Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

“Pant, pant!!”

The girl in a light blue leotard felt an unpleasant sweat on her brow as she leaned against the wall from the side. Throwing around all those projectiles had already been well outside the normal usage of her power. It was difficult to picture how you “grabbed” a gas, so forcibly bringing the air under her control was a major task for her. It took time to gather it all up and she was overcome with exhaustion even when it worked. That exhaustion came from psychological stress.

Her bare legs were trembling.

If she could do that anytime she wanted, she could have prevented those dust explosions earlier.

(I did it…)

She straightened her spine as if stretching out the moisture captured between her damp leotard and the wall.

She walked through a door in the dimly lit back hallway and entered a kitchen space full of silver stainless steel. The ordinary fluorescent lights were just about enough to blind her. This was where the drinks and set meals for the bar were prepared.

The door in the back was the second floor’s emergency exit.

But instead of simply opening the door and descending the emergency stairs on the outside of the building, she wanted to use the small food trolley elevator to reach the first floor bar and head out that way. She expected that would do a better job of escaping the enemy’s expectations and tracking ability. A fully grown adult could not ride that down, but her small and slender body came in handy here.

The only cooking done here was heating up a packaged dish in hot water or microwaving something from the freezer and adding some finishing touches in a frying pan with some extra spices, so the only workers were a few part-timers. It may have been praiseworthy that they did not leave it all up to a single person. They seemed a little surprised by the leotard girl’s appearance, but even when she brandished her stapler-like self-defense handgun, they did not seem to realize it was a gun. The looks on their faces said they wanted her to hurry away so they could avoid any trouble here.

It only had two rounds inside, but a gun was a gun.

At this point, it was more of a protective charm than a useful weapon, so she returned it to her sleeve.

(It doesn’t matter if that defeated them or not. I don’t need to settle this here. What matters is that they can’t follow me. It looked like there was more than one of them, but they should all panic now that I’ve taken out the one. I need to use this chance to slip out the emergency exit. …Once I shake them, I reclaim my ability to kill them whenever I like. I can bide my time and finish this later.)

She had used her Telekinesis in front of the enemy often enough that they must know about it by now. If that witness information made its way to Anti-Skill or Judgment, they might begin a search using the Bank. That would be bad. She needed to end this before that happened. She doubted they could identify her that easily since telekinetic powers were common, but she still could not wait around too long. She claimed she could bide her time, but she would much rather end this immediately. Mikoto was not the only one hoping for safety.

So…

(First, I need to get out of here.)

The blue leotard girl placed her small hand on the silver countertop as she walked through the kitchen. The sweat on her skin irritated her, but…

(I need to make my move immediately after losing them. I can aim for the moment they run out of Club Psychedelic Beach and aren’t sure what to do next. …I need a riding suit, a shotgun, and a small collapsible electric motorcycle. Okay, good. Everything I need is at a nearby coin locker. I’m glad I distributed my supplies all across the city. I can inflate the suit to look human and attack them from a safe distance.)

She reached for the elevator button while making her plans, but her slender fingertip stopped at the last second.

The blonde girl in a light blue leotard grabbed a fruit knife from the countertop and lightly tossed it toward the elevator button.

A high-voltage current burst from it.

“Tch!!”

The door to the kitchen flew open just as the sparks erupted out. The leotard-wearing attacker did not hesitate. As the frightened part-time workers tried to run away, she kicked one of them in the back of the knee to bring him down, reached an arm around his neck from behind, and forcibly lifted him up as a shield.

Misaka Mikoto.

That silhouette stepped into the light to reveal not a scratch on her.

What had happened to that projectile made of solidified air!?

“I’m starting to figure it out.”

Bluish-white sparks scattered from her bangs as she gave a cruel smile while wearing her shorts without a skirt to cover them.

“It looks like your Telekinesis has trouble affecting living things. And this place is pretty gross. Maybe you can’t blame them since the guests are never meant to see this back area, but I think your control of the air failed because the floor and boxes in that hallway are a hotbed for fleas and mites. So keeping you from controlling the air was simple enough. I only had to alter the air’s composition similar to remaking oxygen into ozone.”

“…”

“There were a lot of small bugs flying around in that back alley when Sakibasu-san fought you off before, weren’t there? You can freely grab objects and the air, but your accuracy drops considerably if you accidentally grab a small living creature instead. Is that the flaw in your power?”

“Go to hell!”

Despite her enraged shout, she continued working to predict what happened next.

She had the stapler-like gun hidden in her skintight sleeve, but Mikoto could easily control and deflect that metal weapon. That girl singlehandedly possessed enough firepower to rival a heavy cruiser or fortress. You could not hope to take the title of Level 5 by force unless you did.

There were knives, frying pans, portable stovetops, portable burners, meat tenderizers, a juicer, and even an industrial microwave and refrigerator.

Just as the leotard girl swept her eyes around to list up everything she could possibly use, she heard an exasperated voice.

“You really want to fight over the products on these shelves? If it comes down to a clash of our powers, do you really think you can come out on top?”

“Then just try it,” roared the leotard girl. “Is your control really that precise? Can you fight with me over the weapons while also slipping your attack past the hostage to hit me and only me!?”

“I don’t even need an iron sand sword or Railgun for this.”

Mikoto ignored that and pointed at her.

No, she pointed at the part-timer worker being used as a human shield.

“Lighting spears are so convenient. Having just one nonlethal option gives you so much more freedom.”

“Goddammit!!”

She must have decided holding onto the hostage barehanded would only allow the high-voltage current to reach her through him. She cursed and tossed the hostage aside to regain her freedom of movement.

Meanwhile, Mikoto pointed somewhere other than the girl or the hostage.

Most of the food was premade and bagged or frozen, but there was a decent selection of fruit that only had to be cut up with a knife to be used for desserts or for smoothie ingredients.

Bluish-white sparks exploded out and a large watermelon burst on the cutting board.

The chunks and juice splattered all over the countertop, sink, oven, microwave, large refrigerator, floor, wall, and ceiling.

“You can’t control anything that’s alive.”

The leotard girl frantically looked around after hearing that, but it was too late.

“And since you worked at that shop that specialized in models and taxidermy, I’m sure you understand that living cells can remain active for a surprisingly long time after being removed. There are obvious examples like a lizard’s tail or a planarian, but most any cell can maintain its cycle of division as long as it has moisture, nutrients, and oxygen.”

“…”

“Also, the cells of a plant remain active even after being cut away from their branch, stem, or vine. In fact, the fruit surrounding the seeds is meant to provide the seeds with the nutrients and moisture they need to grow in that state. So a fruit with plenty of moisture is just like a flower in a vase. Now, that fruit has been splattered across this room, so what can you still control here? Anything at all?”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

A long silence followed.

Did the blue leotard girl’s vision blur because of tension or because her tear ducts had raised the white flag?

She could grab and throw all inorganic objects and the air itself was no exception. A hit would be painful, but it was essentially meaningless without the element of surprise.

Misaka Mikoto was Academy City’s #3 and she was known as the Railgun. In terms of simple firepower, she could force back a cruiser in a direct shootout, so how could this girl ever stand up to her?

She heard the crackling of sparks from directly ahead.

“If you have nothing, then why not end this here?”

“I’m not doing this because I want to…”

This was no longer a battle between esper powers.

The leotard girl could not even control her own tear ducts as she shouted at Mikoto in fits and starts.

“It was all this power’s fault. This power let me pull in anything I wanted, so I wasn’t given any chance to move my body. Without stimulation, the human body is easily distorted. Did you think I wanted to do all this? I had no choice!!”

And she secretly reached a hand behind her back as she did so.

“My joints were too soft. I couldn’t run without damaging my knees and I couldn’t even lift a heavy cardboard box. I had no choice. It was all necessary. They were supposed to introduce me to a good doctor if I did what they said. I was supposed to get back everything I used to have!! That’s all it was supposed to be! And yet…!!”

However.

Someone else peered into the kitchen from behind Mikoto.

She carried a violin case and she had mostly managed to get her skirt to stay up at her hips despite the broken zipper.

“Carbon Search.”

“Don’t you do it!!”

“Biological scan of target complete. No abnormality in cellular activity. All tendons and cartilage are healthy. So it was all a lie! She is up to something!!”

“You piece of shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!”

The leotard girl moved her hand back to the front while yelling.

She had pulled a stapler-like tool from her long sleeve. It was operated similar to a fire extinguisher, so she only had to squeeze the shallow V-shaped grip. She took aim with that self-defense handgun.

But it was no use.

She had known that to begin with, which was why she had tried to create an opening by making up a sob story to trigger an emotional response.

The dreadful zap of a high-voltage current erased all other sounds.