Attack

His thoughts were pulled back to reality by the ticking clock on the wall.

The hands had quietly passed eight in the evening.

Index had complained of being hungry that afternoon, so Touma Kamijou had volunteered to take her to a nearby shopping street to buy something to eat and pick up some daily necessities along the way.

But by now, they had been gone far too long.

With that thought, Zhang Qi picked up his phone, skillfully found Touma Kamijou's number, and dialed it.

No familiar ringtone came through the receiver. Instead, only a cold, mechanical female voice repeated the same sentence: "The number you have dialed is currently out of service. Please try again later—"

Out of service?

Zhang Qi's brow immediately furrowed.

This was Academy City, the most technologically advanced place on Earth, with the densest coverage of signal base stations.

Not even deep within certain underground facilities would there be a situation like being "out of service," let alone in the city center.

The only explanation was that the phone's signal had been cut off by some external force, or—destroyed.

Either possibility pointed to the same conclusion: they had most likely run into trouble.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhang Qi turned and headed for the study.

He did not choose to call the police, because what Index was involved with was a power from the hidden side of this world—a realm science could not explain and common sense could not reach.

Those children in Judgment uniforms would be of no use in an incident like this.

The computer screen lit up. His fingers flew across the keyboard as lines of strange, complex code streamed down the screen like a waterfall.

A few seconds later, a three-dimensional electronic map of Academy City appeared in the center of