Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume4 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

US President Roberto Katze and Vice President Darris Hewlane.

The two men did not speak a word while aiming their shotguns at each other’s chests from less than a meter away.

Unlike the pump action variety usually seen in movies and dramas, these semiautos did not need the forend to be slid to load each shot.

As long as the initial round had been sent to the chamber, it could produce a hail of death each time the trigger was pulled.

With a loud bang, Roberto’s body twisted around. No, he had pulled the trigger and let the recoil swing him around. The ordinarily-impossible action caused Darris to miss his target at point-blank range. His specks of lead burned through empty space and obliterated the clock on the White House press room’s wall.

To reiterate, a semiauto shotgun did not require a loading action. You only had to pull the trigger to fire the next round.

Still twisted around, Roberto Katze aimed his shotgun up toward the Vice President’s jaw. He did not hesitate to unleash the deadly attack.

“Ohhh!!”

“Mr. Presideeeeeeeeeent!!”

Barrel collided with barrel to throw off the President’s aim, so he used the recoil to fall back and pretended to be preparing another shot, but instead crouched down and rushed back in toward Darris. Barrels heavily collided, gunshots threatened to burst their eardrums, muzzle flashes shined bright, and colorful shotgun shells fell at their feet.

Screams and shouts erupted as the gathered reporters scrambled toward the exit.

There were armed secret service members in the White House, but they were all too shocked to do anything. Besides, the current President and Vice President were aiming guns at each other, so who were they supposed to aim at? And even if they knew that, their shots could easily hit the other one with those two so close together. These were truly unprecedented circumstances not covered by their training and they did not have the guts to figure it out on the fly.

Aide Roseline had built up some resistance to the President’s unprecedented behavior, so she managed to yell at him from a short distance away.

“Wh-what is wrong with you!? How do you intend to clean up after this mess!? And while you can go hide in the White House if you want, ''I'' have to go stand in front of the press. This one is bad even for you, so how am I even supposed to smooth things over at the next press conference!?”

“Hey, Rose? I’ll listen to your loving lecture later, so you keep your head down and escape outside the White House!!”

“Oh, how I wish I could just throw him in a holding cell right this instant!!”

“Please. If a stray shot hits you, I might actually kill him.”

Their conversation ended there. The secret service grabbed the silenced aide’s arm and hurried her out of there. They must have decided this was better than just standing around doing nothing.

With that, it truly was one-on-one.

And it still could not exactly be described as a gun battle.

If anything, it was more like an old-fashioned knights’ duel where the two sides took up swords to defend their honor.

The two warriors pushed the long shotgun barrels against each other like two locked blades and roared at each other from less than 10cm apart.

“Ha ha!!” laughed the President. “A 12-gauge? You were really trying to kill me, weren’t you!?”

“Says the man using slugs. Those will punch a fist-sized hole through a bulletproof jacket and the chest below it!”

“Quick question: what did R&C Occultics promise you? America is a country that values freedom but is also weirdly religious. What was your reward for betraying me? I’m the President, so I’m aware there are prizes beyond money in the political world.”

For example, people would swear on the bible in government institutions like the courts and congress. Religion also played a big role in elections. In addition to policies, campaign promises, campaign funding, and celebrity endorsements, a candidate’s campaign was influenced by the specific religious denomination they belonged to. That was because the voters felt an affinity with someone who believed in the same rules as they did.

Would they ban immigration, or welcome any and all immigrants?

In politics, a candidate had to secure the votes of as many people as they could by showing sympathy for their views on issues of that nature as well. Even in the Christian church, the Catholics and Protestants followed different rules. Of course, not all mythologies and religions could become a majority within America. But if the opinions of those minority groups could reach the majority and trigger a chemical reaction, it could lead to a change in the country’s morals and manners and lead to a different breadth of acceptable policies a politician could advocate.

“There is one way for a Vice President to get a promotion. You know what that is, don’t you?”

“…”

“The President must be removed from office in one way or another. Then the Vice President will take over the position as an emergency replacement.”

“So you tricked me into giving England and Academy City the go-ahead prematurely? All while knowing 30 million of LA’s people would be lost?”

Asking why he could go that far for political power would not reach the heart of the issue.

Roberto Katze narrowed his eyes and then asked the real question.

“''You never could get over that I was chosen instead of you, could you?''”

“The Vice President is not chosen by the people.”

The deep shadows in Darris’s eyes were too lukewarm to call hatred.

They were only a shadowy darkness.

“You appointed me as your right-hand man. I am only allowed in the White House as a consolation prize! This was supposed to be my party. You were only supposed to be the spokesman. But the next thing I knew…!? I had won it all. I had everything you didn’t. And yet no more than fleeting popularity and a simple fad took it all away!!!!!!”

Roberto Katze was not particularly smart.

Or so his officially released academic records said. ''How much bearing that had on his actual abilities was a separate issue.''

The first time people had heard his academic history, they had been shocked to find a high school dropout had been elected to congress.

He had known the reaction he would get, so he had easily turned it into a joke to earn laughs.

So yes, it must have been humiliating for Darris Hewlane, a “traditional” politician who had been born to a well-established family, graduated top of his class from an Ivy League school, and used his many connections to work his way up from secretary to politician.

You could be elected President without all that work?

Was there no limit to the USA’s freedom?

Everyone’s dreams have an equal chance of coming true. It’s never too late to pursue your dreams. Those sayings sound nice and all, but from the perspective of someone who had been surpassed when someone else skipped several steps with a rocket booster, it felt more like having all of his life’s hard work thrown out with the trash.

Roberto sighed.

And…

“My fellow Americans!! Do you like sex!!!???”

Time seemed to freeze.

Darris Hewlane seemed to forget they were engaged in a life-or-death shotgun battle.

His mouth moved wordlessly at that question that had no business being asked in the White House.

“Wh-wh-what is the meaning of this?”

“Because I sure do. Hell, I love it!!!!!!”

“What are you talking about!?”

Darris gave up on a direct hit and pulled the trigger to rattle the President’s eardrums with the earsplitting gunshot. That forced Roberto to pull his shotgun away, but it hardly mattered. With his eyes shining bright, he raised the gun in one hand again and slammed the barrel against Darris’s like it was a sword.

Living the life you wanted to live provided a type of strength. But academic history and family status were no guarantees of safety. Everyone was free to do what they liked, but they were the ones responsible for their own words and actions.

“You idiot. Grab a kid off the street and they’d be able to answer ‘yes’ to that one. How do you expect to earn the people’s votes if you can’t even admit to the most basic truths and if you try to whitewash your life and file off all of the negative aspects? Are you planning to pump wax into all your holes and create an eternally preserved human model!? I’m not the best at anything really. But no one’s going to trust some boring old man whose answers to social media questions are stiffer and more boilerplate than an AI assistant!!”

“Kh.”

“If you want people’s trust, it isn’t academic history, funding, popularity, or charisma that you need. What you need is honesty, Darris.”

Despite his unprecedented behavior, that President somehow always managed to meet people’s arguments head on and tear them to pieces.

An honest and open argument was a sword, not a shield. Any politician should know that and it was used against Darris here.

“The clones scare you? Fine. You don’t understand all this strange new technology? That’s a valid opinion. So why hide it? Why find all sorts of mealymouthed excuses to avoid giving a clear yes or no answer? The way you lay out a bunch of arbitrary but meaningful-sounding statements and then desperately try to give it all the most advantageous meaning after the fact makes me feel like I’m speaking with Nostradamus. Can you not even discuss the weather without setting everything up so you can act all-knowing no matter what happens? Don’t you get how you look more pathetic each and every time you try that trick?”

“You are nothing but a scandal generator. You are a mere mascot that has confused gathering negative attention for charisma, yet you dare presume to teach ''me'' about politics!?”

Now Darris went on the attack.

Several gunshots rang out, the stench of smoke scorched the air, and they once more locked barrels.

They pushed with all their might.

“It’s all those commentators playing things up for the cameras who decide the things I say are scandalous. They only become scandals once those people package them up just right to cause an uproar. I’m only selling a knife that makes cooking a lot easier, so you can’t blame me if someone else uses it to stab someone. What’s wrong with telling the plain truth? Is the President you long to be some cowardly fellow who slinks around, eyes darting furtively, and hesitantly speaks up only after figuring out what everyone around him wants him to say?”

The bearded President actually licked his lips while using his body weight to just barely keep his opponent’s shotgun aimed away from him.

His life was at risk, but he derived joy from staying true to himself even now.

“So take it from me, a President everyone in the world can look up to!! Making love? Bedroom activities? Since you’re too scared to come out and say ‘sex’, I’ll do it for you!! I love women, I love booze, I love fast cars, I love big guns, I love gambling, I love comics, I love theme parks, I love Hollywood’s cheap but moving stories, I love popcorn, and I love greasy burgers so damn much!! I love this country from sea to shining sea!!!!!! And more than any of that, I love seeing boys and girls act based on their still immature ideas of justice. Even at my age, it just makes me want to root for them, you know? And I’m not ashamed of any of it because ''that’s just who I am''.”

Even as they pressed the barrels together, the Vice President clearly did not know how to respond.

He wanted to reject everything the President had said to him, but there was also envy in his eyes.

The man who had wanted that life roared at the man who had failed to obtain that life.

“You can’t say it, can you? You can’t do a damn thing without thinking about how it’ll affect your approval rating, the stock market, public opinion, your likeability, the critics’ 5-star ratings, or whatever the hell else. You’ve lost sight of who you even are. You’re so afraid of losing votes, you’ve changed everything about yourself until you’re as bland as a soybean patty between unbuttered buns. You can’t speak from the heart anymore. So I’ll protect this country for you. I love soda, I love preservatives, I love junk food, and I’d prefer if it was served to me by a pretty lady in a cute uniform. What’s wrong with that!? Maybe it sounds silly, but the people chose me to lead this country where we’re free to speak our minds, so I’ll take up a gun and risk my life to protect it!! Whether they’re an immigrant family or some clone girls, everyone has a right to life from the moment they’re born, so I won’t let a single one of them be lost!!!!!!”

“You…”

There was no more strategy to his actions.

The Vice President kicked the President away to break free of their locked barrels and wielded his semiauto shotgun like a rapier while he clenched his teeth with hatred in his eyes.

“You refuse to make any sacrifices, you refuse to even clean up your own room, and you’re as self-centered as they come!! I cannot leave the fate of the United States and the world in your hands!!!!!!”

“Now, that’s more like it. You’re starting to look like a man now, Darris. This is a one-on-one duel, so it was getting boring being so one-sided. A real fight has an opponent who fights back!!”