Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume2 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 2===

Visiting hours were from 10 AM to 4 PM.

Visitors had to fill out the necessary fields on a form and then take it to the general building reception counter on the 1st floor.

Misaka Mikoto breathed a gentle sigh while returning the provided pen to its stand. This was not her first time visiting an injured person in the hospital, but she was still not used to this formality. Couldn’t they let you through after automatically receiving the required personal information from your phone like at a train station’s ticket gate?

(No. Do that and ''people like me'' could walk right through.)

Everything was being automated and digitized these days, but by including some outdated analog steps within the giant cogs of the machine, they could increase the overall security level. And in a workplace that dealt with people’s actual lives, the extra inefficiency was worth it.

On the other hand…

“This kind of relationship is a real pain to explain.”

Students made up 80% of Academy City’s population, so most people probably circled the school-related options like “friend”, “upperclassman”, or “underclassman”. The smaller option for “club member, classmate, etc.” was probably unique to this city. But there was a chance of someone questioning it if you were from a different school. Especially when you were in middle school and you were visiting someone in high school. But she could not select any of the other options to avoid such suspicions. Misaka Mikoto was of course not that spiky-haired boy’s sister or daughter, after all. So it was such a pain figuring out what to say.

There was one option that would let her sidestep all the trouble even with different schools and ages: boyfriend/girlfriend.

She froze in place while her mind flashed back to that moment indelibly burned into her mind’s eye – the moment when those lips touched.

(It doesn’t bother me.)

Now, did she realize she had a frown on her face right now?

(Kissing isn’t everything! I’ve given him a lap pillow before!!)

Then she gasped.

Her mind was headed in a strange direction, so she had to tap the brakes and calm down.

(Wait, wait, wait.)

Misaka Mikoto refused to admit defeat even as the young female receptionist in a red Santa-like outfit gave her a puzzled look.

(Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!! Why am I turning this into a competition!? There isn’t even a set goal here, so that would be like driving straight toward the cliff in a game of chicken. Why do I even have to take this all so seriously!? All I’m doing is circling an option on a form.)

“F-friend!?”

She pressed down too hard while drawing the circle and the pen slipped. It scraped audibly across the paper and ended up as an oval that mostly circled “friend” but also grazed the “boyfriend/girlfriend” option.

She could not believe this was how she was spending her Christmas.

Was that supposed to be her way of calling herself more than a friend but less than a lover?

Meanwhile, the nun in a white habit who had arrived with her was hopping up and down in front of the reception lobby’s big Christmas tree.

“Short hair, can we go see Touma now? I’m worn out already.”

“Why do you know your way around the hospital so well? And why do you have that cat on your head!? Can you really bring it into a hospital!?”

“I’ve already decided what I’m going to tell Touma: He shouldn’t let people kiss him if it’s only going to make everything more complicated. Grr, grr.”

Mikoto bristled and yelled at her, but a nearby nurse simply smiled and waved while walking by. “Oh, back so soon?” she said as a friendly greeting. “The hospital isn’t a playground, okay?” The gentle nurse looked like an alluring housewife with a mole by her lips and she must have been from the pediatric department because she gave the nun a piece of candy.

This only inspired further questions for Mikoto.

“Why do the people here know you so well???”

“Without Touma around to cook for me, I’d starve to death. And that would be a real tragedy!!”

The doctors and nurses could not dress up in a seasonal costume since they had an actual uniform to wear, but the receptionist and other administrative workers had all changed into red clothing. This seemed to provide a glimpse of the standards and licenses that were generally invisible to ordinary people. All the decorations were in full-on Christmas mode as well. The Christmas tree in the reception lobby was the most obvious example, but Santas and reindeer cut out of colored paper were attached to the walls, the doors had round wreaths on them, and a small stuffed snowman sat on the reception counter.

The tree was tall enough you had to crane your neck up to see the top, but it was entirely made out of plastic children’s blocks.

The Christmas music playing at a gentle volume made it all feel like part of a department store during the Christmas season.

Of course, this was all done for the benefit of the hospitalized people. The hospital felt obligated to make sure the children in particular did not miss out on the seasonal events. Just think of it in terms of the biggest seasonal event of them all: what if it were announced that summer break was canceled for the year? So the hospital put a lot of effort into things like this.

In addition to the number displayed for people waiting to pay or for their prescription, there was a large flat-screen monitor that helped enhance the holy night mood.

“This year, we’ll be using the real occult to capture Santa Claus! This program is brought to you by R&C Occultics.”

“…”

It was so absurd Mikoto just about laughed out loud.

Yet it required a bit of effort to peel her eyes off of the screen.

The two girls then cut across the lobby to the elevator hall.

Index spoke in a singsong way while popping the strawberry milk candy in her mouth.

“Which room is Touma in?”

“#904. Ugh, that’s the closest room to the nurse station and the ICU. It can be hard to tell since he looks fine, but maybe his injuries are worse than I thought.”

“Nurse station?”

He was being kept in the position where a doctor or nurse could come running at a moment’s notice. That might sound like getting the VIP treatment, but it was actually a “room of death” with a quick turnover rate because patients closest to death tended to be placed there.

“The room is also nowhere near the emergency exit, so I think I know what’s going on here,” added Mikoto.

“?”

They boarded the elevator and hit the 9 button.

This hospital was in a city of science, so they ignored the superstitions about the numbers 4 and 9 when it came to floor numbers.

(Superstitions, huh?)

“Hm? What’s wrong, short hair???”

“Nothing,” said Mikoto while shaking her head in that cramped box.

She could not really call it an ill omen when it had been right in front of her eyes all along. ''She had seen magic.'' And she had seen it before the rise of this strange new IT giant called R&C Occultics. But the answer right in front of her had not registered with her. Her eyes had skimmed right over it.

The elevator arrived at their destination floor and the door opened to either side.

Index tilted her head at a rustling sound.

“Short hair, why did you bring flowers?”

“That’s what you do when you visit someone in the hospital.”

“You can’t eat flowers, silly. I brought this – an apple cake!!”

“You just want to eat it yourself, don’t you?”

Mikoto sounded somewhat exasperated as she walked down the hallway. She had already checked where his room was, so she did not need to ask for directions at the nurse station.

However…

“Hey, wait…………I told you………..!!”

“?”

She heard a familiar voice coming from elsewhere before arriving at the room in question. Puzzled, she glanced over to find an amenity room.

The word amenity technically referred to “pleasant” things, but that name did not do much to tell you what the room actually was. Was it maybe a room for light exercise for people confined to a bed during a long hospital stay?

“I’m telling you, this is weird!! I can do it on my own! I really can!!”

Whatever it was, he was apparently in there.

Sensing some kind of invisible pressure and feeling unidentified warning bells going off in her head, Mikoto felt a prickling feeling in her chest, but Index apparently felt none of that. With her cake box in hand, she flung open the metal sliding door without even knocking first.

“I’m here, Touma!! Can we eat this apple cake now!?”

As the door opened, ''they'' appeared before Misaka Mikoto’s eyes.

Yes, plural.

The pointy-haired boy was submerged in a giant nursing bath and four girls who looked just like her were approaching him from all sides.

Her mind went blank.

The concepts of time and space were cast out of her mind in that moment.

But no matter how hard the teenage girl tried to deny what was happening here, none of it would become any less real.

The large, round bath’s floor had steps along its round edge and there was a stainless steel railing to make it more accessible. What was she trying to say here? This was an ordinary bath, so it was not somewhat cloudy like a hot spring’s water. Everything below the surface was perfectly visible and unhidden!!

[[Image:GT_Index_v02_055.jpg|thumb]]

None of them was wearing a single shred of clothing. There was nothing but bright skin to be seen with no more than white soap bubbles to cover it up. A shell bikini or even simple bandages would have provided more of a defense.

Misaka Mikoto went red in the face.

“B-b-b-bubbles!? Are you insane!?”

“Not to worry. These bubbles provide the perfect defense in a system Misaka calls ‘wet underwear’, says Misaka #10032 to put your mind at ease while she puts her hands on her hips and pushes out her chest.”

“Please don’t call it that!! People will definitely get the wrong idea!!”

“?”

At any rate, the room was full of soft skin and bubbles.

The mysterious Four Generals (who looked identical and all had lightning powers) kept blank expressions while void of both clothing and bath towels.

“Do you itch anywhere? asks Misaka #10032 as she uses a professional-sounding question to take the initiative while showing off her heart necklace to remind you of our time together.”

“Now that you are in the hospital, you are on Misaka’s home turf, says Misaka #10039 to show her motivation while placing a dollop of white bubbles on the tip of her nose to show off her cute side.”

“Misaka is actually covering her important bits with bandages to fit the hospital theme, but now she is too bubbly to see them, says Misaka #13570 while working to stimulate your imagination.”

“Misaka is unsure what any of this has to do with Christmas, says Misaka #19095 while honestly finding this ‘says Misaka’ thing a real pain and hoping we can just abandon it.”

A strange babbling voice could be heard at the center of it all.

Kamijou Touma, demon lord of love and desire, was apparently in no state to actually enjoy the soft skin surrounding him. After all, he was covered in various injuries and the bathwater was painfully soaking every last one of them. Those clones were apparently unaware that people hoping to commit suicide by slitting their wrists would soak the wound in water to keep it from closing up.

Also, Mikoto realized she had something more important to do than get zappy.

(Kh.)

She immediately covered Index’s eyes with her hand. But not because she wanted to snap a photo in the style of a sexy selfie.

(She’s going to realize there’s clone tech at work here!!! They’re even calling themselves Misaka #Whatever! I might be able to explain away one of them as a sister, but that doesn’t work when there’s this many of them and they all look identical!!)

“Ahh!! Forget you saw anything here!! There was nothing at all in here!! Okay, okay!?”

“Wow, there really was nothing in there.”

“Whew.”

“Grr, grr!! Why wasn’t there anything like a sponge, body soap, a washbasin, or a shampoo hat in there!? And there were four of them, so why weren’t any of them using shampoo? His hair will be all stiff. Also, that girl called 10032 should take that necklace off when she’s in the bath because silver rusts surprisingly easily! But don’t worry! I can teach you a trick from my spiritual item maintenance knowledge! If it gets too discolored, you can polish it right up with some lemon juice!!”

“I said forget what you saw, not remember it in excessive detail!! Look, you can have a gummi if you promise to forget everything you saw here! It’s cyanogenic glycoside flavor!!”

“Yum. I’ll take whatever you give me, but I can’t forget something once I see it. Munch, munch.”

Those poison gummies had been a brief hit after non-fruit juice technology was used to create 100% safe reproductions of famous poison flavors. Not that anyone (well, anyone still alive) could actually prove that they really did taste like cyanide, wolfsbane, or tetrodotoxin.

The food had temporarily pacified the white beast, but things here were not over yet.

“I don’t want you doing stuff like this when you look just like me!!”

“Which do you like more: this squishy softness, this smooth slickness, or this jiggly plumpness? asks Misaka #10032 as she zooms into the lead and opens a wide gap between herself and the competition. While also opening up her body.”

“I! Said! Stop!!”

Then Mikoto spotted two colors not found on those Four Generals.

She saw honey-blonde hair and a pink nurse uniform in one corner of the large room.

“My, my, my, my. You can’t help but tease him can you, you naughty girls?”

“You were here too, Shokuhou!? Don’t just stand there! Use your Mental Out to get those four to stop!!”

“Oh, come on. They’re being selfish, but it would be cruel to stop them now that they’ve found something they want to do. Even if I am less than pleased they stole him away just when I thought I could have him to myself☆”

“Don’t you get hearts in your eyes, you old hag! And why are you acting like the overly indulgent parent here???”

“Don’t you dare call me a hag, you meathead gorilla with no maternal side whatsoever!!”

Shokuhou Misaki threw a plastic washbasin, but it flew more than 90 degrees off course and crashed right into Kamijou Touma’s head. How was that even possible? Misaka Mikoto had a succinct explanation for the mysterious phenomenon.

“I see you’re as unathletic as ever.”

“I am not!! I, uh, totally meant to do that!!”

That would suggest Shokuhou Misaki did want to lash out at that moron on a deep, subconscious level. Misaka Mikoto understood the feeling, so she sent some sparks flying from her body.

“And don’t think you’re getting off the hook just because so much happened at once. I’m keeping track of it all just fine.”

“Wait, this wasn’t my fault!” protested the boy. “That expressionless group grabbed me from my bed, carried me down the hallway, and chucked me in here! Also, baths and lightning are a bad combination, if you weren’t aware!! You might as well be throwing a hairdryer into the bath with me!!”

Shokuhou Misaki beckoned the four girls over and they left the nursing bath in perfect unison.

The honey-blonde girl must have indeed carried some darkness deep down because she made no attempt to defend the pointy-haired boy.

“I believe violence is your domain, Misaka-san.”

“Wait, I don’t want to be known for that!!!!!”

Just as she tensed up too much over that comment, the bath turned into a scene from a suspense drama.