Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

“You know what I’ve realized, Kami-yan?”

“What?”

Kamijou Touma sounded out of it as he responded.

“It’s not about the female doctors and nurses.” Aogami Pierce sat cross-legged on the neighboring bed with nothing better to do. “I’m all about the sickly girls in pajamas right now. I saw the cutest girl with a bob cut and an eyepatch out in the hall earlier.”

“What’s with you, Aogami Pierce? Did you take a mental trip to some other world when Fukiyose broke your secret tablet over her knee during her visit?”

“In fact, this is the home of girls in casts and eyepatches!! I need to be more careful cause I overlooked this until now! And I’m supposed to be the all-time master!!”

What did that matter?

Kamijou regretted asking, but he decided to say one thing more.

“What am I supposed to do about this information?”

“Let’s go visit a girl’s room.”

“Why did I even ask!? We can’t do that! You’re the kind of guy that loses all control on the school trip and ends up hated by the entire class! Think for two seconds why they go to the trouble of keeping separate rooms for boys and girls in the hospital!!”

“Shut up!! I’m not spending my Christmas playing cards with another guy!! I want at least one bittersweet memory!!”

Aogami Pierce’s hands were not functioning, so he had learned how to manipulate the cards with his toes. People always found a way to grow when the need arose. Even if it was meaningless growth.

He was making more sense than when he had been stubbornly refusing to admit Christmas was anything special, but he had taken it in the worst possible direction. Kamijou really wanted to avoid being caught in the middle of this.

“Don’t worry, Kami-yan. I’m pretty sure I can get away safely while they’re attacking you.”

“Do I need to break a few of your bones to extend your stay here? If you know we’ll be attacked and have to ‘get away’, none of your dreams are going to come true there!! Just accept the reality you’re stuck with, Aogami! At most, you might open the door and accidentally see them changing, but no love starts that way!!”

“Wrong!! We still have our old friends the suspension bridge effect and Stockholm syndrome!!”

“Aren’t those both about people mistaking their fear for something else!?”

Kamijou was aware that manuals on how to get someone to fall in love through hypnotism or psychology stubbornly refused to go away in certain niche markets, but he was pretty sure the end result of that would only feel empty. It was all one way and they would never be seeing you for who you really were.

“Oh, I’ve given up on any normal sort of love,” said the garbage in the neighboring bed while sounding almost proud of himself.

“…”

“As long as I can do her, I don’t really care how I get to that point. The age of maturity was lowered! And there’s a curse placed on all us boys, requiring us to lose our virginity before then!!”

“Pretty sure you’re just screwing yourself up so bad you’ll never even be able to hold a girl’s hand.”

“Wait…you’ve been acting awfully calm for someone sharing this hellish Christmas with me. What is this barrier between us? You can tell me!”

Kamijou Touma stared off into the distance.

He lamented his current situation.

And he stuffed a rolled-up tissue in his nose while thinking back on something.

“Kissing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

Aogami Pierce stopped breathing.

“What… did you say? And what’s that nosebleed supposed to mean!?”

“I mean, people’s mouths are full of germs. You never know what kind of microbes are in there.”

“How dare you!!!”