Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 12===

“District 19’s Central Boiler just exploded!?”

Yomikawa Aiho of Anti-Skill’s eyes widened at that report.

(First those Anglican people take over the city’s law enforcement and now this!?)

She didn’t even need to check the camera footage on the helicopter’s multipurpose monitor.

From her vantage point in the night sky, one section of the surface was visibly expanding. The scale was hard to judge, but the buildings being easily engulfed had to be more than ten stories tall.

The male helicopter pilot adjusted his grip on the control column and asked a question.

“Is this that Coronzon person’s doing too? What the hell!? Aren’t fugitive’s supposed to hold their breath and sneak around!? Why would she go out of her way to cause a scene like this!?”

“Just get us there! Who knows how many people were caught in the blast!”

“I’ll try, but there’s honestly only so much we can do from the air!”

Several shouting voices came over the radio at once, ignoring the aviation radio rules. The pilot was using the radio to pickup as many signals as he could, hoping to get some picture of the situation on the inside.



“Where are the first-aid kits!? Why can’t I find one!?”

“Damn, more burns. There are too many injuries here!! Can someone tell me how I’m supposed to triage this!?”

“We can’t do it in that steam. It’s 400 degrees. We can’t even get close to the storeroom!!”



Yomikawa Aiho glanced aside.

First-aid kits could be found just about anywhere. There was even one belted to the helicopter’s wall. Was the chaos and confusion inside the Central Boiler so bad they couldn’t even find something so basic?

Yes, she had what they needed here.

The pilot must have wanted to help them too, but he gave his expert opinion.

“It’s not happening, Yomikawa! You can see that boiling steam, can’t you!? The steam pressure is disturbing the air currents near the ground too badly to land! If we carelessly descend now, the helicopter will be flipped over on its side!”

“Then what about an ambulance!? If we can’t go by air, we can send someone by ground!”

“What part of ‘boiling steam’ didn’t you understand? An ambulance is little more than an ordinary vehicle, so it just isn’t tough enough. Everyone inside would be steamed to death before they arrived. At 400 degrees, not only would the rubber tires melt, but the asphalt would probably be soft and squishy. Any vehicles will be stuck and the steam getting in through the air conditioning vents would bring the high temps inside too.”

“Then we’ll just have to make do with the helicopter. I know, let’s simulate it!! If we feed the satellite data into the quantum computers and DNA computers, those air current disturbances aren’t an obstacle!”

“How do we do that with the Board Chairman out of commission!? He’s the only one who can use the Master Key!!”

“Kh.”

“We can’t use the satellites, supercomputers, or any other Academy City facilities. Maybe we could use the individual devices, but we can’t tie them together. So my pointstands: it’s not happening, Yomikawa!!”

The helicopter could not descend as the Central Boiler continued to explode.

But voices were calling out for help.

Even an ordinary first-aid kit would be able to save the lives of the people injured by the burning heat and steam.

Yomikawa Aiho saw only one option.

“Then I just won’t use the helicopter.”

“Hey, Yomikawa?”

“You don’t have to do anything crazy. I’ll use this parachute to jump down on my own.”

“Are you stupid!? I said this 5.5 ton piece of metal would be flipped over on its side! You’ll lose all control over a parachute made of flimsy cloth in no time at- wait, no, you idiot!!”

She didn’t bother listening to the end.

Yomikawa Aiho grabbed the first-aid kit in both hands and threw herself out the open side door.

Without hesitation.

It went well. At first.

But 180 seconds after the parachute opened at an altitude of around 20 meters, things rapidly changed. The air current disturbance hit her like a punch from the side. Her neck hurt. She gritted her teeth and tried to restore her balance, but the winds buffeting her from all sides spun her parachute around.

All this and she hadn’t even been directly exposed to the steam. In the last few meters, her parachute turned completely inside out and she landed on some kind of machine. Only after her body badly dented the thin metal panel did she realize it was an industrial air conditioning unit. It had apparently absorbed the force of her landing.

The first-aid kit clutched to her chest had survived too.

Despite the burns and lacerations they must have suffered, the workers ran toward her. Ignoring their own woes and looking worried for her.

The Anti-Skill woman was truly glad she had come to help them.

She pressed the first-aid kit into the chest of a battered-looking worker.

“Are any of your people missing?”

“Th-the chief isn’t here, but his time card shows no record of him arriving. I think he took the night off without calling in…”

Then no need to worry about him.

“No ambulances are coming.”

She made sure they knew their situation.

“I doubt the fire trucks can make it either. So we have to prevent any further harm from the Central Boiler on our own. Where should we start!?”

Something exploded. Very close by.

She heard something whiz past her and felt something sharply stroke her cheek. A pipe must have burst from the internal pressure and a shard the size of a guitar pick had grazed her face.

No one could predict what would explode or when.

As the giant facility collapsed, it was like a single big balloon.

“Just one more…” said a young man, barely breathing. No, he was probably gathering all the strength he could. “Eight boilers make up the giant overall boiler and two of them have already blown. If just one more goes, there will be no stopping it. The reinforced concrete surrounding the place will collapse from the extreme steam pressure!”

“Then that’s what we have to deal with,” said Yomikawa.

“We can’t. We don’t know what happened to the general steam control room. No one can get there. Pipes have burst all throughout the building, so there’s hot steam everywhere!”

“Then I’ll go and check!!”

They could have just told her where that general steam control room was, but a few of the workers whose injuries were relatively minor came with her.

They all wanted to stop this tragedy if they could. Despite saying they couldn’t, they hadn’t given up.

Yomikawa Aiho smiled a little.



“Lead the way.”



She dove into danger.

She was no one special.

Today might finally be the day she died.

''However,'' that was no reason to not protect the Central Boiler and District 19.