Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 12===

Shirai Kuroko had to have been more than ten stories up.

So she should have died after losing her balance. Her chances would have been slim even if the adults had a thick mattress ready to catch her at the bottom.

Yet something caught her with a wet sound.

It was the rotted remains of the building materials that the Decomposer had so thoroughly destroyed. How many people would have believed that pile that like cotton or dust had originally been reinforced concrete and tempered glass?

“Shirai-saaan!!”

Someone called out to her before she could sink deep inside it.

Rakuoka Houfu, the Anti-Skill officer with a combover and glasses, reached out his hand. The resistance was strong and felt like countless tiny hands dragging her down, but then his arm swelled out unnaturally. He used the power of his enlarged muscles to pull her out.

She felt feverish. She had supposedly been saved, but she was too weak to get up or even brush aside her sweaty bangs.

Nevertheless, she moved her trembling lips to speak.

“The…”

“?”

“The Decomposer is still celebrating her freedom. Hurry down and check the sewers!!”

“B-but, Shirai-san, you need immediate medical attention. I will call for an ambulance. Or we could take an Anti-Skill heli—”

She was still too weak to get up, but she managed to grab his collar.

If she was going to leave her life in someone’s care, she would prefer for it to be Misaka Mikoto. How had she worked so hard tonight without finding any sign of that girl? But right now, she had to give someone else some support. If she made the safe, reasonable, and passive choice here, she knew this man would rot away without ever opening his present.

She raised her voice while looking on the verge of coughing up blood.

“You wanted to be someone your family could be proud of, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you became a teacher and why you volunteered for Anti-Skill despite the risk!?”

“…”

“Then don’t let her get away. Prevent the next death and become someone you can be proud of. Hurry!!”

He glanced this way and that, bit his lip, and hung his head.

Then he gently laid her down and took off running.

No one would respect him.

But that teacher made sure to do his duty as an upholder of the public order.