Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Endymion Chapter2 (section)

===Part 8===

It had often been said that she was poor at grasping the trick to things.

When she constructed a spell, it was poorly optimized and had a lot of needless portions. The large number of pathways did not function as safety measures to prevent failure. Instead, the multiple signs and symbols would compete amongst each other and cause the spell to run out of control.

Even in the infiltration of Academy City, she had failed from the outset.

No matter how perfect it all seemed in theory, unplanned situations had a way of cropping up during the actual event. And because of something she had not taken into account, the spiritual item meant to obstruct the security from detecting her had failed to function. For the Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens, she was the single person the enemies on the science side might have spotted.

But the very fact that she often failed was why she had never stood still after stumbling.

She contained the damage to its smallest possible level. By heading back in from a different angle, she could often gain something she could not have otherwise. She was used to making that kind of recovery. She would work as hard as she could towards success, but she would fail in the end. The situation would never progress ideally. It was because she understood that fact that the foundation of her thought process was in accomplishing something even when she tripped.

An assassin from the Anglican Church had arrived before they had finished setting up Agni’s Festival Fire.

If they had simply sat and watched, they would have been defeated before they knew it. The spiritual items for Agni’s Festival Fire would have been destroyed one after another and the Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens’ plan would have been destroyed.

In that situation, the best card in their deck had been her.

It was specifically because they had quickly started to fail and be exposed that her role as a decoy had grown so important. Her value temporarily shot up when she could draw so many enemies away.

That was why she had chosen to do so of her own free will.

The higher ups of the cabal may have been holding their heads in their hands at her decision to head off on her own, but they would likely accept it in the end.

(This is fine.)

She thought silently in the subway tunnel.

(What matters most is profiting in the end. Any debt on the way does not matter. That is why I will give up everything here to create the opportunity for a great gain.)

Most likely, they would end up cornered in the long run even if she won the battle here. A flashy battle would cause an attack by the full force of Academy City’s law enforcement. And even if they destroyed Academy City, more magic side assassins would come.

That was what it meant to have one’s identity revealed.

Now that it was clear she could not escape unscathed, what did she need to do to gain the most? This was the stage where that sort of thought process was necessary.

She could not regroup with her comrades.

With no backup, she would be defeated eventually.

In that case, what was the best point to be defeated at?

She needed to protect her comrades.

She needed to protect her older sister.

If it was her best means of doing that, she would allow herself to be defeated without hesitation.

(The longer I keep them after me, the longer my sister and the others can move freely.)

Agni’s Festival Fire was not originally something she could control.

However, she knew the enemy had interfered with the spell by adding their own magic circle on top of its spiritual item.

She learned from her mistakes.

She took advantage of any unplanned situations.

Ironically, the irregularity the enemy had hoped to defeat them with had actually given her power.

(If I am utterly defeated after I buy as much time as possible, any hint leading to my sister and the others will disappear. That will ultimately lead to our victory. It has to!!)

She was assuming her own defeat would come, but the best option for the moment was defeating the currently gathered enemies. She brought her focus to the Agni’s Festival Fire she had interfered with.

She used the wind to aim.

In the complex structure of the city, the flow of the wind had been disorderly. That had thrown off her aim, but that was no longer an issue.

In the single, straight pathway of the tunnel, the flow was perfectly stable.

Her aim would be perfect.

Her biggest fear had been that her enemies would be too cautious to carelessly enter the tunnel. If the enemies sealed up all the entrances and injected some kind of gas or bacteria inside, there was nothing she could do.

But that risk had already been eliminated.

The enemies may have gained a false sense of security due to her poor aim before.

That had not been intentional.

But she would use that mistake to its fullest.

She knew very well that, no matter what happened on the way there, the last person standing would be the victor.

“You have no options left.”

She had an accurate grasp of the enemies’ locations.

A single shot would be enough to take down a flesh-and-blood human. And if that was not enough, she could fire again and again. She could create the same explosion every few seconds and she could accurately strike no matter where they might run. No matter what hidden skill the enemy had, they could not stand up to a string of accurate explosions.

“Whether you continue forward or fall back, you will be blown to pieces!!”

She did not hesitate.

As she muttered the spell under her breath, the explosion mercilessly attacked the enemy.