Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 1===

“How long are we gonna be stuck here? I’m starving…” groaned Aogami Pierce.

He was in the District 10 crematorium.

They were quarantined inside.

There were some vending machines in the hallway, but about half the options on the bread machine had their red “sold out” lights lit. With the entire class there, a few dozen were forced to use the same vending machine, so it didn’t require the supplier to be falling behind on restocking the machine for it to be running out.

Every window and door was sealed from the outside with a thick bulletproof plastic. The only exit was gas-proof door protected by an air curtain, but it was guarded by a thick powered suit armed with a flamethrower. Whether it was powered suit’s doing or not, no one’s phones had a signal. The only smile was on Aogami Pierce’s Magical Powered Kanamin charm. The view out the windows was already dark. It was 8 PM. Aogami Pierce had been so busy with the funeral this morning that he feared he wouldn’t get a chance to claim the social network game rewards that had become a daily habit for him. He also hadn’t checked the video sites or online news. Falling behind the average person in information felt like being a step away from death for an otaku.

“And yet Kami-yan’s probably still walking around out there when he’s the one who caused all this. Then that woman who seemed in charge bit her tongue and was sent to the hospital and those middle-school-looking guests left too. What’s even the point of keeping us in here at this point?”

“Aside from that, something about this doesn’t feel right. They claim to be afraid of a microscopic infection or contaminant, but they haven’t brought in any kits for testing our blood or mucous membranes.”

Fukiyose Seiri tended to take the reasonable view and reject conspiratorial thinking, but for once she was pursuing it while choosing her words carefully.

Was there really an infection source here?

The crematorium staff and the part-time monk were starting to look skeptical as well. And if trust in Bio-Secure(?), the hosts in charge of the place, dropped, another thought would naturally begin to form.

They were up against a flamethrower-wielding group that kept their faces hidden. The group was highly organized, yet didn’t appear to be the official Anti-Skill.

…Was it really safe to go on obeying their instructions?

Then a sound came from outside the cloudy window.

It sounded like the rustling of a thicket being parted.

The powered suit stationed in front of the gas-proof door tilted its heads in a very human way and then contacted someone.

“B5a, you’re scheduled report is late. How long are you going to hang around out back? I can see your coordinates, so quit slacking off and respond.”

A short silence.

The mood changed.

“B5a? …A3b to C1d, B5a’s coordinates aren’t moving from around back. He’s even switched off his camera sharing, so what the hell is he up to? You’re outside, right? Just to be safe, I’m requesting a visual check.”

For some reason, Aogami Pierce looked to the window clouded by plastic, not the powered suit doing the talking.

He was curious.

What was that rustling sound he could hear coming from just outside?

Or maybe he had no real reason to expect anything and he was simply being guided by a curiosity about the unknown, a psychological tendency found even in ancient myths.

“H-hey? A3b to C1d, what’s wrong? Check in, all of you!”

There was nothing more than a sound like splitting wood. And not a thin piece of plywood either – this was the sound of a centuries-old tree being forcibly split down the center.

The powered suit guarding the gas-proof door contacted someone, shook his head, and then rushed outside.

Aogami Pierce looked puzzled.

“Huh? What’s he doing leaving his post? Could this be our chance to escape?”

“What if he returns right a-”

Fukiyose didn’t finish her sentence.

They heard some kind of rustling sound outside the cloudily translucent window…but nothing more than that.

The powered suit that had left the gas-proof door hadn’t returned.

“Around back of the crematorium would be…right out there, wouldn’t it?”

Because no else was talking, Fukiyose’s voice sounded awfully loud.

Then silence.

It was so uncomfortably quiet that Aogami Pierce’s gulp was audible.

“What is going on outside?”

The bulletproof plastic sprayed over the outside of the window left the view too cloudy to see well. Aogami Pierce slowly approached to try and get a view outside.



''Crash!!

A powered suit’s bucket-like head armor broke through the cloudy window.



“Eek!?”

Aogami Pierce tumbled backwards onto his rear.

No one laughed.

This wasn’t ordinary glass. Even after breaking, it didn’t shatter. The glass advertised as bulletproof stayed in one piece with cracks spiderwebbing across it. How much force had that slammed into the window with? After breaking through the plastic wall, the bucket-like head armor did not move. Aogami Pierce didn’t know exactly how a powered suit worked or was worn, but the head was at an unnatural height for standing or sitting. Wasn’t it painful to have just your head fixed in such an awkward position?

Or.

Was the wearer beyond the point of complaining about pain or fear?

Something was definitely happening.

What that was was less clear.

But while the details were a mystery, staying here would be a bad idea!!

“Th-there’s something out there… I saw ''some kinda giant legs moving around''! If we don’t do anything, will that thing get in through the window!?”

Fukiyose also took a few steps toward the window.

“I-it’s fine,” she said. “It’s fine. I mean, those Bio Secure(?) people sealed up all the exits with that special bulletproof plastic!”

A high-pitched and unpleasant cracking sound rang out.

Yes. Tons of cracks had spiderwebbed through one of those precious windows, destroying it.

What protection was that?

“Are you planning to hide in here forever?” asked Aogami Pierce. “What about food and water? All we’ve got is the bread vending machine in the hallway!”

The bread vending machine was already half covered in “sold out” lights and those special forces(?) protected head-to-toe with tough powered suits hadn’t fared too well themselves. No one could say for certain if the makeshift bulletproof nature of the plastic applied over glass could really prevent this attacker from getting in.

More than that, the trapped high schoolers could succumb to the mental pressure, panic, and suicidally scatter.

Tsukuyomi Komoe, who was responsible for all those students, breathed out through her nose. The 135cm teacher managed to speak even as she tearfully trembled.

“Th-th-th-there was a bus outside! We can take a look outside and, if there’s an opening, make a run for the bus out the main entrance!!”

“But who’s going to drive it!?”

“Believe it or not, I have a Class 2 large vehicle license, so I can handle a bus with ease!!”

The students were leaning heavily toward the “not” side, but complaining would only get them left behind in the crematorium filled with such a dangerous atmosphere. And no one in a 1st year high school class would know how to drive even an ordinary car. So like it or not, Tsukuyomi Komoe was their only hope.

They decided to call over the crematorium staff and the part-time monk too. They gathered their things and approached the gas-proof door that was inflated with air and felt like the goal at the end of a marathon. The problem was the space beyond the two-layer door.

Looking to the roundabout with a large roof to keep the rain off…there it was. The bus they had arrived on.

The 20-ish meters to it clutched at their hearts with fear.

But the group protected by thick powered suits had been taken out.

This had to be better than heading out and staying on foot.

However, there was still a fundamental question.

“So what was that about giant legs moving around?”

“I don’t know. That’s just what I saw through the distorted glass.”

They only saw darkness out front. That didn’t tell them much of anything.

But it had to be there.

“I-I found the key… Okay, everyone, are you ready? There is no turning back if you forget something. Ready, set…go!!”

On Komoe-sensei’s signal, they all ran out toward the bus.