Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume3 Chapter3 (section)

===Between the Lines 3===

“What kind of person do you think makes the most frightening leader?” Anna spoke as gently as ever through the chilly metal bars. “Someone who is simply incompetent? An unabashed bigot? Personally, I would say it is someone who lets a machine do all the work without ever thinking for themselves.”

Her talk was cut short by a door loudly opening and shutting.

A large man walked in with shoulders trembling in anger. He was too large. You might suspect he was wearing bulletproof armor below his fancy suit, but that was really how he was built.

He had the shape of a round barrel and his black facial hair had some gray peppered in. His name was Valart Signal and he did not seem interested in the R&C Occultics CEO.

He walked right past her cell to the neighboring one.

In other words, to New Board Chairman Accelerator.

He held a VIP position shared only by eleven others in Academy City, so if he was alone, he must not have wanted anyone else to hear this. Or maybe he was smart enough to know it was meaningless to bring any bodyguards with him here.

“What are you thinking, rookie?”

“My, my. I really don’t think he’s the type you can provoke like that. I’ve been whispering to him all night, but—”

“Shut up.”

Was Valart aware what was causing that dull straining sound?

That legendary person truly detested people who cut her off without even trying to comprehend her words.

Fools could sometimes do brave things.

Valart was oblivious to his position here and he did not even glance in Anna’s direction.

“Handcuffs? That operation of yours has clearly failed. I’m not about to defend the dark side, but you went about this the wrong way. The light and the dark are both in tatters now. Do you have any idea how much work it will take to restore a bare minimum of law enforcement capability? …How will you make up for this loss? The entire city loses all purpose if no one can perform research here. And whatever your precious feelings might be, the dark side played an important role in developing your powers. If we economically isolate ourselves, we will only be strangling ourselves with a lack of resources!!”

He received no response for a while.

But instead of not knowing how to respond, this was the unpleasant silence of someone unsure if they should respond at all.

Valart was too pissed to stay quiet.

“You son of a—”

“You say you aren’t about to defend the dark side.”

But Accelerator cut him off like he had been waiting to do so.

When she saw the taken aback look on Valart’s face, Anna Sprengel cackled while leaning against the bars. She was ''well acquainted'' with that boy’s unpleasantness.

The head of the city ignored it all and continued speaking.

“Is that because you’re confident no one will ever find anything linking you back to the dark side?”

“…”

“Yes, Board of Directors. I made sure to figure out who would be my enemy and who would be my ally when I moved to crush the dark side.”

Accelerator was not looking for an answer. Because he already had one.

“Of course, the obvious answer is that ''every last one of you is my enemy.'' Pretty much everyone with significant political power is involved in the dark side to some extent. I’m sure you were all nervously gathering information from official and less-than-official sources to see how far I would reach—to see if I would reach you. And I was curious to see who would take the bait first.”

He was not driven by disappointment or panic.

The Board Chairman saw identifying his enemy as a hopeful thing. It was like seeing the light leading out of the darkness. That was how happy it made him to see the enemy he had to defeat. Because the #1 had long been in such deep darkness that he could not even see that.

“Like I said, you are all my enemy. But that doesn’t mean I can’t use you to my advantage. You’re like the drainplug. If I pull out someone with a lot of negative influence, all the stagnant water will start to flow in the same direction. Because no one else will want to meet the same fate.”

The dark side came in many forms.

It was a tangle of various factors creating very colorful shadows. The pieces forming it could be a strange chemical, a never-before-seen machine, mass-produced specimens, morally-bankrupt theories, or a large simulator.

But among all that, one field was the most influential of all.

“I thought this city had an abnormal amount of strange buildings and underground facilities,” spat out Accelerator. “Valart Signal, you’re the bastard on the Board who controls the field of construction. So you must have known from the beginning. You’re the one in charge of digging all the holes and pouring in all the concrete needed to provide the Kiharas and whoever else with their secret bases. Right?”

And how much had this man been reaping the profits?

That explained why he knew so much about so many different fields of research. He might not be involved in the research itself, but he could check through all the blueprints to make a good guess what each facility was for.

He would also know where all the secret bases were located.

He knew more about the city’s ''buried treasure'' than the newly-appointed Board Chairman.

“Tell me. Will ''Academy City’s Greatest Taboo'' keep you alive? If you think your secret is that powerful, then why don’t you head there right now?”

“I have worked myself to the bone to build a world of science.”

Valart did not attempt any secret plotting here.

He directly challenged the boy instead.

“Yes, it’s true. My own personal interests played a role. The entirely baseless concept of the occult can unfairly bring down the value of the real estate I manage. …Like a haunted room, for example. Some kids started talking about it online for fun and, next thing I know, we were close to bankruptcy. My entire family attempted suicide once. But I crawled back up and made it all the way here. Because I have to make my family happy no matter what.”

“…”

“So I will crush all those vaguely defined things. I will give out any amount of money to do so, even to dangerous people if need be. Like ''that family'', even if one of them is researching something as ridiculous as creating an artificial ghost.”

Everyone had their reasons.

The only difference in opinion between these two leaders was about whether the dark side was a tool to reach their goal or a hindrance that prevented it.

Neither one was going to call themselves righteous.

They never could have climbed this high if they were worried about that label.

“But not even I understand this one. Sometimes you end up learning about something because you want to reject it. ''Academy City’s Greatest Taboo''—Vanishing—is the one thing I cannot explain with the rules I know.” The bearded man shook his head and then glared at his inept leader again. Glared strongly. “You have pushed the dark side too far. Before, it looked like they wanted to remain within the category of science, but that has changed.”

“Don’t forget R&C Occultics☆”

Anna giggled, but Valart did not seem to know what she meant.

“I do not know what will happen this time. If any of them reach ''Academy City’s Greatest Taboo'', I doubt the city will escape intact.”

“So what?” immediately replied Accelerator.

Now, did Valart really understand what he meant by that?

“Weren’t you listening? I ''will'' crush the dark side. Who ever said anything about the city being intact afterwards?”

It took him a while.

But the Board member finally realized he had been looking at this out of focus. Once he fixed that, the wrinkles of his brow grew deeper. He had discovered something he would prefer not to know. He may have looked more displeased than if he had seen a real ghost.

“Don’t tell me…”

When that embodiment of political power looked through those frigid metal bars, he clearly saw something else leaning against the white-haired red-eyed monster as if supporting him from behind. He saw a demon girl who looked like a cross between a bat and a marine creature and who wore a dress made by patching together English newspapers.

Her thick tail wriggled.

This was a line no one in a city of science was meant to cross. And that rule had been broken by none other than the Board Chairman at the very top.

Yes, what kind of person ''did'' make the most frightening leader?

“Were you…''were you never even planning for Academy City to survive''!?”

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