Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Biohacker Chapter5 (section)

===Part 6===

The first to respond was Amazora, accompanied by the sound of multiple metal pieces scraping together. She pulled her Gatling gun and drum magazine from the two drum bags, attached the ammo hose, and prepared the unit itself.

“Get back!!”

Explosive booms soon followed.

The trees thickly surrounding them were torn through along with whatever was hidden there.

But.

The giant maw, sinister claws, gust-producing wings, and shadow-piercing eyes were unharmed.

“You’re kidding! This fires 6000 20mm rounds a minute! How can a biological creature of only bone and muscle stop that!?”

“Then let’s fix this with some biological poison. Cover for me, my cute little sister☆”

“Got it, Rikuri Nee-san.”

Kaibi’s handgun looked tiny compared to the Gatling gun, but while it could not provide a fatal blow, it could be used to take up a defensive position and hold back the foe.

Meanwhile, Rikuri approached her prey with her slitted skirt fluttering.

She spun a gas-powered injector like it was a pen and then firmly gripped it.

She did not aim for the tough surface.

She shoved the tip into the physically and chemically weak mucus membrane near the giant lizard’s eyelid and depressed the switch with her thumb.

After a “psh” similar to a soda cap opening, the giant form wobbled to the side.

Then it collapsed and stopped moving.

“The Clostridium botulinum bacteria can be found in the dirt anywhere in the world, but if the conditions are right, it can produce a powerful toxin. Unlike the puffer fish or wolfsbane, there is no way of managing it, making it a very frightening poison.”

Measure Heart could control the emotional distance between people.

That meant it was not much use against nonhumans, so instead of relying on that, Kaibi swapped out her handgun’s magazine and spoke up casually.

But instead of to her sisters, she spoke to Kamijou.

“You two go on ahead to Matsuo Ryuusuke’s hideout.”

“What?”

“Your objective isn’t to destroy LS.S.’s forces or to stop the resurrection of the Beginning Child, right? You want to rescue Mitsuari Ayu. We’re risking our lives to fight here, so we don’t want this treated as a failure because you lose sight of your objective and let too much time pass. We want to make sure we still get paid for this job, is what I’m saying.”

“Ignore that tsundere who insists on pretending this is all about self-interest. We need to get going, boy!!”

“You think I would fall for this boy after like 5 seconds? Do I look like Amazora to you?”

(I guess I wouldn’t be much help here anyway. If we beat up that Matsuo guy, we might be able to find a stop command or some other way of ending the fight. With living creatures, the big boss is sure to have a spray or ultrasound signal that can keep the monsters from making a snack out of him!)

“Okay, but don’t you die!!”

Modern humans needed guns to hunt in the mountains. In that sense, Kamijou was nothing more than dead weight. Especially when their prey was fire-breathing monsters larger than an elephant. While Amazora sprayed gunfire to keep the monsters back, Kamijou and Kumokawa left to make their way toward the mountain summit.

They could hear ominous rustling sounds from the trees and underbrush all around them. Kamijou did not know much about hiking or hunting, but even he could tell from the weight of the sounds that these were not people.

“Stay still,” said Kumokawa while she puled out a deodorant spray and sprayed it around. That artificial scent seemed like it would make them more conspicuous out here in nature where the cicadas were crying, but while tension squeezed at Kamijou’s heart, the mysterious giant shaking the forest’s trees passed right by them.

“They seem to be tracking us using only a certain wavelength of light and certain chemical scent particles. That’s a standard way for animals and insects to track their prey. Silver ions should be enough to keep them away.”

“Are those sisters all right?”

He looked back in shock. The more monsters passed them by, the more they would gather around the sisters who were making so much noise.

Kumokawa only had one thing to say about that.

“Elephants and tigers are endangered species nowadays. Because of the guns and environmental destruction brought about by humans. Trust in the fact that the girls will have the upper hand here.”

“Is that really how it works?”

Also, he and Kumokawa were unarmed, so there was nothing they could do if they did turn back now. These were all the semi-artificial creatures created by the Biohacker. As artificial weapons, they might have limits in place that natural creatures lacked. Either in the basic structure of their bodies or in some kind of conditioned reflex trained into them like with Pavlov’s dogs.

If there was insurance in place in case of an emergency, they only had to figure out what that was.

It might be some ultrasound speakers or a spray that affected the animal’s noses far more than humans, but a cheap villain was sure to have something like that hidden away.

“Let’s go. Matsuo Ryuusuke’s villa is up ahead.”

“Right.”

They did not run across any dinosaurs along the way, but they did see some awfully beautiful flowers a few times. They had pink leaves and white petals. Those small and lovely flowers were growing from the ground but also from unnatural places, like tree trunks and on top of stones.

“Don’t step on any of those,” warned Kumokawa Seria. “They must be L.S.S. alarms. Get either the pollen or the nectar on your hands or shoes and every creature on this mountain will be after you.”

“Wh-what proof of that do you have?”

“Just flip through a plant encyclopedia. I guarantee you that flower won’t be in it or any other one you check.”

They also saw some ants with extremely fat abdomens. They probably contained that alarm nectar since the fat abdomen had the same coloration as the small flowers. It was unclear if the Biohacker had made those or if normal insects had ended up that way, but it would still be best not to step on them.

As they walked further up the slope, the underbrush suddenly came to an end.

Their view opened up and they found themselves on the winding mountain road.

“Almost there.”

Kumokawa pointed further into the mountain with her thumb and resumed walking.

Once on the asphalt, the temperature seemed to rise some, maybe because of the reflected sun. Academy City was an artificial place through and through. They could see an artificial lake and a large metal tower in the distance.

“Is that Ground Geo?”

“?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s an unmanned facility, so there won’t be any ignorant workers to be feasted on by the creatures. We need to focus on ourselves.”

After continuing along the mountain road a bit, they returned to the dirt through a gap in the guardrail. In a cross between an animal path and a rural road, the underbrush had been trampled down and there were tire tracks. However, they did not feel at all lost. Kamijou could tell they were approaching the person who had created this path.

And.

“Found it,” he said.

A blatantly artificial structure awaited them through the dark trees. He saw a log cabin with a boxy garage next to it. But since this was a Biohacker’s home base, there might be more to it than that. Who could say what was living there with the man.

There was no obvious nameplate or company name on display.

But much like sunglasses and a mask, that seemed to carry the sinister air of someone trying to hide their identity.

“This is L.S.S…no, Matsuo Ryuusuke’s hideout!!”