Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 6===

“…”

The silver-haired girl in a white nun’s habit smelled faintly of soap, perhaps because the hem of her habit had soaked up a bit of the bathwater spilled on the tile floor during her visit to the amenity room.

She would look conspicuous most anywhere in this city of science. Especially in a hospital packed full of the latest tech. But this was the one place no one would question Index even if she had snuck in for no real reason.

It was a chapel.

Since it was located in the basement area below the hospital, it felt as chilly as the midwinter air, but Index felt like the chill helped highlight the worldly thoughts in her head.

The image in her mind’s eye was from Christmas Eve.

Lips had contacted lips before her eyes.

With her perfect memory, she could never escape a memory she would prefer to forget.

In truth, she wanted to at least pout her lips over it.

(It doesn’t bother me.)

“Hey.”

A voice rudely interrupted her while she folded her hands in front of her chest in prayer.

It came from the 15cm god named Othinus who sat on her shoulder.

But not because she found the chapel awkward as a non-Christian god.

“Should you really be in here? Isn’t this room for terminal patients?”

For the most part, Academy City was a high-tech city where atheistic science worship prevailed and the stained glass in here was almost certainly lit up by LEDs on the other side, but freedom of worship was still guaranteed. A patient was free to find comfort however they liked in their final moments. Of course, instead of having an actual priest visit, they were more likely to get a teacher who specialized in that academic subject.

“It is.”

Index kept her hands folded in prayer.

She was not ashamed and in fact gave Othinus an earnest answer.

“And ''that’s why'' I’m praying for Touma here.”

“I see.”

Othinus did not ask anything more.

She knew that boy was forcing himself to smile. He was a worrier and made himself a part of other people’s business, which often resulted in him being injured. He felt other people’s pain more than anyone and he would not hesitate to rush toward certain death to alleviate that pain.

On the other hand, Kamijou Touma was not at all accustomed to having other people worry for him. It actually left him flustered when it happened. The more they worried for him and cared for him, the greater the burden he would feel. As his understander, that irritated Othinus to no end. That idiot did not know how to let other people take care of him when he had a cold.

Othinus pompously crossed her legs on the silver-haired girl’s shoulder but then jumped at the growl coming from the calico cat on Index’s head.

“So you’ve noticed?” she finally asked.

“About St. Germain? Based on what I know, that probably won’t go away on its own.”

“There’s no probably about it.”

Othinus kept her arms crossed and breathed a snort from her shapely nose.

That girl was a library who had memorized at least 103,001 grimoires, so it was laughable for her to act uncertain about something magical. Turning a blind eye to an inconvenient truth would only allow things to get worse.

So Othinus would nip that meaningless wishful thinking in the bud.

Her coldhearted response here was meant to keep herself moving in the right direction as much as anything.

If the only way to retrieve that boy’s soul was to descend into the depths of hell, then what could they do but throw open hell’s gates?

“It ''will not'' go away on its own. No matter what.”