Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Biohacker Chapter3 (section)

===Part 3===

The girl in a dress, Kaibi, used her Measure Heart power.

It allowed her to adjust the emotional distance between herself and a target.

It was a purely psychological power that could not even make a single leaf float up in the air, but there was still some room for more creative uses of it.

She used a handkerchief to wipe the beads of sweat from the side and nape of her alluring neck.

(Knowing the distance between our hearts lets me know where the other person is located without relying on my eyes or ears. Just like the tension is very different depending on whether someone is standing in front of you or behind you. It’s only a vague sense, but it still functions like a cheap bug detector.)

She was not foolish enough to mention her trump card aloud while on a mission.

She adjusted her grip on the automatic handgun and walked forward, as if parting the dark smoke. Approaching this irregular target meant moving within the swiveling Gatling gun’s range. She could contact Amazora via radio, but the third sister would not hear her within the maelstrom of noise caused by that powerful gun.

But that was fine.

Amazora could do as she wished while the older sister made some adjustments.

The girl in a dress softly sighed.

(What would she find it hard to shoot? Yes, the emotional distance to a kitten abandoned in the rain should do it.)

Even if that youngest sister could not see through the smoke or hear over the Gatling gun, that emotional distance would still accurately affect her heart. Just like a suspicious presence approaching from behind in the dark would send a tremor up your spine. If she was implanted with the idea that she did not want to shoot whatever was in that direction, then she would obliterate her own ally with friendly fire.

Kaibi did not even need to duck down while that stream of bullets swept horizontally at a rate of more than 6000 rounds per minute.

This was one of the scientific esper powers developed in Academy City.

She had no interest in arguing with the skeptics who wondered how those powers stacked up to a gun or doubted they were superior to a nuclear bomb. They provided a greater breadth of options and that was enough to give them tactical value. It was like playing a game of rock-paper-scissors while having a fourth move available only to you.

That could tear down the rules of the battlefield.

That was true of any power proven to exist by the researchers.

She confirmed the boy’s presence through the smoke.

She dangerously approached him through the obscuring smoke and did not hesitate to speak.

“Check.”

The flow of time reverted to normal for her.

Dry gunshots flew toward him from the side.

After confirming his general distance and direction with Measure Heart, she had fired thrice for good measure toward the figure curled up beyond the smoke. But she still kept her gun at the ready because this was Academy City. She did not know this person’s name, so she did not know what their power was. Just like she had located him by breaking the rules, he might have some kind of barrier that also broke the rules. That might sound ridiculous, but she had to consider the possibility that he could gather up the air or sprinkler water to create a solid wall or that he could use pure telekinesis to repel anything flying his way.

Not knowing what to expect made things difficult.

If she had a special fourth move in this game of rock-paper-scissors, then he ''might'' have a special fifth move.

When she circled behind the scrap metal that looked like a sponge after a dog chewed it up, the person she had supposedly shot was nowhere to be seen.

A car door with broken hinges lay there, but its position could not be explained by the gunfire coming from just the one direction. Someone had likely grabbed the broken door and then throw it away later.

The paint was stripped away by cheap bullet holes different from the youngest sister’s Gatling gun rounds.

It had been used as a shield.

The girl in a dress grimaced.

She lightly poked her slender foot at the damage on the metal panel.

“He blocked it and ran away?”

Not saying the important things out loud was the standard while on the job.

She wished this had taught her something about the power he had used to defend himself, but this could mean he had used magnetism to move the door into place or that he was a powerless Level 0 who had held it in his hands. To reiterate, ''not knowing what to expect made things difficult.'' She had revealed her Measure Heart power and her handgun, but her opponent was still a mystery. She might seem to have the upper hand, but he had actually outdone her in the unseen side of the battle. She actually felt ashamed of her miserable performance. This was a lot more troublesome than having received a cut from a blade.

[[Image:Biohacker_2.jpg|thumb]]

(But in that case.)

An invisible pressure reached her temples and she felt something odd gathering around her brow as she activated her power.

With Measure Heart, she could generally search out her target’s direction in the smoke.

(I don’t know who that boy is, but I have exposed him more than if I knew his name. I have his emotional distance in my hands!!)

He was moving in a large circle around the girl in a dress.

He was slipping between the burning scrap metal.

And he was approaching Amazora’s coordinate while she fired blindly with her Gatling gun???

“Oh, no.”

His top priority was not Kaibi, who had attacked him from the side, but Amazora who was firing wildly from head on.

However, the tracking using Measure Heart was no more than a side effect. It did not give her very detailed information. She had no guarantee she could accurately hit him if she aimed her gun through the smoke. And this would all be meaningless if she hit Amazora instead.

But knowing that did not mean there was anything she ''could'' do.

She quickly reached for her earpiece and shouted into the radio while ignoring her slipping shoulder strap.

You were not to say the important things out loud on a mission, but she could not inform her cute younger sister of the threat without shouting loud enough to be heard over the roar of the gun!

“Amazora!! Get away from there!! I don’t know who it is, but they’re headed your way!!”