Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Biohacker Chapter4 (section)

===Part 6===

How much time had passed?

Kumokawa Seria had said half an hour, but it felt more like hours if not days.

“Pant pant.”

He had passed out a few times.

His mind had been like a dying fluorescent light.

But at some point, his mind had come back on.

“Ghh, ghhh.”

He was sluggish, but he managed to place his hands on the floor and slowly get up.

“Sen…pai? Are you okay?”

“Yes. Don’t worry. You kept me alive.”

She still could not get up, but she was thinly smiling with her hair spread out on the floor.

As bad as L.S.S. was, they must have had a limit to what kind of biological weapons they were willing to use in the city. How far would the damage have spread if this had been something deadly like the Ebola virus or the SARS coronavirus?

“Also, I had actually predicted this to an extent. I couldn’t have known the details, but I knew the attack would be biological in some way.”

“Oh.”

“By the way, I guided you here in order to resolve this more quickly. I can’t exactly complain to you after doing that to you.”

“What?”

He grew cautious since he did not like the sound of this and she smiled thinly while still sprawled out on the floor.

“Mitsuari was attacked by a strange creature in my apartment’s bathroom, remember? That came from me. Specifically, it was my pet salamander. Although not a species found in Japan.”

“…”

“Something like that dragon was going to be sent after us either way, so I couldn’t afford to give L.S.S. more time to act. We would have been killed if we didn’t act quickly.”

Kamijou seriously started considering having her apologize for this with her body, but unfortunately, he could not move very much either. She had probably taken that into account when choosing this moment to spill the beans.

The L.S.S. dragon, the trio of assassins, and this stun weapon had to have all been accidents for her, yet she had still managed to adlib herself into a way of using those things to her advantage. He had to sigh at that.

“His name was Matsuo Ryuusuke, right?”

“Yes.”

“He just spread this stuff around his own company. Isn’t that enough of a reason for Anti-Skill to bring the place down, without even getting into the Beginning Child thing?”

“He may not care what happens to anything else as long as he can revive and monopolize the Beginning Child. If L.S.S. is brought down, he only has to start a new company. And that would be possible. That girl is the ultimate master key, so she might just bring his company above all the rest of Academy City combined. Whether he wants to directly take control of the world or he wants to use her as a threat to negotiate favorable terms with the Board Chairman, her value is incalculable.”

The adults still would not act.

No matter what evidence they provided or how they explained it all, those thinly-smiling grownups were always a step ahead.

He could not except anyone else to rescue Mitsuari Ayu.

His hand had not reached her.

In that final moment, he had distinctly seen her reaching a small hand out toward him.

“Senpai, can I be blunt here?”

“Go ahead.”

“Please help me.”

Kumokawa Seria got up.

She held a hand to her woozy head and answered him.

“You have no obligation to bow your head to me,” she said. “And I honestly want to ask the same of you.”

“Where do you think that asshole went? I don’t care about the resurrection of that original esper or whatever. I just don’t want them putting Mitsuari in danger for their company’s benefit or profit. I want to do whatever it takes to get her back. But if he’s abandoned the L.S.S. HQ, pursuing the company might not get us anywhere.”

“The Board Chairman must be pursuing the Beginning Child too. If his attempts are being eluded, she can’t be listed anywhere we could find.”

“Then what do we do?”

“Academy City is only so big, but I doubt we could find her by searching at random. So we’ll rely on what hints we have.” She sighed. “Those two assassins were brought to an Anti-Skill station, remember? We just have to have a chat with them. Using methods Anti-Skill can’t.”

“Hm? But weren’t those assassins outsiders?”

“Yes, but as outsiders, they will have done some research on their client’s leader from their outside perspective. You wouldn’t want to finish an assassination job only to find the client doesn’t have the money to pay you, right? So underground people like them will hold a detailed investigation of their client’s financial situation beforehand. While making sure not to upset said client, of course.”

“You mean?”

“They might be familiar with his secret assets and real estate – in other words, any private hideouts he might possess. And if Matsuo Ryuusuke failed to notice that secret investigation, they might have slipped past his security.”

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