Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Biohacker Chapter5 (section)

===Part 17===

“Move.”

Kamijou clenched his teeth.

Not only had he fought on the unfamiliar territory of a mountain slope, but his opponent had been able to change the entire environment at will. He had not at all managed to pace himself. His legs were already trembling.

But it was not over yet.

He had not come here to defeat the enemy. It was all meaningless unless he saved a certain girl.

“Move, move, move! We need to get moving or we won’t find Mitsuari!!”

The younger two assassins sighed while going along with it. When people were cornered, they tended to follow one of a few different patterns, but one of those was to just do ''something'' with all their might. It might look productive, but they were actually shutting down their thoughts and just tackling the problem head on. When you wanted to open a safe’s lock in a limited amount of time, trying to brute force all the combinations was not exactly a logical plan.

Besides.

The oldest esper had been defeated, but she was not dead.

Was it really right to leave her unguarded while heading out to rescue the survivor?

“(Not that I want him asking me to stay behind. I don’t want to imagine a one-on-one round two against her if she wakes up again.)”

“(We know how to defeat her, but only he could go through with such a risky plan. I doubt I could manage that even if I adjusted our emotional distance.)”

Instead of wanting to do something, he could not bear to do nothing.

That was a common failure for amateurs, but that did not mean they could not appreciate it.

Rikuri whispered as if gently butting in. But not to Kamijou who had no idea what he was even doing. She was speaking to Kumokawa Seria who still had some mental flexibility left.

“What do we do about the Beginning Child?”

“If we don’t find Mitsuari, I will take care of her,” replied Kumokawa with a heavy sigh. “Mitsuari would be the best choice since she has already proven she can manage it, but ''I can produce a similar effect without using an esper power.''”

“Calming her down is great and all, but doesn’t the Board Chairman want to silence her no matter what it takes? The boy saved her, but can she really survive for much longer regardless?”

“That isn’t an issue either. There are plenty of people who would treat her with the utmost care after hearing Aleister doesn’t want her around. An old man I know happens to be one of those and he is fairly sensible for that sort of person. ''Relatively speaking, anyway''.”