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

===Part 19===

“Stop! Stop, Marika!! The explosions are spreading too far! Stop for a bit!”

The boy who had summoned Apharmd’s weapon shouted into the orange sky, but the voice he heard from his Defected PD was iciness itself. The flying short-haired girl aimed her shoulder missile launchers as she responded.

“The dust doesn’t matter! I can keep attacking as long as my lock cursor is tracking the target!”

“What about Furashina? She’ll be caught in the blast, too!!”

“Then hurry up and retrieve her!”

The boy was irritated by the extra-loud click of the tongue she gave him.

(Are you trying to kill me along with him!?)

He chose not to voice that complaint since she very well might do exactly that if he said it. He was stuck running through that deadly territory just like their target.

Even now, tons of missiles were being launched from overhead.

Their surroundings remained unscathed, but those deadly flames would selectively destroy either enemy or ally. He would have to dodge Marika’s missiles on his own.

(What the hell is going on?)

This was supposed to have been an easy job: find the girl in the photo, nab her, and take her to the designated location. The Blue Stalker had paid quite a bit up front via an online bank, so it had seemed like a blessing of a job.

(But I guess it’s the same either way.)

The Apharmd boy spoke in his heart while holding the machine pistol which looked like unreal data, perhaps because it was unnaturally clean no matter how detailed it was.

For them, success was abducting Furashina Ririn alive and failure was killing her. Their own deaths had not even seemed like a possibility because they could produce a unilateral slaughter just by standing in front of someone.

His FCS cursor was still active.

He could tell their target was moving beyond a wall.

(I should just kill that guy. Do that and the missiles from the sky will stop. Then we can take our time searching for Furashina Ririn.)

So the boy did not hesitate.

He ran roughly around an alleyway corner and aimed his rapid-fire weapon.

Then his mind went blank.

The cursor was there, but the spiky-haired boy was not.

Instead, Furashina Ririn stood there.

With a sleepy look in her eyes, she waved a small device in her hand.

The cursor in his vision followed the movement of the portable device.

(Oh, no… Did they meet up and then swap portable devices!?)

Virtuaroids were weapons meant to battle other Virtuaroids.

The game models could not lock onto anything else.

That meant they could only track the portable devices which had a connection to Virtual-On. It was just like pursuing a suspect by tracking their cellphone.

But in that case…

“Kh. Where’d the original-…!?”

He was unable to finish his question.

A dull pain pierced the back of his head.

It was like switching off the power.

The Apharmd boy wobbled on his feet and then collapsed forward. No one caught him, so he lay collapsed on the ground like a discarded toy.

Kamijou tossed aside the thick manga magazine he had found tied together with some others in the back alley. He breathed a sigh of relief that this smaller scale suited him much better than Temjin or Apharmd.

“That’s one down.”

“What about the Grys-Vok overhead?”

The two of them traded portable devices again to reclaim their own.

“Anything’s fine as long as we can escape, so there’s no need to actually defeat her.”

“But that could be a problem if this is following Virtual-On rules. If you’re still in their field of vision, they can still lock onto you behind cover. So as long as she’s in the sky, she can search all the way to the horizon in 360 degrees just by spinning around.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?”

Kamijou scratched at his bangs and Furashina Ririn modestly made a suggestion.

“Buy me 30 seconds.”

“?”

“Do that and I will take care of the Grys-Vok overhead. Can you do that?”

“…”

Kamijou thought for a moment.

“Lilina.”

“Yes, sir. What is it?”

“Just to double check, a Virtuaroid can only get data on enemy and ally Virtuaroids and on the walls of the battlefield, right?”

“That and providing advance warning of especially powerful attacks.”

“And Grys-Vok’s missiles will detonate when they hit any kind of obstacle? They can’t fail to detonate or break through a wall and pursue the target?”

“Yes, but what does that matter?”

“That’s all I needed to know. Let’s give that girl a shock.”

Kamijou picked up one of something gathered in a corner of the alley.

“A garbage bag?” asked Furashina Ririn.

“I’ll show you they’re good for something other than a nap.”