Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 8===

Kamijou also regretted his choices.

Approaching from the rear of the spaceship had been necessary, but it may have been a mistake. As Hamazura attempted to keep his distance, he naturally backed toward the nose.

(That’s not good… That’s the bullet-shaped spaceship. If we end up flying outside the atmosphere, it’s all the more likely he’ll end up dead!)

What was this disturbing trend? Wasn’t this kind of misfortune supposed to gather around Kamijou? This felt like an invisible hand had grabbed Hamazura and was dragging him down into the murky depths.

The Jumbo Dragonfly was an aircraft, not a rocket, so it didn’t fly straight up toward space. Still, its nose was pointed very nearly vertically. Kamijou was forced to climb a steep slope to reach Hamazura.

And the Jumbo Dragonfly had two stages.

More than 70% of the sleek aircraft-like spacecraft would only fly up to the stratosphere before naturally descending and then flying back to the runway, but the remaining 30% was a different story.

(“''Your misfortune’s not gonna make it easy for you, so prepare yourself. If you really want to settle this, anyway. He’s ready at least. He’s honed himself in exchange for accepting the risk of death. You don’t have time to be falling behind when it comes to resolve.''”)

His right arm was talking to him.

And he couldn’t afford to wait until they left the atmosphere.

AI Aneri might not remain cut off forever. It was no more than technology. If communications recovered in some way, they would be back to evenly matched.

Thus…

“I’ll settle this while I can!!”

Kamijou forced himself to charge in.

Maybe it was due to constantly flying with its nose angled more sharply upwards than a normal passenger plane could, but the g-force inside the Jumbo Dragonfly was intense. Each step he took seemed to sap his strength.

Fist crossed fist and struck sharply into each other’s face.

He had no sense for how the g-force affected this.

Kamijou was just glad he hadn’t missed again. Aneri really couldn’t provide any support here. So he would never have a better chance at ending this than now!

That thought was cut off by something slamming into the bridge of Kamijou’s nose.

An iron flavor spread through his mouth.

“Gah!?”

(Dammit, Hamazura. Did he grab an AED or something from the wall and throw it!?)

Hamazura probably just hadn’t had time to charge it, but Kamijou was thankful he hadn’t been attacked by a high-voltage current.

Their fists weren’t their only weapons. They could strangle each other with the seat belts and the oxygen tanks larger than fire extinguishers could cause damage as a blunt weapon or an explosive.

But…

(This isn’t it. I don’t want a bloody ending like this!!)

Seeing Hamazura was shaking Kamijou’s view of Coronzon’s death.

Of course, it wasn’t necessarily possible to get all 8 billion people in the world to smile together right away. But he had fought a deadly battle against Coronzon because he hadn’t wanted that world to be destroyed. That much was true.

He had let Coronzon die, so he had to show her that, while the world was riddled with mistakes, it was headed in a happier direction, even if slowly.

So he couldn’t let Hamazura die here today!!

The “fwoosh!!” of escaping air sounded behind Kamijou. The emergency lock activated on the thick airlock he had just passed through. The second-stage bullet-shaped spaceship taking up nearly a third of the craft was preparing to break away.

This space was fairly large, but it felt somehow like a cockpit. Kamijou wasn’t familiar with the basic structure of a spaceship, so he couldn’t say if this was standard or unorthodox.

And just as Kamijou shook off the temptation to grab a weapon, Hamazura didn’t hesitate to grab a nearby metal pipe. It looked like a component for a crutch or stretcher. Were spaceship beds adapted from medical equipment?

The blunt weapon swung down toward Kamijou’s head, but…

“…!? ''It’s so light''!!”

That wide-eyed shout came from Hamazura as he made the attack.

His feet were floating a bit from the floor. The reaction of the attack sent him floating backwards.

Kamijou didn’t have time to glance out the window of course…but the Jumbo Dragonfly’s nose portion must have broken free of the Earth and arrived in space. Only the flat cone-like tip. So any attack with a weapon that relied on weight had been nearly neutralized. For the moment anyway!

A force was applied to their bodies again.

This space flight was actually a long ballistic trajectory that kept them just outside the atmosphere in low Earth orbit at an altitude of less than 40 kilometers. Flying so rapidly in an arc created a g-force in the outward direction, so they weren’t truly weightless.

If they did fall back to Earth, where on the planet would they end up?

That question honestly frightened Kamijou, but he didn’t have time to check.

His top priority right now was to rescue Hamazura who was spiraling down after being caught by ''something unseen''. Because Kamijou had set him on this path.