Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:AgneseSS Chapter3 (section)

===Part 5===

“Ugh.”

What in the world was that?

It had sounded a lot like…a baby crying?

Just as Angelene arrived at her designated destination, her round backpack tore open from within and something like black branches burst out. No, they were more like multisegmented spider legs. She still could not see what it looked like in full. The backpack had been torn pretty badly, but its general shape still remained.

For some reason, she suspected she might die if she looked in there, so she used her trembling hands to pull her arms from the shoulder straps.

As she did so, the sharp end of one of those legs stroked across her cheek like a metal spike.

“Ahhhhhhhh!!!???”

She threw the round backpack away.

It never hit the ground.

It was supported in midair by the many bizarre legs emerging from it. If those legs were to spread out, this ''thing'' would already be larger than she was. In fact, it had to be as wide across as a table for four. Needless to say, the sheer size made it more terrifying than a simple animal or bug.

“Wahh, wahh.”

It sounded like a baby, but this was no baby. It couldn’t be. That was something much more malevolent. And it was clearly more than ''just'' a hackneyed monster like a giant spider.

You could not let yourself know this thing.

Simply thinking its name in your mind would steal your soul away.

This terrifying ''thing'' was as far from human warmth as anything could be. The way the horrific creature cried like a baby seemed like a serial killer trying but failing to pretend to be a harmless neighbor. There was no way this thing could ever inspire you to protect it.

“Sister Angelene!!” shouted a familiar girl’s voice from atop a large warehouse.

Angelene looked up there on reflex, but the sharp voice rebuked her.

“Get away from there!! Hurry!! The killing was set up to be automatic too. The magician was back in the restaurant at the starting point, not in the abandoned building at the goal! They had you place ''the murder device'' in your backpack and then sent you to the scene of your own murder!!”

“H-how is this happening!? How can this be happening!?”

She started running, but tripped in her panic. She belatedly realized she had run into her bike. She righted the bike, climbed onto the seat, and placed her full weight on the pedals.

[[Image:AgneseSS_3.jpg|thumb]]

The babylike signal exploded.

Legs heavier than heavy machinery tore into the asphalt, all while crying just like a baby in distress. The horrifying “backpack” was on the move.

Angelene had become the definite target of that being that would take away your soul through simple knowledge of it.

A true crisis was underway.

“What am I supposed to do nowww!?”

The magician responsible had not even shown up, so they could not stop this thing by punching the person who had sicced it on her. What chance did she even have here? She doubted you could outrun this kind of “death” on a bike. The monster that tore into the scenery with spider legs and cried like a baby was the very concept of inescapable death. Understanding it would not reveal a path to survival – it would only close off your fate and guide you to your doom even faster. There was no thinking your way out of this absolute death.

She heard some light footsteps from up above.

She could guess Agnese and Lucia were following by jumping between warehouse rooftops. Or she hoped that was what it was. If this thing could mimic their voices too, then she could only give up and die.

“The magician made sure to distance themselves from the threat they created! If they could perfectly control it, they could have attacked you when you picked up that thing at the restaurant!!”

She thought her heart would freeze over.

Knowing she had been pedaling along with that thing on her back was terrifying enough, but the thought of it possibly attacking even sooner made it all the worse.

“So, Sister Angelene, your best bet is to retrace your steps and return to that restaurant! You just have to create a situation the magician doesn’t want!! Then they’ll have to do something about it!!”

(That’s all wishful thinking! What if the magician has already left the restaurant!?)

But she had no other options at the moment.

If she stopped here, she would meet the same fate as the previous victims. Did that thing chew up the victims and carry them back to the magician in its stomach, or was killing them with that thing enough to complete the ceremony? Either way, she would not see the sunrise.

She pedaled through the warehouse district at top speed.

She could tell it would catch up to her eventually, but she could return to that restaurant and make it the original magician’s problem before that happened. That was the only way she saw to survive. It was like playing catch with a cartoon bomb with its fuse lit.

“The area just outside the warehouse district is densely populated! Do you have a people-clearing field ready!?”

“If the magician detected the unnatural flow of magic, they could escape, so if you want to survive this, just rush on through!!”

“Are you serious!? I really feel like we’re crossing a line here!”

The almost metallic footsteps continued to pursue her. And the unnatural, baby-like crying was even closer than she had thought. She did not have it in her to look back. She was not even checking her phone. She was entirely relying on her own memory when a single wrong turn could mean failing to arrive at her destination and becoming a live snack.

She pedaled with a ghastly look on her face until she spotted a familiar light: the restaurant’s sign.

It still had its lights on this late. She looked to the register counter through the window and recognized the young woman staring wide-eyed back out at her.

Since the woman had not left, she must have been extremely confident her plan would work.

Or had she been too afraid to wander around “outside” before she knew how it had turned out? All while assuming the bike carrying the bomb would never return to the starting point no matter where it went.

Angelene shouted at the top of her lungs toward the roofs.

“Trash spotted!! She’s still pretending to be the real restaurant manager!!”

“Understood, Sister Angelene. Now’s your chance to deliver that package to its rightful owner!!”

With a deafening shattering of glass, Angelene and her borrowed bike crashed into the restaurant.

She broke right through the locked door and tumbled out onto the floor.

Her thick nun’s habit came in handy at times like this. Which was not too surprising since hers truly was combat gear.

“Eek, eek!”

She had fallen onto her butt.

Not Angelene. The magician woman who had set all this up.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!! Y-you!? Why would you ever come back here!?”

“Because you sent this magic after me!”

Angelene desperately shouted back, but received an odd response.

The terrified magician shook her head like a small child.

“N-no.”

“?”

“It wasn’t me!! That brutal curse isn’t mine!!”