Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume4 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 14===

Kamijou fell down three floors’ worth of Union Station’s escalators.

He coughed violently.

Something was caught in his chest, which kept him from coughing up a clump of blood.

His legs were involuntarily trembling where they were stretched out on the floor.

But that did not last long.

His mind was dragged toward the pit of death.

But he clenched his teeth and dragged himself back to the real world.

“Gah, agh!!”

He forced himself to cough.

Red liquid spewed from his mouth, but he was still alive.

His face was turning blue from asphyxiation, but he still worked to crawl along the ground. He focused on leaving the bottom of the escalator to hide himself.

What would screaming accomplish?

How would writhing in pain help anyone’s future?

His time was better spent moving as much as he could. He had to leave Union Station and find the next opportunity.

Melzabeth Grocery was not a villain and he had decided he would save her.

Othinus sighed half in concern and half in exasperation while holding onto his collar.

“Really, human? What did you set up this time?”

“With all those papers…in the diner – cough – I figured it couldn’t hurt to swipe some and stuff them under my clothes like they were old magazines.”

He had taken multiple shots to the chest.

But had that really been a Five Over – that is, a powered suit? The #4 had a much more bizarre silhouette than the mantis-like #3. It had looked something like a giant, transparent jellyfish. Did it accelerate electrons within its dome-shaped body and launch them from the tentacles spread out all around it? That made sense in unmanned mode, but Kamijou could not imagine how someone could wear it.

“It honestly scares me how accustomed you are to misfortune,” said Othinus. “Was that a spare one they hadn’t locked down yet? And when did you suspect this might happen? I didn’t see any hints myself.”

“When Kanzaki disappeared… Stiyl isn’t exactly the friendly type, so I couldn’t imagine us continuing to work together with her gone. ''That’s how it’s always worked between us.'' Plus…we’re in the world’s biggest gun country. Bh, I knew there would be bullets flying once I got into a fight in America. Ugh, cough! I-I never imagined I’d be shot by Japanese bullets after traveling all the way here, though.”

Still, ''it could have been worse.

The Five Over was a hybrid weapon that could be manned or remote-controlled. This one was apparently modeled after the #4, so he would have been vaporized if Stiyl had used its electron beam instead of the optional machinegun. Of course, that had not been a kindness on Stiyl’s part. He had probably only wanted the corpse’s wounds to be more obviously “scientific” in nature from Index’s perspective.

And the #4 had an especially ill-defined position among the Level 5s.

“It doesn’t use the wave or the particle – it uses the midpoint between them. I bet that tech came from quantum computers, not particle accelerators. I never thought they’d be buildings machines that operate by intentionally ''not observing''.”

“?”

“I’m saying we were lucky that idiot brought the #4. If it was the #3 instead, I would have been obliterated by the Gatling guns in its arms.”

“''Yes, what luck.''”

Did Othinus click her tongue because of Stiyl’s cold calculation, or because Kamijou breathed a sigh of relief and honestly considered himself ''lucky'' after a supposed ally shot him several times in the chest?

“Hmph. Is that bastard not following up on the attack because he isn’t used to operating a drone?” asked Othinus. “Academy City has those drum-shaped things crawling through all of its alleys, so why even bother with manual control? Switch it to auto and the AI can control hundreds of units at once.”

“He’ll figure out the controls soon enough. He’s familiar enough with machines – cough – to make his rune cards with a printer.”

The copies of the #3 and the #4 were not their only enemy here. Kamijou Touma remembered another label he had seen on the metal containers in that tent base near the airport: ''Five Over OS – Model Case: Accelerator.

He had no idea what that new weapon could do, but it could attack at any moment. If he did not cover his tracks and find somewhere safe to hide, he would lose the chance to even fight back.

And then he couldn’t save the mother, the daughter, or anyone else.

“…”

Helcalia Grocery had fallen into Stiyl’s hands.

In that case, maybe it was lucky Index was still with the priest. Like Othinus said, Stiyl could not do anything too cruel in front of Index. That went beyond logic or personal interest. It was more like his own personal faith.

So Index would have to protect the daughter.

But that wasn’t enough. Protecting just one of them would not truly save the mother and the child.

The mother was Kamijou’s job.

“Heh. This is perfect. ''Now that he’s killed me,'' we might as well go into hiding, Othinus. If this lets us hide from Anna and Stiyl while we search out Melzabeth Grocery, it actually works in our favor.”

“Save the smug grins until you’re strong enough to stand up again. It’s 20 below, so if your cheek freezes to the chilled floor, you won’t be able to pull it away again. Do you have something in mind that’s worth the effort?”

He had only been brought along as Index’s “chaperone”.

And since he was no longer following Stiyl’s plan, Stiyl had decided he was only in the way. Kamijou himself had no real reason to work for the Anglicans here.

But.

“My job here isn’t to give up on someone’s life and throw them into the pit of misfortune ''just because''.”

He spoke clearly.

He slowly but surely got his trembling legs moving and stood back up.

And in one more sliver of luck, he still had Melzabeth’s smartwatch and phone. He wished he also had Helcalia as an information source, but he still had some hints to go on.

He could still do this.

The trail had not gone cold, so he only had to keep moving.

“I made a promise to Helcalia who keeps crying even though she didn’t do anything wrong. I promised I would save Melzabeth, so my complaints and frustrations don’t matter. Stiyl can wait until later. There’s just one thing I have to do right now. Whether Melzabeth is a perpetrator, a victim, or buried in the sand, I need to grab her by the collar, drag her back to her daughter, and have her apologize for worrying the girl so much. That’s the one thing I have to do no matter what. …Am I wrong about any of that, Othinus?”

“No?”

Othinus smiled in amusement on his shoulder.

Whether they were a good or bad person, he would not hesitate to pick a fight with the entire world if he thought someone was worth saving.

That god understood exactly who Kamijou Touma was, so she toyed with her witch’s hat and spoke.

“I am the god of magic, deception, and war, so use my power to its fullest. Swindlers are experts at detecting other swindlers. So leave all the boring magical details to me while you view the world through the familiar lens of science. If you’re going to teach R&C Occultics a lesson for distorting the world for fun while pretending to be all benevolent, then you have my full support.”

“Hold on. Our only goal here is that mother and daughter.”

“Fine, fine. You decide how to use my war powers, human.”

They both took a deep breath and then spoke in unison while stepping into the merciless cold outside of Union Station.

“The counterattack begins now. Let’s destroy every last one of those illusions!!”

He had to trust that there was still some small goodness left in this world.

He had to refuse to let anyone be thrown into the depths of the darkness and stand up back up once more.