Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume14 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 24===

Kamijou forced his unsteady body to keep moving and pushed open a small metal door with his shoulder.

He slipped through the half-open door, probably a staff entrance, and entered the stadium.

He found a dark, cold, heavy space.

Big too.

…He had apparently entered something like a parking garage. Was it a space for workers located below the stadium? He didn’t know enough to have a good mental picture of how stadiums were structured.

He did have his phone with him, but he didn’t know what was happening inside. The pursuers had to be careful too, so he wanted to avoid causing someone’s phone to ring while they were trying to hide.

“Index?  Misaka?” he called quietly.

He didn’t know how the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Force were searching the stadium. Because they weren’t sharing information with him.

He heard some light footsteps through the darkness. They echoed off the gray walls and were moving away from him.

He immediately ran full speed in that direction.

He could tell just from listening whose they were.

“(Human, you noticed how odd that was, I trust?)”

(We all know how powerful Coronzon is, so everyone will be searching as part of a team. So no one should be leaving on their own like that!)

“Coronzon!! Is that you!?”

“You really shouldn’t have announced your presence. Unless you have the supernatural power to kill with words alone.”

The footsteps stopped.

A voice spoke from behind one of the thick concrete pillars lining the space.

A hateful voice.

“I’m relieved. Because you I can easily kill and complete my escape. Now, Kamijou Touma, how do you intend to stop me? Don’t try to tell me that foolish shout was all part of a plan and you have a more troublesome opponent hiding nearby.”

15cm Othinus could not directly fight, so he was effectively alone.

Coronzon had seen right through him.

What about the phone in his pocket? No. He might not have a signal, but more than that, using the touchscreen in the dark parking garage would give him away with the backlight. Coronzon would act before he could call for help.

“You chose this stadium because it was your best bet, right? You can’t use magic to escape through the ley lines now. So give up, Coronzon.”

“Why should I? Great demons are perfectly capable of driving cars. And it goes without saying that ordinary cars can slip right past a scan for magic power.”

Kamijou’s eyes widened.

That was her plan immediately after trying to escape using Telesma and a ley line? She switched gears way too fast.

“How many trump cards do you have!?”

“More than a mere human could ever imagine, that’s for sure.”

If she escaped in a car, he couldn’t keep up on foot. His phone was an iffy option too. So was there nothing he could do? If he shouted at the top of his lungs, the others would surely gather here. He wouldn’t let her escape.

The voice alone continued from behind the pillar.

“How about this, Kamijou Touma? What if you keep quiet and let me go?”

“Why even ask that? It’s meaningless. If you escape tonight, you’ll work to destroy all of humanity by tomorrow, right? Then nothing you could offer me would be worth it!!”

“Oh, you will let me go. Because I happened to pick up a trump card on my way here.”

Someone emerged from behind the concrete pillar. Slowly.

Blonde hair.

A woman.

But that hair was fluffy and only fell to the shoulder blades.

This wasn’t Great Demon Coronzon.

He had only heard a single set of footsteps, so had she been captured behind the pillar?

What was being held against her from outside Kamijou’s view? The feminine lines of her body were trembling and her expression was like a cross between tears and a smile.

He recognized her as one of the Amakusas.

“Tsushima.”

It wasn’t even a case of “move and she’s dead”.

All of a sudden, the red splattered out.

From the side of her neck. Kamijou was an ordinary high school boy without much forensic medical knowledge, but the location the blood was spraying from sent a chill down his spine. She seemed to have been cut by an invisible blade.

A laughing woman stuck her head out from behind the pillar.

Great Demon Coronzon really was a demon.

“Kee hee ha ha!! Protecting human lives is no easy task, is it? Or are you willing to take another tour of hell for her!?”

Coronzon kicked Tsushima’s doll-like body from behind, shoving her toward him.

He had no choice but to catch her. Only a few seconds had passed, but she felt limp and heavy in his arms. She clung heavily to him like a down blanket soaked with water. He pressed his palm firmly against the wound in her neck. How much blood loss was lethal for a human? If he didn’t stop the blood spurting from the side of her neck, she really would die.

At that moment, Kamijou’s vision suddenly went dark.

But not because Coronzon had done anything. It took him a while to even realize that. He had long since pushed his body past the limit.

He shouldn’t have been up and about at all.

“Human!!”

“Kah…ah…?”

He felt horribly faint.

He collapsed and couldn’t get back up. It wasn’t just that he couldn’t move his arms and legs very much. He wasn’t even sure which way was up.

“Kh.”

He held Tsushima tight in his arms. He gritted his teeth and tried to take in as much information on the physical reality around him. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch… it didn’t matter what. He was afraid he would pass out otherwise.

“Ha ha ha!! You said it was meaningless, didn’t you? You couldn’t have been more right! Why bother saving a life or two now when I will be destroying the entire world soon!”

No, it wasn’t working.

Even after all this…he couldn’t stop his mind from slipping away into darkness.

He had to avoid removing his hand from that neck wound.

He heard the sound of metal breaking.

Then the sound of an engine starting and the sound of Coronzon driving a car away.

“Wait…Coronzon…”

The darkness took over.

Kamijou Touma’s consciousness fully faded.

“Waiiiiit!!!”