Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter4 (section)

===Part 18===

This time, Resanerié was not messing around.

Misaka Mikoto was nothing but trouble for her. Her top priority was Yugure Kanaria who knew the truth, so she wanted to deal with Mikoto as quickly as possible and hunt down Kanaria along with the outsider Uiharu.

Even if Resanerié’s side had control of the School Garden’s data network, Mikoto’s power could likely break through all the security and transmit the necessary data. If the fatal flaw in their independence was revealed, no one could predict which side the students of the five schools would take.

So she came in fast and hard.

It was like a silver gale.

The halberd technique was already enough to overwhelm Mikoto, but now its destructive power was boosted by her esper power to the point that she could easily dislocate her shoulder if she didn’t stretch in advance.

However.

“Now that I know how it works…”

“?”

“Your power doesn’t scare me!!!”

An explosion erupted directly below them.

Mikoto had magnetically pulled on a water pipe until it broke and the fountaining water formed a wall between them.

Resanerié’s power forcibly increased the speed of her weapon, so Mikoto only had to slow it back down to negate that boost. At normal speed, Mikoto could just barely dodge the halberd using her full-body microwave radar.

The axe split the air, but Mikoto had swung her head aside to dodge it while also taking a large jump back.

“You sounded awfully confident when you said the start of our first battle was only a warmup, but if that’s all it was, you wouldn’t have risked it when facing an enemy. You didn’t start using your power right away because you were nervous. You wanted to learn as many of my attacks and idiosyncrasies as you could so you knew when to activate your power to win with ease.”

“…”

“Your power is strong, but it has a time limit,” plainly stated Mikoto. “''Someone told me'' your precious halberd crumbled into rust after our battle on the roof. Your power is a telekinetic control of rust, isn’t it? Once you activate it, you can break all of your limits and fight with such speed you can dislocate your shoulder, but it also causes your weapon to rapidly rust and break apart. How long does it last? 5 minutes? 10? If you run into any surprises and the battle goes on long, your weapon crumbles before you’re done.”

“It’s called Crimson Manager.”

“From what I’ve seen, I doubt it’s only Level 3. If you can pull out rebar and steel beams with that same speed and force, then I bet you could break any bank vault or warship you wanted. That means you’re probably Level 4 like Kuroko. But,” added Misaka Mikoto. “You haven’t reached Level 5.”

A beam of light shined bright.

She had pulled an arcade coin from her pocket and tried to launch it, but the metal coin rusted away before she could accelerate it. The orange beam failed to form a stable line and fanned out toward Resanerié’s right side before vanishing.

Resanerié made her next attack just as the attempt failed.

Mikoto tried to respond with an iron sand sword, but…

(Tch. She can rust my coins and the iron sand!! I’m not sure what her effective range is!!)

But that didn’t matter.

The oxidation of rapid rusting produced heat. A hand warmer was a good example of that.

So Mikoto increased the friction even further to set the collection of iron sand on fire.

Then she sent the wall of flames directly toward Resanerié.

Several dull crashes followed.

Resanerié was launched backwards, where she rolled a few times along the ground while the shoulder of Mikoto’s uniform was torn away by the halberd’s hook. A few centimeters higher and it would have torn off her ear.

Resanerié still hadn’t let go of the halberd.

That insistence must have left her with a few shallow cuts from her own blade as she rolled. She slowly got back up with some red spilling from her cheek.

“I am empress of the Dialine Empire.”

“Why should I care?”

“You don’t know? Because, unlike the rest of you, I must eventually return to my home country. And what happens to the Academy City esper power developed inside my brain then?”

“…”

Did it all stem from this?

After spending years developing that power, Academy City would not want her to bring it back to her country. So once her schooling here was complete, the adults would insist on removing her power. Something would happen to preserve the secrets of esper development. So was she trying to eliminate the adult teachers and researchers who would attempt to steal her power from her?

Mikoto considered it, but she shook her head.

She wielded a halberd.

She wore riding breeches under her skirt.

She had been showing off hints at a deeper personal problem this entire time.

“You’re the captain of the equestrian combat club.”

“?”

“You learned to wield that giant halberd with one hand so you could fight while holding the reins and you still prefer to wear riding breeches below your uniform. But there is one thing you’re missing.”

Namely…

“''What happened to your horse?''”

“''Bistorio was forced to retire after breaking a leg during a training accident. And his genes weren’t considered valuable enough to let him live on as a stud.''”