Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 6===

Kinuhata and B-ko were rapidly changing position behind the temporary relay center on the riverside.

B-ko was armed with a homemade laser weapon built into a concert penlight.

Her esper power allowed her to precisely locate other people using the scent particles of her hair.

The combination of the two meant any target would be hit by the laser with 100% accuracy.

Or so the theory went.

“What!? My Territory Pheromone isn’t working!?”

“Are you stupid? I did tell you I’m super covered by a wall of nitrogen, didn’t I?”

As long as none of Kinuhata’s own scent could escape, it couldn’t bond with and alter the hair scent particles being scattered through the air. That way Kinuhata could pass by right in front of B-ko without her power detecting her.

(That said, the super HMLa is enough of a threat on its own!)

Kinuhata kept low.

She might be able to avoid the scorching laser weapon by swinging her body to the sides.

Still, she heard the unpleasant sound like that of a heated wire pressed against cloth.

Not even her rapid evasion was enough to fully avoid the attacks. As B-ko had said, she really didn’t want to take an attack to the eyes.

(But super wait. Where she’s aiming doesn’t match up with where I’m being burned. Only by a few centimeters, but still.)

Kinuhata’s power was specialized for close quarters combat.

She couldn’t do anything without approaching the enemy.

“!?”

B-ko, on the other hand, only had to continue wielding her modified concert penlight.

The seven lights extended along their respective lines.

The scattershot of light had a range of 50 meters. This next-gen weapon would bring an end to the era of guns and gunpowder. The brutal laser light branched out seven ways from the main axis to race out through the air. Without the white smoke making the lasers visible, Kinuhata Saiai would have either had her eyes burned away or her clothing set alight without even knowing what was happening to her.

B-ko laughed loudly and did not let up on the attack.

The laser light raced side to side again and again.

“Dry ice? Smoke? So what if you can see the lasers? If you think it’s that useful, then just try and survive!!”

The deadly cutting light suddenly bent about five meters in front of Kinuhata.

Unnaturally so.

“Ah!?”

B-ko’s surprise was wasted time.

If she had instead thrown herself down to the left or right, she would have survived another three moves.

Kinuhata Saiai had already rushed sharply up to B-ko.

She only had to extend her fist.

The deafening noise came from the wall of super-compressed nitrogen smashing her muscle and bone.

B-ko doubled over.

And coughed up blood.

But her confusion was more powerful than her pain.

“How…?”

“The orientation of the laser lens and the location of the burns differed by a super little bit. Only a few centimeters.”

B-ko leaped backwards before her entrails could be ripped out.

But her HMLa was no longer a threat.

And her power to locate an enemy couldn’t stop Kinuhata Saiai from marching right up to her.

“It’s true light passes through my nitrogen barrier, but that super doesn’t explain it all. …Light will refract on the border between different densities. And when passing through narrow gaps, it will try to circle around. Sunset continues even after the sun has fully fallen below the horizon because of the temperature difference in the air. Look through the water-filled goldfish scooping bag and the world looks distorted. Mist showers create rainbows. It’s all caused by the same thing: light is super easy to bend.”

“Kh.”

“My nitrogen barrier bent your lasers. It was even easier by taking in small pieces of dry ice. It’s just that I can only make the barrier a few centimeters thick, so the slight refraction of the light still let it hit my skin. That’s super all it was,” stated Kinuhata Saiai.

She then spread her arms a little.

“So I super only needed to mess with the air over a wider area. Dry ice sure is convenient. With it, I can bend the lasers at the border between densities enough to keep myself safe!”

Yes.

Scattering the dry ice smoke around at the start had been the right move. That did more than just make the invisible lasers visible. It changed the conditions of the air by adding an impurity. Take that far enough and the temperature and carbon dioxide density difference created by the dry ice could bend a laser weapon.

There was no such thing as a perfect weapon.

One might have an advantage after its debut, but countermeasures would eventually be developed.

“Your power can only concentrate nitrogen, so it shouldn’t be able to scatter anything over a wide area. Oh, did you absorb ''only'' the nitrogen in the area to move the scattered dry ice particles through the air!? Like creating a corona or fog bow!?”

“Trying to calm yourself by super helping me give the answers? Just keep panicking while I rip you apart!!”

Kinuhata clenched her fist, held it at the ready, and – just as B-ko held her hands up to block – tackled the girl with her shoulder.

With the nitrogen barrier surrounding her, this gave Kinuhata a greater hitbox than throwing a punch or a kick. And any hit would crush her target with super-high pressure, so she didn’t even need to master martial arts forms and worry about the speed and weight of her punches.

“Gh, bh!?”

C-ko was caught and crushed by the mass of super-high pressure nitrogen before being launched away.

Only a gross wet sound continued for a while.

Kinuhata focused on the earphone in her ear.

“Takitsubo-san, one down. …Sorry I couldn’t be super considerate of your feelings. I just super messed up your old friend, so this might be hard for you.”

“I want to end this soon so I can fish for water balloon yo-yos.”

“I know I pushed it onto you, but could you super give me back my kindness?”

But what to do now?

If she had nothing better to do, it might be best to assist Mugino or Frenda, making it two-against-one.

However, something audibly stirred.

It was B-ko.

Even though she might as well have had her torso torn through by heavy machinery. It was amazing she could stand up after bleeding that much and she couldn’t hold her shoulders straight. Even so, she was holding the laser weapon based on a concert penlight.

“You’re still going to fight when more than half dead? You have guts, I’ll give you that.”

“This…isn’t over!!”

“But I will super kill you. Without a second thought.”

Kinuhata was ready to calmly evade the enemy attack and kill her.

In fact, she didn’t even need to evade the laser pointed her way. The scorching lines of light would refract just before reaching her and her skin would be untouched.

But B-ko aimed her concert penlight somewhere else.

“?”

She didn’t have to aim the HMLa at Kinuhata Saiai. She was using several lenses to boost its power well beyond the firepower of a cigarette lighter.

Yes.

And what if she were to aim it at an industrial propane tank that stood taller than Kinuhata?

Was it used to support the simple break room in the large broadcast relay station? Which meant it wasn’t far from this back area.

“Are you super crazy!?”

“Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!!”

It detonated.

But the mic performance at the live stage a short distance away kept anyone from hearing it.