Starting two days ago, the first-year Tokiwadai transfer student, the eighth Level 5 esper, the glutton, the delinquent, the expert truant, and the eight-year-old genius Level 5 Pyrokinesis user Annie Hastur; her classmate, the Level 4 Teleporter Kuroko Shirai; and the second-year Level 5 "Railgun," Mikoto Misaka, had stopped following their scheduled two-week summer remedial program... Because, you see, they had all spectacularly switched jobs from students to the least popular members of Academy City: "wanted criminals." They had been widely publicized by the city's various media outlets and branded as terrorists who planned to use their formidable abilities to "overthrow" Academy City and destroy its facilities and public order?
In short,
Regardless of whether it was reasonable for Academy City's Anti-Skill and certain higher-ups to hastily label two of the city's star Level 5 female students "terrorists," the so-called "terrorists" had already been caught on surveillance multiple times participating in—or at least suspected of participating in—incidents where dozens of research facilities and "important" institutions were attacked and destroyed by espers!
As a result, the city's various street advertising screens, broadcasts, shopping mall scrolling banners, subway car televisions, and even the airships above Academy City all periodically reported the supposed crimes these "wanted criminals" had committed—charges that had been made up out of thin air—along with their candid shots, ID photos, and other pictures. They urged the city's students to report the suspects immediately if they spotted them, and to never believe any of the "fabricated" claims they might make to throw Academy City into chaos?
Of course, the Anti-Skill officers throughout Academy City had also greatly increased their patrols and surveillance across the city. Unfortunately, for two whole days, all they could do was helplessly watch those brazen "terrorists" openly attack one institution after another and calmly leave. They