Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 9===

That wasn’t actually a concern.

Because the mass driver attack stabbed right into the center of the drone airbase.



More specifically, it was caught by one of the giant “sails” meant to catch drones.

A piece of metal the size of a van shallowly struck the ground ''very close by'' at a tremendous speed of more than 12km/s, ricocheted, and pierced into the base. It slipped just below the anti-air defenses at extreme speed.

“Ugh, cough.”

Something emerged from the giant bullet-like vehicle made of thick heat-resistant and shock-resistant material.

That something was a thick metal coat.

There was no attack from the rapid-fire guns or the Boom Wall.

They weren’t designed to fire into the base…but that wasn’t the main reason.

“Wow…I think we destroyed like half the base.”

“Of course we did.” Hamazura crawled out from within the metal coat. “Even if it was a shallow angle, we still hit the ground right in front of the base to ricochet. At escape velocity. A normal bullet makes sparks when it hits a concrete wall, right? When a mass this large contacts the ground at that speed, it will send an explosive blast and a shockwave ahead with the force of an avalanche. And it fans out.”

“You knew this would happen? But if the base is half destroyed, you couldn’t know if the yacht sail thing’s support would break and not be there to catch us!”

“But we made it. We won the gamble, so why waste time complaining?”

“Y-you idiot, you really are on fire today. …And do you think this also killed the villain?”

“This is military base, remember? The important central stuff will be deep underground. Blowing away the stuff visible on the surface won’t damage the heart of the base.”

Even so, preventing all the unmanned weapons from taking off or landing meant a lot.

Hamazura looked out past the wreckage-strewn base.

“So what are those Anglicans doing?”

“They avoided it. They were apparently scattered along the perimeter on the other side, so the shockwave that blew away this half of the base wouldn’t have hit them.”

…So even after all this, they might attack. Still, that was better than if he had hurt his girlfriend Takitsubo.

“Aneri search for the entrance to the underground part of the base and force open the electronic lock!”

They were in.

Yes, Hamazura Shiage and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had made it inside the drone base.

Now they only had determine which room of this drone-development air base the Black_Oneday user was hiding in.

“I doubt anyone is placing any trust in security cameras when both sides have hacking tools.”

Aneri gave two buzzes of protest. Apparently to say it was not primarily meant for hacking.

“Hey, hey. How about you rely on the magic side for once? Do I need to turn into the pain-in-the-ass kind of girlfriend who’s jealous of the porn on your phone? I might just know how to find which room it is.”

“How?”

“Because I’m the Transcendent who loves the hated☆ …The villain might be someone who looks like they wouldn’t hurt a fly, but that doesn’t mean they actually wouldn’t kill a fly or a moth if it flew in front of them, right? And those things can easily multiply inside an unmanned base.”

“…”

His phone buzzed again. That was a positive signal from Aneri. Based on its hacking of the base’s local network, the chemical weapon sensors in one section had picked up faint signs of insecticide components. That kind of chemical wouldn’t be needed in a base without any people around.

“That settles it. They’re in…the underground command center? That’s the first place I should have guessed. Argh, why did I have to overcomplicate it!?”

“It’s easy to claim you had it figured out after you’ve been spoiled. Did you think you were a genius, or something?”

They used Aneri’s support to travel through the base without getting caught.

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet had said the base was unmanned…and apparently they really had reduced the number of human workers to the very limit because they didn’t run into anyone on the way. But since the place had a command center deep underground, the control couldn’t be completely automatic, could it?

“Is that it, Aneri?” asked Hamazura, facing a tungsten steel door as thick as a bank vault door. He guessed the underground command center was built as sturdily as a nuclear shelter.

But this was a problem.

He was usually the criminal trying to run and hide.

He didn’t know the proper way to break in like this.

“This is the very center of the base, right? This door has to be crazy solid, so how do we unlock it? How are we supposed to get insi-”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet destroyed the door with a single punch from her metal coat’s giant sleeve. It scared Hamazura that it didn’t even surprise him. He was getting too accustomed to her bizarre power.

The room beyond was larger than the average indoor pool.

But it didn’t feel spacious. Thanks to all the computers crammed inside. But there was more than just LCD monitors in there. There were also devices that displayed a wide variety of data on giant pieces of clear glass like what you would see inside a submarine in a movie. Hamazura didn’t know what a lot of the equipment was even called.

But he didn’t have time to pay much attention to all that.

He thought his heart would stop.

The first thing Hamazura saw were the Anglicans. They were armed with dangerous bladed and blunt weapons and had the same unquestioning looks in their eyes.

And he saw someone else surrounded by them and unmoving: Takitsubo Rikou.

“H-Hamazu- Hama-”

“!!”

He wanted to call her name, but he knew ''that'' would be the most dangerous thing he could do. No good came of letting them know the value of their hostage.

He had to stay on the path of evil.

He had already decided he could only protect his girlfriend by placing her second.

Shaking off that urge was so hard he thought he would cough up blood…but he managed to face ''the other oddity'' here.

“Hold on. What are you doing here?”

He faced the mastermind behind it all.

She was a girl with chestnut hair. And he had heard her voice before.

''“N-no… Help.”

She was a small girl of around 13. He recognized the fluffy adult coat that came down to her ankles and hid her hands in the sleeves.

''“Go.”

''“Hurry.”

He didn’t want to believe it.

But his own memory didn’t lie.



“The girl I saved…from the Dobermanns…way back at the start?”



Come to think of it, he had never solved the initial mystery.

The Anglicans had made that cell by modifying a die-like air cargo container. The door had been locked up tight – the metal shutter had used some kind of special magical lock – so why had it suddenly opened even though he and Aneri hadn’t done a thing?

Had he been in the palm of her hand since then?

“That’s right, Hamazura. I saved you.”

The girl smiled a little while holding a plush bear in her arm.

Aneri gave two buzzes of warning.

…It wasn’t a phone or a computer. ''Was that'' the device used to give instructions to Black_Oneday? The plush bear had a trackball, keyboard, and other devices installed on and in it.

“But…why? Why did you have to take it so far? I mean, you were in a position to brainwash the Anglicans who were after you, right!? Every last one of them!! So you didn’t even need to free me from my cell to confuse them!”

“?”

In response, the girl tilted her head in utter confusion.

He also heard a sigh of exasperation from Blodeuwedd the Bouquet.

“Yeah, uh, Hamazura, I don’t think that’s what it was.”

“What?”

“That villain simply ''let you escape because she wanted to let you escape''. I’m sure of it. It was a whim with no connection to any master plan related to confusing the Anglicans or starting a global war using Black_Oneday.”

“Wait, but…the Black_Oneday user really tried to kill me! I mean, what about at the Hotel Town? She fired on me with that eight-wheeled anti-air drone and she tried to blow me away with vaporized jet fuel…”

“But ''you didn’t actually die. You’re a Level 0, yet you survived all those flashy attacks. Seems unnatural, doesn’t it''?”

It couldn’t be…

“Are you saying the Black_Oneday user intentionally ''adjusted the difficulty'' so I could get through it? Like making sure someone doesn’t die when playing a game!?”

She had wanted to free Hamazura ''separate from'' whatever else she was doing.

…That was all it was? Really???

But if she wanted to save Hamazura, why had she gotten Takitsubo involved?

The girl pulled out a headband and used it to keep her bangs out of her eyes.

“What? Were you trying to save that track suit girl?”

“…Yeah.”

“''Okay. If that’s what you want, I’ll free her.''”

Several thudding sounds overlapped each other. They were the sounds of bodies hitting the floor. Kanzaki Kaori, Stiyl Magnus, and the rest of the Anglican magicians collapsed like a switch had been thrown. The only one left standing was Takitsubo Rikou.

Was that all it took?

Saying that had ''really'' been enough to save her?

“Hold on…what’s going on here?” muttered Hamazura in a daze.

He was glad Takitsubo was safe, but he had trouble believing it was true. He was worried something even worse awaited him.

Besides, how had it even turned out like this?

Even if this girl really was behind everything, today was the first time he had met her. She shouldn’t have any obligation to help him out.

“Because our circumstances are similar. So I don’t get anything out of it. I just felt like helping you is all.”

“Eh?”

“You don’t want people calling that person a great demon, right?”

That was true.

But why was she bringing that up here?

“I am one of several anti-magic combat plans developed in parallel on former Archbishop Lola Stuart’s command. But Grimoire Library Index Librorum Prohibitorum was ultimately chosen, so I am no more than a scrapped model forgotten as a phantom project.”

The name Lola Stuart wasn’t too familiar to Hamazura, but he was pretty sure it had been one of Coronzon’s pseudonyms.

Meaning…

“I am Narthex Coded Cathedral. …I suppose you could call me one of the ''products'' raised by Coronzon.”