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

===Part 13===

They couldn’t head outside thanks to the intense steam.

Only Coronzon, who had caused the disaster, could move freely in it. They just didn’t know if she would take the subway, the sewers, or what.

Kamijou clenched his teeth.

“We can’t just stand around here. Coronzon must even now be working to cross the wall and escape the city!”

Was there a loophole anywhere? Or a safety measure that would let them travel through the ultra-hot steam? The idea sounded too absurd to even consider, but then someone spoke up.

The girl who Kanzaki had picked up somewhere.

“…in the car.”

Kamijou had a bad feeling about this.

This definitely wasn’t a hint.

The words oozed with an ominous air that made him reluctant to hear the rest.

“My parents are still in the car. They said the city is too dangerous to stay, but then we got stuck in the red snow. I didn’t want to hear them arguing, so I got out of the car on my own. Then that steam came, so they’re probably still in there…”

…In all that steam?

Othinus and Anna Sprengel made an honest simulation rather than being weirdly considerate.

“Even in this thick reinforced concrete building, the door could buckle or the windows could break at any time. And if we’re talking about an ordinary car with no bulletproofing or blast resistance…”

“Fool, even if they covered the A/C vents with balled-up cloth, I’m not sure how long a car with windows on all sides would last. And once the windows break, the people inside will be exposed to the 400-degree steam.”

…Kamijou himself had seen the tough paint peeling off of cars. A human wouldn’t last ten seconds exposed to that.

Kanzaki’s eyes widened.

“It’s past midnight! Why would someone be out at this hour!? Especially when the entire city was ordered to stay in!”

“Because the Anglican grip on the city is weakening. Even as we speak.”

Kamijou gave a calm response to Kanzaki’s shouted question.

Maybe it was hard to grasp for a Saint who lived a proper life day in and day out, but human beings tended to want to do the things they were told not to do. All the more once the authority holding them back loosened its grip. Or once they found a loophole.

“I succumbed to temptation. I couldn’t resist.” Mourning clothes Mikoto scratched her cheek. “Phrases like that have existed since ancient times, which tells you a lot about human nature.”

“It’s not that. …They were just willing to try anything if it would keep their precious family safe.”

“Fool,” curtly called Anna Sprengel.

He didn’t need to hear any more. That magician used her wickedness as a great weapon, so he knew what she was trying to say.

If Coronzon was allowed to escape the city here and now, the entire 7 or 8 billion population of the Earth would be headed toward its doom. Once the process started, no one could stop it.

So they couldn’t afford to lose track of her.

They couldn’t stop to save a couple of unrelated people in the middle of the fight against Coronzon.

He knew that.

He really did, but…

“It’ll be alright.”

The next thing he knew, Kamijou Touma was kneeling down in front of the small girl.

And doing the opposite of Anna’s unspoken advice.

Because it was the right thing to do.

“There are a lot of different people here – the Anglicans, the Amakusas, some who were originally Roman Catholic, and even a Magic God and some Transcendents – but none of them are going to abandon you. Because every one of us are here because we want to help people.”

He just had to remember what kind of being Great Demon Coronzon was.

She tore people apart from each other and kept humanity from reaching magical knowledge.

So this was another side of the battle.

In the fight against Coronzon, they would continue to encounter frustratingly malicious “coincidences” as well as trouble and accidents that seemed designed to test them. Because that was the kind of being she was. Just like there was an angel of love and an angel of righteousness and just like there was a demon of wrath and a demon of envy, she was the great demon who specialized in ''that sort of thing''.

He wouldn’t let those bonds be torn asunder.

…An emergency? An urgent situation? The entire human race’s doom would be assured once the dawn arrived? He still wasn’t going to give up on being human. He couldn’t defeat Coronzon if he wasn’t willing to say that!!

No one stopped him.

Not Index, not Misaka Mikoto, not Kanzaki Kaori, not Agnese Sanctis, not Alice Anotherbible, and not even Anna Sprengel who had given him her advice as a wicked woman.

They had all fought against Coronzon.



“I promise you everything will be alright. We’re going to save your parents right now!!”