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

===Part 1===

It doesn’t matter which side anyone is on. Let’s combine all the strange tech seen in Operation Handcuffs and resurrect the dead.

That was the plan from Alice’s world, which sounded ridiculous in hindsight.

But what if Kamijou hadn’t attempted it alone? What if someone far more talented and wicked than a simple high schooler had attempted it in the real world?

“…”

Kamijou Touma stared at the phone receiver for a while after the call ended.

Payphones mostly had the same features as an ordinary phone, but they unfortunately lacked a redial button. And during his New Year’s Tokyo survival life, he couldn’t hope to guess the right number with only 49 yen to work with. It was already looking like they would have to survive until the ATMs were back on nothing but a small convenience store chocolate bar and a packet of sold-separately dressing.

But who were Kihara Hasuu and Risako? Where in Academy City were they? Needless to say, Academy City was a large place covering a third of Tokyo where 2.3 million people lived.

(Think back.)

Accelerator had hung up without giving him any answers.

Accelerator wasn’t the type to bother with riddles. He had the best brain in the city, so he had likely skipped several steps to reach the answer on his own. That meant the necessary clues were already here and Accelerator hadn’t seen a need to state the obvious.

(The answer isn’t hidden somewhere like District 15 or 20 that hasn’t shown up at all during this mess. The answer is right there in everything I’ve already seen. And Accelerator would know what the others were doing too. That means Benizome, the Rakuoka siblings, Youen and Kaai, and Frillsand #G. Could there be a hint in something the others saw?)

Drencher, the Anti-Skill woman, and even the Anti-Skill Negotiator had shown them that Academy City’s adults weren’t all bad – even if that last one had had a messed-up way of showing it.

They had risked their lives to fight for someone else.

Everything would fall apart if he ignored their resolve and determination now.

With that in mind, he raised his head.

“Damn, that’s right. There’s still Frillsand #G.”

“Um?”

Still holding onto him from the side, Alice shook her fine blonde hair, wiggled the fluffball on the back of her apron, and tilted her smiling head. She still didn’t seem bothered by her short sleeves. Now, was Accelerator aware this small storybook girl was here? It wouldn’t surprise Kamijou to find out that ''Alice had mysteriously escaped his notice.

“The real one was so powerful that simply seeing her was enough to nearly kill us. We didn’t even have a chance to make out what she was talking about.”

He had admittedly written it off as nothing more than her being a creepy ghost, but he couldn’t do that here.

“But ''where did she appear from''?”

He couldn’t always rely on what had happened in Alice’s world since she had distorted so many factors, but there she had walked around the concourse and suddenly appeared from the next room by passing through the wall. That meant she wasn’t bound by the laws of physics but still followed the paths on the map to an extent. She did not suddenly teleport from point to point like Shirai Kuroko.

Then realistically speaking, how could she have caught them by surprise at that covered bus stop?

They would have noticed her approaching from a distance. Or rather, they would have collapsed sooner. She hadn’t passed through the wall of a nearby building either. Which only left one option:

“''Underground,''” he muttered. That was the only way for her to get so close without them noticing. “She emerged from underground. Like someone floating up to the ocean surface. It was the same with Rakuoka Houfu. I thought he was underground because Kaai was in the sewers, but what if that wasn’t the only reason?”

He heard a solid metallic sound.

It came from Rakuoka Houfu, who had shrunk down to a small middle-aged man. Anti-Skill had placed him on a stretcher. He had fought Tessou Tsuzuri who had pushed back with extraordinary strength and he had been sniped a few times by Benizome, so he was in no state to answer any questions.

For just a moment, Anti-Skill stopped working.

He couldn’t get up from the stretcher, but he managed to reach out and touch the forehead of a woman knocked out by a drug. They didn’t say a word. Neither sibling had lived a laudable life, but he still deserved a chance to reconfirm the weight of what he had risked his life and taken bullets to protect.

Finally, Anti-Skill loaded Rakuoka Houfu onto the ambulance.

Whatever was on her mind, Shirai Kuroko sighed while watching from a distance. Kamijou had not played a role in Handcuffs, so he couldn’t know what feelings that sigh carried.

“Well, there is that place hidden deep below District 10.” The answer came with surprising casualness from the cream-colored liquid violating gravity by spiraling around Youen. It transformed into the other twin like a water spirit (that looked so filthy you would take poison damage if you touched it). “Youen and I didn’t see Handcuffs through to the end, but I did notice something strange while enjoying my lovely sewer vacation. Everything down there is designed to ''avoid'' a certain area. We didn’t care about it, but that might have been the goal for most of the criminals caught up in Handcuffs.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“What else?” The liquid girl seemed confused he didn’t know. “I’m talking about ''Academy City’s Greatest Taboo.''”

Hanatsuyu Kaai went on to explain something unbelievable.

According to her, Academy City strongly promoted recycling since they could not mine their own resources, but that wasn’t enough to break the city’s reliance on importing resources. However, the amount of materials brought in and the amount of garbage produced didn’t match up. For some reason, the amount of garbage was larger. That violated conservation of mass, so the numbers only added up if there was a secret underground passageway through which materials were transported.

However, the legend of a secret passageway was only a bluff meant to hide the truth and Academy City’s Greatest Taboo was ''something else''.

The real answer was Operation Handcuffs’ ending point.

While so many criminals met tragic ends, only a few experts like Kihara Hasuu and Frillsand #G would have arrived at that true darkness. If some part of the supposedly resolved incident remained, it had to be there.

Youen sighed and continued for her twin.

“If it’s below District 10’s outer wall, your best bet is probably to descend into the subway and travel as far south as you can get. Although Kaai said the underground infrastructure is built to avoid the Taboo.”

“Hmm. Is it really that complicated?” asked Kamijou. “If he really was working with Frillsand #G, then Drencher must have reached that Taboo as well. His mobile base was left in the parking lot of the abandoned leisure spa next door, so we should be able to reach our destination by heading underground from here.”

“I see. And even if he did seal up the underground passageway, we can break through a random wall to make a shortcut. A biological acid or a methane explosion should do the trick.”

“Youen? Since when are you helping me?”

“What? You’re going to make use of us criminals again, aren’t you? Then hurry it up. If I have to risk my life, I want to get it over with as soon as possible. Even if urban pests and vermin tend not to hibernate, it still isn’t easy chemically guiding them during a late December night.”

“No.” She made it sound like a foregone conclusion, but Kamijou shook his head. “You’ve done enough already. I mean, none of this would have even happened if the Overhunting hadn’t crashed. You have no stake in this fight, so you don’t need to risk your life.”

“Do you have a death wish? I’ve only heard of Kihara Hasuu and never actually met him, but if he reached the Taboo and is waiting there now, then he’s an even ''deeper'' part of the darkness than me. Did you think bringing ordinary Anti-Skill and Judgment with you would be enough?”

“No, I didn’t. But if I used you, I wouldn’t be any better than that Anti-Skill Negotiator.”

“But-”

Youen started to say more, so he grabbed her skinny shoulders and crouched down.

He put himself at her eye level before continuing.

“Please. This isn’t the first time you’ve saved my life.”

“?”

Oh, right. She didn’t remember what happened in Alice’s world.

Not that it mattered. He would ''never forget'' any of the things that little villain had done for him.

“If I owed you anything more, I’d never be able to repay you, so I want you to stay where it’s safe.”

She fell silent at that.

But the less sensible twin started trembling.

“F-first he asks for help to save that muscle man and now he has the audacity to say he cares about her safety? And Youen is falling for it? …Yes. Oh, god, yes!! Youen’s heart and body are falling for a bankrupt boy with only 49 yen to his name and I’m helpless to do anything at all to stop it! I-is this what they call NTR? I can already tell this will defile my soul in ways I never even imagined! Gulp!!”

“Shut up, Kaai!! I-I am not falling for him in any way shape or form!!”

“I am not bankrupt!! Don’t even suggest something so horrifying!!”

Kamijou beckoned Shirai Kuroko over and she explained the situation.

“Yomikawa-san was sent away after getting a splint for her arm and the other Anti-Skill officers are staying here. They need to preserve the scene of the crime, quarantine and exterminate the pests and vermin, and keep an eye on the recaptured prisoners. I will be heading underground to tie up the last loose ends.”

“Got it. So is it just the two of us paying Academy City’s Greatest Taboo a visit?”

“The girl is coming too☆”

“Hey, no fair!!” shouted Youen, forcing Shirai to hold out a hand to silence her.

“You have no business doing this either. And you were shot!” she shouted to him, looking like she had a headache.

“But we’re the only two who can do this. I’m sick of forcing the risk onto people just because they’re villains, so I’m going too. I want to create a version of the 29th I’m satisfied with.”

“Okay, that’s enough!!”

Unable to just watch any longer, Youen popped off the rubber cap of a test tube and then Kamijou felt something hot at the center of his gut. Right at the bullet wound.

“It’s a nontoxic mold. It can only place a thin film over the wound, but that’s better than nothing, right?”

“Mold?”

“If you don’t want it, you can remove it by rubbing on some ethanol, but that would probably cause the wound to open up all the way, killing you.”

This exchange left Shirai Kuroko looking about as exasperated as humanly possible. Was that directed at Youen herself or at Kamijou for speaking so casually with such an unmanageable villain?

“I really think I should leave you here with the prisoners where Anti-Skill can protect you,” she said.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m willing to put ''myself'' through hell as many times as it takes.”

“Why do I get the feeling that right there is the entire problem with you?”

Shirai sighed in utter annoyance, but she didn’t stop him either. She was still a middle school 1st year, so whether she was consciously aware of it or not, she may have been reluctant to approach this unseen Taboo alone.

Frillsand #G and Kihara Hasuu. Youen had assured him this darkness was ''deeper'' than her.

Fortunately, there were plenty of stairways leading underground.

“Let’s get going.”

“Sure.”