Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter2 (section)

===Part 1===

Saten Ruiko was a first year in middle school.

Her hobby was keeping up with the latest trends. That included gathering rumors, especially the creepy urban legends. She didn’t delight in learning about other people’s misfortune and not all urban legends were of the bloody horror variety. For example, there was the story of the Kesaran Pasaran, a white fluffball creature that brought happiness to whoever found it. So all she did was gather every rumor she could find, whether it was good or bad, but she was aware that her methods of gathering information could be a bit lacking in morals.

As an esper, she was officially designated a Level 0.

She felt like she had gotten over her issues with that, but she also had to wonder if fully eliminating that complex would also eliminate any future chance of growth.

The bell signaling afterschool freedom rang.

The black-haired girl with all the latest rumors could look cheerful, but she still carried a lot of baggage inside. But she didn’t let that get her down as she threw open the door where her friend awaited her.

She had arrived at Judgment Branch 177.

“Uiharuuun☆ You in herrre?”

No response.

The lights were on and the A/C was running, so her friend had probably only stepped out for a moment. There were important case files in here, so the door wasn’t meant to be opened by outsiders without a key.

Saten scanned the room from right to left.

“Hmm. If she’s not here, maybe this is my chance to use this.”

She pulled a small plastic bag from her skirt pocket. It contained a powder even redder than lipstick.

A video teaching how to make professional grade fake blood used for filming movies had gone viral. This recipe was notable for being made from black bean cider, ketchup, and other ordinary items found at any discount store, so it was being used in a lot of prank videos. As a modern girl, Saten was more interested in making a viral video than in the cruel fake blood itself, but it was human nature to want to try it out.

Anyone could make it, it could be stored long term when powdered, and you only had to add it to water and microwave it when you wanted to use it.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted to use it for, but it did sound convenient.

“Let’s see. Measure out the right amount of water in the cup, stir the red powder in, and stick it in the microwave. Wow, they’ve got an industrial 1500 watt one. I only need to heat it for 40 seconds in this.”

Never mind that people often talked to themselves and hummed when preparing to prank someone because that emphasized that it was only a joke and helped reduce the guilt they felt on a subconscious level.

“Done!”

The mug was now filled with a warm and thick dark red liquid.

The color, texture, and even rusty smell were incredible. She even felt faint when she thoughtlessly took a deep breath. It contained black bean cider, starch, strawberry oden, ketchup, paint, and more. According to the VR instruction video that worked by using her sideways phone as simple goggles, it dried in around 15 minutes after touching air just like real blood and, even after being wiped up with a rag, it would produce the same bluish-white light after being sprayed with a luminol reagent. It was so realistic and hard to distinguish from real blood that it had a substance clearly not found in real blood intentionally mixed in to avoid misunderstandings if Anti-Skill or Judgment were called in after a prank gone wrong.

Still, it was a thick, dark red liquid.

Leaving the mug sitting out made for a nice psychological horror image. Add a few hairs to the rim of the red mug and Uiharu would probably fall on her rear in fright when she returned, but that wasn’t enough. Saten pulled out a few plastic bags about the size of the soy sauce packets taped to convenience store bentos, poured some of the fake blood into each one, and stuck her hand inside her uniform. The packets were made to be sealed with the heat of your mouth after you filled them with soy sauce or whatever other condiment you wanted. Discount stores had pretty much anything you could want these days.

“Hot, hot, hot. One here, one here, and maybe one in my hair.”

She couldn’t have the red mug and spoon giving away the prank, so she brought them to the water heater area and stuck them inside the AI robot dishwasher. Then she took a look around. Blades like a kitchen knife or fruit knife would be too dangerous for a prank, so she was hoping for a blunt object.

She saw a black plastic object leaning against the wall nearby.

“Huh, what’s this?”

She reached out toward the long, heavy rod. It was as long as or a bit longer than a bamboo sword and seemed sturdier than the brooms or mops that students uninterested in cleaning the classroom would use more as toys. Was it something like a pestle stretched out nice and long? It said “police staff” on the side, but she wasn’t sure how to read the kanji since she relied on her phone so much for that kind of thing.

She did a quick search on her phone.

“Police staff. So it’s like a bigger version of a police baton?”

It looked like it was used to hit and arrest people. Unlike a special police baton, it wasn’t collapsible. Someone could maybe hold it to look threatening as a guard at the entrance of the branch office, but it looked unwieldy to walk around with. She wasn’t sure if it was really used when out on patrols, or if it was only meant for training.

Her eyes widened when she saw the label near the grip: polyhydroxybutyrate plastic. That meant it was the same biodegradable plastic used in eco-friendly mineral water bottles. She recalled seeing an ad between online videos talking about that.

“Neat, so they even make these things so they’ll return to nature. I guess that’s just the age we live in.”

Anyway, it was just what she wanted.

It felt nice and solid when she picked it up. A long blunt weapon was the perfect option here.

The desktop computer beeped. A look at the flatscreen LCD monitor showed it was synced with Uiharu’s phone location. The victim would be here soon.

Saten Ruiko placed a hand on the center of her chest and took a deep breath.

Then the branch office door opened.

“Gwa ha ha ha ha! Uiharu, I hope you’re ready for the ‘mysterious young inn owner in a bloody suspense drama’ experience!!”

“Gyahh! What in the world!? Is it the apocalypse!?”

[[Image:Railgun_BW5.png|thumb]]


After an especially loud and dull “whack!!” followed by a “thud!!”, the branch office’s atmosphere froze over.

That was hardly surprising when Saten Ruiko had raised her hands and attacked Uiharu out of nowhere, ''intentionally'' gotten them tangled up together, hit herself on the head with the police staff, and collapsed. She fell flat on the floor.

Uiharu Kazari, the girl with lots of flowers on her head, was left alone to catch her breath.

“Pant, pant!! Gasp!!”

Saten wanted to celebrate her successful plan, but she ignored that desire.

Trembling hands pressed something against her forehead and neck. They appeared to be a combined temperature and blood pressure sensor. It was part of a personal medical kit that checked your condition like a smartwatch and then acted as an AED or adrenaline injector if necessary.

Saten lay on her side, convulsing with her eyes rolled back in her head. All the face acting videos she had watched were paying off. She also used the convulsions to hide how she twisted her body to press the packets in her hair against the floor, popping them below her head. She didn’t want to give away that she was alive, so she also surreptitiously switched off the medical device the size of a bento box.

A dark red liquid oozed out onto the floor.

(Hmm, would it have been more shocking if I was foaming at the mouth too? But soda water wouldn’t look real enough for that.)

She considered that while letting the “convulsions” fade.

She didn’t want her rolled-back eyes to dry out, so she also chose a random moment to shut her eyes. That kept her from seeing Uiharu’s panicked face, but some sacrifices had to be made. She didn’t want to give away the game.

Saten Ruiko had died.

“S-Saten-san? Wait a second, Saten-san! What is the meaning of this!?”

(How was that for a death scene? Heh heh heh. I can get back up when she pulls out her phone to call an ambulance. I’ll spring up and scare her! This isn’t over yet! Uiharu’s about to be attacked by Zombie Saten!!)

But despite her plans, she couldn’t see what was happening with her eyes shut.

So the only data she had to go on was the voice she heard.

“Sigh.” Uiharu Kazari spoke from very close by. “Well, if she’s dead, I can’t just leave her here. There’s no room to bury or submerge a body in Academy City’s limited space, so I’ll have to rely on my usual method for quickly disposing of 49 kilos of human flesh.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Hwuh?

Saten Ruiko froze in place on the floor.

(Wh-wh-wh-wh-why does she sound so calm?)

Her usual method? Quickly disposing of?

The collapsed girl received some unasked-for assistance in lying completely motionless.

(Oh, right. Thermal Hand. Her power lets her keep anything she touches at its current temperature. Is she keeping her air-conditioned body temperature in place to keep herself calm!?)

Extreme excitement increased your body temperature. A small child would be familiar with the phenomenon even if they didn’t know the exact numbers or research results.

So what if someone had the power to forcibly keep their temperature low?

(Um, but why is she so accustomed to using it like this?)

“…”

Trying to understand this baffling situation seemed to have caused a bug in the signals sent through Saten’s body. She couldn’t seem to move her sprawled out limbs or even her eyelids or lips.

“If I’d known I would need it again so soon, I wouldn’t have thrown out the equipment I used last time. Disposing of two bodies isn’t much more difficult than one, so it would have saved me a lot of time to crush up this one along with that one.”

What?

What was going on here!? What “last time”!?

“I still have some of the cleaners from last time, don’t I? Yes, here we go. This is the stuff you need to get out the blood, sweat, saliva, and tears, even when they’re stained deep into the carpet. A quick carbo clean and – tah dah! – not even Konori-senpai’s Clairvoyance will notice anything went down!! Sigh, if only my power controlled water or buoyancy. That would make this all so much easier.”

Was that really Uiharu Kazari looking down at her? Surely this had to be someone else entirely using special makeup, right!? Or maybe her mind had been hijacked by someone!?

(U-Uiharu Kazari. Does that mean something else when you read it backwards? Like with Uoydeloof or Redrum?)

This was only going to get worse.

She needed to get up and apologize before it left the realm of jokes.

Saten Ruiko made up her mind. She arrived at the decision all on her own.

And three seconds before she was going to open her eyes…

“This is really turning into a problem☆”

Saten was afraid her shoulders had noticeably jumped.

Uiharu was speaking to herself in a frighteningly cheerful voice.

Didn’t people often talk to themselves and hum when pranking someone because it emphasized that it was only a joke and helped reduce the guilt they felt on a subconscious level?

“If anyone found out I kept doing this, I would end up with another body I had to deal with. I mean, if Saten-san got up and said ‘just kidding’ now, I would have to make sure she stayed dead to keep my secret.”

Saten’s lips formed the first syllable of “just kidding”, but no voice emerged.

(This isn’t one of the urban legends where you can just say their name backwards or repeat their name to make them go away. If it’s name related, is it more like Hisaruki!?)

Her eyes wouldn’t open.

Something like powerful sleep paralysis had taken hold twice over.

(I…)

She had to work at keeping her breathing calm. What about her sweat? Her heart was pounding, so could Uiharu hear that?

(I don’t actually weigh 49 kilos, but I get the feeling I won’t be getting a smiling correction out of her right now!)

She couldn’t let the truth be known.

She could not let this monster know she was alive.

But if she stayed on the floor, she would be “disposed of”.

Before that happened, she had to sneak out of the branch office or her full body weight would be taken away from her using some kind of well-practiced method!!