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

===Part 17===

'''(the_star)

Misaka Mikoto ran across District 1 on her own and ignored the suspicious look from the Anti-Skill officers operating the stainless steel accordion gates as she rushed into the subway station. She continued on to the District 2 university hospital.

She could not use the name of Judgment while on her own, but the trust built from their previous meeting seemed to remain. The guard men did not stop her as she made her way deep into the hospital where normal patients and visitors were not allowed.

She knocked on the door, but the white coat girl may not have noticed.

Asajimo Mebuki stood motionless in the empty laboratory and stared at the thick silver door of the freezer.

“…It’s less than three hours until the limit now,” she said. “Even if the criminal does know how to unfreeze her, it would be too late by the time the processing and other preparations were complete. That may be for the best. Academy City has shown to the world that we will not negotiate with criminals no matter what.”

“We don’t have to wait for Loophole.”

For one thing, the possibility had emerged that Innai Chigiri did not actually know how to unfreeze the girl.

“We can still make it in time. But only if we get started here and now instead of waiting for someone else!! You don’t want to just sit around twiddling your thumbs when you’re surrounded by the techniques and equipment that could save her, do you!?”

“But how…?”

The 14-year-old university professor finally turned around.

It was a slow action.

Her expression was a collapsed one that looked both like she was crying and smiling.

“I wanted to do everything I could to heroically and emotionally save my family – my sister! I stared at her photo album, read her journal, and thought back on our memories together to carve into my heart that I simply could not lose her!! …But I would be charged with a crime… Once I take up the challenge and make the attempt, I’ll be pushing the ball down the hill and there is no going back. If I fail, I will be handcuffed as a murderer!! Of course I’m scared of that. My tongue freezes up, my fingers tremble, and no amount of idealistic words will change reality! The barrier won’t lower itself just because of my circumstances!! What am I supposed to do? If I could trade my life to save her and failing would cause me to drop dead right then and there, I wouldn’t have hesitated!! But when failure means falling to the very, very bottom but having to keep living afterwards, of course I’m going to be afraid!!!!!”

This was not a lovely story.

It was an ugly story of someone weighing their familial bonds against the practical risks.

But this told Mikoto something: She was not a bad person.

If, as the final seconds counted down, the girl had continued saying lovely-sounding things that she did not actually think, wasting time in the process, that would have been the real problem. Asajimo Mebuki understood the value of time here. So she had thrown out all else and dragged out what she really thought. Because each minute and second mattered here.

It was not that she did not care.

It was not that she did not want to save her sister.

A lengthy excuse would be no more than a defensive action meant to hide what she really thought. But the white coat girl had given an explanation of why she would be right to abandon her frozen sister and avoid the risk. She had that explanation, yet she had not actually made the decision to give up. She was reluctant and she clenched her teeth. To put it another way, she had been unable to even think about the option of abandoning her sister without first arming herself with such a thorough argument for it. In fact, even after that well-reasoned argument, she had been unable to convince the soul that resided in the very depths of her heart. That was not like the aforementioned waste of time. She had endured to protect that life.

And so Misaka Mikoto asked herself what she had to do.

Criticizing Asajimo Mebuki for the ugly words coming from her mouth would be the height of folly. That would show a complete lack of understanding of the core of the issue. Those were not the words needed here.

She had to think back.

She had to line up all of the information she had gathered thus far.

There had to be a key there which would unlock a conclusion in which everyone could smile.

“You’re saying you have to give up because there is no way of saving your frozen sister, Asajimo Saemi, correct?”

“What…? You have to ask?”

“I just needed confirmation. So to put it another way, you would never give up on your sister as long as there was a way to save her! I’m going to hold you to that!!”

Now was the time to provide the answer.

No more lengthy excuses were needed. It was time to reach into Asajimo Mebuki’s heart and drag out what it was she really wanted to do!!