Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4 (section)

===Part 13===

Mikoto had escaped Tokiwadai’s grounds, but she couldn’t relax yet.

“Damn. I really wish I had some of that Judgment hemostatic cream.”

She viewed her various injuries and clicked her tongue. Tying cloths around the wounds to stanch the bleeding wouldn’t be enough.

But she couldn’t rely on the others either. She wasn’t acting alone this time. She had to think about Shirai, Uiharu, Saten, and Yugure Kanaria, who they had only just rescued from deep underground. If she fled straight back to them, someone could tail her back to the hideout.

The School Garden was functioning surprisingly well. The buildings hadn’t collapsed and the windows hadn’t shattered. The underground infrastructure for electricity, gas, and water had to have been cut off, but the modifications to the ground must have accounted for that.

Mikoto glanced up at the solar panels on top of a nearby traffic light and building roof.

(I see. So they’re using solar for electricity. They might move below rainclouds for water, but what about gas? We might last a while with the big propane tanks found out behind restaurants.)

But one thing was hopelessly insufficient: people.

The Western-style stone-paved streets were empty.

Assuming Resanerié hadn’t been bluffing, then it was primarily the teachers being rounded up for execution. But with a mob of high-level espers roaming in search of victims, the other adults weren’t going to be manning the registers right now.

Besides, Resanerié’s group had no real reason to faithfully stay true to their word. It could all fall apart on a whim at any time.

(But where did the adults disappear to? And what about the kids here for entrance exams? Well, they might not be willing to tell me since I would look like any other student to them.)

Since the School Garden only accepted high-level Espers, it was possible the teachers had secret shelters built into the schools. There had to still be a fair number of Anti-Skill officers here too, but they had to worry about ammunition and fuel in a way espers didn’t. Without backup, it was unlikely they could suppress an angry mob of more than 1000 high-level espers from the 5 schools.

“?”

Mikoto’s shoulders shook.

Footsteps sounded awfully loud with the streets so empty. She used magnetism to jump up to the roof of a stone building.

Someone was running along the road below.

“Nwohhhhh!! Where are you, Misaka-san!? Where are you Misaka-san!? Where are you, Misaka-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!”

(Yikes, it’s Kongou-san. I have nothing against her and I know she’s not a bad person, but she really needs to be less impressionable! She has a real knack for tearing down all the goodwill she’s spent so much time and energy building up!)

Mikoto facepalmed at the Japanese-style black-haired girl’s behavior.

Kongou Mitsuko’s Aero Hand let her create air ejection points on any object she touched, so she could be a lot of trouble if she played her cards right. She could apparently launch a broadcast tower into the stratosphere, so she had Mikoto’s Railgun beat when it came to simple attack range. Since the School Garden was currently an isolated space located high in the sky, Kongou could start wearing her down with projectile attacks and finally knock her over the edge into the 5000m abyss of the sky.

On the other hand, Kongou’s power was limited to that side of things.

She could not cheat and locate her target using precognition or clairvoyance, so she wasn’t a threat as long as Mikoto hid from her.

The bigger problem was…

(An esper who can cheat like that.)

“Hee hee. I heard that, Misaka-sama.”

“Damn!”

Hearing a voice in her head, Mikoto spun around and saw a bob cut girl smiling and waving from the building across the road Kongou had run down.

That was Kobayashi Satori of the Shokuhou Clique.

Wasn’t she a telepath who gained a general sense of where someone she was “connected” to was located!?

(But I’m pretty sure Kobayashi-san’s power has a range limit. And she can’t move very fast. I can lose her if I move to a building two or three streets down!!)

“Perhaps, but I can hear every word you think while connected to you. It is possible to divide your thoughts into ones I can hear and ones I cannot, so how about we hold a study group later on? Also, I may not be much of a fighter myself, but that is why I generally provide communications support for our vanguard.”

''Crash!!!

The entire stone building shook below Mikoto.

Wait a second.

The wireless fire alarm should have warned Mikoto if the only door onto the roof had opened, but she hadn’t sensed anything. Then how had that “crash” come from the very center of the roof? The building was surrounded by wide roads and the rooftop itself was a 40m square. So where had that “crash” jumped from and how had it landed there!?

“Uh, oh.”

Mikoto hesitantly turned around again.

In the center of the square roof, a girl with gorgeous ringlets was crouched on one knee, presumably the pose she had landed in. Electricity crackled through her hair, but it was being ''used'' in a very different way from Mikoto’s.

[[Image:Railgun_BW11.png|thumb]]


She was the second in command of the Shokuhou Clique, the largest clique in Tokiwadai.

She fully specialized in physical combat, she acted as her Queen’s bodyguard, and she probably worked to defeat that Queen’s enemies as well.

(This is really bad!!)

“Hokaze…-san!?”

“I do apologize, Misaka-sama.”

She wasn’t even smiling.

She was unarmed, but that was no reason to let your guard down. Her Rampage Dress used weak electrical signals to push her muscles past their limits, so that extreme grappler could fold up a black bulletproof car with her bare hands. And she had to be well aware of how destructive she could be.

Kobayashi Satori had already completed her job.

She had only needed to accurately guide Hokaze Junko to Misaka Mikoto’s coordinates.

“But the Queen’s ‘optimization’ is absolute☆”

The wind roared and the concrete cracked when the girl simply stepped forward.

Mikoto scattered some bright electricity to dazzle Hokaze, but she also jumped from the edge of the roof. She gained nothing by getting into an extended battle with that monster. And her recent experience with that halberd had taught her she had trouble with martial artists.

If Hokaze caught her, it was all over.

That monster left even the #3 Railgun thinking that.

At least I can move through the air more freely than her! I just have to move to another building’s wall or rooftop to put some distance between-)

“Hee hee hee.”

“…”

That laughter was close.

How was it so close!?

Mikoto was using magnetism to leap to the building across the street 30m below, but the laughter sounded an awful lot like it came from right by her ear!?

“Are you serious? You can do that with leg strength alone!?”

“Yes, I am very serious☆”

With a loud crash, Hokaze’s fist dropped straight down, altering Mikoto’s trajectory and sending her hurtling toward the temporary ground like an artillery shell. And that was after Mikoto magnetically tore a sign from a building wall and used it as a shield. A direct hit may have literally caused her body to explode.

Magnetism was a wonderful thing. She could still move thanks to decelerating herself with that.

“E-eek!! What is with this post-apocalyptic genocide dimension? I’m never making myself visible again!! I’m staying in the safety of my own personal flower garden!!”

Mikoto heard a voice coming from seemingly empty air.

The Shokuhou Clique seemed to have its own issues, but Mikoto couldn’t focus on that at the moment.

“Don’t worry. If you want to run away, then get to it. I won’t attack unless you attack me first.”

“Bff!? Turning invisible is the only thing I have going for me and your microwave radar can see right through it!?”

Mikoto heard the dull sound of scraping concrete from up above.

Electricity crackled from her bangs. She maybe could have intercepted Hokaze with a lightning spear if the girl had dropped straight down, but Hokaze instead kicked off multiple walls to bounce around like a pinball and take an unpredictable route down. Rolling out of the way was the most Mikoto could manage.

(Damn. She uses hers different, but she is an electric esper, so can she predict my actions by sensing the faint magnetic and EM fluctuations!?)

Mikoto could not sense when Hokaze switched her power on and off. Maybe it was a natural talent on Hokaze’s part, or maybe Shokuhou had demanded she develop a few trump cards for use in a fight against Mikoto. Knowing Shokuhou Misaki, probably the latter.

Where was the scheming she-fox anyway!?

“H-Hokaze-san? Um, is it all possible we could have a civil discussion over tea instead?”

“I am sorry. It pains me to say this, but the Queen has decided to see how this plays out and has ordered us to play along with the bizarre things going on, so the clique has been tasked with capturing you to earn the trust of the independents led by Resanerié-sama.”

“If you feel bad, could you maybe not attack quite so fiercely? If those had hit me, I would have died.”

“My lack of hesitation likely comes from the ‘optimization’ the Queen provided to lessen the psychological burden from the fear of death and the pressure brought on by the current situation. …Oh?”

“?”

“How strange. I have this unusual fluttering in my chest and it seems I am dying to fight you. Wh-what has come over me? Oh, dear. Oh, my. Pant, pant. Ahh, I so want to surpass my limits as a person by dancing the dance of death with you! I can’t seem to help myself!!”

“Why would you do this to me now, Shokuhou you she-fooooooooooooooooooooooox!?”