Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume6 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 1===

Kamijou threw open the stainless-steel back entrance.

The winter sky was still blue since it was 3 or maybe a bit later. Soaking themselves in the hot spa had been a bad idea even if it had been part of a plan. He thought the north wind was going to freeze him solid.

“Damn!!”

He didn’t have time to worry about that.

Transcendent Aradia would be back soon. Kamijou and the Bologna Succubus alone could not protect that large shopping mall with so many entrances. Aradia already knew they were in the Miyashita Ark, so staying there would be like asking her to launch a surprise attack and kill them.

He lent the Bologna Succubus his shoulder and half-shouted his questions. But not because he was overexcited. He was afraid she wouldn’t hear him otherwise.

That was how weak she was.

But she still wrapped him up in her light pink wings like a cloak. She wanted to give him as much of her remaining body heat as she could.

“What do we do now!? We need somewhere to hide if I’m going to treat your wound!!”

“Hee hee.”

“What is it now, Bologna Succubus?”

“I’m just thinking how glad I am I risked my life to save you. Here, I’ll reward you with a nice tight hug☆”

“T-take this seriously!”

She pouted her lips at that.

“Goodness gracious. So you want my request? Then I say a sauna or a capsule hotel would be safest. A sand bath or an enzyme bath would do if you want to have more fun with it.”

“What is it with you and baths?”

“Fine, would you prefer a love hotel or soapland? At a massage parlor, you can put on paper underwear and get a mystery gel rubbed all over your back. Do they have showers you can use there?”

“What is it with you and…that stuff!?”

Kamijou was blushing now and the Bologna Succubus giggled weakly. She could barely stand up straight, but she was amused by his reactions.

“First, I’m interested in Japan’s strange bath culture. And second, an indoor facility with lots of small rooms separated out like honeycombs suits our needs best. Karaoke boxes and manga cafés don’t give you must privacy as a deterrent against crime, so we have to look at the more ''adult'' destinations instead.”

So was the lowest hurdle among them the capsule hotel?

Kamijou checked his map app with his empty hand.

“Damn, I’m getting more and more poisoned by the smartphone culture. I get worried whenever I can’t look something up on here first.”

They made their way to the map icon closest to the Miyashita Ark.

The place was deserted.

Had everyone left with all those creepy faces appearing? Or was the place made so you could check in without interacting with a real person? Either way, no one stopped them as they walked right through the front desk area. Kamijou’s clothes were still soaked, so he appreciated the warmth of the heater. It was enough to make him teary-eyed.

“What the hell is this?”

Something like coin lockers for giants lined the walls. The doors were 1m squares of translucent frosted glass, but that was it. Each box was a room just big enough for someone to get some sleep inside. It reminded him of a sterile spaceship in an SF movie or maybe an extremely efficient prison.

He wasn’t sure he could carry the weak Bologna Succubus to a higher level and he didn’t need to anyway. He pushed her into a box on the bottom level and had her lie on her back.

He was chilled to the bone, but treating her was more urgent than heating himself.

He leaned into the same space and immediately detected a sweet scent. He hadn’t noticed it before, but it probably came from her hair.

“So I want to treat your wound, but ''where were you hit''? No covering up with your hands! Or your wings! Just let me see. Actually, are a succubus’s organs even in all the same places as human ones?”

“Oh, you licentious lad. Are you that eager to get into my underwear?☆”

“I’m going to assume these jokes mean it’s not that serious. Do you want those to be your last words!?”

“But how else do you plan to see underneath this?”

He froze. She must have liked the attention because she slapped his cheek with her pink tail.

That light pink lingerie was the only thing she wore and it was a one-piece corset that covered her from top to bottom like a bunny girl. When Aradia had kicked her back in the hot spa, it had been in the stomach, but that was the hardest spot to check with that outfit. The waist was fitted pretty tightly. In fact, it had to be the tightest part of the entire thing. Q: You want to see a bunny girl’s navel without having to see her boobs or butt in the process. How do you accomplish this? A: ………Why wasn’t there an answer!?

This was first aid. It was a necessary medical procedure!

Kamijou kept trying to convince himself of that in front of the defenseless young woman, but he couldn’t seem make himself actually do anything.

“Oh, no. I don’t think there’s any other option. But how do you even take one of these off?”

“Sorry, boy. I can’t help it I’m such a natural virgin killer, so try to be patient with me.”

“Why am I taking such massive psychological damage when I’m only trying to selflessly help someone!? It’s like my heart is a hunk of ice being chipped away with an icepick!!”

He got carried away and bumped his head into the low ceiling.

He was left to sob with his hands over his face, so the Bologna Succubus put her hands on her hips while still lying on her back. But she didn’t seem angry with the pathetic boy who couldn’t just enjoy the situation he found himself in. Instead, he heard a strange ''ziiiip'' sound from either side of her hips. She was undoing the zippers there.

She used her wings to push her back up from the bed.

“There we go.”

“Ahhh!?”

She pulled the thin material down to her navel and rolled it up there. It was a lot like someone pulling off their school swimsuit’s shoulder straps and half removing the swimsuit.

“Hee hee. I appreciate the mighty big reaction, boy. It’s a real confidence booster.”

Being a succubus, she didn’t seem to mind at all. She even placed her hands behind her head. The two big things jiggled on top of her chest and Kamijou blushed so bright he thought his face was going to explode. It was super awkward because she made no effort to cover up and even grinned up at him. He wanted to politely look away from that part of her that now had only her hair to cover it, but that wasn’t an option. She was injured and needed treatment.

“I would recommend getting this over with quickly. Aradia is working to recover as well. If we can recover faster, than we have a chance to send an attack her way. Every second wasted reduces our odds of survival.”

“You’re certain Aradia will come back for us?”

“Unquestionably.”

He couldn’t send the Bologna Succubus back into such a deadly fight while still injured. He needed to at least provide first aid to stabilize her condition. He looked back down at her body and noticed a purplish discoloration above her navel. A large one too. About the size of a child’s fist.

“Yikes.”

“Hell’s bells. That kind of reaction is a lot scarier than any kind of scientific threat, you know?”

“But what do I do about this? I-is this internal bleeding? Since I don’t see an open wound here, I don’t think disinfectant or a bandage will help. Applying a compress seems like the only thing I can do.”

“That should be enough. It’s only a bruise, albeit a severe one. It is internal bleeding and I know it looks bad, but it doesn’t look like a major artery or organ was affected.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“If the internal bleeding was that serious, I would have passed out from blood loss as soon as I loosened the waist constriction. This is very tight to protect the dreams of boys like you.”

The simple store in the hotel sold most basic medical equipment.

Kamijou soon returned with a variety of options.

“Is a warm compress or a cold one best for this?”

“A nice, cool one. You wouldn’t heat up a lump on your head, would you?”

He just took her word for it and peeled off the compress’s clear film like he was unwrapping the single-slice cheese used for toast.

Then he faced her again.

“Okay, I’m going to apply it.”

“Hee hee☆ Have at it, boy. I’m ready for- bdflkbhldfh!?”

“Yikes!! Bologna!”

“Krlrlrl- ah ha ha. That was chillier than I expected and I have very sensitive skin. You did nothing wrong, so keep going.”

Was that just her common tones breaking down?

He thought something had exploded inside her.

“This compress really smells.”

“Aromas are more noticeable in a small space like this.”

The Bologna Succubus reached out a hand while lying on that minimal bed. It made her look like a good-looking but lazy young woman reaching for some snacks. He wished she would cover up those large things with her hands since her hair was doing a very poor job of it. Or she could use her pink wings or tail. She had plenty of options!!

The topless Western woman (!?) remained oblivious to that wish.

“Do you have any painkillers?”

“I brought over everything they had, but don’t ask me what any of it is. Oh, this says it’s a cold medicine. And this is a sleeping pill?”

“My, oh, my. What is some loxoprofen doing here? Don’t you normally need a prescription for that? But I want a little more than that. Ooh, an anticonvulsive. Since it isn’t from my flesh or bones, I’m guessing this pain is related to my smooth muscle, so I’ll be taking that☆”

“Wait, um, taking it? But I just carried this over for you to see! You can pay for it yourself, I hope!?”

Kamijou didn’t know much about painkillers (despite having been in and out of the hospital more than the stereotypical sickly girl), but if she was happy with it, he wasn’t going to argue. In fact, he was a little surprised that ordinary drugs even worked on her.

“I think that’s all you can do for me. Oh, but this drug is supposed to be taken with food, so I should eat something. Hmm, I’ll probably heal faster if I eat this takoyaki, tenkasu, and mayo sandwich they’re offering.”

“Why would you go for a mass of grease and carbs that even a high school boy like me would shy away from?”

The demoness really did buy the mystery sandwich. She turned out to be the type who eats triangular foods by holding the bottom two corners in her hands while she nibbled at the top corner. That was weirdly cute. Maybe her younger habits never faded since demons(?) didn’t age. Whatever the case, Kamijou thought his heart was going to stop from the combination of the childish mannerisms and her large and topless chest.

She again demonstrated her opposition to littering by balling up the sandwich wrapper for easy disposal later.

“Mmm. That was good. And a full stomach makes me sleepy.”

She stretched her arms up while sitting up on her knees now. She was once more leaving herself with nothing but her hair to cover up and the ceiling was so low her palms ended up pressed against it, but she looked happy enough. Had that greasy sandwich really healed her? Surely not. The more he learned about Transcendent physiology, the more confused he got.

“Now we need to get our clothes dry. Oi, quit leaving the capsule every chance you get, boy. Climb back in here with me.”

“Why should I?”

“Because the capsules let you set their temperature and humidity. If I lower the humidity as far as it goes and crank up the heat, it should function like a dryer.”

“Are the SDGs just a joke to you!?”

But it was true he was going to freeze to death as things were, so he had no choice but to crawl into the cramped space with her.

He made sure to apologize to the god in heaven before succumbing to the demon’s temptation.

“What is this sweet scent? The compress didn’t smell like this, so is there something in the air conditioning filter?”

“Buzz. Wrong. That would be my cleavage. The bare skin may give off more milky pheromones than the half-dried underwear.”

“…”

“Sorry for being a virgin killer in more than just the visual way, boy.”

''Does she have to keep bringing that up!?'' Kamijou did his best not to look at the winking young woman a mere 50cm away from him. She must have enjoyed teasing him because she was in a very good mood and even cackled while switching to a cross-legged position.

But what were they supposed to do now?

He was honestly unsure how healed she was, but she had been hit pretty badly. And Aradia had apparently received a weird boost to her power brought on by desperation. Kamijou couldn’t instantly power himself up and it would be heartless to throw the Bologna Succubus into the line of fire every time he sensed danger.

He could only think of one option.

“Let’s meet up with Index and the others,” he whispered.

“You mean the grimoire library?”

“And Othinus too. They might give us the clue we need. You keep talking about the Bridge Builders Cabal and Transcendents, so I think it would be best to see what some magic experts have to say.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” said the Bologna Succubus while belatedly putting those big things back in the chest of her underwear and adjusting their position a little. Kamijou blushed, but he was more fascinated with the discovery of how a bunny girl costume was actually put on.

“However, that is easier said than done. How exactly do you plan on doing it? I doubt you would run into them if you just ran around the large open world of Shibuya.”

“So would it be best to send them some kind of sign that we’re in this capsule hotel?”

“What if Aradia sees it? Then the inevitable battle would begin before we had time to prepare.”

“Th-then it just has to be a subtle sign that only Index would notice.”

“A quiet whisper will never reach every corner of Shibuya.”

She shot down his every idea. Unfortunately, she was right.

A noticeable sign would be noticed by Aradia, but a subtle one wouldn’t reach Index. He wracked his brains for a solution until…

“Oh.”

“Hm? Wh-what now, boy?”

“I’ve found the answer. There really is a way of sending an obvious sign to Index no matter where she is in Shibuya while that transcendent magician Aradia remains none the wiser!!”

“Th-there is!? O-out with it then! Gulp.”

He raised his trembling head and gave her the deadly serious look of someone revealing an apocalyptic prophecy.

“I can message her phone.”

“You had a mobile this entire time!?”

The sexy demon rapped her knuckles against the top of his head.

He pulled out his phone to find a flood of messages from Kumokawa-senpai.