Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Cold Game (section)

===Part 13===

'''(death)

Mikoto and the others were not the only ones feeling irritated.

In District 1’s Academy City General Courthouse, time seemed to be passing calmly in the defendant’s waiting room, but the female glasses attorney, Tsujinaka Kyouka, was actually already in a rage.

“…This is bad. This is really bad.”

“What is?”

“The Fire Bug part of the plan is falling apart!!”

After snapping back at the boy, the attorney glanced back toward the closed door.

She lowered her voice and opened her mouth as if to slowly release the pressure of her tension.

“It would have been difficult to prove actual wrongdoing with the voice data. But when he was arrested, I was the one that kept him from being indicted. He owed me for that and I tamed him with money after he got plastic surgery and had trouble getting by without an ID. Do you understand? I doubt he would let himself be captured so easily, but it’s all over if he is. The hotline will lead them back to me!! And then I won’t be able to defend you any longer. You have to know what fate awaits you if you’re given a court-appointed attorney who lives off of everyone’s tax money and gets paid the same whether they win or lose.”

This beautiful boy was done for if a guilty verdict was reached.

But his expression remained almost creepily unchanged.

“I have more than one safety in place. Even if one fails, there is still another.”

“Then let’s assume Fire Bug is captured. If I am arrested by Anti-Skill, they will also discover the fake videos and praise your followers are spreading outside. That means two of the three safeties have already failed!!”

“…”

“That just leaves the negotiation to unfreeze the cold sleep girl, but I honestly doubt that will be very effective on its own. No one will want to be involved in the life or death of an innocent person, so they will want to delay making a decision. That much is fine. But they might start looking at this in a different way. ''If they can’t stand to let a living person die, then they just have to start thinking of the frozen victim as already dead.'' It’s irrational, but if they get just one doctor signing a statement to that effect, they’ll be able to shake off the guilt.”

That was the first thing they had discussed.

Even with the negotiations centered on the cold sleep, there was no guarantee the trial would be called off.

So they had needed several waves of attacks. They had wanted a result where the specific reason could not be given, but ''after weighing all the factors'', it was concluded the trial could not continue.

That would be difficult with just one point of pressure.

And if the trial was resumed now, the pieces would progress in a direction Innai Chigiri and Tsujinaka Kyouka very much wanted to avoid. As an attorney, she was no longer just receiving money from this. Her current status came from covering for his wicked charisma.

And just then…

“To be honest…”

“?”

“I have more than just those three safeties. As you said, there is always a chance of something going wrong. So it’s best to have as many lifelines as possible.”

“You still have something up your sleeve…? Wh-why didn’t you say so sooner!?”

The female glasses attorney’s face lit up like all her agony had been a lie. Loophole smiled thinly at that calculating woman who shared his fate here.

“By the way, I was entirely reliant on you for all of this. Of course, that was because I’m the defendant, so I’m always under observation and can’t act freely.”

“Um, what about it…?”

“You don’t get it? If a certain someone keeps their mouth shut, almost all of this will never come to light. There will be suspicions, sure, but no definitive answer. Isn’t the presumption of innocence a wonderful concept? I just need to use it to my advantage. And I had everything set up that way from the beginning, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

If she had known what he meant, the attorney would not have simply stared. So it was not the pretty boy’s words that clued Tsujinaka into the change.

Quite the opposite.

Silence, quiet, stillness.

…She finally realized something was not right. Things were far too quiet beyond the door. They should have been monitored at all times, but those watchful eyes had completely vanished.

Esper powers determined one’s status in Academy City, but they meant nothing here.

It was something else that ruled this place.

“My followers are many. And they can be found anywhere in Academy City.”

The doorknob immediately turned.

Several men in work jumpsuits walked in.

“And there is a clear and simple way to stop this trial dead in its tracks. The current trial system requires the defendant to have at least one attorney. To put it another way, if that number drops below one, the trial must stop. Which means…”

This was so unexpected that her mind must have gone entirely blank.

The fear finally caught up to her once her mouth was covered with adhesive tape, but by then it was too late. Her arms and legs were bent and bound with adhesive tape like she was being packed up by a moving company. Her eyes widened as she was stuffed inside a plastic box on a wagon. This was not the look one gave a companion. Tsujinaka Kyouka may have finally recalled the most basic fact of all: what kind of person Innai Chigiri was.

He thought nothing of human life.

And that brutal criminal said one last thing.

“You just have to die.”