Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume3 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 11===

“Looks like nothing’s actually broken. Okay.”

“Hamazura, I’ll apply pressure here, so you tie that on tight.”

After tightening a bandage using the light of the phone, he attached a metal clasp.

Since runaways could not visit the doctor, that simple first aid kit was a valuable asset for them, but he could not just leave that twintails girl there to die.

She did not wake up even when he poured disinfectant on her wounds, so she must have been out cold. He had covered up most of the wounds he could see, but he did not know what things were like inside her. She was breathing, though, so he would have to hope Anti-Skill could take care of the rest.

Assuming any of them were still alive.

“There’s nothing more we can do. Let’s get out of here.”

“Mhh.”

He had not expected this now.

Takitsubo Rikou expressionlessly puffed out her cheeks.

“By the way, Hamazura, did those twins do anything to you?”

Did he have some weird mold or bug on his back? He doubted he could have missed anything with how powerful that infection had been, but now he was worried.

“When the one blew you a kiss.”

“Bff!? That was an accident, a surprise attack, a force majeure!!”

His flustered shouting only made his girlfriend act like a grumpy cat.

Anyway, he turned off the phone’s light and cautiously exited the interrogation room. A few explosions erupted down the hallway, but those were not the work of the mysterious twins. He was throwing burning pieces of paper into the darkness to intentionally detonate the gas up ahead and create a safe zone for them.

Methane gas was dangerous, but it could be contained to a single space. By dividing things up with a door or shutter before detonating it, the explosion would remain small and it would safely “use up” all the gas.

It worked, but nothing else happened either.

He clenched his teeth and had to stay focused lest his feet stop moving.

“Hamazura.”

“Is there really no one else left in here?”

There were sticky strings stretched across the entire floor.

The stuff dangling from the ceiling looked like natto, but he doubted it was such an ordinary type of bacteria. There was no sign of anyone here anymore. The place had been packed full of fully-equipped Anti-Skill officers, not to mention the communication operators and administrative workers.

All that remained of those people was the disturbingly sticky and dark slime staining the floor and walls.

Hamazura had said he wanted to live and that may have sent the twins in this direction instead. What if they had killed someone else here because they had chosen to spare the twintails girl on a whim? He had nothing to prove that, but he still felt a great weight in his stomach.

And he doubted this was over. The dark side had made a show of force, but Anti-Skill controlled all 23 districts with its military might. Things would only escalate from here. Anti-Skill was sure to pull out something even more bizarre next.

“What do we do now, Hamazura?”

“We escape outside of Academy City.”

“…”

“Anti-Skill is serious about this. I’ve personally seen them kill two people and I’m sure they’ve killed even more that I didn’t see. The adults really are trying to crush the dark side. I don’t know what standards they’re using to purify the city, but I do know that the two of us are on some list called Outrank. So they’ll get us if we don’t leave. For today, ''hiding in some deeper and darker place will not be enough to safely lose them.''”

Even in the darkness, he could tell she was frowning.

“But I doubt we can cross the outer wall so easily,” she said. “The four gates will be on max alert, so trying to break through will only get us killed.”

“I know that, but I do have an i-”

He stopped talking because he saw someone blocking the way ahead in the long hallway.

“Hamazura.”

The voice he heard meant someone had escaped harm.

That was a relief, but he could not relax yet. He was not supposed to be here and, based on how Anti-Skill had been acting today, they might just gun down any suspect without giving him a chance to explain himself.

But that was not what happened.

They spoke to him instead.

“Is that you, Hamazura!? What are you doing here!?”

He recognized the voice.

This was not his first time here. He had been thrown into this place’s holding cells plenty of times after stealing a car or getting into a street fight during his Skill Out days.

So he knew some of the officers who worked here.

(Yomikawa Aiho.)

That teacher had her long black hair tied back. She normally wore a green track suit, but she was in a sinister black bulletproof jacket today.

He was scared.

He was, but while they did not get along, he knew she was not a bad person.

He briefly considered abandoning all his plans and asking her to save his girlfriend, but then he remembered the reality he was living in. Or maybe he just did not know the difference between a jinx and a wrong assumption.

Regardless, he held an arm out to the side after only a slight delay. He guarded his girlfriend with his body and raised his voice.

“Outta the way. I can’t trust you!!”

“Do this and you’re a criminal, Hamazura. Just tell me why you’re here and the grownups can handle it if necessary!! That’s how it’s supposed to work!!”

‘You’re not the only one I would need to trust!” he shouted back.

It was unusual for him to be able to overpower her with words. She always had the right thing to say and used that to crack down on even the smallest crimes.

Yet he was overpowering her.

That seemed to show the hesitation within her.

“Yomikawa, you’ve seen it yourself, haven’t you? ''Something isn’t right today.'' Something is preventing your ideal of justice from working like it’s supposed to. If I don’t figure out what’s causing it, leaving this in your hands will only bring death!! I’ve already seen it happen for myself!! At least twice!!”

“Then what ''are'' you going to do?”

It took her a bit before she got out that reply.

She really had lost her edge. But there were types of pain that could only be produced with a blunted edge.

“Are you going to justify picking up a gun and committing more crimes you know are wrong just because you needed to protect someone you care for? Only you will accept that justification. Society won’t. They’ll check the laws and judge you guilty!”

“…”

“Operation Handcuffs isn’t an evil thing. The idiot standing at the top of the world is tearing apart his own life to accomplish this, so I won’t let it go wrong!!”

She was not just trying to keep up appearances.

He could not ignore the words of someone standing in the same field as him.

“You have some vision for the future, don’t you? You wouldn’t have come all this way to save that girl otherwise.”

Yomikawa stepped forward.

It was just one step, but it was a heavy one.

“Then don’t destroy that ideal future with your own actions here!! It’s the dark side that justifies their own actions with exceptions like that! So leave all the pain-in-the-rear fighting to the grownups! I promise you we’ll treat you well!!”

He was not moved by her words.

He had already seen that kind of promise fall apart.

But could he really force his way past Yomikawa when she was saying this? His mind focused on the gold coin in his pocket. That was the only real move he had left. It would give him 100% odds just once here. If he used that, could he get Yomikawa away from him without hurting her!?

He thought about it and raised his lowered head.

He opened his mouth.

“Yomi-”

Something hot and hard crashed into the center of his chest.

He had no idea what had happened.

The deafening gunshot seemed to come after a short delay like thunder. But he did not have the presence of mind to actually figure out what had happened. The powerful blast launched him backwards into some glass protected by a thick sheet.

With a loud shattering sound, he was thrown outside the window.

“Hamazura!!”