Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 11===

Shortly before that…

“Hamazura.

“I…know!!! What the hell!? Don’t despair in the world before you’ve even tried!”

They were lying on top of her.

Two figures had jumped in from behind and tackled Qliphah Puzzle 545 to the ground. Even if it was temporary, she had a body and that meant obstructing her breathing and actions would cancel the spell.

It happened at the very last second and from her own side.

Great Demon Coronzon recognized the pair too.

Hamazura Shiage and Takitsubo Rikou.

Two who, for some reason, hadn’t been on Coronzon’s list of targets had now arrived.

Pinned down on the red snow, Qliphah Puzzle 545 spoke weakly.

“Why…would you stop me?”

Her voice shook as she asked. Her face was a mess of tears and snot.

Understandably.

She would have lost that face and body.

Her personality and memories would have crumbled away.

She would have turned herself into a monster to battle Coronzon.

Of course that would scare an ordinary girl.

“You idiot!! If you don’t want him to suffer through watching a familiar face die while he’s forced to watch helplessly on from that cell of his, then why would you kill yourself and force it onto him that way!? To be honest, I don’t have a great opinion of the previous board chairman even after everything everyone’s said about him. But this new one’s different, right? He might actually do something to fix this city. But what you’re doing is just gonna send the next board chairman off the rails too!!”

“You saw him from closer than anyone.”

Takitsubo Rikou continued in her flat voice.

But that didn’t mean there was no emotion behind it.

“Doesn’t that mean it was the same for him? The new board chairman sent you to the consulate when the world might end today. He placed all that responsibility on your shoulders and let you handle it. Even though I’m sure there was at least one thing he wanted to protect with his own hands.”

Qliphah Puzzle 545 didn’t raise her head from the ground covered in red snow. She curled up, balled up, and shook.

Sobs spilled from her.

Maybe she didn’t want them to see her crying.

That was the moment when something inside Hamazura Shiage that he couldn’t quite put to words crossed a line.

(This world can really go to hell. Why should she have to be embarrassed about that?)

Qliphah Puzzle 545 was a demon. She was a created being. She had come from Coronzon.

None of that could change.

But all she wanted to do was walk next to a familiar person in this ordinary world.

Yet she had been pushed this far.

She had done all this.

Hamazura slowly turned around. To face Coronzon.

“Hey, Coronzon.”

“What is it, Hamazura? If you’re hoping for some odd job to do, wait about an hour and get back to me.”

An hour.

Did that mean the world was set to end at around 11 PM?

Dion Fortune ''had'' said her estimate was optimistic. Still, this was earlier than the midnight estimate.

“Surely you don’t think you can defeat me just because you know a little bit about me. Mathers thought he could control me and Aleister had researched me ten thousand times more than you. Yet they both lost – everyone always does!! Even the great Golden cabal fell! And his legacy of Academy City is my toy as well. So what can you, who couldn’t even accomplish anything within the bounds of that city, hope to-!!!”

“''You’ve gone too far''.”

A grinding sound filled the air.

It may have been the grinding of teeth.

Great Demon Coronzon had fallen silent.

After a full three seconds, she began again.

“Then what will you do about me?”

“That depends on your answer.”

“Do you think you are in any position to test me, fool!!?”