Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

She wouldn’t die.

She stood before Academy City’s #4 and still she wouldn’t die.

They were only about 10m apart with nothing in between. Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou leaned loosely to the right.

That was all.

A fearsome beam scorched the air. But it missed her. It came awfully close, but a miss was still a miss.

The butlers, the maids, Kinuhata, and Frenda were all holding their breath.

Was she observing fluctuations in the AIM diffusion field? No.

“What’s wrong, Mugino?”

“…”

“I’m playing the bullfighter role. Just like you.”

She patted her hand across her track suit and then held it out toward Mugino Shizuri.

She hadn’t been brushing off the dirt.

In fact, she had been getting the dark soil from her clothes to her palm.

Or more accurately, the iron sand.

A few more beams surged out, but they just couldn’t seem to hit Takitsubo Rikou.

“You release electrons as-is, instead of as a waveform or a particle. It’s a terrifying power, but Meltdowner is still manipulating electricity. Which means it creates a magnetic field.”

She was gathering up all of that minute data, processing it in her head, and predicting Mugino Shizuri’s next move in real time. That was why the deadly attacks could not annihilate the track suit girl.

“…”

Takitsubo sent Frenda a sign with her fingers and eyes. She could communicate with her elite partners that way, but it wouldn’t work for the butlers and maids she had only just met. Oral communication would be too slow. Knowing the right answer would only get them blasted if the information didn’t arrive soon enough, so it might be best if they fell back.

No, Takitsubo Rikou wasn’t the only one reading the other.

“Kh.”

When the track suit girl saw an opening, she pulled a small case from her pocket and threw it. Body Crystal. That special substance intentionally forced an esper’s power to run wild, but Mugino Shizuri immediately released a thick beam to fry and annihilate the case in midair.

“(Now we can’t stop her by making her power run wild.)”

Takitsubo Rikou and Mugino Shizuri.

Those two had known each other much longer than they had Kinuhata Saiai or Frenda Seivelun. They knew each other too well.

Their confrontation wasn’t visually exciting.

It was all contained in their gazes, their breaths, the slight tension and relaxation of the muscles in their necks and shoulders, and the shifting of their legs and center of gravity.

Whoever managed to read the other with even a millimeter greater precision would take it all.

And.

This was the best way to save Mugino Shizuri.

Takitsubo Rikou spoke softly while glaring at the #4.

“Every single Academy City esper power requires you to use your brain to swap in a quantum mechanical perception of the world around you. Knock Mugino unconscious and the threat of Meltdowner is gone.”

“Knock her unconscious? How!? Even if I could sneak up behind her and get her in a chokehold, it would take a few dozen seconds of pressure to her carotid artery to knock her out. Meanwhile, she only needs an instant. If she reached a hand behind her and blasted Meltdowner, I’d be a super goner!!”

“Then leave it to me.”

Several explosive booms followed.

Caused by gunpowder. The young butler aboard a large motorcycle had fired the heavy machinegun he held at his hip, but not at Mugino herself.

Something exploded, its remains blasted high into the air.

It was a high-voltage power line.

A few power pylons were lined up along the mountain slope in positions meant to not ruin the scenery. The hot spring area would likely had a geothermal powerful plant and related facilities in addition to the hot spring resorts.

A home power outlet was no comparison. Power lines carrying more than 60 thousand volts enveloped Mugino Shizuri like a swarm of snakes. They were as destructive as a train power line.

“That should do it.”

Something loudly burst.

Mugino Shizuri didn’t speak a word.

This wasn’t just a stun gun. The high-voltage lines carried more than 60 thousand volts. More than being knocked out, her body could easily have been obliterated, but instead the #4 stood there silently.

“Wha-!?” groaned Bakyaku, eyes wide. “I-it didn’t even scratch her!!”

“Mugino’s Meltdowner burns through objects by manipulating electrons as-is rather than as a wave or as a particle.”

“You super mean…?”

“''She can control electricity, so electrocution attacks will not work on her''.”

A fearsome light flashed.

This wasn’t even a simple Meltdowner beam.

A disconcerting tremor, a lot like a minor quake, shook the ground below their feet.

“Wh-what is this? In the end, the damage to the slope isn’t about to cause a landslide, is it!?”

“This doesn’t feel like the ground pushing up from below. It isn’t an artificial quake. Could it be volcanic activity?”

“…”

They all fell silent.

This was a hot spring region, wasn’t it? That meant it could easily have volcanic activity, but why would Takitsubo be bringing that up now?

“Mugino’s power could be roughly described as the power to control electricity.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“If she can also influence natural phenomena related to electricity, then it is possible she could, for example, create enough magnetic power to drag up the magma deep below the surface.”

With a glooping sound, the soft ground broke open and something like smoke erupted vertically out.

A light like a camera flash surrounded Mugino’s body.

The fine volcanic ash was rubbing together in the air to produce a massive amount of static electricity. To look so much like lightning, it had to be around a billion volts.

And that electric storm boosted Mugino Shizuri’s power.

“You’re kidding… What is that!? S-since when can Mugino consume electricity to super power up!?”

“She is ranked at #4 in Academy City. She’s the Level 5 with the unfair power to control electricity without defining it as a particle or a wave. You didn’t think all she could do was shoot projectiles, did you?”

But that wasn’t what concerned Frenda Seivelun most of all.

“In the end, what’s the range of this?”

“…”

It wasn’t that Takitsubo didn’t know.

She fell silent because the worst possible answer had come to mind.

“What if it isn’t just here? In the end, if she can trigger a chain reaction across multiple active volcanoes, she might be able to trigger a major simultaneous eruption of Mount Fuji and all the other active volcanoes in Kantou!!”