the four corners. Can you get them off?”
“Sure thing,” muttered Yomikawa as she focused on the tool in her hand.
She was holding a device that looked like a pen nib with a motor attached. It was similar to the device used by a dentist to scrape at patient’s teeth. It was a micro cutter. The device was like a malicious version of an electric eraser which scraped away steel rather than the writing from a notebook.
Instead of unscrewing the screws, she scraped away the entire top of the screws.
With a horrible grinding noise, orange sparks flew and the four screws were destroyed.
The metal cover fell off.
Before Yomikawa could catch it, the cover fell to the asphalt. The asphalt was moving by so quickly that the cover flew backwards as if it had ricocheted off.
When Yomikawa saw the inside of the box, she let out a groan.
“It looks like there are over 100 cords in here. Don’t tell me I have to cut the red one but not the white one or something like that.”
“Ah ha ha. You can just ignore the cords. There should be three switches at the upper right hand side. First, turn off the middle switch.”
“Ahn? …This one?”
Yomikawa stretched out her arm and hit the middle switch with her index finger.
“Done.”
“That should have activated the safety on the emergency automatic evasion system the criminal is abusing.”
“So we can just hit the brakes now?”
“N-no! This is just an auxiliary safety. It only prevents control of the steering wheel from being suddenly taken away. Basically, it only keeps the criminal from taking control for about 30 seconds after you leave the red circle.”
“Thirty seconds…”
The satellite guidance vehicle was 10 tons. Even if it slammed on the brakes, it might not come to a complete stop in that time. It was the same as how a train could not be easily stopped.
“It looks like removing the lock on the ignition key in order to shut off the motor while it is still running is our best bet. Once the motor is stopped, the emergency automatic evasion system cannot be abused anymore,” said Uiharu.
“Tch. Then let’s get it over with.”
“O-okay. Um, is there an even smaller box in the bottom left hand side of the box? It should be held shut by 8 screws.”
“Found it. So I just have to get this thing open?”
Just as Yomikawa stretched out her arm, a cross wind suddenly blew through.
The satellite guidance vehicle swayed left and right as if the wind had made it falter. That motion caused Yomikawa’s arm to approach the asphalt. A protrusion of the asphalt flying by below tore through the cloth of Yomikawa’s track suit and even scraped at her skin.
“!! Gwaahhh!?”
She frantically pulled her arm back, but lost her grip on the micro cutter in doing so. The tool fell to the asphalt and seemed to disappear instantaneously as it was swept away.
“Yomikawa-san. What’s wrong, Yomikawa-san!?”
“Dammit, I dropped the tool. I can’t get the box open!!”
“No…”
“Is there any other way!? I know! The criminal is interfering remotely, right? So we just need to jam the signal he’s usi-…”
She trailed off because of a shout from Sangaku Youko.
“Get back in!! Hurry!!”
“?”
The instant Yomikawa lifted her head, she saw the edge of an approaching tunnel.
A cold sweat covered her body.
“Shit!!”
She frantically pulled her upper body back into the passenger seat. The thick concrete wall of the tunnel slammed into the passenger door that remained open. With the sound of crushed metal, the door slammed shut like a dragon’s jaws and then fell to the road because its hinges had broken.
Before it fell, a torn portion of the inside of the door became intertwined with the strap of the rucksack lying at the bottom of the passenger side.
(Oh, no! The rest of the tools…!!)
Yomikawa immediately reached out, but she did not make it in time.
With a few clunking noises, the door disappeared from vision.
“Damn!!”
She had survived, but the situation was still not a good one.
The characteristic orange lights of a tunnel surrounded the two women.
Sangaku looked over at Yomikawa’s bloody arm.
“A-are you okay?”
“More or less.,, Hm…?”
As she spoke, Yomikawa put the radio to her ear, but she got no response. The signal may have been cut off when they had entered the tunnel.
And then…
“The wheel…” Sangaku said with a pale expression. “The wheel isn’t responding! What’s going on!?”
(It couldn’t be…)
“A jamming countermeasure! Was it programmed from the beginning to put in an automatic lock if the signal was cut off!?”
“But I never strayed from the course I was told to go on…!!”
Cell phones could be used in some modern tunnels. It was possible that the criminal had mistakenly assumed the one along the path was one of those.
Meanwhile, the satellite guidance vehicle continued on.
It seemed to be continuing on straight ahead, but the tunnel wall on the passenger side was gradually approaching. At that rate, the vehicle would scrape up against the wall and possibly lose its balance and roll on its side.
If the trap used the emergency automatic evasion system, the lock could only last for 100 seconds, but it did not seem they had that much time before they hit the wall.
“Dammit!!”
Yomikawa immediately pulled out a baton and reached out from the opening where the missing passenger door should have been. She was trying to push back even if it was just a little bit. However, this did not even last a single second. The instant the end of the baton touched the concrete wall, a great shock struck Yomikawa’s arm. The pain was so great, Yomikawa had no choice but to let go of the baton.
At the same, the exit to the tunnel became visible.
Would they hit the wall first or make it out of the exit first?
Fate chose the latter.
The satellite guidance vehicle roared out of the tunnel at tremendous speed and the signal returned. With control of the wheel once more, Sangaku immediately regained the vehicle’s balance.
Yomikawa contacted Uiharu over the radio.
“Uiharu! What should we do now? We can’t use the ignition key. Is there no other way!?”
However, Uiharu did not respond.
Yomikawa frowned and then finally heard Uiharu speaking. However, it sounded more like she was speaking to herself.
“You have got to be kidding me. This is…?”
“I have arrived at the designated point. I am about to begin my ‘work’,” said a man on top of a building.
He put together various metal parts, making a rifle. It was a Metal Eater MX. It was an Academy City 80 cm fully-automatic anti-tank rifle.
The man holding the rifle while lying face down was named Sunazara Chimitsu.
He was a sniper who normally worked outside of Academy City. Once a proper request had been made, he would shoot his target whether it was a robber with a hostage or a politician calling for pacifism.
“I will stop that satellite guidance vehicle along the road just as you instructed, Anti-Skill.”
Sunazara’s expression remained the same as he held that special rifle that could blow up a real tank from a distance of 2000 meters.
He followed his clients’ orders and unhesitatingly pulled the trigger.
The giant bullet he fired sliced through the air and attacked its target with frightening accuracy.
“…Kh…”
As Sangaku Youko drove the satellite guidance vehicle along, her breath caught in her throat.
(Good.)
Her strength left her and she almost collapsed onto the steering wheel, but Sangaku managed to pull herself together.
(I can’t let that woman die here…)
She could now see it with the naked eye.
The overpass’s girder had been destroyed, causing the overpass to crumble and block the road. It was as if a barricade of rubble had been set up to block the satellite guidance vehicle’s path.
And there was a manmade lake off to the side.
Luckily, Sangaku could ignore the instructions from the GPS for 30 seconds thanks to the switch Yomikawa had pressed in the box below. With that much time, she could drive the 30 meter mass of metal into the lake.
“Sorry about this,” said a nervous voice over the vehicle’s radio.
It was the voice of the bespectacled Anti-Skill member. She had met him when the arrangement of the guard vehicles had been explained to her.
“We are calling a rescue team into the area. Even if you crash into the lake, they will immediately go in to rescue you. The passenger door is broken off, correct? In that case, you are less likely to become trapped within the vehicle.”
“Yes.” Sangaku Youko thought about various things, swallowed, and then finally continued speaking. “Thank you.”
With those two words, her mind was made up.
She heard one last word of apology before the connection was cut off.
She had to do it then.
If she let the chance go by, she would have no choice but to crash into the pile of rubble. If the satellite was destroyed, its toxic fuel, hydrazine, would be scattered about. At least a one kilometer radius would be contaminated. Seasonal winds could spread the effects. There would be tens of thousands of victims. She had to prevent that from happening.
(I can do this.)
She clenched the steering wheel so tightly her hands hurt.
A single photo was stuck in one corner of the driver’s compartment.
It was a photo filled with the smiles of her entire family.
(I will do this…!!)
Just as she had shaken off all doubts and was about to turn the wheel, she heard static coming from the radio.
“…Most admirable,” said a young girl’s voice.
The girl sounded about the same age as Sangaku’s own daughter. She was pretty sure it was the Judgment girl who had been helping Yomikawa over the radio.
“Sangaku Youko-san, you a truly wonderful person. Just by seeing what you are doing here, I feel like I can do something that is not like me at all.”
“What…?”
“Simply put, someone like you should not die here.”
Sangaku was completely bewildered and the vehicle passed underneath a walkway.
She then heard a thud come from the roof.
(It couldn’t be…)
Whatever had fallen down was unable to rid itself of its momentum, so it seemed to slide toward the back of the vehicle. A series of dull thuds moved toward the portion of the vehicle where the satellite was restrained.
“Gh…cough!! U-uuhh… That was nothing like the mobile we used to simulate falling…”
Sangaku heard more coughing and the roaring wind.
That was enough for her to understand what had happened.
“S-sorry I took so long,” said the girl.
The girl had jumped down onto the vehicle from the walking path in order to save Sangaku Youko.
“I am Uiharu Kazari from Judgment’s 177th Branch Office. I will now be taking action to protect the peace by bringing this situation to a close and protecting you, a civilian.”
She gave a forceful yank on the release cord and the backpack exploded. The giant white umbrella that appeared from within spread out all at once due to the great amount of wind created by the satellite guidance vehicle.
Air resistance held a surprising amount of power.
Its effects increased the faster an object was going, so it was used for the air brakes of fighters as well as drag racers.
Uiharu was doing the same thing.
The vehicle’s brakes alone could not bring it to a complete stop in 30 seconds. In that case, she had to add on a new brake that would stop its motion more quickly.
If it came to a complete stop for even an instant, the key could be turned to shut off the motor.
Once the motor was shut off, the emergency automatic evasion system could no longer be used by the criminal.
That meant there was a single thing she had to do.
She had to use the parachute to stop the satellite guidance vehicle as soon as possible!!
(Gh…!!)
The belts holding the parachute to her body and the several ropes binding her to the metal ladder-like walkway dug into Uiharu’s body. She felt pain as if wires as thick as thumbs were constricting her body. Uiharu cried out in pain, but she also clung to the metal framework even tighter. Tremendous strength entered her slender fingers. The mass of wind caught in the parachute violently tried to tear her small frame from the vehicle. It was as if gravity had changed directions by 90 degrees and had increased several times over. It was like she was hanging from the edge of a cliff with weights tied to her legs.
(I won’t…let go…!)
However, if she ran out of strength, it was all over.
The vehicle would crash into the pile of rubble, truly bringing it all to an end.
(I won’t…let myself let go…!!)
Suddenly, she heard a dull denting noise.
(No…it can’t be…!)
The noise was not coming from Uiharu’s hands. It was coming from the ladder-like walkway her body was bound to. It must not have been designed to have that much of a burden placed on it because the bolts binding the framework and the walkway broke and flew off one after another.
Uiharu did not even have time to think.
The overwhelming power of the wind started tearing a portion of the walkway off with Uiharu still attached.
Some of the ropes must have been attached at the joints because they grew slack and the walkway and Uiharu become completely detached.
“…!!”
With nothing left supporting her, Uiharu flew up into the air.
The power of the parachute started pulling her back.
Even so, Uiharu desperately stretched out her arms.
The giant satellite guidance vehicle had travelled over 7 kilometers since the message had first arrived on the GPS system, but it was now stopped right in front of the pile of rubble.
The giant mass of steel was no longer moving.
The front windshield was completely shattered. The vehicle had stopped only a few centimeters away from the pile of rubble, but a sharp protrusion of concrete had still stabbed into it.
The blade-like piece of concrete had pierced the windshield, ripped apart the driver’s headrest, and scattered the white stuffing throughout the vehicle.
Sangaku Youko had immediately moved her head to the side and just barely avoided the sharp fragment.
“…”
Her hand reached for the key near the steering wheel.
It was the ignition key for the vehicle’s electric motor.
She turned it to the off position.
The satellite guidance vehicle was now completely turned off.
The criminal who had abused the emergency automatic evasion system could no longer interfere.
Sangaku Youko thought on that truth for a bit.
They had won.
They had defeated the cowardly criminal.
And most importantly, her children would not need to grieve.
She had managed to protect those children’s smiles.
“Ha ha.”
She opened her mouth wide and laughed.
“Ah ha ha ha!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”
Two figures stood a short distance away.
One was Misaka Mikoto and the other was Shirai Kuroko.
They were both young ladies from a prestigious psychic powers development school called Tokiwadai Middle School.
“Well, it looks like they made it somehow or another,” Mikoto said with a sigh.
She must have been planning to do something because sparks were flying around her. For better or for worse, she had not needed to do whatever it was in the end.
“But I didn’t know Uiharu-san was that hot-blooded. Putting on a parachute and acting as a human brake is crazy.”
“Well, regardless of how she looks, Uiharu did volunteer to join Judgment. Even if it does not come out on the surface much, there might just be something burning deep within her.”
“…And you left that hot-blooded girl on her own to go do your own investigation, didn’t you? Did you find the person behind all this?”
“Really, how many times do I have to tell you, onee-sama? You’re a civilian.”
Despite what Shirai said, her expression looked somehow glad.
She shook her head as if giving up on something before speaking.
“There are traces of a falsified order allowing remote reception of the GPS data from the satellite guidance vehicle. It was done via two or three servers, so I doubt the actual person has been found yet,” she said while looking at her cell phone