Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Biohacker Chapter3 (section)

===Part 6===

Kamijou Touma also noticed the change while carrying the dizzy Gatling gun girl.

The color of the flames changed.

The scorching orange became a blue and purple reminiscent of fireworks.

“What…the hell?”

A rotating yellow light was flashing over by the elevator. That belonged to a device installed specifically because this was a parking garage with a concrete ceiling. The scorched plate said it was a carbon monoxide detector.

Kamijou had heard of people taking their own lives using charcoal grills.

“Oh, no!!”

While struggling to untangle the hose from around the less-than-130cm girl’s hips, he half-dragged her over toward the elevator. There was a small metal box below the rotating yellow light. It resembled an AED, but this was different. He checked inside and found a mask that covered the entire face and a small air canister the size of a hair spray can.

That was better than nothing.

He hesitated for a moment, but still placed the mask over the little girl’s face.

That was when he heard a buzzing similar to an electric shaver.

He quickly stood up while holding the unconscious mass shooter.

“Oh, what a gentleman. Or is my older little sister’s power affecting you? …Well, that power is meant to bind herself with others, so she has always had difficulty adjusting the distance between two other people.”

“Power?”

“If you weren’t aware, then I should avoid letting anything else slip. She would probably let me have it if I did.”

An aluminum and plastic unmanned device resembling a large crane fly had skillfully stopped at his eye level. But this looked different from the ordinary drones that were discussed in relation to aerial photography and online shopping.

A reel of wire and a unit resembling a gas-powered tranquilizer gun were carried below it.

This was a lot like the models used to deal with harmful animals like wild boars and bears.

If it could handle a bear, it could easily handle a human.

And there could always be more. He could glimpse a swarm of silhouettes through the flames and smoke and this nonhuman opponent might be able to slip through gaps far too small for a human.

“I will be taking back my littlest sister. No matter what.”

“You picked the fight with us.”

“Street fights begin because you assume you can win. But I never intended to let you stand on equal footing with us. Be devoured like the herbivore you are.”

“You do know I have a hostage, right?”

Kamijou finally said it.

The flames around him glowed with an even brighter bluish-purple hue.

He could not see it, but the levels of carbon monoxide may have been growing. And it would be too late by the time the physical symptoms began to show themselves.

There were at least three of them.

He had previously seen the Gatling gun esper and the mental esper who had a handgun, so this had to be the one who used drones to wield poisoned wires. He still did not know who she was.

Poison and machines were a good combination.

In a fight between humans, you could get hit by your own poison. Poison gas and biological weapons were difficult to use on the battlefield because there was always a risk of being given a taste of your own medicine in retribution. But that was not an issue when using a non-living drone. After scattering it around to cover the designated area, you could hang around without any ill effects.

(Carbon monoxide and chloride gas are easy to get your hands on since the ingredients can be found anywhere. That makes them convenient poisons when you want to disguise it as an accident, right?)

Kamijou’s head was full of pointless trivia from suspense dramas.

His opponent could win simply by keeping him from leaving the parking garage before he ran out of strength. She only had to send multiple drones after him and restrict where he could go. She would not be harmed if he managed to destroy a drone. It was even possible they had a bomb hidden inside.

Which meant…

(For now, I hold onto the hostage and it doesn’t actually matter all that much if I can get outside right away. Carbon monoxide is scary, but it isn’t like a biological weapon that dooms you the instant it’s inside your body. I just need to get some fresh air. I can’t forget I have an entire Gatling gun here. If I destroy a wall, it’s sure to provide better circulation.)

His thoughts were fairly decent for a split-second decision.

Rapidly increasing the amount of oxygen might cause the flames to explosively expand, but he had bigger issues to worry about.

However…

“Hello, blockhead. Let’s not underestimate the Potion Lady, okay?”

He heard something slice through the wind from shockingly close by.

And that female voice had not come through a microphone or speaker. He was clearly hearing it directly. Had she filled the parking garage with carbon monoxide and then walked into the very gas chamber she had created!?

“!?”

She had already moved right up to him.

He had no choice but to toss away the little girl in his arms.

His enemy swung down something like a pen, but was it a syringe that used gas to inject its contents, or was it a needle launcher?

He did not have the martial arts skills to accurately knock back the approaching assassin’s wrist.

So…

(Her legs!!)

He forcibly suppressed the instinct to protect his face with his hands, looked the sexy blonde woman in the eye to draw her attention, and threw a kick toward her long legs. If he knocked her off balance, it would throw her aim off as well. By doing that and twisting his body around so he fell to the floor, he successfully avoided the needle of that mystery syringe.

He was amazed such similar dresses could look so different on different people. Was the poison hidden in her feather-shaped necklace, her dress’s spangles, or the decoration covering her ring finger? Perhaps it was all of the above.

When he viewed her again, he found her sex appeal had reached almost oppressive levels. This was different from busty high school girl Kumokawa. Instead of a youthful beauty, hers was on the verge of rotting.

“You don’t look like the fist-fighting type, so getting in punching range was not the smartest move,” he said.

The electric shaver sound tormented his ears.

And it came from more than one direction.

The toxic woman smirked while sweat gathered in her cleavage.

“Make sure you take deep breaths to carry the carbon monoxide into your lungs,” she said. “You are sweating and I imagine you are feeling faint. Now, are those real symptoms or merely the placebo effect? Think carefully as you enter that mental labyrinth.”

The situation should have been the same for them both.

At the very least, she did not appear to be using an air tank or mask.

Then why did she not seem more worried?

“Carbon monoxide is so dangerous because it bonds more strongly with the hemoglobin meant to carry the oxygen through your blood. Once the carbon monoxide takes up all the empty seats, there is no room left to carry the oxygen and you die of asphyxiation.”

The sexy blonde woman spun the syringe around in her hand like it was a pen, tapped it against the decoration on her ring finger, and then pretended to jab the needle into the side of her neck.

“But it has no effect on crustaceans like shrimps and crabs. That is because they do not use hemoglobin to carry their oxygen. Instead, they use a completely different substance known as hemocyanin. The toxin functions much like a power plug, so it only works because the plug just so happens to match the outlet. So if you change the shape of the outlet, it no longer works.”

“…”

“I am not an esper suited for the battlefield, but I can handle this much, don’t you think? Not that knowing this gives you any way of fighting it.”

The very nature of their blood was different.

When he thought about it, he realized filling the parking garage with carbon monoxide presented a huge risk to her sisters when she was supposedly here to rescue them. But she had a countermeasure. Some of her drones had a unit similar to a gas-powered tranquilizer gun. If she injected her sisters with a special drug that provided a way of transporting blood without hemoglobin, the carbon monoxide would no longer be a threat to them.

This might look like a trickier weapon to wield than shooting fire or electricity from the palm, but altering someone’s oxygen transportation method or oxygen capacity would give them the endurance to run a marathon and allow them to function normally in the deep sea or on a tall mountain. It was tricky to wield, but when wielded well, it would provide absolute victory.

In that case…

“Isn’t it a bit soon to assume I can’t handle this? If I take down one of those drones and steal the drug based on hemocyanin or whatever it was, I might be able to escape this as much as you.”

“If you really believed that, you would have kept it to yourself. If you came down with an unidentified disease and found yourself in a deserted hospital, what could you actually accomplish? You would see all the bottles of drugs lined up on the shelves and despair. A substance can be a life-saving medicine when administered by an expert and a deadly poison when used by an amateur. That is how this field works.”

She hit the bull’s eye there.

She remained as unworried as ever while holding her own body in her arms, squeezing her large breasts from the outside.

Stealing from a poison expert’s collection and injecting it into his body without knowing what it was would be reckless in the extreme. That would be like a game of Russian roulette when working with medicines meant to save lives, so he would have to be insane to rely on luck with the poisons that were designed to kill from the get-go.

And Kamijou Touma was second to none when it came to ''being unlucky.

That woman, who kept clicking her pent-like syringe against her ring finger decoration, only had to drag out this conversation long enough and she would win. This was already a path to victory for her, so she would be delighted to chat with him over tea.

The time had come to make a decision.

If he did not deal with her, Mitsuari Ayu and Kumokawa Seria on the higher floors would fall victim to her as well.

“So what will you do? Make up your own mind.”

“I’ll go for that.”

Kamijou Touma did not hesitate to point toward the floor.

Specifically, at the Gatling gun girl who was still dizzy and had a small oxygen mask on.

“''I’ll take that mask from her.''”

“…”

“You prepared everything in advance. That other esper – from what you said, I guess she’s an esper – hiding here somewhere may be getting that saving drug injected into her from one of your drone’s tranquilizer gun things, but not that kid. You wouldn’t have had a chance. Without the mask, she’ll die as much as me.”

The atmosphere changed, like powerful microwaves were boiling the moisture in the air, but if that was enough to deter you, you could never walk the back alleys.

“If you frantically pulled out your oxygen carrier, I could just take that, but I have no way of knowing how deep the rabbit hole goes on your tricks. I don’t want to swipe it from you and find it was actually poison. ''So the mask is my priority.'' I know that’s safe, so I won’t hold back. And you have a countermeasure ready, right? So she doesn’t even need the mask and I can take it for myself.”

“You really do have a screw loose.”

“What else did you expect from a guy ''so broken he’ll immediately punch someone in the face'' if the situation demands it?”

“I can see why my cute little sisters had so much trouble. You might be on the side of good, but your claims of justice change from one moment to the next. You take an all’s well that ends well stance, so everything leading up to that ending can get all twisted around. No one with normal sensibilities could throw aside the very small girl they had just worked to save. Even a professional soldier would get PTSD from that.”

Kamijou was closer to the collapsed Gatling gun girl.

He was 2m away, while the sexy blonde woman was 5m away. He would reach her first, but his opponent would not wait around while he swiped the mask and put it on his own face. That pen-like gas-operated syringe would be coming. And it was hard to predict what the drones would do while they flew all around like a swarm of bees in the flames and smoke.

But if he managed to get that mask, he would at least have a chance.

Then maybe the two girls waiting up above would not have to suffer in the same way.

“…”

There was no flaw in his thinking.

Not if you were solely focused on winning and losing.

But was that really acceptable?

That irremovable thorn of doubt may have been the worst poison of all.

The syringe spinning in her hand came to a stop.

The sexy blonde woman gripped it like a stake as she spoke.

“I will kill you, for those cute little sisters of mine.”

“And I’ll survive, also for them.”

Then they both took off running.