Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume5 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 12===

With a deep rumble, Kihara Hasuu was suddenly launched somewhere. Someone from a certain world might have called it a different phase. The people who had long lived in the deepest parts of Academy City might have called it the Imaginary Number District.

Either way, he had been cut away from the ordinary world while standing right alongside the others.

Had it only happened because he had left the confines of humanity, or had he been swallowed whole by the fluctuations caused by toying with the unstable Taboo?

Qliphah Puzzle 545 stood in that lonely world. The only other inhuman being was the only other person here.

“No.”

Kihara Hasuu himself had to be the most surprised.

First, a demon had suddenly shown up and rescued Risako, the only one capable of keeping Frillsand #G, the original owner of the Taboo, wandering up on the surface, and now his fortress was collapsing.

His logic was in tatters and the young girl’s emotions had rejected him.

He himself had said he had reproduced his mind based on Frillsand #G but several of the details differed. He said if he linked himself to the earth’s core, he could leave the Taboo without being destroyed and frying the city. He said he could avoid destroying all of the lab equipment he might want to use with his newfound immortality. So he had used Risako to stop Frillsand #G from interfering.

An important fact was hidden in all that.

He did not have complete control over himself. Once Risako was taken from him, he could not stop her from summoning Frillsand #G to forever interfere with his plans. Once that happened, he could never again restrain her and incorporate her into those plans.

His territory had always been this place deep underground. In fact, he had failed to develop a method of escaping the Imaginary Number District. The demon girl slowly approached the trapped ghost.

She was a higher-level spiritual being than him.

But more than that…

“N-no…”

He shook his head, forgetting all about the fear of being annihilated.

He was brimming with rage over something that made no sense to him.

He was still a scientist, so he could not let this slide.

“I did not implant her with a false desire!! The chainsaw, the bloodshed, the deadly force – that really was the kind of strength Risako-kun wanted. That’s what gave me an opening in the first place!! So what is this about making people smile? How did she reach that false answer!?”

“Kee hee hee. Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t expect much more from ''a mere ghost''.” The demon laughed. The being who had twisted the girl’s answer grabbed her newspaper skirt and curtsied. “FYI: humans have more than one desire. Their one heart contains several desires, both large and small. It’s kind of like a bunch of grapes, really. They’re always in conflict and whichever one wins guides their actions in the end. A part of Risako did want to protect her loved ones even if it meant cutting down the villain attacking them. But so what? Another part of her wanted to reject any and all violence. Just like a part of you might want to wear pants today, but another part might want to wear a skirt.”

“You mean you tricked her, you…you demon?”

“Maybe this was too complicated for you sciency types who get all whiny when something doesn’t have a single clear answer. But keep in mind that I’m the demon who controls the mood of war. Demons are experts at twisting people’s desires ''to trick them into thinking a specific desire will bring them happiness'', right?”

That was why god would never forgive the devil no matter how many smiles he created.

God just could not bear to watch the people smiling happily while clutching the leaves they thought were money.

“Also.”

“?”

“Now that Risako has rejected you and your plan to mess with the core is stalled, you’re basically already defeated. But do you really think ''she'' is going to leave that kind of loose end unresolved? Now that the original owner of the unstable Taboo has regained control, that scary young lady will be coming for you.”

Kihara Hasuu looked to his surroundings. He knew exactly who his enemy was this time: Frillsand #G. She wanted Risako’s safe return more than anything and had been doing everything she could to attack the Taboo from the outside.

With that protection gone and his fortress walls breached, he could easily imagine what would be rushing toward him.

(This isn’t a problem.)

After dying once, he knew the fear of annihilation.

You were hit with a sense of loss very different from mere pain. And it wasn’t even the lower-level animalistic instincts that provide a fear of losing blood, an inability to endure suffering, or a rejection of losing your life.

''He couldn’t continue his research.

''The ideas he carried inside would vanish into the ether, never to be realized.

What greater fear was there? He refused to again feel the great loss of knowing he could never enjoy the greatest entertainment there was.

The fear at the very core of his being squeezed at his heart once more.

And in a way, fear had a way of fanning the flames of people’s fighting spirit.

So he would take this as seriously as possible.

(Frillsand #G and I are both artificial ghosts, so it will not end immediately! And if the conditions are right, I can stop her without using Risako-kun. For example…yes, Sodate-kun is in a similar situation, so if I drive him to the edge and place him up on the ceiling instead…!!)

He may indeed have had the perfect plan for fighting Frillsand #G.

Qliphah Puzzle 545 had evaded him thus far, but if he intentionally summoned Frillsand #G here and got that demon caught in the middle of the artificial ghost battle, he might be able to use the resulting confusion to buy himself some time. Sure, he would break apart and fry the city or the entire world if he left the Taboo, but Frillsand #G might not be able to take back complete control of the endlessly-expanding Taboo right away. If he bought enough time, he could use the magnetosphere to link himself to the massive dynamo in the earth’s core and take control of it for himself. Then he could leave the Taboo and travel anywhere in the world.

That plan was wiped from his mind by what happened next.

Several radiant objects pierced through his back and out from his chest.

They were logs with the ends sharpened like pencils. They were bound by rope in a crisscrossing pattern to create what was originally used as a brutal fence. They pierced the ghost’s body and tore apart the wreckage of the chainsaw he still held. Rainbow flames flickered from his wounds, perhaps due to interference from the soot created as the logs burned.

This was a yarai.

Instead of a weapon, it was actually used by ''torture and execution experts'' to surround an execution ground.

One had even made an appearance on the 25th. It had been used by a hakama girl with long curly silver hair who had sacrificed her life to save an unfamiliar child and some unexpected companions.

Kihara Hasuu muttered in utter shock.

[[Image:GT_Index_v05_BW10.jpg|thumb]]

“An…”

He ignored the pain.

The surprise won out. He had never known the simple act of turning his head to look behind him could be so supremely difficult.

Had the decision to fight for a stranger finally summoned a being like this?

Was he finally that close to death?

“''An angel''?”

The girl wore the blazer uniform of some school or another.

The girl had long hair with one thin stand worn up on the side.

The girl was known for her timid glasses and her large chest.

Her name was Kazakiri Hyouka.

This was not Vivana Oniguma, the actual owner of the yarai.

Because no matter how much anyone might want it, the dead could not be brought back.

Because the real world was not that convenient.

But someone had watched the 25th from the background, picked up on that girl’s feelings, and stood up to deliver the finishing blow in her place.

Kihara Hasuu’s ignorance of this girl proved just how low-level a Kihara he was.

The demon grinned.

“It’s true Frillsand #G might take back control of the Taboo, ''but I never said she was the scary young lady.'' I mean, have you forgotten that you already defeated and neutralized her back during Handcuffs? Hee hee. Whether she takes back control or not, she can’t defeat you.”

So she had instead relied on the girl who knew the Taboo better than anyone and called the Imaginary Number District her home.

In a clash against more malice, Kihara Hasuu may have survived.

That had nothing to do with logic or skill. On an instinctual or conceptual level, a Kihara’s evil may have been enough to survive an attack from a demon or ghost.

But this was different.

Kazakiri Hyouka was a collection of the AIM diffusion fields produced by the city’s people. She could be seen as the collective will of Academy City and she had given a clear answer to this evil: ''Go away. We don’t want you here.

“An artificial angel feels like cheating to me. And she’s really strong now that it’s all gone public and she can directly ask the Sisters for permission to place a burden on them. Hmm, but she’s apparently the type to worry over things all on her own, so if you’d never turned yourself into a ghost, maybe you wouldn’t have had to encounter this kind of terror. Oh, and don’t you dare claim this came out of nowhere.”

The demon smiled thinly at the twisted ghost as he vanished.

That endlessly cruel expression was the perfect last sight for such an evil man. There was no promise of salvation in that smile.

“She’s been here in Academy City from the very beginning. Really, you’re the one who doesn’t belong after deciding to intrude on the peaceful city that boy wants to protect☆”

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