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

===Part 18===

'''(the_moon)

“It’s not possible …”

The white coat girl produced a low voice that seemed to carry a curse.

And it soon grew to a cracked yell.

“That convenient option just doesn’t exist!! Unfreezing someone in cold sleep isn’t the same as taking an ice cube from an icemaker and placing it in room temperature. I can’t think of any way of removing her from the ice without damaging her body tissue!!”

“Is that really true, though?” Mikoto replied in a challenging way. “Not possible, not possible, doesn’t exist. You keep saying that about the issue as a whole, but that leaves me in the dark about the number and variety of hurdles in the way. What isn’t possible? What doesn’t exist? Can’t you start by explaining that?”

“You wouldn’t understand if I did…”

“Are you afraid I’ll prove you wrong?”

“You can’t just use a stove or hairdryer to blow hot air on the ice! Heat transfers differently through bone, muscle, fat, and organs.”

“And you call yourself an expert? I’ve already found an answer to that one. Do you want an amateur to prove you wrong!?”

“Yes, yes. There are machines that can emit far infrared beams in a grid to get the heat where it needs to be. For example, the downsized anti-sleep weapons used to detect suspicious people at metal detector gates. One of those could be adjusted to the precise structure of an individual’s body to apply heat like filling in a coloring book with pixels. But we have no diagram. There’s nothing we can do without a diagram of her body – of Asajimo Saemi’s body!!”

“Those grid-style toys would speed things up. But what about an actual heavy-duty version? Do you have one in this lab?”

“Are you stupid? That doesn’t solve anything! How am I supposed to scan my sister’s body through that thick ice!? A CT? An MRI? There’s no way to map her body either way. There’s nothing we can do without the diagram compiled from the cross-section photos!!”

In other words, that was the first hurdle.

The victim girl was trapped in thick ice and her flesh and blood had been transformed like sherbet, so normal medical techniques and scans were useless. It would be like having to do surgery in the dark. And the more precious a life it was, the less lightly she could make that decision.

However.

Mikoto thought of her information like a hand of cards. Was there really no way of acquiring that diagram? It would be quite a feat, but there was still a chance.

“Just to be clear, you could acquire the diagram itself if you used normal hospital equipment like a CT or MRI, right? And as long as you had that, you would take on this great challenge even if it means betting your future on it?”

“Again!! Those won’t work on her when she’s trapped in that thick ice…!!”

“I’m not talking about scanning Asajimo Saemi.”

Mikoto rudely pointed.

Yes, at the white coat girl, the 14-year-old university professor named Asajimo Mebuki.

“''You would be the one taking the scan.'' I mean, you’re identical twins, so you’re identical on the genetic level, right? In fact, your fingerprints and irises match as well, so you two match even more closely than normal identical twins. It was enough to confuse me when I first met you. So a map created by scanning Asajimo Mebuki’s body should be usable for frozen Asajimo Saemi.”

“…”

A short silence followed.

But the white coat girl shook her head.

“I won’t let you trick me! I won’t fall for this anymore! Even if we have the diagram and can follow the appropriate formula to melt the ice with a grid of IR beams, it still isn’t over. What about the large wound carved into her back!? If we unfreeze her like normal, she’ll start bleeding and she’ll die. Frozen or unfrozen, there is no saving her. So no one can touch her!!”

If the girl was not unfrozen before the limit, she would die.

If the girl was unfrozen before the limit, she would die.

That double standard was the next hurdle. …But was that really, really true?

“…The catalyst used for her cold sleep was saline-based, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“The closer a substance matches the human body, the more convenient it is for that. That’s why the catalyst research started with saline but now primarily uses an artificial preservative based on egg whites.”

“What about it!?”

“You’re afraid of the blood loss because the rapid drop in blood pressure would cause shock, right? To put it another way, she could overcome that immediate threat as long as she did not go into shock no matter how much blood she loses.” Mikoto breathed a gentle sigh. “If someone is inside a liquid that matches the osmotic pressure, then their flesh, blood, and internal organs can float around just fine even without the skin to protect them. It’s probably easiest to think of it like a strange culture solution or like the egg white that protects the chick. And the cold sleep preservative was made from saline with a concentration of 0.9%. Do you still not get it? It might be hard to picture since it’s frozen solid and shaped in a rectangle, but your sister has been trapped in a large egg from the beginning.”

“You don’t mean…”

“You just have to submerge the ice coffin in a large pool of saline with a 0.9% concentration and then melt it with the kind of far infrared beam grid used in the metal detector gates. If necessary, you can add some impurities to make it even more like an artificial egg white designed for human use. It can’t be too thick or too thin. If it’s adjusted to precisely the osmotic pressure of human cells, there won’t be a huge difference in blood pressure and she won’t die from shock. After the ice has melted in the pool and her skin has softened up, you can sew up the wound to stop the bleeding. You can save Asajimo Saemi!!”

The barriers had been shattered.

The hurdles had been kicked over.

Was there anything more? Was there any other reason why Asajimo Mebuki would have to bite her lip and give up on her blood-related sister!? Was there any logic leftover that forced them to remain under Loophole’s control!?

“It isn’t possible…”

Her voice was trembling.

But this was somehow different from before. There was more than just fear there. It was because this was for someone she cared for that she could not easily broach the topic. She began discussing the realistic hurdle that remained.

“Even the metal detector gates require an industrial power source. Do you have any idea how much power it would take to supply the grill-level heat needed to precisely and stably melt that thick ice!? It just isn’t possible unless you have exclusive access to the diesel engine of a battleship or something!!”

“In other words, you just need enough electricity to power a battleship railgun?”

The white coat girl’s entire body shook.

This should have been an impossible request.

But those two girls stood in very different positions.

Misaka Mikoto had the girl’s word, so she pointed a thumb back at her own chest.

“Then I’ll take care of it. As the Railgun, Academy City’s #3 and the strongest Electromaster.”

“Then…”

She sounded dazed.

The white coat girl moved her trembling lips like she stood in the middle of a wasteland.

“…Then we really can save her?”

It was time for the conclusion.

At this point, the answer was obvious.

There was only one truth here – just one thing that Asajimo Mebuki really wanted to do. So what were the words that would help push her in that direction? It was time to speak the words that girl truly wanted to hear as she held herself back while crushed between the ideal decision and the practical risks!!

“You can save her. No, ''only'' you can save her!!!!!”