Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume5 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 10===

The girl glared past the chainsaw that continued to produce a disconcerting grinding sound.

“Back then…”

Ladybird didn’t let it bother her.

She understood the threat all too well, so she took a powerful step forward instead of fleeing. She did not dodge the attack because it scared her – she challenged it because it scared her. She had always wanted to be a protector and she had finally achieved that goal.

“I thought the same thing. Even someone as filthy as me. I decided dying in that drum explosion wouldn’t be so bad when the alternative was killing the children and extracting their brains. But I never want to do that again. Because I…even I ''want to surpass the #1''!!”

She had found her reason.

Kihara Hasuu did not remember inputting this data into her.

So in that moment, she had truly broken free of her bonds.

She had been given a mission and pushed in the right direction.

It was time for her to leap into the flames to protect someone. And as an android, she could do that quite literally. So she didn’t need to belittle herself and agonize over what she was.

Maybe she had only found a goal to work toward and maybe she hadn’t made up for the crimes she had committed without even questioning them, but she had still taken her first step into a larger world.

The manufactured girl had finally become her own person.

“Yes.”

She reached toward the back of her hip.

She did not hesitate to draw a machete so heavy a normal person could never even lift it.

But this time it was to protect people’s lives, not to deceive and to kill.

Maybe she could only do it once, but that was enough.

She glared directly at the old man who had created her.

“Finally. I have finally found who I want to be, Sensei.”

“Hah! You’re nothing but a filthy murder weapon!!”

When the weapons clashed, the violent chainsaw blade bent along with the guide for the chain. The chain could never rotate now.

That threat had been removed.

“Oh? The android turns on her own creator? I thought you were no more than a toy, but you are brimming with romance, Ladybird-kun. And you are motivated by good, so you are not just a rampaging monster. I give you a perfect score for this.”

The golden retriever up on the catwalk sounded somehow impressed.

These were the words of a researcher who viewed the world from an angle other than ordinary ethics.

“So many people died because they were all at the mercy of ''a power too great for them to handle''. This is the sort of reward the villains who met their ends on the 25th so desperately needed.”

But Kihara Hasuu didn’t bother responding to the fellow Kihara’s semiserious words.

He was preoccupied.

“How are you still functioning ''so well''?”

His voice carried a confused anger.

He had acquired his artificial ghost existence as a new toy to play with, but now he shouted enviously at the old toy he had thrown out.

He held onto the broken chainsaw and the roar of its engine distorted into something like a human voice.

“You fully ceased to function here on the 25th!! Even if an amateur somehow managed to get you running again temporarily, it couldn’t have lasted more than a few seconds at the most. Not to mention that you must consume human brains. So how are you moving so nimbly!? This exceeds the limits of my specs for you!!”

“''Does it now''?”

That plain answer came from Ladybird’s mouth, but the voice was not hers. This was a grown woman speaking in English.

She had been connected to someone else.

This was the genius woman named Melzabeth Grocery.

“It’s true her cellulose nanofiber brain would grow abnormally quickly, exceed the capacity of her artificial skull, and collapse in on itself. And I can see how a constant supply of human brains would trigger the rejection needed to disconnect it and keep its size down. But you could avoid all of that if you didn’t use cellulose nanofibers in the first place.”

“What?”

“Ever heard of the Logistic Hornet system? I designed it, R&C Occultics made it their toy, and now its mobile bases are floating in the oceans around the world. But there was one piece of equipment inside those 5000m containers we never ended up using: fully autonomous optical neurocomputers codenamed Secret. In other words, they’re massive computers ''designed to mimic the structure of the human brain''.”

Ladybird had once cursed the fact that she was an incomplete machine. She had cursed her very existence as something that needed to kill espers and extract their brains.

But there were paths to salvation open only to machines.

“They’re too big to fit in someone’s skull and maybe they can’t use those Academy City esper powers…but they also don’t require any of that cruelty. Simply linking her head to a big enough computer with a wireless network is enough to free her from her malfunctions, from the fear of death, and from needing to commit any more crimes. The only problem is ''the idea never occurred to you.'' You were so eager to leap at the immediate profit and indulge in the ironic cruelty that you failed to notice you had wandered into a dead end with no solution.”

There was scorn in her voice.

Melzabeth Grocery was a mother. Her daughter might even be with her at the moment. And that was why she could never forgive this man’s actions. Ladybird had looked up to her creator, but he had answered his ''daughter''’s adoration with mockery and abuse.

So Melzabeth did not hesitate to speak the words she knew would tear into a skilled researcher’s heart more painfully than any other.

“Kihara Hasuu. You’re not as smart as you think you are.”