Chapter 248: The 103,000 Grimoires
"Go get something to eat!"
Leaving the Hound Unit's base, George casually chose an underground food street and walked in.
Although his current body no longer needed food for survival, not eating for too long still made him feel uncomfortable.
So, as long as he wasn't too busy, he still ate three meals a day.
He randomly picked a noodle shop, ordered a bowl of ramen, and had just eaten halfway when a clear girl's voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
"Hello everyone, I'm a Judgment member speaking to you via telepathy. Don't panic.
Terrorists have infiltrated the underground street. The defense barrier is about to be activated to seal off the area. Please evacuate and seek shelter immediately!"
"Terrorists! Everyone, get out of here!"
Upon hearing the notification in their minds, everyone, including the owner and diners, quickly gathered their belongings and left the shop. Seeing this, George had no choice but to put down his chopsticks and leave with the crowd.
Incidents like this occasionally happened in Academy City. It wasn't as peaceful and wonderful as advertised to the outside world.
Sometimes, foreign forces coveted Academy City's technology and research results, sneaking in and being discovered, which led to conflict.
Other times, arrogant and greedy espers, with no clear understanding of their own strength, ended up turning to crime—robbery, rape, murder—anything was possible.
And then there were cases like the previous experiment involving the Misaka Sisters, where various research labs conducted cruel experiments on espers, which sometimes caused the test subjects to go berserk.
George wasn't particularly interested in any of that.
He just wanted to live quietly in Academy City for two more months, wait until his esper level reached Level 5, and then leave to study and research this world's magic at various churches.
Level 5 was the limit of Academy City, and also the limit of human esper ability. Reaching Level 6 would mean touching upon the domain of gods, and he didn't believe Academy City was capable of that yet.
The Judgment member who just used telepathy to contact everyone actually belonged to one of the two main organizations maintaining order in Academy City.
There were no police in Academy City. Maintaining order and apprehending criminal groups was the responsibility of Anti-Skill and Judgment.
Anti-Skill members were mostly ordinary people, but they possessed the most advanced weapons in the world, including rare powered exoskeletons.
Judgment members, on the other hand, were all espers, selected from students in schools, with each school forming its own branch.
Misaka Mikoto's somewhat perverted roommate Shirai Kuroko, a Level 4 esper with teleportation ability, was one of the Judgment members.
"Hmm? Is that... magic?"
As he was evacuating with the crowd, George suddenly noticed an eye appearing on the wall to his right. The eye glanced at the people here before quickly moving elsewhere, seemingly searching for something.
Though it was magic from a different world, some characteristics were still similar, which led George to conclude that the eye was a form of magic and not the effect of an esper ability.
"A magician has actually entered Academy City."
George suddenly became interested. He immediately used the Phantom Spell to turn invisible and chased after the eye, wanting to see what the magician's goal was in infiltrating Academy City.
As he followed, he noticed the eye stop in front of three students—one male and two females.
"Hahaha, finally found you!"
The eye suddenly let out a slightly crazed laugh upon seeing the three students.
From the voice, it seemed the caster of the magic was a woman, although her voice was somewhat androgynous.
"A humanoid creation made from earth and clay, replacing the temple's guardian golem with Britain's guardian angel by force."
The youngest-looking among them—a girl dressed somewhat like a white-robed nun—stared blankly at the eye that had suddenly appeared and began explaining in a mechanical tone and expression.
After finishing, she returned to her usual little-girl expression.
The male student in the white shirt revealed a surprised look after hearing her explanation.
"Could it be that the terrorist the Judgment member mentioned is a magician?"
"Seems like these people aren't simple."
George's interest grew even more.
The little girl, who looked like a grade-schooler, clearly knew a lot about magic—she recognized the eye magic instantly.
And the boy also knew about the existence of magicians.
"Alright, the banquet begins now. Cry your hearts out in the decaying tomb of soil and stone!"
As the female magician's voice rang out again, the entire underground street suddenly shook, and all the lights went out, plunging everything into darkness.
Then the older boy and the little girl began to argue.
"Index, take Kazari and hide."
"Touma, you should be the one taking Kazari to safety.
Since the enemy is a magician, I should be the one to deal with her."
"You're so small and weak, how can you fight? You can't even actively use magic.
Let me handle this—my right hand can eliminate all magic and esper powers!"
"Touma, you're an amateur when it comes to magic. I might not be able to actively use it, but I have 103,000 grimoires in my mind. I know all the magic in the world.
By relying on my knowledge of magic, I can find ways to counter the enemy's spells."
"Maybe this magician is here for your grimoires!"
Listening to the two argue, George was completely stunned.
These two weren't just not simple—they were absolutely extraordinary.
One could eliminate all magic and esper powers with his right hand, and the other had all the world's magical knowledge stored in her mind.
Then why bother with churches? If he could get his hands on the grimoires in this little girl's mind, wouldn't he be able to learn all the magic in this world?
This was practically a massive treasure trove!
At that moment, if George's eyes could glow, they would probably light up the entire dark underground street.
Just as George was thinking about how to get the 103,000 grimoires from the little girl, hurried footsteps suddenly echoed from nearby.
"They're here too."
"There's sound here—someone didn't evacuate."
Shirai Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto, wearing Judgment armbands, appeared before the group.
When Misaka Mikoto saw the boy, a surprised expression appeared on her face.
"So it's you!"
"You and I—yeah, it's me."
Kamijou Touma's face briefly showed a hint of confusion when he saw Misaka Mikoto, but he quickly nodded as if he recognized her.
Not long ago, he had lost part of his memory due to saving Index. If he had met someone during that period, he naturally wouldn't remember them.
Since this girl with Judgment seemed to know him, they must have met back then.
(End of Chapter)