Various things led tonight's dinner being Sukiyaki.
The party that consisted of the entire class, Index, Komoe-Sensei, and Sphinx walked to the nabe shop that Tsuchimikado knew. Since the start of the Daihaseisai, Index had already barged into the class five times and had become familiar with them, so there was no need to explain to others anymore.
Since it was past the time to go home, no buses or trains were running. So it was decided they would walk to the store in District 7.
There was a complicated corner inside the underground shopping complex, which had various experimental school cuisines and nutrition shops. Thinking that Tsuchimikado's stepsister's home economics school's shop must be there as well, Kamijou silently sighed.
As they entered the passage to the sukiyaki shop…
"Uwah.."
Kamijou unintentionally let out a moan.
Maybe it was because every store in that underground mall was built around a modern design, but the sukiyaki shop looked uncannily run-down. A wreck, to be more familiar. There was no sense of it trying to attract customers.
"You wouldn't expect this place to be surprisingly good, but the stubborn old boss won't paint it."
"On the contrary, because it looks so rundown, wouldn't it serve as good cover?"
Attempting to gain confidence by taking a deep breath, Kamijou was in the front row as they pulled open the door with a rattle.
They only found an unmotivated-looking student clerk near the cash register, but from the interior of Kamijou's group, whose total count was forty people, heard an exchange, with thick provincial accents.
"Whoa—!! We've got a big catch!! The sales from today alone will top the charts," an exposed voice said in a flurry.
Kamijou's shoulders dropped. "Well, they don't seem to be organized."
"In the first place, it's strange for forty people to come without calling ahead. I wanted to see that guy's smiling face instead of his boring empty one, nya," Tsuchimikado said. In the middle of it,
"By the way," Komoe-sensei interrupted. She was leaning on the wall while viewing a somewhat, seemingly oil-stained catalog. "Tsuchimikado-chan, this shop has thirty kinds of beers, and that's only the local brews. Also, their alcohol is top-notch. How did you come to know about such a place?"
"Guh!? N–No!! It's unthinkable, nya!! How could a high school senior even drink alcohol, nya!!"
"Tsuchimikado-chan? Tsuchimikado-chaaan?"
Komoe-sensei's infinitely shady eyes pointed at him until the long awaited nabe finally arrived. Touma's classmates grabbed her whole body while saying "Now-now-now" and forcibly took her to the banquet hall for the group.
Sensei tried to say something, but they seemed to ignore her.
Naturally, having one table of nabe for forty people to peck at would be impossible to do, so it was decided to split off into different groups and tables.
"Let's eat!" "Let's eat some nabe!" Everyone's tension rose; some twisted the knobs on the gas-range on the tables for no reason, while others kept busy with a contest on who could cleanly divide the wooden chopsticks.
The calico cat's little nose began twitching in delight as it meowed while watching, as it was banned once again from sukiyaki that had negi[1] in it.
Pitying it, Kamijou had lumped in an order of onigiri earlier with the nabe, and placed it in front of the calico cat. "Curses!! Everyone gets meat while I only get salmon," the calico cat seemingly pouted while raising its tail, as it grabbed both sides of the onigiri with its front paws and nibbled on it in jealousy.
While waiting for the order of nabe, the class began talking on the topic of the chaos on the "outside" of Academy City.
Himegami, in a whispering voice, was talking to Fukiyose while back-to-back.
"Come to think of it, apparently there is talk that children with higher abilities should submit papers ascertaining their identities."
"If you're talking about stronger esper abilities, it's a proper way to handle them, isn't it? Humph, as I thought, if it becomes very bad we might be the ones paying the dearest price!"
On the contrary, sitting next to Fukiyose, Touma pondered about it quietly. Nearby, Index tilted her head in confusion.
As seen by the relationship between Misaka Imouto and Misaka Mikoto, ability could be determined by DNA information. Truthfully, they wouldn't want to lose students with valuable skills. Especially Level 5 espers alone, who had been worth enough to make a professional laboratory.
In a related topic…
"Hey, is it true Tokiwadai Middle School's buses are bulletproof and explosion-proof? Rumors like that have suddenly popped up; I'm worried."
"Nya. Gossip like that being whispered on the School Garden reeks of lies. Information there is highly classified, so I doubt it'd be leaked without reason."
Sitting across from Kamijou was Aogami Pierce, who had left to use the telephone and came back during Tsuchimikado's speech, felt it was ridiculous but had a strange credibility.
For example, if the Ojou-samas of Tokiwadai Middle School were lost, it would without doubt be a major blow to the financial and political worlds. People's lives weren't all worth the same, Kamijou sighed.
"Haa! The number of parents making inquiries that say "If war breaks out, Academy City will be dangerous for their children" has multiplied."
"Eh, such conversations are being raised as well?"
Komoe-sensei spoke in a small, tired tone, while Kamijou was puzzled. She was sitting across the table from him and waiting for the nabe to come with a glass of cold water at her mouth.
"Well, getting their children may be important. But I can also understand…where is there another place safer than Academy City? Whether inside or outside the country, I don't think any other security measures are enough."
Doubting it, Kamijou made a bitter smile. He couldn't even count how many times he had been sent to the hospital in the last few months.
Sitting next to Touma was Index.
"Touma, I'm hungry."
"…The nabe will come soon. But you really go at your own pace."
"I want an Onigiri, too."
"Forget it! That's for the cat!"
Kamijou's shout made the calico cat's fur stand on end. "Gimme a break! I can't eat meat and now you want to take the salmon away from me?" in a menacing purring voice.
And then…
"Here comes the Nabe"
Tsuchimikado cried out in a liar's voice.
Kamijou's group noticed several employees were bringing a large black pot with both hands. There was already a low simmering sound coming from the pot, just as Tsuchimikado said, a scent that couldn't come from one made from drifted through the air.
"Let's see" Kamijou said as he peered into the pot the employee brought.
He was suddenly captured by his classmates surrounding him, Index let out a small shriek, and Fukiyose sighed with a gloomy look on her face.
"Gwah!? What are you bastards doing!!?"
"Fool!! If you keep that up you'll overturn the nabe!"
"So suddenly! Look especially at that cute face and huge rack on that employee are ultra-dangerous!!"
"With your luck, we'll probably starve once you make a mistake!"
He would like to argue, but he was outnumbered. The Imagine Breaker that dwelled in his right hand would have no effect on his starving classmates.
Perhaps because of that specific event, misfortune failed to happen this time around, without warning.
Except for that store clerk, the cute one with the big boobies. She more or less caught Kamijou red-handed, and said "Is-is everything alright?"; which had his classmates think he was screwed, after all…
"…If his bad luck doesn't butt in now at least, I'll get really, really mad"
"Don't poker-face when you say stuff like that, it's scary!"
There was much waving and flailing of arms on Kamijou's part as he cried that out, but the class's attention was all on the nabe.
He pulled himself back together and picked the raw eggs for the sukiyaki, banging them on the corner of the table, cracking the shells open and dropping the contents inside a bowl.
A clatter of chopsticks could be heard as he beat the eggs, but then Fukiyose, who was sitting nearby suddenly voiced, with great discontent, "…Damn you, Kamijou. Whatever the hell is taking you so long to scramble those eggs?"
"Eh?"
"Gaah I'm already irritated just by looking at you!! Let me have that for a bit, when it comes to eggs you have to do it fast! Look, you do it just like this!!"
"Hiii, a direct controller!?"
Kamijou, with his rice bowl taken away, nonchalantly distanced his chopsticks from Fukiyose. At that rate it was likely only vegetables would be heaping on the long-awaited sukiyaki.
Meanwhile, Aogami Pierce, as if he totally read what was happening, kept a safety zone with a fixed distance from Fukiyose, then nonchalantly called out to Kamijou.
"When we limit ourselves to the menu, the prices still haven't changed, no?"
"Y-yeah. But we're probably on the stocking-up phase. We're waiting and seeing whether or not this is temporary, but the truth is there definitely might be an immediate price hike."
"In other words, we have to eat these at once! Yahoo—!!"
"'Yahoo—' my ass, you meat-only-picking bitch! And Fukiyose-san is somehow a carnivorous bastard who's like a black bass destroying the nabe's contents—!!"
Undeterred, Kamijou reached in with his chopsticks, but in no time at all, to see broth-soaked shirataki when he thought it was meat with only tiny scraps of it remaining when he grabbed them, was painful. And to make matters worse, he unreasonably got a fist from Fukiyose for saying 'stop churning up the pot with chopsticks; you're destroying the tofu'.
Nevertheless, no matter what one said, everyone was having fun partaking from the pot. Or rather, why he himself didn't get much from the pot, Kamijou puzzled over, but then…
"Ha!? Oh yeah… Index's gastric problem is—!?"
Way faster than him realizing his concerns, the white-habited girl's eyes sparkled.
He felt an unexpected, unpleasant premonition.