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

===Part 12===

“Gh.”

Shirai Kuroko awoke to a sharp gunshot.

She found herself in a small room instead of the first floor lobby. Was this an interrogation room? She briefly had trouble remembering how she had gotten here, but then she noticed someone peering down at her face.

It was an overbearing middle-aged man.

“A-are you okay, Shirai-san?”

“Thanks to you.”

Seeing a combover and glasses was not how she liked to wake up. Only after sitting up from the floor did she realize she had been lying down. She felt an odd tugging at her skin. She checked in the interrogation room’s large mirror to see bandages and gauze all over her.

“I guess I have to thank you for treating my wounds.”

“Oh, um, that wasn’t me.”

“?”

Then who had done it? Rakuoka Houfu showed no interest in answering that question. It seemed like a long shot, but was the camera in the monitoring room on?

She stepped out into the hallway to find a horrible stench and lots of dark stickiness.

She saw two surviving members of Anti-Skill out there, but they were staring at a broken window for some reason. Some pink fabric was caught on the jagged edge. It was the synthetic material used for track suits and the like.

“''The girl fell with him''?” blankly muttered a young Anti-Skill man carrying a battle rifle that could be used at long or close range. “Anyway, we’re safe now, Yomikawa-san. Are you hur-”

“Did…you…”

Yomikawa’s trembling lips moved.

The next thing Shirai knew, the woman had grabbed at her subordinate’s collar.

“Did you aim your gun at a child, Namino!? What were you thinking!?”

The brown-haired man looked puzzled by her question.

“H-he was only some dark side punk. And if he snuck into the general station, he’s clearly a harmful, right?”

“Only…''only''!? These kids’ lives are our responsibility!! Their parents are trusting us to protect them!!!!!”

Her words did no good. The man appeared to shrink down, but he showed no sign of learning his lesson. It was like he had no interest in why she was angry and was only trying to weather the storm.

Shirai could tell just from watching that common sense had broken down.

She chose to approach them and the short walk was enough to wind her. The skinny combover and glasses man was not sure what to do. He may have wanted to lend her his shoulder, but was unsure if he should really carelessly touch a middle school girl. He was such a strict rule follower that he would overreact at times.

“Are you the only two still standing?” asked Shirai. “What happened to all the others???”

No one responded.

They were hesitant to speak the accurate number of losses out loud, which was why they had only received the numbers from a report over the radio. The young Anti-Skill officer holding the battle rifle shook his head with Yomikawa still grabbing at his collar.

And he gave the answer.

“South District 7, District 8, District 17…and District 1 are all down.”

“1…”

Yomikawa was speechless despite yelling so much earlier.

That was understandable. District 1 was the government district where all the city’s administrative functions were gathered. The general station there also functioned as the central station that connected all the others. In terms of the police outside the city, it was like the National Police Agency’s headquarters.

Yet it had fallen so easily.

They were lucky to even have an accurate list of fallen stations with the top of the command structure broken off. Anti-Skill could easily cease to function as an organization unless they reorganized to bring their network back up.

“I told you,” said a voice. It was Rakuoka Houfu, the Anti-Skill officer with a combover and glasses. “We aren’t doing enough. If we really want to clean up the dark side, we have to treat it like a war.”

Something had gone terribly wrong with Operation Handcuffs.

Yomikawa Aiho bit her lip as one of those who had set this in motion along with the new Board Chairman.