Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume5 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 14===

What he had done was wrong.

It had been an undeniable mistake.

Rakuoka Houfu clenched his teeth.

But there had been someone he wanted to be happy even if it meant leaving the straight and narrow. So when he had found his sister standing dazed in a pool of blood, he had hugged her, discussed it with the entire family, and decided to crush, smash, and chemically break down the malicious stalker’s dead body to leave no trace of him in the world.

The real tragedy had come from his talent.

He could have screwed it up at any step along the way, but he had found success at every turn.

But what if that unexpected success had in fact widened the cracks? What if those cracks had grown into a great maw that was now threatening to devour his family again? And what if his family troubles were putting so many other Academy City lives at risk?

He had to put an end to this himself.

Even if it meant becoming a big, bad ogre.

This was not his first time directly facing the malice that ruled the city’s darkness, so this pitiful loser was not going to get cold feet now.

He had already developed an immunity to these sticky shadows.

“Rakuoka Houfu is low priority. You only need to approach the one.”

He heard an amused voice.

Just like back then, these were the mocking words of a demon enjoying the act of bending people to her will.

“Your top priority is Hanatsuyu Youen. Benizome-chan, kill him if he gets in the way. Nodoka-chan, you stay where you are☆ That’s all you need to do to make him freeze up.”

A scorching heat stabbed into Rakuoka’s upper body at supersonic speed and exploded inside him. The lead had been crushed into a flower when it failed to punch through his powerful muscles, which actually worked against him.

His large body tilted to the side.

So what? His precious family was watching.

She wielded deadly violence supported by her crafting skills. But no matter how much anyone else feared her, her brother would always see her as his little sister, so he gently knocked her aside. That sniper was not the type to worry about where her ricochets ended up. If he sent Nodoka into the dumping pit, she would be outside the angular range of the sniper bullets.

He cared about his family more than his own life safe, so now that she was safe, he no longer needed to hold back.

He slowly changed direction.

His bloody muscles swelled out further, growing another size. The crushed bullet was forced back out from the wound.

He had a single target here.

The glasses woman in a black uniform. The Anti-Skill Negotiator. She was supposed to be one of those who prevented crimes by acting as a friendly confidante before things reached this point, not the one who punished the criminals after the fact.

The two foolish adults who had failed to fulfill that role stared directly into each other’s eyes.

Tessou Tsuzuri gave a light wave of her right hand. She was probably sending a signal to the distant sniper, but he ignored that. His muscular strength let him lift more than 70 tons. He could end this fountain of tragedy at the source by getting in a single punch before a bullet could break through his thick muscles and shut down a vital organ.

“Oh.”

He took a step.

From there, he exploded into a run.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

He had lived a shameful life.

He had entered his 40s without accomplishing anything, he was now an unemployed criminal, and his little sister had gotten married and started a family before him. He was still a virgin, for that matter.

But surely he was still allowed to do one thing his family could be proud of, right?