Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4 (section)

===Part 16===

Mikoto needed to settle things with Resanerié no matter what.

Unfortunately, that agitator was an empress who controlled the elites from all five School Garden schools. With that much security, sneaking in and catching her unawares would be nigh impossible.

At the same time, the Shokuhou Clique needed to attack Mikoto and send her to be executed in order to escape suspicion.

If that fight continued much longer, Mikoto felt like she would have exhausted herself before even reaching Resanerié.

But there was a loophole there.

None of it was a problem if she could constantly move through the School Garden while engaged in a serious battle with the Shokuhou Clique. That let Hokaze and the others preserve their position while the explosions and whatnot produced by their flashy attacks created a smokescreen for Mikoto to move ever closer to Resanerié.

Berserker Hokaze appeared to be assisting with that act. …Although it didn’t seem to be entirely an act with her.

Hokaze whispered so only Mikoto would hear while she threw punches and kicks at extreme close range. The explosions produced by the other clique members’ stray shots were much too loud for her lowered voice to travel far.

“(That sums up what the Queen told us regarding the problems facing Resanerié-sama’s independence and what she did on the roof after you left. Hopefully that will help you analyze her power!)”

“(Thanks, Hokaze-san.)”

“(Also, the assignment to search for you was apparently a loyalty test for anyone she suspected might consider siding with you. Most likely, um, Kongou-sama and the pair from the swim team have not lost their heads and are only pretending to search for you in order to protect you.)”

“(Eh? O-oh, no!! Kongou-san does get fired up easily, but she never crosses that line, does she? I ''thought'' she was acting weird! I need to apologize for ever suspecting her later on!!)”

“(Also, she said her Aero Hand has no cap on how many ejection points it can produce, so if she can move to the underside of the School Garden and place a thousand or ten thousand points there, you can electrically destroy the synchronized grid of coaxial rotors while she uses Aero Hand to slow the School Garden’s descent enough for a safe landing.)”

“(The daughter of Kongou Airlines used her expertise in all things aerial to come up with a better plan than anyone else!? I ''really'' need to apologize!!)”

It was becoming pretty obvious they were only making bright flashes of light and loud booms while moving as a group, so the elites who really did agree with Resanerié’s group were starting to notice and take action.

But once they got close, it wasn’t hard to deal with them.

Mikoto would zap them with a high-voltage current or Hokaze and the rest of the Shokuhou Clique would hit them with a “stray” fireball, ultrasonic wave, or whatever else. This was of course a major gamble for the Shokuhou Clique. If this ended quickly, everything would work out, but if not and they could no longer explain their actions, they would find themselves cornered.

But they had chosen to trust in Mikoto’s ability as an individual fighter.

Resanerié used a halberd and a megaphone.

If Mikoto could prevent her from using the weapon that gave her control over the group, the tides would turn.

“(Now, hurry!! I believe Resanerié-sama is using Tokiwadai as her base!!)”

“(Thanks, Hokaze-san. And the rest of you too. I’ll treat all of you but Shokuhou to something later!!)”

Mikoto entered the Tokiwadai campus with those parting words, but the ringlets girl looked displeased. She looked like someone had seriously suggested they order their katsu curry without the cutlet, the sauce, the vegetables, or the rice.

Mikoto heard a dull swishing sound from the center of the schoolyard expertly tended by the school gardener.

That was the sound of a halberd slicing through the air.

“So you came.”

“It turns out Canary-chan tracked down the truth. You really screwed up not killing her. The School Garden doesn’t have enough food to be self-sufficient, does it? I only heard a bit about it when I rescued her, but this little world of yours is about to learn all about the truth she discovered underground. Since we have ''a hacker even more skilled than me'' on our side.”

“So what?”

“?”

Resanerié didn’t even hesitate.

Mikoto frowned for a moment. This didn’t seem to be an act. Was she planning to establish a reign of terror to rule over the people by force if necessary?

“What choice did I have? Her Micro Dying can kill all the microbes living in symbiosis with us, so it is the deadliest single attack to use against us humans. You can’t even approach her safely without a full body hazmat suit on. She couldn’t actually reach the factory’s products from that section, so the cleverest plan should have been to weaken her from a distance and then shut the exit so she starved down there.”

“Thanks. If you had said you couldn’t bring yourself to kill her, I would have lost the will to go all out against you. Now I won’t have any qualms about ''finishing this''.”

“Keep in mind I am the tyrant who tried to slaughter all of the teachers to achieve my goals. Even the ones I have never met.”

Misaka Mikoto and Resanerié Sadis Dialine clashed without a second’s hesitation.