Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume1 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

Neoka Norito raised both assassination guns.

A single boy was headed toward him.

The man had four glass barrels. The tiny girls within, who could be easily dyed in any color, were how many cards he had in his hand. So what would he load in there? How could he defeat this boy and have his way?

Fire? Water? Wind? Earth? Or some other kind of power?

He had to think.

And the young Director smiled quietly.

He let go.

He dropped those strange products of magic and tightly clenched his empty hands.

For the first time, the boy and the small figure on his shoulder both looked taken aback.

As soon as the twisted assassination guns hit the solid floor, the man moved.

He tore through the air to rush forward.

“You’re in trouble, human!!”

“I know that!!”

This was a former rescue squad elite. Assuming he had maintained his powerful body, a mere high school boy like Kamijou Touma did not stand a chance physically. And his Imagine Breaker was no more than a bloody fist when no supernatural powers were involved.

Yes.

This was the best possible answer.

This boy had faced the esper power of Academy City’s #1 and the ultimate magic of a true Magic God, ''but what he feared most was the ordinary martial arts that anyone could learn.

“Oh.”

But there was no turning back now.

Neoka Norito intended to win this even it meant throwing out his pride. He was challenging the boy using his rescue squad body, not his power as a magician or a member of the Board of Directors.

Kamijou Touma had pushed him to this point.

This was the Neoka Norito he had most wanted to see.

So how could he turn away now?

How could he patiently keep his distance and face the man the smart way!?

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

He roared and stepped forward.

Two full-power fists crossed in the air.

A dull sound followed.

Kamijou Touma definitely heard it ringing in his skull rather than his ears.

In a pure competition of arm strength, he was no match for the man.

Neoka’s fist had slammed into his cheek, but Kamijou’s fist felt nothing. It had wandered right past this powerful foe’s face.

He had failed to land the cross counter.

''However.

“Did you think…”

Kamijou Touma’s brain was rattled, but he could still move his fist.

So he spoke.

“''That was just a punch''?”

“!?”

His knees were already shaking and he did not have enough strength left for a fierce rush of attacks.

So he simply opened his clenched fist.

Specifically, he revealed what was hidden in that palm right next to the man’s face. It was his own blood. He flicked his fingers to launch the drops of blood soaking so much of his body.

But.

Even that could be used to blind an enemy if used well.

“Sorry about the cheap move.”

“Tch!!”

The man used his fingers to wipe the blood from his eyes and shook his head, but an opening was an opening.

Blood would coagulate, especially when exposed to oxygen or other living things.

“From the moment I heard you were in a rescue squad, I knew I couldn’t win if it came to a fistfight. So I had to think up some way of winning even if it was dirty and underhanded. Just like you did!!”

After having his head rattled, Kamijou did not have the strength left to redo this from square one.

But he still gathered what strength he had.

“But if this is the only way I can protect the people I care for.”

Neoka Norito could not see, so he would probably rely on his ears instead.

If Kamijou feared pure martial arts, he only had to make sure his opponent could not use them. But Neoka could not crawl around in search of the spiritual items on the floor while blinded. If he was going to win, he too had to keep using his fists.

“And if you’ve trapped yourself in some nonexistent bonds of your own creation.”

But that was exactly what Kamijou wanted.

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No matter how much they might understand each other now, they were still enemies. Kamijou could not have the man stalling until he collapsed from blood loss, so he opened his mouth to make sure that did not happen. He used noise and his voice to direct Neoka toward him. Because he was too weak to charge toward the man himself.

And this time, he really would deliver the finishing blow.

“Then I’ll destroy that illusion of yours!!!!!!”

This punch was the most he could manage.

After feeling the tactile feedback in his wrist and seeing the man collapse to the floor, Kamijou Touma fell to his knees and then collapsed alongside the man.