Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4 (section)

===Part 19===

She kept vanishing into thin air.

When repeatedly teleporting around, Shirai Kuroko could make use of most anything. For example, a leaf floating in the air or a slight bump on a building wall could make a reliable foothold for her.

Nevertheless, she was forced to fight a defensive battle.

Yes. Teleportation did not provide a direct defense. When worried about an enemy attack, she had to focus on hopping every which way to dodge that attack.

And in this case…

“Explosions!?”

“F-feel free to interpret it that way.”

A gloomy girl in a chef’s uniform accurately targeted her from a distance. She muttered quietly while throwing invisible shockwaves Shirai’s way. The instant after Shirai vanished, one tore into the very space she had vacated, leaving a crater in the building wall behind.

Invisible attacks were a pain to deal with.

If the first one hadn’t crushed a leaf in the wind on its way to her, it might have killed her.

There were plenty of wind espers like Kongou Mitsuko, but this one seemed different. She made some casual movements meant to hide how she was rubbing something in her hand.

That would produce friction, so her power likely started with heating something.

“So it is just explosions.”

“I-it is not!! There are plenty of other possibilities!”

She must have wanted to keep her power a secret, but attempting to camouflage after your opponent had already grown suspicious was a waste of time.

Shirai Kuroko didn’t quite understand since the identity of her power was plainly obvious whenever she used it, but there were people who preferred to keep the identity of their power a secret.

“Do you control flammable gasses or aerosols? No, any material produces some traces of flammable gas when burned, so do you amplify that? I’m guessing this is a highly convenient and dangerous explosion power that lets you trigger a large explosion from the burning of any object you want.”

“N-no, no, definitely not!!”

An explosion was technically an expansion of gas using the process of combustion. The substances commonly known as explosives simply accelerated that process so much that objects were pushed away quickly enough to cause damage.

Burning anything, even paper or wood, would produce some trace amounts of flammable gas.

What if someone could accelerate that speed 100 times, 1000 times, or even more?

“How are you so perceptive!? You aren’t cheating and looking me up in the Bank, are you!?”

“Oh, that’s a great idea. You aren’t even wearing a mask, so I can use my Judgment authority to look you up.”

“Oh, god!! No, no, noooooo!!!” she screamed, tearfully.

That move was apparently considered taboo in these supernatural battles of mutual deception. Shirai doubted any investigative agency or law enforcement organization would waste its time playing along with the criminals’ riddles, though.

But no matter how stupid this girl was, her power was very real.

“Gah!?”

“F-feeling faint?”

The attacks were invisible.

But that wasn’t what mattered.

An attack had definitely hit Shirai Kuroko.

“Using a pressure cooker affects the flavor of the food. A high enough pressure allows the seasonings to permeate the meat while ignoring the osmotic pressure. Heh…heh. If I use an explosive blast providing pressure of about 1000 atmospheres to launch a mist of ''vinegar'' in a fan shape, I can ignore your skin’s defenses and directly inject it into your bloodstream.”

“Vin-?”

“Vinegar. In other words CH<sub>3</sub>COOH at a concentration of 3%. Oh, and your entire body is going to experience hellish pain in a few more seconds. But I was actually showing you some mercy by not using alcohol.”

She must have been confident Shirai could not move any more.

The chef swung her hand horizontally. The scenery grew distorted there. It was invisible, but she had likely concentrated a shockwave into a 2m kitchen knife.

She had the power to slice an elephant in two if she wanted.

“To be honest, I never cared about any of this good or evil nonsense. But the freedom to ignore all the rules did appeal to me. I never did manage to track down one legend spoken of in this city.”

“…?”

“I know shouldn’t be saying this. I know it’s wrong.”

The chef girl grinned while holding a giant knife formed by sharpening a shockwave created from an explosion’s flammable gas.

“''Just once, I wanted to try cooking up a human.''”



Attorney Tougyo Kea and #5 Shokuhou Misaki calmly confronted each other.

Neither of them moved.

A stillness surrounded them.

But that didn’t mean nothing was happening.

“Sense Striker,” whispered Tougyo Kea, smiling thinly. “This power is meant to give my empress a relaxing time with no trivialities to distract her, but it can also be used to attack.”

“…”

“I do not need bright lights or loud noises to take out people’s senses. Just like you can sense the pressure of a stranger standing directly behind you on the elevator late at night, people’s senses are surprisingly vague. At times, they can shove aside the commonly defined five senses to influence the mind. Like how a hand held in the snow for too long will feel warm or how the larger of two objects of the same weight will feel lighter. Anything like that will work. I can create the ''physical'' illusions that lead people to reject their ordinary senses of sight and hearing.”

Shokuhou Misaki did not respond.

She remained entirely motionless.

“Your power controls the mind.”

It was clear she was not responding. 

“But you must indicate a target with a remote each time you use it. Your power is reliant on your ordinary five senses, so you aren’t a threat if I keep your body from moving.”

“…”

“And once your power is taken from you, you are well below average. I can kill you at my leisure.”

Just as she said that, a small flame appeared on the back of her hand.

“?”

She reflexively shook her hand to the side before it hit her.

What was that?

Could Shokuhou Misaki’s power light a physical flame?

When she took a look around, she realized her surroundings were engulfed in flames. The two of them were surrounded.

That was enough to clue her in.

In front of her, the girl who supposedly had her senses fooled was smiling thinly.

“It’s an illusion.”

She felt pain like being pricked by countless needles.

The burning sensation on her skin was so realistic.

“Whatever you might do to me, it’s no more than an illusion!! Your phantasms don’t scare me!!!”

''I am fine,'' Tougyo Kea told herself.

She only had to avoid shock brought on by fear.

Whatever harm she might come to in this illusion could not affect the physical world.

“True,” readily admitted her opponent. “This is simply an illusion☆ None of it is actually happening.”

Shokuhou Misaki’s bottom half turned into a snake.

No, it was covered by scales, but they were fish scales.

The attorney’s eyes widened as Shokuhou’s scaley legs split into 12 and flames wrapped around each one. The collision of fine soot sent thick jolts of electricity through the flames.

The beautiful monster grew to overwhelming size and looked down upon her.

She put her hands behind her head to show off her body, stuck out her tongue a little, and winked.

The attorney could only look up and sweat.

“But can you ever escape this imaginary labyrinth?”



Another of the four servants, the maid named Renka Ephilty, took aim at Shokuhou Misaki.

That was Academy City’s #5, so defeating her in a direct confrontation would be difficult.

But who said anything about fighting 1-on-1?

The maid didn’t know how much longer the attorney would last, but she had done enough by getting Mental Out to focus on her alone. After all, this was the #5. Her psychological power was most effective in group battles, so having that power used for a 1-on-1 battle was the perfect opportunity. Now all the maid had to do was blow a hole in the side of Shokuhou Misaki’s head while she stood there locked in an imaginary battle with the attorney.

Renka Ephilty could do that.

She crouched down and took another step.

That was enough to tear apart the air and launch the maid forward like an arrow. She glided less than a meter off the ground. The researchers had described her power as ground effect wings, but she imagined herself as a flying fish.

Her power was called Fly Racing.

That Level 3 power let her create giant wings by controlling hard plastics like the extensions in her hair and the wires keeping the shape of her maid uniform.

She knew a Level 3 was no match for a Level 5, but her lack of skill didn’t matter to her in the slightest.

It was that very lack that had taught her to be straightforward to a fault.

She never tried to accomplish three steps at once. She would complete one step at a time.

It was extremely inefficient and caused her lots of problems, but if she could pull it off faster than anyone else, then it was her greatest shortcut. Even if she made mistakes due to her lack of skill, they didn’t truly count as mistakes if she could make up for them before anyone else could take advantage of them.

(My max gliding speed is 1100km/h. My weight is 52kg, so if I sacrifice one of my arms, I can do more than blast a hole in the #5’s head; I can tear it clean off!!)

“My, my. It isn’t that you move in slow motion – you just live an awkward life, don’t you?”

“!?”

Out of nowhere, a voice whispered from the side.

In fact, a girl was keeping up with her. The Tokiwadai student with the face of a super slow motion curse was moving at the same speed as her!?

“My power is Micro Dying. My, my. All it can do is kill mold, germs, bacteria, and any other microbe at a touch.”

Renka didn’t see how that power would let her move at subsonic speed.

But it did.

“Did you know? Some molds, spores, and other microbes that dislike drying out and exposure to oxygen will create a slime to protect themselves. My, my. I only need to choose which microbes to leave alive and I can slide along the ground or the wall like I am skating. I just apply my power to the soles of my shoes or to the surface below me.”

“…”

Renka was soaked with sweat.

This girl’s power didn’t just slaughter all microbes. She could pick and choose which ones to kill.

If she wanted to, she could create a biological weapon or a vaccine against it.

She was unbeatable.

Battling that monster of a girl was the beginning of a devastating defeat.

But Shokuhou Misaki was right there. So even if Renka couldn’t win as an individual, she could still send herself slamming into that defenseless girl at top speed.

“Reach her.”

She could do this for her empress. She could still use her unskilled life to kill that genius leader.

That would be enough.

“I don’t care!! Because I still win. I just have to reach herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

“No, I don’t think so.”

The other girl gently reached out.

It didn’t matter if the distance was a kilometer, a meter, a centimeter, or a millimeter.

If Renka didn’t reach Shokuhou, then her attempt was over.

“You set foot within my arm’s reach. My, my. And in that range, I control all living things protected by microbes.”

“…!!”

Didn’t you know?

Yugure Kanaria’s power had scary potential, she was afflicted with a super slow motion curse, she was a stickler for keeping promises, and she had approached the truth of this incident as part of the newspaper club.

But in addition to all of that, Misaka Mikoto of all people had said she had a ''strong'' sense of justice.

“And I will not let a life under my control be wasted.”



The maid spun out and crashed into the hedge shrubbery dividing the street from the sidewalk. But that wasn’t all. She was tangled up in something like a spiderweb. It was probably a harmless form of slime mold. Because without that, her speed would have shredded her flesh and shattered her bones.

Shokuhou Misaki remained unharmed.

But the accountant named Sanki Ai’s calculations said that was acceptable.

(Pretend you have been defeated. No, you don’t have to pretend. Actually being close to death works as well.)

She must not fear the possibility of loss.

Loss was not a problem if it led to even greater profit.

What mattered was whether the final account came out in the black or in the red.

(Plus Equipment.)

Sanki Ai’s power was a telekinesis that formed a fine fabric that fit so perfectly skintight it reached every pore. It was stronger than velcro. It attached the skin more easily and it took in more air than tying on a normal cloth, so it was far more effective at stopping bleeding than a bandage. She could also switch off her power at will, so removing it was no trouble.

It didn’t help with broken bones, but even if she didn’t, strictly speaking, heal them, she could still get someone fighting again as long as they had a way of forcing their body to move again.

That let her disguise how many on her side were still capable of fighting. That was her most effective strategy.

(The people the enemy thinks are already defeated are my greatest trump card. If I hide and secretly bring our side back into the fight, we can attack from the enemy’s blind spot just when they think they have won and let their guard down. That makes a counterattack perfectly possible!!)

Just then, she found something standing in her way. It was a small girl of only 12 glaring at the accountant. Maybe it was the extreme tension or excitement brought on by her anger, but her little nose was dripping blood even though no one had hit her.

She spoke in an oddly low voice for her small shape.

“Why does everyone keep doing this?”

She wiped up some of the red with her thumb.

A change came over it.

The world quickly filled with grotesqueries.

A single drop of blood was said to contain between five and ten thousand white blood cells. All of those now grew to a size of 2m.

And white blood cells were an extremely ferocious component of blood that consumed and eliminated any foreign bodies in the blood.

Macro Dying revealed its true power here.

“Stop being mean to my sisterrrrrrrrrr!!!”



The sea of white blood cells attacked Shirai Kuroko and the chef as well.

The chef still held the 2m knife created by concentrating the invisible shockwave formed from the flammable gas she amplified with Material Flare.

“What the-!?”

“Do you really have time for distractions?”

With that icy question, several metal darts stabbed into the chef’s body.

Red blood splattered from her.

True disbelief filled her eyes this time. Her expression said she was viewing something even more revolting than the giant white blood cells.

Shirai Kuroko had completed her calculations without delay.

But how?

Vinegar had been injected into her bloodstream. She should have been suffering from enough pain to kill her from shock unless she underwent dialysis!!

“My power is Teleportation,” murmured Shirai. “I can transport myself or anything I touch while ignoring the restrictions of three-dimensional space.”

“Gah…you mean you teleported the vinegar from your blood?” The chef immediately rejected the idea. “You couldn’t have. You aren’t powerful enough to be immune to all biological and chemical weapons!! If you could do that, not even nuclear fallout could kill you!!”

“Very true.”

Shirai Kuroko tapped the back of her head and sighed.

No, wait.

What was that?

Did she have ''a metal dart stabbed into the back of her own head?

“But by applying pressure to the outside of my skull and triggering an evenly distributed headache, I can cut off all other pain. Of course, if my aim was off by just a few millimeters, I would end up with total paralysis instead.”

Was she crazy?

A headache from external skull pressure was the absolute worst kind of headache, rivaling a subarachnoid hemorrhage. That was not a normal way of pushing yourself. How could she go that far to keep herself focused on this battle!?

But that was where it ended.

With a pleasant “thud!!”, the chef dropped straight to the ground.

A dart had stabbed into the center of her forehead, but it was not meant to destroy her brain. By stabbing the dart almost but not quite to her skull, the vibration had knocked her unconscious.

That was just how accurately Shirai Kuroko could control her Teleportation.

With the four assassins defeated, no one remained to stop them.

Uiharu poked her head out of the food truck with her PDA in both hands.

“Everything’s set. I can release the data whenever you’re ready!!”

It all came down to that.

That was their one and only win condition.