Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Endymion Chapter2 (section)

===Part 10===

Stiyl restrained the girl magically. He placed a few rune cards on her body which prevented her from refining magic power.

“She was likely a decoy meant to buy time,” said Kamijou when Stiyl had finished his work. “The main force of the magic cabal is elsewhere. What do we do now?”

“For now, we need to put together a plan to prevent her from escaping or being rescued by her comrades. …Of course, the simplest method would be to kill her here.”

“We can’t do that!”

“If you know of a reason why I need to listen to what you say, I would like to hear it.”

“I’m the one that won here. If it had just been you, you would have died. Do you have anything to say to that?”

Stiyl clicked his tongue.

And then he spoke disinterestedly.

“Then we need to lock her up in some random place. Since she is restrained, it does not have to be a specialized detention facility, but we cannot just let her go free. We also need to get information on the Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens from her.”

“What if we report her to Anti-Skill?”

“That is the first place the cabal will think to look. If they learn of the girl’s capture, they might attack.”

“So as long as the cabal would not think to check there, it can be anywhere?”

“Any ideas?”

“My place.”

Stiyl let out a large sigh when he heard that.

“Well, if you’re willing to tell an enemy magician where you live, that’s fine by me. It might earn you an early grave, but that’s no concern of mine.”

“…”

Kamijou got the feeling he must have made a ridiculous suggestion, but he could think of no other possibilities.

While making sure not to touch her with his right hand, Kamijou grabbed the restrained girl with his left hand. He held up his other hand. He could see taxis driving along, but almost all of them were already full.

“I doubt remaining silent will help anymore. Then again, I don’t understand any of the technical stuff.” Kamijou spoke to the girl as he waited for a taxi. “There was a photo in your cell phone. …I don’t know who that was, but it’s someone important to you, right? I won’t say anything about that.”

“…”

The girl gave no response.

Finally, an empty taxi noticed them and drove up. The backdoor opened automatically, so Kamijou began to push the girl inside.

When he did, she muttered, “I wanted to protect my sister.” Her voice sounded feeble. “Was that so wrong?”

“There are plenty of ways to do that,” replied Kamijou. “At the very least, there are a lot more ways than you think there are that are better than this.”

“…”

The girl raised her head slightly.

She started to move her lips as if to say something.

But then…

A small unpleasant bursting noise could be heard.

“What…?”

It happened so suddenly, Kamijou did not have time to react.

An orange explosion occurred right next to the girl.

All the glass in the taxi shattered and one side was horribly dented in. Kamijou and the girl were both thrown to the ground. Due to the damage done to the car, its horn began blaring meaninglessly. The driver was yelling something, but Kamijou paid no attention to him.

Still on the ground, he yelled to Stiyl.

“What happened!? I thought you restrained her!!”

“The restraining effects are still active! She cannot refine magic power. There is no way she could have used the spell!!”

“Touma, it wasn’t her! Another magician tried to use Agni’s Festival Fire to silence her!!”

Kamijou felt a thick liquid on his palm.

A dark red stain could be seen there, but it had not come from him.

“Shit!!”

He frantically got up so he could check on the girl’s condition as she lay on the ground, but he was an amateur. All he could tell was that she had blood flowing from her head and that it was not simply a scratch.

The girl lay sprawled out on the ground with no strength in any of her limbs, but she still managed to speak.

“Good…”

A small smile appeared on her face.

She smiled despite having been betrayed by the allies who she had risked her life to protect.

“This will surely protect my sister… Good…”

“That isn’t true,” said Kamijou through clenched teeth. “I just said there are plenty of ways of doing that! Helping out with that ridiculous plan is not the only way to protect her!! Why can’t you tell that the best way to save someone is to have them leave that world of kill or be killed!?”

Despite Kamijou shouting in anger so nearby, the girl’s reaction was dull.

Kamijou was not even sure if his words were reaching her.

He slammed his fist against the ground and pulled out his cell phone. He was of course going to call an ambulance, but then Stiyl spoke up.

“You are free to do whatever you like, but they will likely send an assassin if they determine they failed to finish her off. To be blunt, any attempt to save her will likely be useless.”

“That just means you need to capture that assassin or whoever they send. You can view this as a trap with her as a hostage if you wish! In the meantime, I’m going to focus on saving her life!!”

As he waited for the phone to ring on the other end, Kamijou looked down on the girl collapsed on the ground.

He looked at the wound on her head, grimaced, and spat out some words.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. How can this result be ‘good’?”

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