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

===Part 14===

'''(temperance)

Mikoto had a bad feeling about this.

They had captured Fire Bug, the creator of the ignition devices, and they were on the verge of having proof that Attorney Tsujinaka Kyouka had crossed a line, but Mikoto felt an odd sense of impatience, like that trump card was crumbling in her grasp.

“I can’t reach Uiharu,” said Shirai. “But I doubt that high-tech freak would turn off her phone.”

“She’s at the courthouse, so aren’t phones banned in a lot of places?”

They had never expected Fire Bug to confess to everything during just a few hours of questioning. The key had been the mobile device Matsuoka Raita had with him. By having Uiharu investigate that, they could find a link back to the attorney and deliver the finishing blow.

This should have been a triumphant return.

But as they approached the courthouse, Mikoto definitely felt an ominous racing of her heart. She noticed something just as they passed by a quadrupedal armored robot lying on the mat to a wireless charging station.

“What…? Isn’t there a lot of noise coming from over there?”

“I sincerely hope there hasn’t been even more trouble.”

But their hopes could not change the truth.

The result was as follows:

“She fell!! From the roof!!’

“Don’t push! Clear the way! Let the ambulance through!!”

“The defense attorney committed suicide? What’s going to happen to the trial now…?”

As soon as their minds managed to parse the flood of noise as individual voices, it felt like a mass of malice hitting them in the head.

Defense attorney.

There was only one person that brought to mind.

Anyone who did not think of Tsujinaka Kyouka was either incredible or incredibly stupid.

“Wait a second. Are you kidding!?”

Mikoto’s shouting would not turn back time. Once the stretcher was loaded in, the ambulance activated its siren and left the courthouse.

They had no idea if the woman would be fine or if it was already too late.

“What happened…? Did she give into the pressure as we closed in on her…?”

“I doubt that woman was such a sensitive soul.”

Had they been unable to reach Uiharu because she had had her hands full with this chaos?

They entered the courthouse.

Even now, they were forced to go through the metal detector and have their body temperature manipulated by a grid of far infrared beams. It was normally a minor change, but it was unimaginably irritating when they were in a hurry. In a way, that may have been proof it would be effective at revealing terrorists.

Perhaps because it was a judicial agency, a lot of people were hurrying about inside. But due to jurisdiction issues, Anti-Skill had been sent out to investigate the scene instead of having the prosecutors do it directly.

Mikoto and Shirai could hear Anti-Skill discussing the investigation:

“Was it a suicide?”

“We don’t know! Gather any of her documents you can find. We need to test the handwriting!”

The mention of handwriting caught Mikoto’s attention.

She leaned against a column where she would be out of the way.

“Does that mean she left something handwritten on the roof? Like a suicide note?”

“They still don’t know if it was really written by that Tsujinaka attorney. Personally, I think it would be best to assume Innai Chigiri was feeling trapped and made his next move.”

Capturing Fire Bug would only lead them to the female glasses attorney, not Innai Chigiri himself. So if Tsujinaka Kyouka was silenced, it would be difficult to reach the very top from Fire Bug.

In fact…

“The worse the attempt to make it look like a suicide, the worse this could be for us.”

“What do you mean, Kuroko?”

“We captured Fire Bug and reached the point where we can get him to talk about his connection to Tsujinaka. But what if all the information surrounding her is suspected to be a trap making this look like a suicide? Even if all of our information is accurate, won’t any testimony or evidence that works against ''the victim'' of the attack look suspect?”

It felt like they had worked so hard to find this one fleck of gold dust and then a dump truck full of dirt had been dumped on top of it. The truth they had supposedly found would lose all value as it was covered by later lies. All that would remain was the exhaustion from the effort, but they could not stop here. They were still in the palm of Loophole’s hand.

“But to put it another way, we’ve cornered that criminal to the point that he had to sacrifice his right-hand woman, right?”

“Onee-sama…?”

“He calls himself Loophole. He might think he’s outwitted us with this bold move, but the exact opposite is true. I doubt Innai Chigiri would attempt this tightrope walk for no reason. Of course, if we could have caught him in the act, we could have prevented this sacrifice, but…”

Loophole had proven that he could do something like this while being monitored so strictly. The attack on the attorney may have been infighting between villains, but his next target could be anyone. Would it be the witness? Or a lay judge? No, they would not let there be a next target. Mikoto renewed her resolve.

What hurdles remained?

Innai Chigiri was trying to pass off the guidance of public opinion with faked videos and the fire in the temporary storage room as actions taken by his attorney without his knowledge. It was unknown if Tsujinaka Kyouka would recover in the hospital, but she at least could not provide testimony for the time being. They would have to temporarily set aside any method of closing in on the villains with Fire Bug.

“This isn’t over yet,” forced out Mikoto. “Attorney Tsujinaka Kyouka said there was a risk of me having tampered with the evidence since I set foot inside the temporary storage room, but they were all packaged in plastic. A close examination should quickly prove whether or not the bags were opened. Loophole’s failure had already begun from the moment that small room wasn’t fully burned.”

How could they close in on that brutal villain without using Fire Bug or the attorney?

Where was his Achilles’ heel?

…When she thought about it, she realized they had to return to the very beginning.

The very first hurdle was right there in front of them.

“Unfreezing the cold sleep girl…”

The trial could continue.

With that in mind, they had to make their attack here.

“We have to save that girl without Loophole’s help. If we can solve the Asajimo Saemi problem, we can greatly increase the likelihood of the trial continuing.”