Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume4 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 13===

Union Station’s interior looked like a fashionable shopping mall. It had a vast ceiling, long escalators, and spiral staircases. If it was full of people, Kamijou might have felt like he had wandered into the world of a movie.

It turned out coin-operated lockers were not very common in America.

Instead, they had something like a hotel cloakroom to store luggage. There would ordinarily be an employee at the counter, but not right now.

Kamijou climbed over and checked inside.

He already knew what to check for: 28th – UST 5 AA Secret. He checked the labels on the steel racks and saw the luggage was organized by three alphanumeric characters.

“This is it.”

He pulled out 5AA and brought it to the counter. The girl’s face crumpled as soon as she saw it. Melzabeth had left it here because she could not have her family running across it at home.

So what was it?

Who said it had to be something she felt guilty about?

“Uh…”

It was a small box in pretty wrapping paper.

She had made sure to have a separate present for the girl who hated having her birthday combined with Christmas.

“Ahh…”

A card was held below the crisscrossing ribbon and Kamijou could read the handwritten message without needing the Transla-Pen: Happy birthday, Helcalia.

This was not vague circumstantial evidence.

It was unique material evidence of happiness.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”

Helcalia curled up, clutched the box to her chest, and bawled her eyes out.	

It had nothing to do with a new weapon or super technology.

It was the same gentle secret found in any family.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! For doubting, for not trusting! Mama!! Ahh, why couldn’t I!? Why!? It was so obvious!! I should have known!!!!!!”

The Transla-Pen’s output was a mess, but it may have been the girl’s actual words that were a mess.

“Listen, Helcalia.” Kamijou kneeled down to her eye level. “People lie and they keep things to themselves. I doubt there’s a single person out there that doesn’t. And you don’t become a perfect person once you grow up and reach a certain age. But,” he added to begin a verbal counterattack. “''Your mom isn’t the kind of person who keeps secrets that would hurt people or trap them.''

“Ahh…”

“''That much I know to be true. I tracked down this answer, so I won’t let anyone say it isn’t true.''”

“Ahhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

She could not get any more words out.

He had found an awful answer. A notorious IT company had cruelly used the misunderstandings between a mother and daughter until a third party was forced to reveal the secret Melzabeth Grocery had wanted to keep hidden. Her daughter Helcalia had seen the present before her birthday.

But.

By revealing this without giving up, he had the opportunity to take this to the next step. He had just barely avoided the worst possible option where they denied someone’s good nature and sent them to the depths of hell just because they seemed suspicious and untrustworthy. Shining a light in the darkness had revealed something unpleasant, but because he had leaned forward and stretched out his hand despite the damage it caused, he had acquired this final opportunity.

He could still save Melzabeth Grocery.

That mother had been caught between good and evil, but in the very end, she had chosen to protect her daughter. She had worried for so long that she had done the wrong thing. Kamijou had made it this far, so as long as he kept going, he knew he would be able to grab that drowning hand.

That was a power found in anyone’s right hand.

“There you are.”

Then he heard an unexpected voice.

That was all it took for young Helcalia to faint, like something had forced her consciousness away.

Kamijou supported her small body and laid her down on the floor before turning around to find Stiyl Magnus in the station. Had he performed a magic search, or had he simply heard Helcalia crying in the empty city?

Stiyl would still think Melzabeth was a villain.

He only believed the things he had seen for himself.

“This is an emergency and even a Saint like Kanzaki has disappeared, so I think we need to be very cautious with Helcalia Grocery as a daughter of one of the villains. Hand her over. This is too much for you to handle.”

“Not happening.”

The pointy-haired boy bluntly refused, gently placed the wrapped present on the unconscious girl’s stomach, and moved himself between her and Stiyl.

Stiyl Magnus wielded magic.

It was powerful, but Imagine Breaker was effective against the occult.

With his right fist, he could save this girl who had nowhere else to turn. And he was willing to fight a wielder of the supernatural to do that.

“Helcalia, I promise you I will save your mom no matter what. I will eliminate all suspicion surrounding her and bring back the life you two once had.”

She could not hear him since she was unconscious, but Kamijou strongly believed the words were still meaningful.

“So let me be clear: you have nothing to worry about.”

The rune magician’s only response was an exasperated and smoky sigh.

That was all it took to switch him on.

“Do you understand…”

Laminated cards flew like confetti. The rune cards pasted themselves along the walls and floor, fully covering up the original colors.

“…the situation here?”

“Oh? Are you sure ''you'' do?” scoffed Othinus from Kamijou’s shoulder. “With that Amakusa Saint gone, the magic side seems pretty short on good will in this city. Now, you might have no reason not to kill Kamijou Touma, but are you prepared for the grimoire library to know what you did? She has a perfect memory, if you recall. Make one little mistake and she will never forget it.”

The priest laughed bitterly at himself.

“True, she’d probably hold a grudge if I killed you with my runes.”

It took less than a second.

It happened so smoothly Kamijou actually missed the moment it happened.

[[Image:GT_Index_v04_192.jpg|thumb]]

''Bang!! Bang bang bang!!

“So I had an idea.”

The sweet cigarette smoke was joined by a different smokey scent.

It smelled a lot like fireworks.

The obvious cards had been a bluff to distract from what Stiyl Magnus held in his right hand.

(A…phone?)

“If I used ''this thing'' I found in the Academy City base, no one would ever suspect it was me even if they did find your corpse. They would assume someone on the science side did it, don’t you think?”

(Oh…right. That sand magician is still out there. So it doesn’t make sense for Stiyl of all people to leave Index all alone. The only reason he would do that is to avoid having her perfect memory remember something unpleasant. So he was planning to kill me from the moment he left the diner.)

“A dro- bwah!? Agh…you…cough! Used a drone!?”

“Such a tragic accident. One of these hybrid weapons – did they call them Five Overs – ''went berserk'' in unmanned mode.”

Kamijou could not get any more words out.

Instead, he tumbled down the escalator.