Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

Shirai Kuroko continued monitoring Konori Mii’s dorm room while changing position a few times.

Eventually, dawn arrived.

She had been tempted to attack at a late-night hour such as 2 or 3 in the morning, but she had resisted. Attacking a foe in their sleep was a standard tactic, but Konori would definitely be expecting it. The presence of that roommate was bothersome as well. She could slip past any security on the doors or windows by teleporting in, but a late-night attack lost its advantage if Konori and her roommate were taking turns keeping watch throughout the night. And that was exactly what happened.

(In that case…)

The dawn began to color the sky and some moped newspaper deliverers and jogging girls were out and about.

Shirai Kuroko let out a white breath, held her can of tea between her hands, and thought. The can touted its “new and improved flavor!”, but she found it to be one of the worst downgrades she had ever had the displeasure of tasting. Still, it warmed her fingers from the morning chill.

(Could I manage if I aimed for a moment when her roommate can’t be with her?)

It was precisely 6 AM.

Konori got up bright and early even on the weekend. Shirai could barely stand it after having her highly impure plans for the weekend ruined.

Regardless, she chose this as her moment to attack.

The bespectacled honor student was completing the first step of her morning routine.

In other words, Shirai teleported into the bathroom while Konori was taking her morning bath.

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She probably hadn’t seen it coming.

In fact, she must not have expected Shirai to try anything now. For once, (naked and showering) Konori Mii raised a flustered voice.

“Geh! You’re attacking now, Shirai-san!? Have you no tact at all!?”

“Hwa ha ha!! So you’re the type to keep your glasses on in the bath, sexy glasses Konori-senpai? As for tact, you should thank me for not attacking you on the toilet!!”

Girls could say some awful things to each other when backed into a corner.

Something heavy snapped loudly at the air.

Konori Mii proved herself a fearsome combat freak by immediately grabbing a wet towel from the towel rack and using a snap of the wrist to send it out like a whip. Even an ordinary towel got pretty heavy after absorbing water. If it had hit Shirai in the face, it could have broken her nose or even her neck.

But she dropped her hips down to dodge the attack to her face.

However, this spectacular dodge wasn’t fueled by the extreme sexual frustration of losing her weekend of intimacy with her captivating Onee-sama. Konori must have figured it out herself since she groaned in frustration.

“Kh!!”

“What’s wrong? Is that snap of your wrist ''all'' you can use? Looks to me like you can’t put your full weight behind your attacks!!”

“This is why I don’t like this cramped bathroom!! I wish I could build a full bathhouse here!!”

After lowering her hips, Shirai aimed a tackle for the busty upperclassman’s navel. The condition of the floor affected Shirai too, but wearing shoes gave her the edge. Konori sent a knee toward Shirai’s face to prevent the tackle, but Shirai didn’t let that stop her. She took the knee to the forehead, sent her wet hand out, and snatched up the shower hose spraying hot water all over the steamy bathroom.

As expected, Konori had to pull her hips back because her feet slipped.

If that knee had had her usual force behind it, it would have ended the fight right then and there.

No one could defeat Konori Mii if she went all out? Fair enough. Then what if you set things up so going all out would cause her to self-destruct?

The bathroom was small, so she had trouble finding the space to use her arms and legs like she wanted.

And the tile floor had a polyurethane mat on it, so her wet, bare feet slipped easily.

She wanted to fall back, but that would mean placing her feet on the edge of the tub.

“Trying to sneak around against your Clairvoyance was the wrong way to go about this.”

Whoever had more data had an advantage. Whoever made the surprise attack had an advantage. People didn’t question such obvious facts, but that prevented them from ever breaking free of those assumptions.

So you had to look at it with fresh eyes. If you didn’t change your way of thinking, you could never defeat Konori Mii.

In other words…

“I needed a situation where you seeing me doesn’t change anything!!”

Shirai Kuroko smiled with her uniform drenched.

With the shower hose still in hand, she kicked the faucet, cranking up the temperature setting. Konori could use her Clairvoyance to stage the perfect evasions, but she had no way of avoiding the arc of hot water sprayed across the entire cramped space.

“Tch!! In that case!!”

“You didn’t think that was all I had planned, did you?”

The hot water was a threat, but it wasn’t a solid wall. Konori could break through it. Once she realized her disadvantage, she would tackle right through even if it meant taking some damage. It was indeed the most correct choice.

Which was why this wasn’t Shirai’s real attack.

She had something else up her sleeve.

“For example, I could step forward and show you something you actually ''don’t'' want to see!!”

Shirai used her other hand to trigger a camera flash with her phone.

Thick, white steam filled the bathroom like cotton candy, but it wasn’t enough of an obstacle to block the bright flash. And if Konori was using her Clairvoyance to see through all such obstacles, the flash would have hit her unobstructed.

“Kyahhh!!”

“When I was moving between the shopping district’s roofs below the thick clouds, you unnaturally looked away a few times when you seemed to be tracking me perfectly well from the ground.”

The blinding effect would only last an instant.

So Shirai used that instant to swing the shower hose and wrap it around Konori’s neck.

She created another situation where the girl couldn’t dodge even if she saw the attack coming.

“''That was due to the lightning in the clouds.'' The thick rainclouds and the air do nothing to attenuate the light for you, so looking up at the lightning with your Clairvoyance active would be suicidal!!”

Her next attack proved to be the finishing blow.

She yanked on the thick hose like it was a dog’s leash, pulling Konori’s head toward her. When the upperclassman girl staggered forward with her full weight behind it, Shirai slammed her elbow into the girl’s face.