Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 9===

“Oh, dear. They’ve noticed me. That psychological one is still full of surprises and a lot of fun. Maybe we’re just a good match.”

Anna smiled as she descended from the snow-covered pedestrian deck to the crowd on the surface.

A part-timer on a red Santa-themed bike was trapped in the crowd with a phone and an insulated bag, presumably after someone ordered something to this area without thinking. These human shields apparently made it difficult for those girls to attack, so Miss Sprengel slipped past the poor part-timer and kept walking. She was starting to think using a bike might be fun because she had seen a Christmas-themed rental bike stand that formed a metal tree by attaching a ton of bikes to a revolving door made from cross-shaped metal poles.

(I’m sure they can guess where I’m headed, so will they panic if I arrive ahead of schedule?)

The naked little girl pulled her red cloth in closer and smiled coldly. The danger of being her favorite was obvious enough from that boy who was approaching death due to an unexpected kiss from her.

The thorns of this rose would harm all life around her.

She cut across District 15 which continued to party like they were in Sodom (which shouldn’t have been much of a surprise for a city built by Aleister) and she approached the neighboring district.

That was District 7.

But just before she arrived, a black shooting star fell toward her head.

Misaka Mikoto had dropped straight down with an iron sand sword made by gathering up all the iron sand she could find and shaping it into a rapidly-vibrating sword.

Anna simply held up her small hand.

But her fingers were crossed in an unusual way for simply spreading your hand out.

That was enough to stop an attack capable of slicing right through an armored train.

“And this is unbearably boring, Misaka Mikoto. You were somewhat interesting back when you were blurring the line between science and magic with the A.A.A., but no longer. Now you’re just plain old strong. You can increase your parameters all you like, but your movements themselves are so one-note. I’m not interested in an event boss that requires the strongest equipment, so get lost already.”

“!?”

Mikoto did not expect a clean hit.

The instant she tried to push her way through, it was not Anna Sprengel who was destroyed. It was one of the metal trees found here and there in District 15. It was a rental bike stand made by attaching all the bikes to metal poles to form a tree.

A large cloud of snow scattered into the air around her landing point.

Disconcerting cracks ran through the entire metal and concrete stairway Anna stood on. The metal poles were sliced to pieces and the seemingly ten-year-old girl was slammed into the ground along with the wreckage of the many bikes.

They were rental products, so they did not use anything fancy like carbon or aluminum frames.

That meant Mikoto could control them via magnetism.

(I don’t have to defeat her. If I can crush her under all these scraps and keep her from moving, she won’t be able to cause any more trouble. Once she’s caught, I can apply even more pressure from all directions with my magnetism to really trap her!!)

“This will get you nowhere.” Those words mercilessly left the rubble to pierce through the girl’s heart. “I said I wasn’t interested in raw strength. Because I already know who wins in a contest like that.”

It was like a volcano had erupted.

Concrete shards and sharp rebar scattered every which way. Misaka Mikoto (and Shokuhou Misaki who was clinging to her hips) were blown away in a tailspin. They were launched at a high angle, so instead of falling back to the ground, Mikoto planted her feet on the wall of a nearby building to stand on it.

“What… just happened!?”

“Wait, what is that?”

Mikoto and Shokuhou’s questions were subtly different.

When Mikoto blinked her eyes and took another look, she noticed a translucent figure standing next to Anna Sprengel. It held a small fist straight up in a silly kind of way.

What was it?

She honestly did not know.

It looked like a humanoid silhouette about as tall as an adult man, but it had large, swan-like wings growing from its back, and its entire head had been transformed into a twisted falcon, eagle, or some other bird of prey. It gave off a pale platinum glow and there was no mistaking it for an ordinary person. But despite the sinister silhouette, a glowing halo hovered above its man-eating head.

Anyone would know what that symbolized.

Even children’s picture books used that to signify an angel.

Mikoto felt a terrible sense of wrongness, disgust, and rejection crawling up her spine, like she had seen a maggot-ridden rotting corpse being named the winner of a beauty pageant and no one was questioning it.

That thing was wrong.

This was not about the division between science and magic. Even Mikoto, a science worshiper who knew nothing of the occult, could tell this was blasphemous.

That was the only word she could think of for this being that shattered people’s ordinary values just by existing.

“''Aiwass,''” bluntly whispered the little girl lazily covering her nudity with a thin cloth.

[[Image:GT_Index_v02_178-179.jpg|thumb]]

Was that its name? Mikoto was not even sure her ears had heard it correctly. If she analyzed the high frequencies and low frequencies with an auditory device, she might find it was pronounced entirely differently.

At any rate, this was on another level altogether.

It may even have been the source that shared its “power” with the monster known as Anna Sprengel.

But Misaka Mikoto forced herself to take a positive view of the situation.

“We drew this out of her. That means we managed to break through that confident smile of hers.”

“U-u-um, Misaka-san? I realllly doubt my Mental Out is going to work on that falcon angel, so if you’re done with me, could I head back to that boy’s hospital bed and—”

“That means the real battle has finally begun!! We’re on the right track here. If we keep going like this, we can force Anna to use up everything at her disposal!!”

“Please just let me leave!!!!!!”

The little girl looked up at them from the ground.

She was no longer smiling.

Anna Sprengel spoke with that bizarre monster by her side.

She did not even glance toward that reliable partner.

“Do not come out when I have not called for you, dullard. You’re ruining my fun.”

Misaka Mikoto boiled over.

She thought her vision had gone entirely red.

Anna had possessed a means of winning at any time, but she had chosen not to use it. She had dragged out the fight while dancing elegantly along the line between life and death, like she was trying to draw out every last drop of blood.

Did she really not have anything more to her?

Did she not have an earnest desire she could not wait a second longer to fulfill or an anxiety that things would never be the same again if she screwed things up here? Did she not experience impatience or hatred so intense she lost sight of herself? Was she really filled with so much confidence she could take as many detours as she liked and choose as many methods and options as she wanted to try out?

Even though Mikoto had to worry about all the unrelated people who were injured, the definite threat to the hospital, and the microbes eating away at that boy’s life from within?

“Give it a rest, you—”

Mikoto gathered strength in her brow and clenched her teeth so hard she thought they might break.

She prepared to let out a roar.

But just before she could, Miss Sprengel sighed and said more.

“Because, dullard, I can slaughter them instantly even without your help.”