Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

The entire scene slanted.

There was an obvious fault line.

The office had been a long, narrow rectangular room, but it had suddenly been split between front and back. Index and Mikoto instantly vanished from view. A giant cliff face towered in front of Kamijou. Had the two girls been launched upwards?

(No!)

He realized it was the opposite when he noticed what that large shadow pressing down from overhead was. They were not rising up; he was sinking down. The walls, ceiling, and even ground had been sliced through and Kamijou and Last Order were plunging underground.

“Oh, no!!”

The entire room had tilted at a diagonal angle.

Everything seemed different now and the ground itself rocked like a small boat in a storm. This had been a reinforced concrete building built on flat ground, but now it was a steep slope. And Last Order had nothing to grab onto, so she was rolling around and falling away.

Pieces of the ground weighing more than 100 tons were powerfully smashing together.

The giant jagged edge of the slice was still moving. Touch that with an arm or a leg and it might bite down and tear the limb straight off.

But Kamijou’s fear never came true.

''The mouth was opening.

But this was not a wall of dirt. There was an open space underground. Given the limited space in Academy City, the underground area was packed full of development. They must have broken into an underground tunnel connecting subway stations. They had sunk unnaturally deep, yet the sliced edge of the ground-level road could be seen here.

It almost seemed intentional.

After swallowing Last Order, the ground wobbled like a seesaw. Once the height difference levelled off, the underground tunnel’s mouth would close.

(This wasn’t an accident or a disaster.)

That was obvious enough. He refused to believe this was a natural occurrence. He was unsure how exactly it had been done, but human malice was plain to see here.

They were under attack by some kind of supernatural power, so he had no reason whatsoever to let it continue.

It was time to make up of his mind.

(I can’t leave her alone right now!!)

“You idiot! Are you insane!?”

“You go check on Index for me. Please!!”

Mikoto shouted down from the upper level, but she could not stop him while he was on the lower level. He in fact let go of his handhold and slid down the slanted floor to dive into the underground tunnel.

He just barely made it.

A moment after he was in, the great jaws of the ground snapped shut. If he had been just three seconds slower, the ferocious weight of more than 100 tons would have torn his upper body from his lower body like someone biting through a hot dog.

“Are you okay, Last Order?” he asked from the floor.

“Yes, Misaka is not hurt, says Misaka as Misaka looks around curiously.”

This would normally have been an entirely ordinary underground tunnel, but there were now cracks everywhere and dark soil spilling in from the fissures in the concrete. The power system must have been knocked out because the fluorescent lights were all dead and some electric sparks were sporadically pouring down from the walls and ceiling like fireworks.

“Hm.”

Last Order brushed off her clothes with her small hands. She may have been particular about staying clean.

The tunnel was as dark as a movie theater and pieces of torn wiring and shards of concrete could be anywhere. If they were not aware of where the cracks were, they could be buried alive by dirt. It was dangerous in the dark, but they only had his phone’s LED light to go on.

The small girl raised her hands and hopped up and down.

“Misaka can make light too, says Misaka while Misaka holds her head high.”

“What? Can you send electricity to the surviving lights?”

“Misaka can send sparks from her hair!!”

He politely refused the offer. In the dark, a light source would be the first thing an enemy would target. Making that light source your head or hair was the most dangerous option.

She must have been worried because she clutched his clothes with her small hand and asked a question.

“What should we do now? asks Misaka while Misaka seeks advice.”

“Good question.”

If they were free to move, where should they go?

What could they do to ensure their safety?

(Think.)

This half-broken tunnel was clearly dangerous, but the surface was not necessarily safer. The enemy might concentrate fire on them the instant they appeared in an open area.

So it would be best to come up with a plan instead of wandering at random.

The first issue was…

(If this was an intentional attack, ''who was the target''?)

It could always be Kamijou himself, but he figured that was highly unlikely. He could not just blame his misfortune for everything. Since this was Academy City, headquarters of the science side, #3 Misaka Mikoto would be the top of the list. The cloned Sisters and Last Order, their command tower, would also be valuable.

No.

(The most unique of them would be this one here.)

“?”

Last Order tilted her head as if to ask why he was looking at her.

He was starting to think it had been no accident that the earth had opened its jaws and swallowed only Last Order.

Meanwhile, there had been another important person in that darts bar, albeit important for an entirely different reason.

Index.

The magic side also existed. She was the grimoire library that had memorized at least 103,001 grimoires and apparently all the world’s outlaw magicians were after her knowledge. In that case, it was conceivable someone had ''used Last Order'' to remove Kamijou Touma from Index.

So was it science or magic? Whichever side the unseen enemy belonged to would greatly change what was to come. If he got that wrong, he would hold his shield in the wrong direction and end up being hit in the back or side by the enemy’s concentrated fire.

Assuming the entire building had not collapsed from that initial attack, then Index would have Mikoto and Misaka Imouto with her. Those two would not be defeated so easily.

He had two primary options here.

The first was to reach the surface as quickly as possible and regroup with Index, Mikoto, and Misaka Imouto. Whether Index or Last Order was the target, he would know where the enemy would attack if those two were together. And whether the threat belonged to science or magic, they could team up on the enemy and eliminate the threat once they showed themselves.

The second was to separate Index and Last Order. Seeing which one the attacker pursued would tell him whether they belonged to science or magic. And if he could contact Mikoto’s group, they could take advantage of being split up. While the attacker thought they were cornering their target, Kamijou or Mikoto could sneak up behind them.

“…”

After some thought, Kamijou Touma made up his mind.

“Last Order, let’s get away from here for now.”

“If you say so.”

When he started to move, the small girl followed while still holding onto his clothes. She apparently had no intention of letting go.

He had chosen the latter option.

He could only choose to split up because he trusted in Mikoto and Misaka Imouto’s skill. He was hesitant to flee or fight without knowing who the enemy was. From the moment of the attack, his group had been a step behind when it came to information. They could never escape this vicious cycle of attacks unless they filled in that gap.

Would he really find peace if he escaped back to his dorm room?

If he went to Anti-Skill and asked for protection, was there really no chance of the Anti-Skill station being destroyed?

At the very least, he wanted to know who this enemy was.

The former option of regrouping might seem safer since they could pool their forces and cover for whoever was being targeted, but there was a trap there. If the unknown enemy chose to hide and wait, there was nothing he and the others could do. Whatever this opponent’s attack was, it was powerful enough to split through a building and lift up the ground. There was nowhere they could safely hide from that, so he wanted to avoid holing up somewhere while that unknown assailant could freely walk around outside. That would be just like being adrift in the ocean aboard a lifeboat with a giant shark circling around.

He had to drag the owner of those fangs out of the water.

Finding safety could wait until then.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“Why not run? asks Misaka while Misaka hopes to go faster.”

“My phone is our only light source, but the ground is covered with pieces of concrete thicker than a phonebook and shards of fluorescent lights. If we trip and fall, we’ll hurt ourselves pretty badly.”

If this tunnel did connect subway stations, where was the closest stairway back to the surface? Kamijou tried to remember that. He did not know how widespread the damage from that attack had been, so he could only hope the stairs had survived.

After less than 10m of progress after forming their new team down here, Kamijou and Last Order were hit by another powerful tremor.

“Wah!?”

“So they were after her, not Index!!”

Was the snapping sound he heard from concrete or metal? It was such an unusual sound that he could not even imagine what kind of destruction he was hearing.

But the low rumbling never seemed to end.

In fact, it was growing louder.

The deep sound was loud enough to shake the entire floor.

“Dammit. Run, Last Order.”

“Eh? But you just said-”

“They intentionally broke some kind of major water pipe down here!! Hurry! A ton of water is on its way!!”

His loud voice seemed to push her forward and she stumbled. He wrapped an arm around her skinny hips and scooped her up while running forward. He only had a phone’s LED light to go on, but not even that was much help with his arm pumping at his side. Last Order kicked her skinny legs while he carried her.

“The entire tunnel is shaking! shouts Misaka while Misaka explains what she noticed!”

“I know. I hope it doesn’t collapse. Well, put your hands over your head to protect yourself as best as you can!!”

The noise was growing louder.

No, it was drawing closer.

He felt the deep rumble more in his gut than his ears now.

How many seconds until it caught up and swallowed them whole? He could not see in the darkness, so his panic just about caused his feet to tangle together. There was no hope for them if he tripped now. They would be helplessly swallowed up and there would be no recovering from it. The fear of bringing about his own death squeezed at his heart.

Which was why he almost missed it entirely.

Once his bright LED light illuminated the icon for the stairs, he slammed on the brakes and dove in there. Still holding Last Order’s hips in his arm, he ran up to the landing two steps at a time.

Then his legs were nearly pulled out from under him.

The deluge had risen to their level in an instant and almost carried him away. It had stopped at less than knee height, but that was enough to throw him off balance.

There had been more than 10 steps to the landing, so the actual tunnel had to be fully inundated. There was no telling how long this stairway would last either.

“Kh!!”

He slammed himself against the cracked concrete wall to stop himself from falling. Then he ran up the rest of the stairs. He heard a muffled sound of destruction in the distance and the amount of water rapidly increased. Another major water pipe must have broken. He ran up the stairs to escape the water level that was rising in order to swallow up his hips.

His feet slipped at the end.

“Gah!?”

He curled up his body to at least protect Last Order from the cold and hard corner of the stairs. He clenched his teeth to bear with the pain and used both arms to push that small body up the last few steps to the surface. But instead of standing up, she stayed on all fours and reached out a small hand toward him.

“Hold on! Hurry up here! Nhhh!!”

Her efforts probably did not mean much.

If he had slipped down, he would only have pulled her down in the midwinter water with him.

(N-no.)

But.

That was why he made sure to hold his ground to the very end.

(Not yet!!)

While focusing on not pulling her to her doom with him, he forced himself up the last few steps and to the surface.

He and Last Order rolled out onto a sidewalk paved with broken tiles.

The torrent stopped at exactly the surface level. The water level receded, much like a ferocious beast slinking back into the bushes after failing to catch its prey. Another crack or large hole must have formed.

Things were bad outside too.

All those sturdy buildings were now tilted and cracks formed ominous Xs in the reinforced concrete walls. Were those danger signs of a possible collapse? A drum-shaped cleaning robot had fallen on its side and could not get back up, leaving its tires spinning fruitlessly. A few of the three-bladed wind turbines had fully collapsed and crushed the guardrails and the cars parked on the curb. It would have been a disaster had any of those hit someone.

It was all made worse by the Christmas season. The cables of colorful lights meant to decorate the city had broken and were dangling down and scattering sparks. It was not as bad as old-fashioned power lines, but there was still a risk of people getting shocked or a fire starting. Especially when combined with that water.

The road glittered in the sunlight like the ocean surface.

Perhaps due to the damage to the buildings, the windows of the higher floors must have broken and sent glass shards pouring down. He was pleasantly surprised to not see bloodstains everywhere. As soon as they felt the shaking, the people of this country tended to hide in sturdy buildings or below cars. In stark contrast to matters of crime and war, he had seen on a trivia show that Japan was one of the best countries in the world when it came to disaster response knowledge.

Last Order opened her small mouth and looked up into the peaceful blue sky.

The airship gently floating there seemed cut off from all the chaos. The screen on its belly was not playing any kind of special news report.

“C-could it have been an esper who controls earthquakes? wonders Misaka as Misaka tilts her head.”

“I’m thinking no.”

That had been one hell of an attack, but he felt like the attacker had been trying to mislead them by limiting their own method of attack.

If their power simply shook things, then that darts bar should have collapsed. Instead of lifting up the ground, it had looked more like the ground had been sliced through where the building was. That was why the ground had shaken but the building had not collapsed. Since it had already been split in two already, it had not twisted and snapped apart.

And this was the more concerning answer.

If this was a general-use Telekinesis user, they would have a lot more options. They might even be able to directly target Kamijou or Last Order and tear their bodies in two. Just like a small child cruelly playing with a bug they had captured.

In that case, being locked onto meant death.

But on the other hand…

(They didn’t do that.)

If they really did have such a powerful ability, they would not have needed to make that bluff to fool their prey. That act was proof that they were afraid. They were afraid of being identified and of a counterattack. So the enemy was saying themselves that, whatever their power might be, if their trump card was identified, ''that alone'' would set the dominoes falling and they would lose their advantageous position.

He could not let the malice swallow him up.

He had to read between the lines and convert it into hope.

Real incidents did not have magic potions and spare ammo placed on the floor every so often so anyone could win. The enemy would have eliminated anything that would help him and cut off all paths leading back to them before making their attack. So ''don’t expect any help from the enemy.'' He needed to transform what he was given. Just like turning sticky sludge into a disinfectant, he had to find what information he could from the malicious words and actions sent his way.

“What do we do now? says Misaka as Misaka asks a question.”

“We look up,” he bluntly replied. “Where could someone see everything, from the initial darts bar to here? If they’ve been using a single power this whole time, then they must have been watching us.”

“B-but we were underground before.”

“Because they invited us there.”

Also, it was hard to think they had lost sight of Last Order after setting that up themselves.

“The attack underground seemed a lot less targeted than the initial one that split the darts bar office. They broke open an industrial water pipe in the distance to flood the entire tunnel, right? They knew where we were in general, but not specifically. And that was fine with them.”

He did not have any actual proof of this, of course. This was only guesswork based on what they had experienced and what he would have done if he were the enemy.

But he would lose sight of his destination if he did not set up a framework like that. If he let his emotions take over and simply ran at random, he knew exactly what fate would await him. Their lives were on the line, so he wanted to maintain enough freedom to open up the map and decide on a destination.

“So this might be our chance. The further away we are, the less accurately the enemy knows our position. If they don’t know if we’re in that flooded tunnel or out here, they’ll be open to attack. If we can work out where they’re hiding and looking down on the city, we can sneak up on them and strike back.”

The enemy used extremely largescale attacks, but wouldn’t that mean they could not use their full power if Kamijou arrived on the same building rooftop as them? If they used their power to destroy the very building they were standing on, they would be caught in it as well.

An esper could only have one power.

It would be difficult to protect yourself with this destruction-focused power. That would be like grabbing a raw egg with the heavy arm of some building demolition equipment.

“Eh, what? What’s going on here???”

A miniskirt Santa girl (probably a part-timer) had fallen to a sitting position on the curb while seemingly forgetting about her short skirt. Had she dyed that long blonde hair just for this job? She was apparently the type of person who would even now continue holding onto her handmade sign for 20% off if you bought a cake and turkey as a set.

“This is unbelievable, but I bet I’d get flamed if I uploaded a photo.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We need to provide accurate records of what happened!”

The couples who had evacuated into a ground floor café with broken windows were finally stepping out and taking a look around with a mixture of apprehension and annoyance. A café worker was scratching their head while looking at the glass-covered floor. The lucky color donuts must have been selling really well because they did not seem all that bothered by the idea of having to buy new windows.

Needless to say, this was Christmas Eve. It was a busy time even for winter break. This mystery esper could not be allowed to run amok any longer.

“Okay, Last Order. It’s time to begin the counterattack.”

“How are we going to find the enemy? asks Misaka while Misaka checks on your plan.”

It was obvious enough once you tried, but you could not see what was on the roof of a tall building while looking up at it. Running along the roads viewing the buildings would tell them nothing, but if they climbed to the top of the tallest building in the area to look down, the esper would only have to bring down that building. They would be caught in the collapse and lose their lives.

But Kamijou had an idea.

“It doesn’t exist.”

“Hm?”

“There is nowhere that gives you a clean view of everything from the darts bar to here. To avoid drone collisions, modern map apps will show things in three-dimensions instead of just a flat map. One look on here is enough to tell me the other buildings would block the enemy’s view and make it impossible to target us.”

“But they have continued to target us, says Misaka as Misaka makes a rebuttal.”

“Correct. So there’s some trick at play here.” He lowered his phone to short Last Order’s eye level. “If you only look at the building heights, it does look like their view would be blocked, but that isn’t actually true.”

“?”

“The wind turbines.” He pointed his thumb toward that ubiquitous feature of Academy City. “They’re everywhere, right? When rotating so quickly, they can function like a large circular mirror. With the melted snow covering them, they can reflect light easily enough. So the direct line of sight might be blocked, but those temporary mirrors give the enemy a view around the buildings. Which leaves us exposed.”

Of course, not many buildings would let someone use that.

Kamijou had come up with his answer.

“Ragweed Real Estate’s office building is located 300m west of here. It gives you a direct view down on the darts bar and the wind turbine mirrors lets you see around the cinema complex in the way. That’s the only place they could be waiting to attack us!”

They had a plan.

Kamijou pushed on Last Order’s small back to hurry them along to the conclusion.

But then a small misgiving pricked at his heart.

(Wait a second.)

Hadn’t he just seen something out of place? The café with broken windows, the unconcerned employee, and the evacuated couples were all normal enough. Shards of glass had poured down from the skyscrapers, but they would have escaped harm as long as they took shelter inside before the windows broke. Kamijou and Last Order had been safe because they were underground to begin with.

But what about the other person?

''Hadn’t there been someone who had been outside the whole time yet had not been hit by any of the glass for some reason''?

“Well, I guess you can’t expect much more than that from an amateur’s deductions,” said a voice.

He heard a dull sound before he felt anything.

“Gah?”

A merciless blow had hit him in the right side. What was that stabbing into him there? It was not a drill or an icepick. It was skinnier than a pen, but it was in fact a knife. It may have been designed for slipping through the gaps in an armored jacket to hit someone in the vitals.

But more than that, there was the person holding it.

The person who had snuck up close enough to feel the heat of their breaths was not an ancient ninja or an assassin squad that used electronic camouflage to blend into the background. This person had been in plain view from the beginning. They had been there, but he had overlooked them.

It was the part-timer girl.

The miniskirt Santa carrying a sign for a cake shop.

“Damn…you!?”

“No hard feelings, okay? I don’t have anything against you; this is only ''a job''. If I screw this up, I’ll never hear the end of it from the higher ups.”

Her long blonde hair swayed as she whispered emotionlessly even in this situation.

During Halloween or Christmastime, extreme costumes were the best way of hiding one’s identity. ''Being the most conspicuous person prevented anyone from remembering much about you.'' You could be attacked head on yet only be able to remember that it was someone in red clothes and a miniskirt that did so.

(She wasn’t watching us from a distance.)

Something reflected the sunlight in the December sky.

It was an airship.

Those were seen all over Academy City and it had large screen on its belly. And the thick protective glass covering the screen reflected the light. But he never would have noticed that ''large mirror'' by viewing his map app.

There had been another point from which someone could view the entire area using reflected and refracted light.

(She was here the whole time waiting for us to emerge!?)

“Last Order!!”

He gathered the last of his strength and shoved the small girl as far away as he could manage.

But…

“Useless.”

A crack ran down the road, but not in a straight line; it snaked along and clearly divided the Santa assassin and Last Order from Kamijou.

The ground rose up as if abducting the small girl and carrying her into the sky.

But Kamijou did not have time to just watch. Dirt fell down like a scattershot blast, sending him spiraling through the air.

He still had the knife in his side.

If he slammed into the ground now, he would not survive this. The shock would cause the knife to shred his insides.

Then it would all be over.

The pursuit would end and no one would know who had taken Last Order.

“Dammit!?”

There was nothing he could do.

Once his feet left the ground, he had already lost all right to control his movements.

The object sticking into his body was already gouging into his soul before he even hit the ground.

Once he did hit, the impact would sever through it all.

Nothing he could do with his arms and legs now would help.

He knew only red-stained death awaited him in three seconds, but all his senses seemed to vanish.

In the final moment, his nerves seemed to misfire and he felt only a sensation as soft as feathers.