Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume2 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 2===

“Ugh,” groaned Kamijou Touma.

It took him a second to remember where he was.

(Oh, right. I was thirsty, so I stepped out into the hall to get some water.)

He could not tell if he was in pain or not. He had lost all ability to judge his own pain.

He only had a general feeling of his entire body being swollen. He did not know what exactly that meant, but he knew there was something wrong with him.

He looked down at himself again. He was doubled over and leaning against the cold wall of the deserted hallway. He slowly tried to move away from the wall, but he could not manage it. He could not move, like the wall was sucking him in.

“You must be about at your limit.”

“Othi…nus?”

“''I told you this before, but you might not remember due to the constant pain.''”

A small form poked her head out of his pocket. It was the fifteen-centimeter god named Othinus. The girl with long, wavy blonde hair and an eyepatch climbed up to his shoulder.

“If this acute St. Germain really has been modified by the Rosicrucians as the legends say, then the technology here will have a very hard time fully healing you. After all, it is growing faster than Imagine Breaker can negate it. Human, if this continues, the microbes will infest ''your right hand'' as well. If you hope to escape death, you will need to speak with Anna Sprengel since she did this to you.”

“…”

Was that true?

Maybe it was.

But he had to ask about something else before continuing based on that assumption.

“You knew?”

“Knew what?”

“That I need Anna Sprengel to fix this. Did you tell anyone other than me that?”

Othinus let out a short sigh, but she did not hesitate to answer.

“Based on the commotion I’ve seen outside, Anna appears to be approaching this hospital. Now, I never told them myself, but Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki learned of Anna’s necessity on their own. I saw no reason to stop them, though.”

A dull sound followed.

Kamijou Touma’s hand squeezed around Othinus, but she did not bat an eye.

“Will you be satisfied once you have crushed me?”

“Othinus.”

“Only one thing matters here. Anna Sprengel is powerful and you have zero chance of victory if you thoughtlessly confront her head on.” The coldhearted voice of the god of magic, war, and deception continued. “So it is necessary to send someone else against her first so she will reveal her trump cards before you face her. Would you want ordinary Anti-Skill or Judgment playing that role? They would be slaughtered gruesomely. To be honest, I don’t really expect those two to win. I don’t, but those two Level 5s are the only candidates I could think of who had any possibility of staying in the fight long enough before losing and still making it back alive. ''Of course, it’s all over if they screw it up,'' but they at least have a chance. Anyone else would have been killed for sure no matter how hard they tried. Again, for sure.”

“Othinus!!!!!!” he roared in anger.

Her logical series of words came to a halt there.

And after a bit…

“There was never any way to avoid damage altogether. This was the only option that left any possibility at all of everyone surviving.”

“This is my problem.”

“If you had simply gone to face her on your own, you would have been killed first and foremost. And then it would all have fallen apart. Even for those girls who are fighting now.”

“Please, Othinus.”

The god glared up at Kamijou like a sulking child even as her entire torso was squeezed within his hand. It was the boy who had the wavering eyes of a lost child.

“I want you to save me, ''but not like this.'' I know I’ve fallen several steps behind. You said Imagine Breaker ''alone'' isn’t enough to keep up here, right? Well, it’s always been like that. I’ve always had to use every trick in the book to get by. So please. If someone has to die, then please build the plan around that person being me. Then I’d be on board one-hundred percent.”

“And if I refuse?”

“I don’t want to hate you.”

This time, the god fell silent.

She hung her head a little, hiding her face behind the brim of her witch’s hat.

And she spoke in a vanishingly quiet voice.

“(It was necessary, but even after all this, you still ‘don’t want to’, huh? It’s that soft side of yours that forces someone else to make the hard decisions, you know?)”

Before Kamijou could ask what she had said, she sank her teeth into his thumb and his grip on her relaxed.

“Ow!?”

“Hmph, insolent human. You can’t just touch a god’s body like that. Without asking permission first, I mean.”

She used that opening to slip from his hand and sat on his wrist with her thin legs crossed.

“I get your policy now, but that is no reason to abandon the information we have now. I will tell you what I have learned about Anna Sprengel. Let’s start with what you can do. However this plays out, it can’t end until you defeat her.”

He had already decided he was going to the battlefield himself.

This was his fight, so he was always the one who should have been in harm’s way.

But…

“Wait. If Misaka and…''who was the other one''? Anyway, if those two are on the front line, then how have you been watching them fight? Did you exchange addresses so you can watch a live video sent from their phones or something???”

“A certain idiot I could mention is so poor I do not have a phone of my own. And it wouldn’t be very mobile for me anyway.”

He felt bad about that, but it did not answer his question. Othinus was a legitimate god, but she could not use magic on her own in her current state.

For some reason, she could not look him in the eye.

Just like a child afraid of being scolded. Or like a child being asked who had broken the window when they were hiding the fact that they had broken the bonsai too.

She whispered rapidly while dripping with sweat.

“(R&C Occultics already has everyone using all sorts of meaningless magic, so a professional god can easily alter their half-assed spells to secretly place a Huginn and Muninn effect on top. But I really probably shouldn’t tell him that. I definitely can’t let him know I spread around those surveillance spiritual items made from the raven’s feathers. I mean, the side effect for using magic is hitting them whether I alter their spell or not, so this isn’t doing any more damage, but I just know he’d still be mad.)”

This time, he moved his hand higher.

Kamijou Touma, the God Catcher, squeezed Othinus' head between his thumb and forefinger.

It was punishment time.

The fifteen-centimeter understander flailed wildly for a while from the pressure to her temples.