Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume6 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 3===

Inside the Miyashita Ark, the demon wearing a one-piece corset similar to a pink bunny suit costume stopped absentmindedly massaging Kamijou’s earlobe and looked to the side.

“Here it comes.”

“?”

Kamijou didn’t even have time to tilt his head.

''Splat!!

A realistic human face was pressed up against the large window in that fashion space.

The sticky ochre color formed an expression of agony.

The features were distorted like someone with a stocking over their head.

It was an entrails-like liquid that felt out of place in the shiny, artificial Miyashita Ark. Terror crawled along Kamijou’s spine as he watched it change color into something even less pleasant, like bile or rotten butter.

Gravity gradually pulled the human face goop down the glass.

Or so it seemed.

In truth, a more complicated force was at work. It formed a neck, a torso, and finally limbs. As the shape grew like dripping ink spreading across a surface, it gradually formed a full human silhouette.

“We need to skedaddle, boy.”

“Eh? But what is that?”

“Aradia has begun her ''search''! If that catches us, the witch goddess will know where we are and attack!!”

The yellowish silhouette began to move like a shadow sliding across the floor or wall. It moved faster than the average car. The Bologna Succubus didn’t wait for him to respond. She held him to her large chest and placed her butt on a nearby round table, removing her feet from the floor. As soon as the sticky silhouette slid across the floor below them, she tugged on his hand and ran in the opposite direction.

It immediately turned back around.

Almost like their feet had touched the surface of a river teeming with piranhas.

“Tch! Can the spell detect anything that contacts the same surface, be it the floor or a wall!?”

The Bologna Succubus picked Kamijou up again and caught the air with her pink bat wings.

She took flight.

Kamijou felt their tremendous acceleration while he heard screams erupting from all around. The Bologna Succubus made sure not to contact the floor, the walls, or the ceiling. She soared down the center of an empty passageway with the precise control of a fighter jet skimming just off the ground to fly below an overpass.

The yellowish silhouette on the floor seemed to hesitate for a moment.

The next stage was already underway.

Splat, splat, splat, splat!! More sticky faces appeared on the walls and ceiling around them to pursue the fleeing Bologna Succubus. They were like the line of bullet holes from a machinegun. And each one of those faces drew out a new silhouette.

“They’re chasing us! Doesn’t that mean she already knows where we are!?”

“If she did, she wouldn’t use this search spell that gives us advance warning. Once she knows our coordinates in 3D space, she would fire an insect repellant spell that tears through all the buildings in between us and her current location.”

“Insect what???”

“Insect repellant. Controlling nature to help crops grow is one of the most common jobs for witches. Although Aradia’s version locates all of the insects and exterminates them.”

Kamijou had no words. Magic was always absurd and unfair, but he had never expected to be killed by the cousin of a scarecrow or one of those big eyeball balloons.

But the Bologna Succubus wasn’t done yet.

“So don’t get the wrong idea, boy. I doubt this is limited to the Miyashita Ark!”

“What?”

“''These faces and silhouettes will be inside every single indoor space in Shibuya!'' We were simply caught in her thorough search!!”

That meant leaving the Miyashita Ark wouldn’t be enough to escape the search. Once their location was discovered, Aradia would attack with her full power. And that woman had already demonstrated her ability to tear through Kamijou’s body with her bare hands and to fire brutal beams of light at the flying demon.

“Then what’s happening to Index or Kumokawa-senpai right now!? And Othinus too!”

“Imbecile! Worry about yourself first!!”

The Bologna Succubus must have realized the same thing as him because she landed on the model blimp decorating the central area. The model hung in midair with its weight distributed over several hundred wires thinner than hairs. It looked a lot like a balloon, but it had to weigh as much as a small truck.

Yes, the face and silhouettes were on the floor, walls, and ceiling, ''but everywhere else was safe.

The yellowish goo silhouettes slid along the walls and ceiling around them, but none of them arrived at the blimp. But none of them went away either. The flat figures moved endlessly around the area as if to surround the two of them.

“Doesn’t look like this will fool them forever. There are so many people in Shibuya, but they’re waiting here and ignoring all those other people.”

“Indeed. But this gives us some time to think. A few minutes at least.”

“So these are Aradia’s eyes and ears, right? If we can’t escape them, I could always destroy them with my right hand.”

“Think of them like security cameras. If they start failing in one specific area, Aradia will notice. That would bring her straight here.”

Maybe it was to keep wingless Kamijou from falling off the unsteady footing, but the Bologna Succubus sat on the balloon-like blimp, wrapped her arms around his head, and pulled him to her chest.

“Witchcraft includes plenty of divination using water or fire as well as wind spells using rope knots, but use of ointments is far more common. From the look of things, I would guess Aradia is using bear grease.”

“Mgh.”

“I believe it was in May of 1940 during World War Two that some British witches attempted to curse Germany in order to protect their homeland. Stripping nude in the freezing forest and dancing throughout the night sounds like suicide, but they attempted to fight the cold by covering their bodies in an ointment made of bear grease. Although in the original ceremony, some of them froze to death along with the old woman who had volunteered to be their sacrifice.”

“Mghghgh, bghghghgh.”

“But how did she transform that into a searching spell? Bear grease is meant for defense, so did she designate us as the human skin it needs to cover in order to protect us from the cold? If so, what exactly is she using to search us out? Oil, grease, wax? I know witches can curse someone by placing the target’s blood or fingernail in a wax doll and piercing it with a nail. No, that isn’t it. Then what is it? And what is with you, boy?”

“Bwah, cough, cough! Are you trying to suffocate me to death with these bags of happiness!!”

Kamijou finally managed to extract his red face from the young woman’s very large chest. She must have been doing it subconsciously like she was holding a stuffed animal, so she simply smiled politely and waved a hand dismissively.

“My bad. When a cute and sexy young woman like me sees a head right in front of her, she can’t help but start patting it.”

“I don’t care what you’re into and this isn’t about the hands on the back of my head – it’s about the suffocation of my face!!”

“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy it. Besides, I already apologi- hm?”

The red of his face was probably more than just embarrassment. It was a more serious SOS signal sent from his oxygen-deprived brain.

However.

“I see. I didn’t think of that.”

“Wh-what now? Why are you staring at me?”

“I’m just realizing that worrying over things on your own doesn’t solve anything. The secret to a long life is listening to others☆”