Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item7 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 1===

District 11, evening. They were at a distribution base for Academy City’s land routes. More specifically, at a cargo terminal where countless cargo containers were stacked up like ancient pyramids.



They were facing each other.

“Voice on the Phone” Hanano Choubi and “Dark Side’s Bane” #6.



But this confrontation should have been terribly unbalanced.

Hanano alone was no threat to the #6.

As a Voice on the Phone, she held a special position, but Hanano herself wasn’t proficient in martial arts or firearms. She used a disguise to make herself look younger, but she was in fact an adult, so she wasn’t even an Academy City esper.

However, the current situation had boosted Hanano’s position.

This was the past.

Ultimately, there was no way to perfectly kill Hanano Choubi here in this ''past'' timeline.

Because…

“I am in fact a master of disguise and infiltration.”

“…”

“Yes, it’s just as you feared. You were right on the money☆ Rejoice. It doesn’t matter even if there was an official announcement of Hanano Choubi’s death at some point in the past. What does that really prove? I am a master of disguise and infiltration, so there’s always ''a chance'' I took on another identity and survived. Kami*** Touma? Misaka **koto? It doesn’t really matter who. As long as they’re one of the ''confirmed survivors'' known to be alive in the ''present'' timeline. From my position in the ''past'', there is always ''a chance'' I can kill someone else and take their place.”

“So even if you are killed in ''the past'', you would ''make it so'' you survived by hijacking someone else’s life? …That atrocity is a betrayal of humanity as a whole. Do you really think I will let you get away with it?”

“A normal person probably couldn’t manage it. But I’m such a master of disguise and infiltration that that’s all I really have going for me. ''Anyone else would surely get caught eventually, but you could actually see Hanano Choubi play the role of Kamijou Tou** or Mi**** Mikoto without ever breaking character.'' There is an opening there.”

Hanano punctuated this by sticking a new cigarette in her mouth.

She lit it and theatrically blew out the smoke. In addition to the nicotine and tar, the smell of the burning flavor clung to the smoke.

It was only a moment, but she did occupy both her hands and look down while facing the enemy.

Apparently she really was trying to make a mockery of Academy City’s #6.

“And you’re really not one to get after me about that, #6.”

“I have a name: Aihana Etsu.”

“My point is I’m intentionally trying to avoid using that name. It’s always like this.”

Hanano pointed at her opponent’s face with the cigarette held between her fingers and quietly clicked her tongue.

“You exist as no more than that name, so any official announcement of ‘Aihana Etsu’s death’ has to be taken with a grain of salt. I can’t fully deny ''the possibility'' you were actually lending your name out to someone else and the real you is still alive, so I have no way of fully and surely killing you here in the past. Killing you in the present or the future is easy enough, but it can’t be done in the past.”

“Which implies something.”

“That it does. I’m saying I intend to take on the #6. Which means I need to set up a situation that places me on equal or better footing to Academy City’s #6 Level 5.”

She admitted it so readily.

This adult.

This con artist who hadn’t even undergone the esper development Curriculum.

“Neither of us can die in the past…because of the “''it’s possible''” loophole. Just like Schrodinger’s Cat, we exist in a strange mixture of life and death for as long as we are trapped in this box of a world that places great restrictions on the past. You get what I mean, don’t you? Whoever breaks down these absolute conditions first will have the right to do whatever they want with the other’s life. For once, your usual brute force methods won’t work. This is ''a puzzle'', not ''a battle''.”

“…”

The #6 said nothing.

Aihana Etsu, who always seemed to be looking down on people in an aloof way, was brought to silence.

It was a rare feat, but the logic behind it was accurate. Assuming, of course, you could accept all the talk about the past and the future.

However, one thing stood out here.

Hanano Choubi knew that some people were “confirmed survivors”. As long as the timeline known as the present existed, there were people who could not die in the past. That line of thinking was accurate. …However, the Hanano here shouldn’t have had a way of knowing that. She lived in the past, so this should have been ''the present'' for her, so she shouldn’t have any way of defining the current timeline as ''the past''.

Ordinarily, anyway.

This was the part that felt to be the greatest risk to Academy City #6 Level 5, Aihana Etsu.

Just once, Hanano Choubi had broken the rules in a major way.



“How can you see the future, Hanano Choubi?”

“Why should I answer a monster who traveled back to the past to meddle with the people there, #6?”