Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Biohacker Chapter6 (section)

===Part 8===

A lot was done to combat suicide.

At a train station platform or train crossing where suicides were common, they might install blue LED lights to produce a calming mental effect. They might post suicide hotline posters at payphones. They might put up tall fences and gates to make it physically difficult to reach a suicide spot. It might not sound like much, but installing security cameras all over was apparently effective too.

However, there was one important rule when enacting those preventative measures.

There could be no flaws in the installation.

What if there was a hole in the fence meant to keep out suicidal people? What if the payphone meant to call a suicide hotline was broken? When someone felt suicidal but was looking for something to stop them, seeing those flaws could send them in the complete opposite direction.

''Luck is turning on me here too?

''Fate must be telling me to do it now.

The pendulum would swing back in the other direction.

All because of a bit of ''misfortune''.

Whatever the situation that had led them to that point, it could be those small things that gave them the final push. At times, they would finally make up their mind because of no more than a tiny coincidence, a miniscule miscommunication, or a wholly preventable tragedy.

“…”

It rang.

“…”

It rang.

“…”

The ringing stopped and hope leaped in her chest.

And then the mechanical voice of the voice mail service began to play.

She wilted, her head drooped, and she finally laughed. He had reached out his hand, so she had worked up her courage and hesitantly decided to grab it. But the instant she entrusted her weight to his grasp, he let go.

So she fell from the cliff.

She did not know why. Maybe one of them had a poor signal and maybe his battery had run out. Maybe he had just so happened to be on the phone with someone else. Maybe he had run into some other trouble and could not answer the phone at the moment.

But really, that was not why she was doing this.

She thought with oddly emotionless clarity while silently gathering rocks and filling her pockets with them to increase her weight.

That had been no more than a quick test of her luck, like someone pushed to their limit flipping a coin to decide whether or not to actually take their own life. It was no more than the weak action of someone faintly hoping god would reject their resolve so they could maybe live just one more day.

Yet she could not help but draw a conclusion from it.

She could not help but think this proved that she truly had not been blessed with any luck at all.

So.

So.

So.

“Ha ha.”