To Aru Majutsu no Index part 2

Chapter 1: A Too-Quick Rate of Change. In_a_Long_Distance_Country.

1

District 3 of Academy City contained a number of international exhibition halls.

There was a direct railroad line leading there from District 23, which was the city's entrance for other countries. There were plenty of facilities for foreigners in the district and the grade of the hotels there was the highest in all of Academy City. The guest facilities were placed so far from the airport-centric District 23 so the guests would not have to worry about the noise of the planes.

There were always multiple events being held in District 3.

There was a motor show containing the best of automobile tech, a robot show showing off pieces of pure mechanical engineering, and many others. These exhibitions were not just for fun; their main purpose was to promote the latest tech from Academy City, technology that the board of directors had deemed of an acceptable level to be used outside the city. These were placed on display and the outside company that gave the best deal was chosen (Academy City did not "look for" them, they merely "chose"), and that company would pay them vast quantities for the tech.

And on that day, there was one specific show being held.

The various technologies on display were unmanned attack helicopters, the latest powered suits, an ultra-violet ray sniping device that was a high-output optical weapon that used a certain type of light wave to injure, kill and even be used for aerial bombings. The event was being called the "Interceptor Show", so nothing too dangerous could be on display.

"Phhaa."

A deep breath was heard.

It belonged to Yomikawa Aiho, who was removing the helmet of the powered suit that she was in, around the corner of the dome-shaped international exhibition hall. She usually wore an unfashionable jersey over her body that made her stand out and bother young men, but she looked oddly humorous wearing the bulky powered suit.

"It's so hot... Why is demonstrating a powered suit so exhausting?"

Yomikawa looked fed up with what she was doing as she held the helmet in her arms and glanced at the woman in work clothes next to her. That woman was part of the powered suit development team, so she normally wore a white lab coat. Because of this, the work clothes looked as out of place on her as the clothes on children at the Shichi-Go-San festival.

"Don't worry. It isn't just you. The entire exhibition hall is oddly hot."

On her lap, the woman engineer had a laptop with a card that looked like a thin cell phone stuck in the side. The screen of the laptop showed the details of the powered suit.

"That doesn't really make me feel any better."

"I didn't say it to make you feel better."

"By the way, why are there so many damn people at a show like this on a weekday? Isn't this exhibition hall over capacity?"

"Today's a business day, so there really aren't that many people here. Tomorrow, it's open to the public, so it'll be complete hell."

"That really doesn't make me feel any better!"

"I didn't say it to make you feel better."

Yomikawa was disheartened by the engineer's words and placed the helmet on the ground.

The helmet was almost fifty centimeters wide. It looked like you could put it over the top of the drum-shaped robots that wandered around Academy City. The rest of the powered suit looked more like a slightly thicker version of a Western suit of armor, which led to the head looking huge.