Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume8 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 8===

''I am so sorry,'' thought Mut Thebes.

She lay face up on the ground, painfully aware she had squashed a sidewalk flower bed below her rear. That was meaningless destruction. The flowers were not her target and would not boost her strength. They weren’t even in the way of her job. A punisher was meant to minimize destruction and only use it to keep the peace.

She heard a heavy metallic clang.

A lot like someone had dropped a wok onto the pavement.

(But it’s a good thing I chose the composite armor at the last second. Reactive armor sounds cool, but an armor piercing round would have passed right through it.)

The blonde-haired, brown-skinned Transcendent looked up at the moon in thought.

Punishment had to be administered fairly. Exceptions would not be tolerated. The human world could only function properly when good deeds were rewarded and bad deeds punished. That created a society where the people living their best lives would find happiness. Following the rules required patience. And people deserved to be rewarded for the patience they demonstrated.

Mut was an Egyptian goddess, but she did not grant people happiness in the afterlife. She had visited the giant city of Thebes millennia ago, where she fought enemy countries in the real world and physically protected her people.

That made it all the more painful that this target had escaped her here.

She only had herself to blame.

(The Shrink Drink…is safe. Of course, after ''shrinking it'' in its binder, it is smaller than a matchbook, so I can hide it just about anywhere.)

She heard what sounded like a metal belt moving.

She also realized the deep siren was still playing in the night sky.

That meant Academy City hadn’t given up the fight.

A deep voice shouted from a loudspeaker.

“You there!! The entire city is currently under martial law. If you are a resident, pull out your student ID or some other reliable form of identification! If you are a guest, get your travel certificate out where we can see it! We do not want any unfortunate misunderstandings here, so do not do anything that could be misconstrued. We have been given authority to fire!!”

Mut Thebes ignored him and stood up.

Bright headlights surrounded her from a distance. The beams were reminiscent of eyes because of the asphalt dust hanging in the air like fog thanks to the treads.

She didn’t know if they were technically classified as tanks, antiair tanks, armored troop transports, or mobile combat vehicles. A voice came from one of them, but with Academy City technology, she couldn’t even be sure there was anyone onboard. They did have an unusual number of antennae on the roofs.

But the many lights sources cast long shadows all around her.

She appreciated their cooperation.

“Society and its rules are not to blame for my inability to complete my job.” Transcendent Mut Thebes remained expressionless. “My own lack of strength is to blame.”

“Um?”

“''So I will absorb as many shadows as necessary to create a free and fair society.''”

Mut was an Egyptian goddess of protection and war whose symbol was the vulture devouring unclean dead flesh.