Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Virtual On Chapter2 (section)

===Part 13===

The reality of it seemed to permeate not just his eyes and ears, but his nose and mouth as well.

It was less like it was being displayed in some way and more like he really had been sent “here”.

The bundles of artificial muscle could be heard expanding and contracting. The joints grinded like a car’s shift lever.

The vividness seemed to pierce his skin and dive deep inside his body with a density not found in the real world.

“…”

From within the cramped cockpit, Kamijou Touma looked to the concrete floor he was supposedly actually standing on.

There was no spiky-haired boy there.

It was of course possible the display was set up not to show him there, but he recalled what Aogami Pierce had said: Kamijou Touma had suddenly vanished before his eyes.

In that case, where was he now?

Was he inside or outside the Virtuaroid? …Or was there some 3rd possibility he could not even guess at???

He pictured the empty space in the strange video file after the girl disappeared.

It was an odd sense of unease, like clicking link after link while surfing the web and suddenly finding the “back” button and “close” button would not respond.

“Please focus on the battle before your eyes, Touma-sama. It’s starting.”

“…That’s right.”

With the announcement of “get ready”, his unit was given freedom.

This time, he was double checking how well his Defected Temjin could move. He ignored his damage percentage and relative position to the enemy while he jumped straight up. This space was large enough to forget it was underground, so he did not have to worry about bumping his head.

The cursor controlled by the FCS automatically wavered and then locked on a corner of the ground.

“Lock acquired. Distance to Cypher: 300. You only have one cursor, so keep an eye on the Fei-Yen so as not to let it move freely.”

He ignored Lilina’s report.

He ended the repulsion assistance in midair, twisted his body, spun the unit around, and swung the long, close-range sword named the Blitz Saber to irregularly shift his center of gravity. His unit spun vertically and horizontally. While rotating like a gymnast, he softly placed his feet on the side of one of the many thick columns. Then he moved to the next column. He continued jumping in a triangular pattern.

Even the floating referee sphere seemed disoriented.

“Wow…”

He heard an odd sound from behind as he pulled off the supposedly impossible acrobatics. The unit’s V-Disc was probably turning red hot at frightening speed.

He gained a renewed appreciation of how much more freedom he had.

In the Next Generation Game Virtual-On, movement was achieved through application of dash canceling and vertical canceling, but that usually boiled down to straight lines between points, combinations thereof, right angles, zigzags, and U-turns.

But this was entirely different.

The simple dividing line between movements had vanished after Defecting. He felt like he had much more control over the automatically-controlled turbo repulsion. By intentionally shifting his center of gravity, he could make high-speed reversals or adjust the direction of the turbo, and he could move his upper body and lower body separately. That led to incredible actions reminiscent of a gymnast or a break dancer.

Movement direction usually came down to the 4 cardinal directions, the 4 diagonals, and up and down using jumps, but there was no such limitation after Defecting. Arrows of freedom stuck out in all 360 degrees like a hedgehog. Instead of being able to do anything as long as he came up with the idea, it felt more like his ideas took form directly.

“This would be why a normal Virtuaroid doesn’t stand a chance. It’s like all the other pieces are stuck to the chess board’s squares and can only move on their turn, but this one piece can move anywhere it wants in real time.”

“Touma-sama. Testing your abilities is all well and good, but too many unnecessary movements will delay the battle and possibly earn you a negative judgment. And we are here to practice, so there is no need to attempt a flawless victory. As long as you do not trip and fall down, hits are not a major issue. In fact, I recommend intentionally taking some hits to make yourself look weak. Regardless, please keep the rules in mind.”

“That’s a good…point!”

He leaped from the side of a column and soared through the air. He had clearly passed the limits of a midair dash. Instead of his speed rising evenly with distance and time, he folded up his limbs to increase his aerodynamics and focused his turbo repulsion in the best direction to match the wind and air conditions. That sent him well past the preset top speed.

It only took him a moment to reach the enemy Cypher highlighted by the FCS cursor.

He could ignore the Fei-Yen approaching from elsewhere. The difference in capability was plain, so it could not catch up.

Perhaps because it was an NPC without a will of its own, the Cypher had a weightless, flat-looking visual. It was a plain and natural unit that showed no sign of a unique human inside it.

Kamijou charged in like a meteor and made a direct midair attack with the Blitz Saber.

This was not one of the preset motions.

He only had some colorful buttons and smooth sticks, and yet he had enough freedom to move each of Temjin’s fingers individually. He could not explain how. Instead of knowing the proper commands, it felt like the necessary commands simply appeared in his mind when he thought about what he wanted to do.

He landed while the NPC faltered, circled around behind it, and fired a point-blank series of glowing bullets that were meant to be used at long range. In exchange for the weapon gauge depleting, the Cypher pitched forward and collapsed.

“Legal hit: 2 points.”

Eventually, the unmanned Cypher slowly got back on its feet and made a horizontal slash of its close-range sword while turning around.

The speed was the same.

But the difference in freedom was remarkable. The close-range attack seemed to awkwardly move along fixed rails while Kamijou’s Temjin forced it back with its own close-range sword.

Then his leg flew.

There was no entry on the command list for this attack and it had no weapon gauge.

The kick hit the Cypher in the center of the gut and it rolled on and on along the ground.

And it collided with the Fei-Yen that had been left out thus far.

The two Virtuaroids collapsed together.

“Legal hit with 2 units downed at once: 4 points. Current score: 6 – 0. You’re doing well, Touma-sama.”

After taking a step back, he relocked his long-range weapon.

The Cypher and Fei-Yen squirmed in the middle of the large space for a while.

“Since the two downed units did not recover within 3 seconds, you earn another 2 points. Current score: 8 – 0.”

Their movements seemed awfully slow, but Kamijou could no longer tell if that was due to them being set up for beginners to practice on or due to his senses being sped up by Temjin.

“The Cypher has begun its transformation process. You can obstruct it.”

“No, let’s wait for it. I want to experience its top speed for myself.”

The Cypher forgot to get up, but its arms and legs folded up as it transformed into the sharp silhouette of a fighter jet. Close-range swords appeared on both sides along the edge of the main wings and they sliced toward Kamijou’s Temjin to let its speed do the talking.

The wind roared violently.

But that wind was a Temjin tornado that caught the Cypher’s straight-line path.

The explosive sound arrived after a short delay.

Temjin whirled around as if in a dance using sharp footwork, the centrifugal force of swinging around its Blitz Saber, and the invisible repulsion used for jumping and dashing. He bent over at the last second to avoid Cypher’s charge and made a top speed attack to cross that path.

It was a two-handed close-range attack.

It felt more like hitting a homerun with a bat than slicing with a sword.

With a deafening metallic noise, the Cypher was sent flying. Due to its original speed, it ended up in a crushed state halfway between fighter jet and humanoid and it once more hit the Fei-Yen and sandwiched it against a nearby column.

“Legal hit with 2 units downed at once: 4 points. Current score: 12 – 0. That was pretty decisive.”

The Fei-Yen and Cypher crumbled to the ground like a pizza slowly sliding down after being thrown against the wall.

It was overwhelming.

This was the power of Material Analyze adjustments plus Defecting. It was hardly surprising the NPC Virtuaroids for beginners could not keep up.

“I wouldn’t get anything more out of practicing with them.”

“Then why not finish them off? They’re aligned perfectly for piercing them both at once. Double destruction would probably earn 10 points.”

Kamijou now knew that his speed-focused Preset A functioned properly and that he could pilot it without losing control, so this had gone well.

Index was probably hungry, so he decided to take the standard number of points, finish them off, and end the game.

But then…

“Touma-sama. We have an intruder. A human player. Direction: southwest. Distance: 500. Here they come.”

A gigantic beam of light surged by and scorched the air.

Kamijou’s Temjin moved just before it arrived. He rotated like a figure skater, flipped around, and just barely dodged the high-power laser weapon.

He clicked his tongue as he guessed at the direction the shot had come from and circled behind a column.

(A Raiden…!? But they’ve really focused on firepower!!)

This underground area was hard to get to, so who had bothered coming here?

He wanted to avoid battling others now that he had Defected. He wanted to avoid causing another player to Defect in the same way the Blue Stalker had for him. That said, there was a hurdle stopping him from losing on purpose. When Defected players made rough plays that abandoned the match, their senses would gradually dull until they reached a state similar to sensory deprivation and their personality collapsed. There was ultimately a risk of organ or autonomic nerve failure. There were also rumors of them permanently disappearing under certain conditions, but how far he had to go for that to happen and what exactly it meant were still unknown. He was hesitant to carelessly use up his countdown toward death when he did not know how much was left.

Which meant…

“Lilina! Navigation change! Provide high-speed combat support and switch to quick attacks!! I’ll take them and the NPCs out for both sets before they can Defect like I did!! I’m not going to drag them into this dangerous situation along with me!!”

“Aye, sir! I like the sound of that. A merciless beatdown given with a considerate and peaceful heart? That sounds like your usual routine, Touma-sama.”

“What!? I’m not that kind of boy!!”

There was no cool-off period.

The Raiden must have been given considerable reinforcement with the Material Analyze feature because another beam of light enveloped everything soon thereafter. They had an advantage in a long-range shootout, so Kamijou had his Temjin dash forward to fill the gap.

His ETA was 5 seconds.

Like an anti-ship missile approaching a warship, he skimmed forward at extreme low altitude while dodging the enemy Raiden’s attacks.

Or he meant to, anyway.

The Binary Lotus laser cannon supposedly only stuck out to the side, but it changed direction to swing around behind a giant column.

“!?”

“That was close! Touma-sama, a single hit from Raiden’s laser will blast your unit to smithereens, so be careful!! Keep your balance!!”

That would be impossible for a normal Raiden.

The stress of both their actions rapidly caused the V-Discs on their backs to glow red.

The Binary Lotus laser cannon supposedly provided ultra-high power in exchange for requiring the unit to stop and fire in only one direction, but this Raiden had forcibly swung it around.

Which meant…

“Are they Defected, too!?”

The thick beam of light approached close enough to graze Temjin’s left arm.

“A hit from that means instant death! You have to dodge it!!”

Appearances no longer mattered.

Kamijou’s Temjin dove forward and rolled along the ground.

“That counted as a down and they get 2 points. But it’s better than being destroyed! Well done!!”

He could not continue rolling forever. It was all over if another shot was fired after him. Kamijou’s Temjin spread its legs while lying face down, spun around, regained its mobility like a break dancer, and got back up in a single smooth motion.

Raiden’s giant form was nearby.

For whatever reason, it was customized with a sporty light purple coloration.

“Wha-…!?”

(They’re so close!! But how!?)

Normally thinking, they would not have had time to shift into a high-speed dash using their repulsion so soon after firing. Had they used the Material Analyze feature to thoroughly improve their speed?

“Please focus! Close-range warning!!”

“!!”

The Raiden made a horizontal swing of their close-range weapon that had a bazooka-like silhouette and was more of a blunt weapon than a sword. Kamijou bent at the waist and ducked his upper body to avoid it. With repeated short repulsion dashes, he smoothly slid around and behind the Raiden.

Kamijou’s Blitz Saber gave a roar toward the defenseless back.

A moment later, the Raiden’s Zig-18 bazooka hopped up from below.

But not to target anything.

The ultra-heavy bazooka swung back as if drawing out a semicircle. The Raiden itself formed a large arc with its own body as if performing a bridge.

In other words, the Raiden’s body was dragged backwards in order to aim the bazooka at Kamijou’s Temjin.

His throat went dry.

Temjin leaped to the side and just barely avoided the released explosive.

Before the giant explosion even occurred behind them, Temjin and Raiden had made their next move.

Even the overhead referee sphere was disoriented by their speed.

“So…that’s it!!” shouted Kamijou through clenched teeth.

In the Next Generation Game Virtual-On, attacks from their weapons and their weight after jumping from an elevated position could not even damage the road. That made it easy to forget, but Raiden was heavy. But it also had the power to move its giant body. From there, it came down to how to use that power. It moved its giant body, swung around its colossal weapons, intentionally shifted its center of gravity, and made forcefully sharp turns by tossing itself around. It was on an entirely different level to Temjin which only moved left and right with the unit’s footwork.

The unnaturally quick approach after firing earlier had been done by making use of some kind of “weight” to free itself from its stiffness. For example, it could have struck a nearby wall or column with its Zig-18 bazooka and used the reactionary force to provide some initial speed.

The supposedly heavyweight Raiden ran every which way, made short hops, and attacked from straight above like a meteor. It moved at such dizzying speeds that the FCS cursor could not keep up. Even with the lock display active, he would not hit if he fired. He could not keep up, so he shouted a command.

“Lilina! Cancel the autolock!! I’ll be better off aiming manually!!”

“Aye, sir! Now you’re sounding like a real pilot. But don’t forget the risks!!”

A metallic roar rang out.

Kamijou’s Blitz Saber and Raiden’s bazooka-like Zig-18 were locked together.

Kamijou felt a chill. He took no damage, but he wanted to avoid locking himself in place so close to an enemy with such great firepower. Restricting his freedom of motion was always a bad thing.

(Who is this person…?)

He could not hope to match them. In terms of pure horsepower, the enemy Raiden outdid his own Temjin. He was gradually pushed back.

(A Defected player that butts into NPC battles. …Huh? That sounds familiar. A player who builds up their score by targeting weak NPCs is known as a Hunter and a player that specializes in defeating those Hunters is known as a Hunter Hunter…)

At that point, Kamijou gasped.

Hadn’t Furashina Ririn said that “people like her are known as Hunter Hunters, so you need to be careful”?

And who had that been in reference to?

“''Is that Misaka!?''”

He also recognized the purple coloring from her cheerleader outfit when he saw her in the park.

He received a communication request as if to answer him.

But she may not have known his identity.

“I don’t know who you are…”

The chill in her voice was enough to tell him that.

“And it doesn’t matter what you’re trying to do here. But…”

She paused briefly and seemed to shove something toward him with her words.

“If you continue to use my friend as your stepping stone like you did here, I will tear you apart in Virtual-On until you break.”

The equilibrium shattered.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Wait, Misa-…!!”

The Raiden pushed Temjin’s Blitz Saber away. She then launched a powerful kick toward his gut. Kamijou moved back to negate the impact and had his hands full simply maintaining his balance.

Meanwhile, the Raiden once more opened the Binary Lotus laser cannons like parabolic antennae on her shoulders.

Fear clenched Kamijou’s heart as the color white filled his vision.

But she apparently only intended to blind him. She swept it away from him, perhaps to drive home that this was a warning. The next thing he knew, the Raiden had vanished from his FCS cursor. Misaka Mikoto was nowhere to be found.

Her friend.

A stepping stone.

Practice NPCs.

“What…is going on?”

He received a response from an unexpected place.

“Umm, maybe she meant this?”

“?”

“I was reviewing the records from the previous NPC Cypher and Fei-Yen, and look at this here.”

Lilina opened a new window and called up a battle record video.

Kamijou watched it without expecting much.

But then he thought his heart had frozen over.