Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

Uiharu paced the room, occasionally stepping over Saten Ruiko’s body. Saten could hear the footsteps and feel their weight as the floor creaked.

With her eyes still shut, her imagination worked overtime.

The movement in the air as Uiharu Kazari walked around was enough to nearly bring tears to Saten’s eyes. But if she let that happen and Uiharu noticed the evidence of her survival, she was dead meat.

She couldn’t escape the room. This was more like trying to fool the axe murderer under the bed than it was like the Sukima Onna.

Fortunately, Uiharu never checked her breathing or pulse.

She hadn’t bothered with any of that after the perfunctory check with the personal medical kit. Nor did she make any desperate attempts at first aid or resuscitation.

She just assumed the other girl was dead and focused on swiftly disposing of the body.

The weight of the footsteps moved away from Saten, but Uiharu’s presence remained in the room. It was frightening with her eyes closed, but she was terrified of Uiharu noticing if she cracked her eyes open. That walking away sound may have been a test. What if she opened her eyes a crack only to find Uiharu lying next to her staring her right in the face? Unpleasant sweat poured down her back.

An encyclopedic knowledge of urban legends wasn’t too helpful when it really mattered. Doing an original wiggling dance was unlikely to shatter Uiharu Kazari’s mind.

Should she make a move or stay where she was?

There probably wasn’t a correct answer to that question. She just had to make her own decision.

And as someone who loved chasing down the latest trends and rumors, she chose to calm herself by gathering as much information as possible.

She made a single crucial decision.

“Kh.”

She gathered all her strength to slowly pry open her eyes.

She only opened them maybe a millimeter, but it took as much willpower as tearing her own muscles apart.

Her vision was tilted 90 degrees.

She noticed the floor pressed against her cheek first and foremost. She also saw a steel desk, a few shelves, and the room’s wall. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see the exit door from here. She would have to twist herself around to see that, but…

(Uh, oh. That would be suicidal.)

She could feel a wet stickiness on the side of her head.

She had crushed the fake blood packs herself. If she moved around, she would leave a smear of red on the floor like someone had lazily mopped with the liquid. That would leave evidence that she had moved while Uiharu wasn’t looking.

But when people were ruled by anxiety, they had trouble trusting in even the most common things. They even ended up questioning their own memories.

Saten fell for that same trap.

(Wait, how does this room’s door work again? ''How does it lock''?)

Her stomach ached, but she couldn’t hold her stomach right now.

Was there a panel on the wall you had to press your palm against? Was there a number lock attached after the fact, like at the entrance to a train station office or an office building? Oh, god! The more she tried to remember, the less she could remember!?

In fact…

(If the door is locked, it’ll take me longer to get out! Even if the lock is easy to undo from the inside, I don’t even want to spend three seconds on rushing to the door and turning the bolt to unlock it. Wait, wait, wait. I jumped at Uiharu the instant she opened the door, so it should still be unlocked. At least I think so. But wait. She has that police staff the size of a bamboo sword. What if she throws that at me while I’m trying to figure out the lock? What if it hits me in the back of the head!?)

Uiharu had her back turned so she could face the steel desk. She was operating the computer on her feet instead of taking a seat. That meant Saten could view the monitor from her position if she tried. She was afraid it would show a list of future victims, though. But surely Uiharu wasn’t doing paperwork or sending messages for Judgment, right? On the other hand, maybe she was doing business as usual to give herself an alibi? Saten couldn’t decide on anything. Everything swirled around in her head until she wasn’t sure what was what. No matter what Uiharu was doing, Saten was pretty sure it would feel like one of those “what mental health problem do you have” quizzes that had been popular a while back.

It turned out Saten Ruiko’s guesses had all been too naïve.

“Stuffing a body into the inner unit of a wind turbine undergoing maintenance was such a convenient method. If no one discovered it, the rotation would continue crushing it for 18 hours straight, reducing the hair, bones, flesh, and organs to no more than a paste.”

“…”

“If only I hadn’t gotten careless and made so many bodies Anti-Skill caught on and started watching for that. Well, it was about time I came up with a new method anyway.”

Uiharu sounded cheerful as she spoke to herself.

This went well beyond a list of future victims.

In fact, that wasn’t Judgment work on the screen after all. Saten was pretty sure it was a special online store often recommended during workshop videos.

“A few quick modifications and an Academy City cleaning robot should be enough for the mass of a 13-year-old girl. Crush them up and smush them into a small tube and you can fit people into a surprisingly small space☆”

Saten’s idea of inappropriate trivia was how a somewhat naughty video would play after the TV broadcast ended for the day, not this!

Uiharu seemed to be enjoying herself as she worked at the computer.

“I can buy a used cleaning robot online, so should I go that route?”

“…”

“No one can tell there’s a whole person stuffed inside the robot if they’ve been crushed up enough, so then I can just dump it in the furnace at the waste treatment facility. Good thing Academy City is so passionate about recycling☆”

“!!!???”

Hearing bits and pieces of your coming demise was not a fun experience. Saten got the feeling she was about to die even more gruesomely than the victims of the Kuchisake Onna or Hikiko-san.

She couldn’t afford to waste any time in her escape.

Before she made her move, she wanted to know how far away the door was and what kind of lock it used.

But to repeat, she could not twist around and leave a red stain on the floor.

Which left only one option.

(M-my phone.)

She grew painfully aware of the slight weight in her skirt pocket.

(Yes, I have my phone! I don’t have to twist my entire body if I reach back with an arm and snap a photo of-)

''Vrrr!! Vrrrrrrr!!

Her heart stopped.

Her heart completely stopped and half her soul emerged from her mouth.

It was such a standard fact she grew worried that it might not actually be true. So she repeated it to herself over and over. Silent mode was used to inform the owner of a call or message without making any noise. That’s why it was called ''silent'' mode.

(So why is it so darn loud!? No. Oh, no. She’s going to notice. She’s turning this way! Yikes, and she’s walking this way!?)

What could she do? Was there even a right answer here!? Had the supposedly all-knowing Kokkuri-san and Satoru-kun gotten scared and gone into hiding!?

It bothered her that urban legends were the only things that came to mind here, so she made a mental note to study some other things in the future. Not that she would have much of a future if Uiharu discovered she was alive.

Uiharu did not speak a word.

She walked back over from the desktop computer and tilted her head, but Saten didn’t know any more than that since she shut her eyes. She was so terrified she wished she could pull on one of those white strings the urban legend said could hang from an ear piercing. She heard some rustling cloth, so had Uiharu crouched down?

A hand or something lightly slapped the side of her hip.

She was dead if she reacted, so she kept her eyes shut and poured all her willpower into suppressing any trembling. Fortunately, Uiharu’s voice remained carefree.

“Oh, whoops. I touched her with my bare hand. That will leave fingerprints.”

“…”

Fingerprints.

That dangerous word succinctly reconfirmed the situation Saten found herself in.

“Meh, that will be destroyed along with her, so it doesn’t matter. I can even render the residual thoughts unreadable by running her through the robot’s carbo clean cycle several times over. Just like wiping a hard drive by repeatedly writing junk data to it.”

She made it sound so simple.

It was scary how normal it was for her.

She felt along Saten’s outer thigh until she managed to extract the hard object from the skirt pocket. A period of silence followed. Saten was so scared she feared her heartbeat would give her away. She was thankful Uiharu wasn’t a telepath or another mind-related esper. Thank god they were both low-Level idiots!! Uiharu had to be staring at the phone she had taken. But what if she was actually observing Saten’s face for any signs of life?

After what felt like an eternity, Uiharu spoke again.

In a terrifyingly icy voice.

“What to do about the GPS data?”

Saten hadn’t considered that.

A bit of hope grew inside her.

“If I erased the last few hours from the log, it might look like she switched it off during class and never turned it back on.”

But that hope was snuffed out a moment later.

Maybe it was hopeless to try and outdo Uiharu in this field.

(They should add a big yellow exclamation point outside of Branch 177!!)

Uiharu continued to mutter to herself and Saten heard a solid thunk and a slight vibration from the floor nearby. Instead of confiscating the phone, Uiharu must have decided to keep every piece of evidence next to the corpse. She wouldn’t want to put it down somewhere, forget about it, and have that incriminating evidence lying around.

Saten still had hope.

It wasn’t over yet.

That modern marvel was still within arm’s reach.

The light footsteps once more moved away from Saten. When she heard the clicking of a mouse within her self-imposed blindness, Saten slowly opened her eyes a crack.

“There, one used cleaning robot. I can spoof the school code and have it delivered here in the name of cleaning an unused classroom. A bike delivery…wouldn’t work. It’s too big. I’ll have to have a truck or something bring it.”

Uiharu was facing the computer.

The phone was on the floor right in front of Saten’s nose.

Most importantly, Uiharu’s back was to Saten. Even on her side, Saten could tell Uiharu was checking over an online shopping order on the large desktop computer monitor. She was safe. She could act without being seen right now. So Saten Ruiko moved her free arm. The phone was right in front of her, but moving her hand that 10cm felt like it took more than a year off her life.

She was scared.

Downright terrified.

The monitor didn’t reflect the room behind Uiharu like a mirror, did it? What if Uiharu turned around for no reason at all? There were no guarantees, but Saten knew she was currently on the railroad track. Careless action would put her at risk, but doing nothing would get her run over once the train arrived on schedule. She had to take action if she wanted to avoid becoming a legend of the frozen railroad crossing who crawled around with only the top half of her body.

Move.

Work toward your escape, step by step.

Each millimeter you move is another millimeter closer to survival.

(Got…it!)

She snagged the rectangular phone with her hooked index finger. She pulled it toward her and used her thumb to pick it up.

There was no feigning death this time.

Speed was critical now. She checked the phone to see the lock screen displaying a missed call from Shirai Kuroko. Now she knew who to blame for the heart-stopping vibration noise earlier. She nearly clicked her tongue on reflex, but stopped herself and focused on operating the phone.

Calling an emergency number and using the camera did not require unlocking the phone.

“…”

An emergency number.

The temptation to dial one of those pierced her chest, but wait.

Hold on.

Anti-Skill, Academy City’s law enforcement, would not show up the instant she made the call. And the room was so quiet. The place was so still that voices, movements, and even the air blowing from the air conditioner sounded loud. Uiharu Kazari had complete control over this crime scene. Was it a crime scene? Or was it an accident site? Regardless, Uiharu would definitely notice the cheerful voice coming from the speaker. And even if an investigation request were sent to the nearest station, wouldn’t they call Branch 177 for assistance? Wouldn’t they pass on all the relevant information to Uiharu Kazari? Like that the caller’s name was Saten Ruiko, age 13, height less than 150cm, long black hair, greenish-black eyes, beauty the likes of which are only seen once every 3.5 billion years? Wouldn’t they send over her photograph from the Bank and ask Uiharu to confirm the situation and provide assistance?

(God, really!? Why do they still need us to report an emergency vocally!? Why can’t they use your GPS information to set it up so a fully-equipped Anti-Skill team bursts through the door the instant you press the report button!? Even modern taxi apps and bicycle delivery services let you do it all with a single tap, so you don’t have to input all the numbers and stuff!!)

It was tempting, but not a real option.

Calling an emergency number and relying on the grownups was a trap. That option led to a dead end no matter how she played it.

Carelessly straying from her plan would only cause it all to fall apart. She used all of her willpower to shake free of that temptation and tapped the camera icon as initially planned. She nearly cried when she saw the familiar camera screen. Normal was such a wonderful thing. She had the shutter sound turned off using a special setting, so she didn’t have to worry about that.

She bent her arm at an unnatural angle.

She couldn’t see what she was doing, but she tried to aim the phone in the door’s general direction.

Then she only needed to press the photo button with her thumb. She had pressed that button thousands if not tens of thousands of times before. She didn’t need to twist around to view the screen. Her instincts were enough.

(I just need to know how far to the door and whether it’s locked.)

She held her breath and steeled herself.

(That will tell me how long an escape will take. Then I can decide how much of an opening Uiharu needs to give before I make my attempt!!)

Press it.

Pressing her thumb down would open the way to survival.

She forced herself to think luck was finally on her side while she focused on her thumb.

The result?

A camera flash flooded the entire room with bright light.