Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Chapter2

==Chapter 2: Saten Ruiko’s Messy Bloodbath Paradise☆==
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===Part 1===

Saten Ruko was a first year in middle school.

Her hobby was keeping up with the latest trends. That included gathering rumors, especially the creepy urban legends. She didn’t delight in learning about other people’s misfortune and not all urban legends were of the bloody horror variety. For example, there was the story of the Kesaran Pasaran, a white fluffball creature that brought happiness to whoever found it. So all she did was gather every rumor she could find, whether it was good or bad, but she was aware that her methods of gathering information could be a bit lacking in morals.

As an esper, she was officially designated a Level 0.

She felt like she had gotten over her issues with that, but she also had to wonder if fully eliminating that complex would also eliminate any future chance of growth.

The bell signaling afterschool freedom rang.

The black-haired girl with all the latest rumors could look cheerful, but she still carried a lot of baggage inside. But she didn’t let that get her down as she threw open the door where her friend awaited her.

She had arrived at Judgment Branch 177.

“Uiharuuun☆ You in herrre?”

No response.

The lights were on and the A/C was running, so her friend had probably only stepped out for a moment. There were important case files in here, so the door wasn’t meant to be opened by outsiders without a key.

Saten scanned the room from right to left.

“Hmm. If she’s not here, maybe this is my chance to use this.”

She pulled a small plastic bag from her skirt pocket. It contained a powder even redder than lipstick.

A video teaching how to make professional grade fake blood used for filming movies had gone viral. This recipe was notable for being made from black bean cider, ketchup, and other ordinary items found at any discount store, so it was being used in a lot of prank videos. As a modern girl, Saten was more interested in making a viral video than in the cruel fake blood itself, but it was human nature to want to try it out.

Anyone could make it, it could be stored long term when powdered, and you only had to add it to water and microwave it when you wanted to use it.

She wasn’t sure what she wanted to use it for, but it did sound convenient.

“Let’s see. Measure out the right amount of water in the cup, stir the red powder in, and stick it in the microwave. Wow, they’ve got an industrial 1500 watt one. I only need to heat it for 40 seconds in this.”

Never mind that people often talked to themselves and hummed when preparing to prank someone because that emphasized that it was only a joke and helped reduce the guilt they felt on a subconscious level.

“Done!”

The mug was now filled with a warm and thick dark red liquid.

The color, texture, and even rusty smell were incredible. She even felt faint when she thoughtlessly took a deep breath. It contained black bean cider, starch, strawberry oden, ketchup, paint, and more. According to the VR instruction video that worked by using her sideways phone as simple goggles, it dried in around 15 minutes after touching air just like real blood and, even after being wiped up with a rag, it would produce the same bluish-white light after being sprayed with a luminol reagent. It was so realistic and hard to distinguish from real blood that it had a substance clearly not found in real blood intentionally mixed in to avoid misunderstandings if Anti-Skill or Judgment were called in after a prank gone wrong.

Still, it was a thick, dark red liquid.

Leaving the mug sitting out made for a nice psychological horror image. Add a few hairs to the rim of the red mug and Uiharu would probably fall on her rear in fright when she returned, but that wasn’t enough. Saten pulled out a few plastic bags about the size of the soy sauce packets taped to convenience store bentos, poured some of the fake blood into each one, and stuck her hand inside her uniform. The packets were made to be sealed with the heat of your mouth after you filled them with soy sauce or whatever other condiment you wanted. Discount stores had pretty much anything you could want these days.

“Hot, hot, hot. One here, one here, and maybe one in my hair.”

She couldn’t have the red mug and spoon giving away the prank, so she brought them to the water heater area and stuck them inside the AI robot dishwasher. Then she took a look around. Blades like a kitchen knife or fruit knife would be too dangerous for a prank, so she was hoping for a blunt object.

She saw a black plastic object leaning against the wall nearby.

“Huh, what’s this?”

She reached out toward the long, heavy rod. It was as long as or a bit longer than a bamboo sword and seemed sturdier than the brooms or mops that students uninterested in cleaning the classroom would use more as toys. Was it something like a pestle stretched out nice and long? It said “police staff” on the side, but she wasn’t sure how to read the kanji since she relied on her phone so much for that kind of thing.

She did a quick search on her phone.

“Police staff. So it’s like a bigger version of a police baton?”

It looked like it was used to hit and arrest people. Unlike a special police baton, it wasn’t collapsible. Someone could maybe hold it to look threatening as a guard at the entrance of the branch office, but it looked unwieldy to walk around with. She wasn’t sure if it was really used when out on patrols, or if it was only meant for training.

Her eyes widened when she saw the label near the grip: polyhydroxybutyrate plastic. That meant it was the same biodegradable plastic used in eco-friendly mineral water bottles. She recalled seeing an ad between online videos talking about that.

“Neat, so they even make these things so they’ll return to nature. I guess that’s just the age we live in.”

Anyway, it was just what she wanted.

It felt nice and solid when she picked it up. A long blunt weapon was the perfect option here.

The desktop computer beeped. A look at the flatscreen LCD monitor showed it was synced with Uiharu’s phone location. The victim would be here soon.

Saten Ruiko placed a hand on the center of her chest and took a deep breath.

Then the branch office door opened.

“Gwa ha ha ha ha! Uiharu, I hope you’re ready for the ‘mysterious young inn owner in a bloody suspense drama’ experience!!”

“Gyahh! What in the world!? Is it the apocalypse!?”

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After an especially loud and dull “whack!!” followed by a “thud!!”, the branch office’s atmosphere froze over.

That was hardly surprising when Saten Ruiko had raised her hands and attacked Uiharu out of nowhere, ''intentionally'' gotten them tangled up together, hit herself on the head with the police staff, and collapsed. She fell flat on the floor.

Uiharu Kazari, the girl with lots of flowers on her head, was left alone to catch her breath.

“Pant, pant!! Gasp!!”

Saten wanted to celebrate her successful plan, but she ignored that desire.

Trembling hands pressed something against her forehead and neck. They appeared to be a combined temperature and blood pressure sensor. It was part of a personal medical kit that checked your condition like a smartwatch and then acted as an AED or adrenaline injector if necessary.

Saten lay on her side, convulsing with her eyes rolled back in her head. All the face acting videos she had watched were paying off. She also used the convulsions to hide how she twisted her body to press the packets in her hair against the floor, popping them below her head. She didn’t want to give away that she was alive, so she also surreptitiously switched off the medical device the size of a bento box.

A dark red liquid oozed out onto the floor.

(Hmm, would it have been more shocking if I was foaming at the mouth too? But soda water wouldn’t look real enough for that.)

She considered that while letting the “convulsions” fade.

She didn’t want her rolled-back eyes to dry out, so she also chose a random moment to shut her eyes. That kept her from seeing Uiharu’s panicked face, but some sacrifices had to be made. She didn’t want to give away the game.

Saten Ruiko had died.

“S-Saten-san? Wait a second, Saten-san! What is the meaning of this!?”

(How was that for a death scene? Heh heh heh. I can get back up when she pulls out her phone to call an ambulance. I’ll spring up and scare her! This isn’t over yet! Uiharu’s about to be attacked by Zombie Saten!!)

But despite her plans, she couldn’t see what was happening with her eyes shut.

So the only data she had to go on was the voice she heard.

“Sigh.” Uiharu Kazari spoke from very close by. “Well, if she’s dead, I can’t just leave her here. There’s no room to bury or submerge a body in Academy City’s limited space, so I’ll have to rely on my usual method for quickly disposing of 49 kilos of human flesh.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Hwuh?

Saten Ruiko froze in place on the floor.

(Wh-wh-wh-wh-why does she sound so calm?)

Her usual method? Quickly disposing of?

The collapsed girl received some unasked-for assistance in lying completely motionless.

(Oh, right. Thermal Hand. Her power lets her keep anything she touches at its current temperature. Is she keeping her air-conditioned body temperature in place to keep herself calm!?)

Extreme excitement increased your body temperature. A small child would be familiar with the phenomenon even if they didn’t know the exact numbers or research results.

So what if someone had the power to forcibly keep their temperature low?

(Um, but why is she so accustomed to using it like this?)

“…”

Trying to understand this baffling situation seemed to have caused a bug in the signals sent through Saten’s body. She couldn’t seem to move her sprawled out limbs or even her eyelids or lips.

“If I’d known I would need it again so soon, I wouldn’t have thrown out the equipment I used last time. Disposing of two bodies isn’t much more difficult than one, so it would have saved me a lot of time to crush up this one along with that one.”

What?

What was going on here!? What “last time”!?

“I still have some of the cleaners from last time, don’t I? Yes, here we go. This is the stuff you need to get out the blood, sweat, saliva, and tears, even when they’re stained deep into the carpet. A quick carbo clean and – tah dah! – not even Konori-senpai’s Clairvoyance will notice anything went down!! Sigh, if only my power controlled water or buoyancy. That would make this all so much easier.”

Was that really Uiharu Kazari looking down at her? Surely this had to be someone else entirely using special makeup, right!? Or maybe her mind had been hijacked by someone!?

(U-Uiharu Kazari. Does that mean something else when you read it backwards? Like with Uoydeloof or Redrum?)

This was only going to get worse.

She needed to get up and apologize before it left the realm of jokes.

Saten Ruiko made up her mind. She arrived at the decision all on her own.

And three seconds before she was going to open her eyes…

“This is really turning into a problem☆”

Saten was afraid her shoulders had noticeably jumped.

Uiharu was speaking to herself in a frighteningly cheerful voice.

Didn’t people often talk to themselves and hum when pranking someone because it emphasized that it was only a joke and helped reduce the guilt they felt on a subconscious level?

“If anyone found out I kept doing this, I would end up with another body I had to deal with. I mean, if Saten-san got up and said ‘just kidding’ now, I would have to make sure she stayed dead to keep my secret.”

Saten’s lips formed the first syllable of “just kidding”, but no voice emerged.

(This isn’t one of the urban legends where you can just say their name backwards or repeat their name to make them go away. If it’s name related, is it more like Hisaruki!?)

Her eyes wouldn’t open.

Something like powerful sleep paralysis had taken hold twice over.

(I…)

She had to work at keeping her breathing calm. What about her sweat? Her heart was pounding, so could Uiharu hear that?

(I don’t actually weigh 49 kilos, but I get the feeling I won’t be getting a smiling correction out of her right now!)

She couldn’t let the truth be known.

She could not let this monster know she was alive.

But if she stayed on the floor, she would be “disposed of”.

Before that happened, she had to sneak out of the branch office or her full body weight would be taken away from her using some kind of well-practiced method!!

===Part 2===

Uiharu paced the room, occasionally stepping over Saten Ruiko’s body. Saten could hear the footsteps and feel their weight as the floor creaked.

With her eyes still shut, her imagination worked overtime.

The movement in the air as Uiharu Kazari walked around was enough to nearly bring tears to Saten’s eyes. But if she let that happen and Uiharu noticed the evidence of her survival, she was dead meat.

She couldn’t escape the room. This was more like trying to fool the axe murderer under the bed than it was like the Sukima Onna.

Fortunately, Uiharu never checked her breathing or pulse.

She hadn’t bothered with any of that after the perfunctory check with the personal medical kit. Nor did she make any desperate attempts at first aid or resuscitation.

She just assumed the other girl was dead and focused on swiftly disposing of the body.

The weight of the footsteps moved away from Saten, but Uiharu’s presence remained in the room. It was frightening with her eyes closed, but she was terrified of Uiharu noticing if she cracked her eyes open. That walking away sound may have been a test. What if she opened her eyes a crack only to find Uiharu lying next to her staring her right in the face? Unpleasant sweat poured down her back.

An encyclopedic knowledge of urban legends wasn’t too helpful when it really mattered. Doing an original wiggling dance was unlikely to shatter Uiharu Kazari’s mind.

Should she make a move or stay where she was?

There probably wasn’t a correct answer to that question. She just had to make her own decision.

And as someone who loved chasing down the latest trends and rumors, she chose to calm herself by gathering as much information as possible.

She made a single crucial decision.

“Kh.”

She gathered all her strength to slowly pry open her eyes.

She only opened them maybe a millimeter, but it took as much willpower as tearing her own muscles apart.

Her vision was tilted 90 degrees.

She noticed the floor pressed against her cheek first and foremost. She also saw a steel desk, a few shelves, and the room’s wall. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see the exit door from here. She would have to twist herself around to see that, but…

(Uh, oh. That would be suicidal.)

She could feel a wet stickiness on the side of her head.

She had crushed the fake blood packs herself. If she moved around, she would leave a smear of red on the floor like someone had lazily mopped with the liquid. That would leave evidence that she had moved while Uiharu wasn’t looking.

But when people were ruled by anxiety, they had trouble trusting in even the most common things. They even ended up questioning their own memories.

Saten fell for that same trap.

(Wait, how does this room’s door work again? ''How does it lock''?)

Her stomach ached, but she couldn’t hold her stomach right now.

Was there a panel on the wall you had to press your palm against? Was there a number lock attached after the fact, like at the entrance to a train station office or an office building? Oh, god! The more she tried to remember, the less she could remember!?

In fact…

(If the door is locked, it’ll take me longer to get out! Even if the lock is easy to undo from the inside, I don’t even want to spend three seconds on rushing to the door and turning the bolt to unlock it. Wait, wait, wait. I jumped at Uiharu the instant she opened the door, so it should still be unlocked. At least I think so. But wait. She has that police staff the size of a bamboo sword. What if she throws that at me while I’m trying to figure out the lock? What if it hits me in the back of the head!?)

Uiharu had her back turned so she could face the steel desk. She was operating the computer on her feet instead of taking a seat. That meant Saten could view the monitor from her position if she tried. She was afraid it would show a list of future victims, though. But surely Uiharu wasn’t doing paperwork or sending messages for Judgment, right? On the other hand, maybe she was doing business as usual to give herself an alibi? Saten couldn’t decide on anything. Everything swirled around in her head until she wasn’t sure what was what. No matter what Uiharu was doing, Saten was pretty sure it would feel like one of those “what mental health problem do you have” quizzes that had been popular a while back.

It turned out Saten Ruiko’s guesses had all been too naïve.

“Stuffing a body into the inner unit of a wind turbine undergoing maintenance was such a convenient method. If no one discovered it, the rotation would continue crushing it for 18 hours straight, reducing the hair, bones, flesh, and organs to no more than a paste.”

“…”

“If only I hadn’t gotten careless and made so many bodies Anti-Skill caught on and started watching for that. Well, it was about time I came up with a new method anyway.”

Uiharu sounded cheerful as she spoke to herself.

This went well beyond a list of future victims.

In fact, that wasn’t Judgment work on the screen after all. Saten was pretty sure it was a special online store often recommended during workshop videos.

“A few quick modifications and an Academy City cleaning robot should be enough for the mass of a 13-year-old girl. Crush them up and smush them into a small tube and you can fit people into a surprisingly small space☆”

Saten’s idea of inappropriate trivia was how a somewhat naughty video would play after the TV broadcast ended for the day, not this!

Uiharu seemed to be enjoying herself as she worked at the computer.

“I can buy a used cleaning robot online, so should I go that route?”

“…”

“No one can tell there’s a whole person stuffed inside the robot if they’ve been crushed up enough, so then I can just dump it in the furnace at the waste treatment facility. Good thing Academy City is so passionate about recycling☆”

“!!!???”

Hearing bits and pieces of your coming demise was not a fun experience. Saten got the feeling she was about to die even more gruesomely than the victims of the Kuchisake Onna or Hikiko-san.

She couldn’t afford to waste any time in her escape.

Before she made her move, she wanted to know how far away the door was and what kind of lock it used.

But to repeat, she could not twist around and leave a red stain on the floor.

Which left only one option.

(M-my phone.)

She grew painfully aware of the slight weight in her skirt pocket.

(Yes, I have my phone! I don’t have to twist my entire body if I reach back with an arm and snap a photo of-)

''Vrrr!! Vrrrrrrr!!

Her heart stopped.

Her heart completely stopped and half her soul emerged from her mouth.

It was such a standard fact she grew worried that it might not actually be true. So she repeated it to herself over and over. Silent mode was used to inform the owner of a call or message without making any noise. That’s why it was called ''silent'' mode.

(So why is it so darn loud!? No. Oh, no. She’s going to notice. She’s turning this way! Yikes, and she’s walking this way!?)

What could she do? Was there even a right answer here!? Had the supposedly all-knowing Kokkuri-san and Satoru-kun gotten scared and gone into hiding!?

It bothered her that urban legends were the only things that came to mind here, so she made a mental note to study some other things in the future. Not that she would have much of a future if Uiharu discovered she was alive.

Uiharu did not speak a word.

She walked back over from the desktop computer and tilted her head, but Saten didn’t know any more than that since she shut her eyes. She was so terrified she wished she could pull on one of those white strings the urban legend said could hang from an ear piercing. She heard some rustling cloth, so had Uiharu crouched down?

A hand or something lightly slapped the side of her hip.

She was dead if she reacted, so she kept her eyes shut and poured all her willpower into suppressing any trembling. Fortunately, Uiharu’s voice remained carefree.

“Oh, whoops. I touched her with my bare hand. That will leave fingerprints.”

“…”

Fingerprints.

That dangerous word succinctly reconfirmed the situation Saten found herself in.

“Meh, that will be destroyed along with her, so it doesn’t matter. I can even render the residual thoughts unreadable by running her through the robot’s carbo clean cycle several times over. Just like wiping a hard drive by repeatedly writing junk data to it.”

She made it sound so simple.

It was scary how normal it was for her.

She felt along Saten’s outer thigh until she managed to extract the hard object from the skirt pocket. A period of silence followed. Saten was so scared she feared her heartbeat would give her away. She was thankful Uiharu wasn’t a telepath or another mind-related esper. Thank god they were both low-Level idiots!! Uiharu had to be staring at the phone she had taken. But what if she was actually observing Saten’s face for any signs of life?

After what felt like an eternity, Uiharu spoke again.

In a terrifyingly icy voice.

“What to do about the GPS data?”

Saten hadn’t considered that.

A bit of hope grew inside her.

“If I erased the last few hours from the log, it might look like she switched it off during class and never turned it back on.”

But that hope was snuffed out a moment later.

Maybe it was hopeless to try and outdo Uiharu in this field.

(They should add a big yellow exclamation point outside of Branch 177!!)

Uiharu continued to mutter to herself and Saten heard a solid thunk and a slight vibration from the floor nearby. Instead of confiscating the phone, Uiharu must have decided to keep every piece of evidence next to the corpse. She wouldn’t want to put it down somewhere, forget about it, and have that incriminating evidence lying around.

Saten still had hope.

It wasn’t over yet.

That modern marvel was still within arm’s reach.

The light footsteps once more moved away from Saten. When she heard the clicking of a mouse within her self-imposed blindness, Saten slowly opened her eyes a crack.

“There, one used cleaning robot. I can spoof the school code and have it delivered here in the name of cleaning an unused classroom. A bike delivery…wouldn’t work. It’s too big. I’ll have to have a truck or something bring it.”

Uiharu was facing the computer.

The phone was on the floor right in front of Saten’s nose.

Most importantly, Uiharu’s back was to Saten. Even on her side, Saten could tell Uiharu was checking over an online shopping order on the large desktop computer monitor. She was safe. She could act without being seen right now. So Saten Ruiko moved her free arm. The phone was right in front of her, but moving her hand that 10cm felt like it took more than a year off her life.

She was scared.

Downright terrified.

The monitor didn’t reflect the room behind Uiharu like a mirror, did it? What if Uiharu turned around for no reason at all? There were no guarantees, but Saten knew she was currently on the railroad track. Careless action would put her at risk, but doing nothing would get her run over once the train arrived on schedule. She had to take action if she wanted to avoid becoming a legend of the frozen railroad crossing who crawled around with only the top half of her body.

Move.

Work toward your escape, step by step.

Each millimeter you move is another millimeter closer to survival.

(Got…it!)

She snagged the rectangular phone with her hooked index finger. She pulled it toward her and used her thumb to pick it up.

There was no feigning death this time.

Speed was critical now. She checked the phone to see the lock screen displaying a missed call from Shirai Kuroko. Now she knew who to blame for the heart-stopping vibration noise earlier. She nearly clicked her tongue on reflex, but stopped herself and focused on operating the phone.

Calling an emergency number and using the camera did not require unlocking the phone.

“…”

An emergency number.

The temptation to dial one of those pierced her chest, but wait.

Hold on.

Anti-Skill, Academy City’s law enforcement, would not show up the instant she made the call. And the room was so quiet. The place was so still that voices, movements, and even the air blowing from the air conditioner sounded loud. Uiharu Kazari had complete control over this crime scene. Was it a crime scene? Or was it an accident site? Regardless, Uiharu would definitely notice the cheerful voice coming from the speaker. And even if an investigation request were sent to the nearest station, wouldn’t they call Branch 177 for assistance? Wouldn’t they pass on all the relevant information to Uiharu Kazari? Like that the caller’s name was Saten Ruiko, age 13, height less than 150cm, long black hair, greenish-black eyes, beauty the likes of which are only seen once every 3.5 billion years? Wouldn’t they send over her photograph from the Bank and ask Uiharu to confirm the situation and provide assistance?

(God, really!? Why do they still need us to report an emergency vocally!? Why can’t they use your GPS information to set it up so a fully-equipped Anti-Skill team bursts through the door the instant you press the report button!? Even modern taxi apps and bicycle delivery services let you do it all with a single tap, so you don’t have to input all the numbers and stuff!!)

It was tempting, but not a real option.

Calling an emergency number and relying on the grownups was a trap. That option led to a dead end no matter how she played it.

Carelessly straying from her plan would only cause it all to fall apart. She used all of her willpower to shake free of that temptation and tapped the camera icon as initially planned. She nearly cried when she saw the familiar camera screen. Normal was such a wonderful thing. She had the shutter sound turned off using a special setting, so she didn’t have to worry about that.

She bent her arm at an unnatural angle.

She couldn’t see what she was doing, but she tried to aim the phone in the door’s general direction.

Then she only needed to press the photo button with her thumb. She had pressed that button thousands if not tens of thousands of times before. She didn’t need to twist around to view the screen. Her instincts were enough.

(I just need to know how far to the door and whether it’s locked.)

She held her breath and steeled herself.

(That will tell me how long an escape will take. Then I can decide how much of an opening Uiharu needs to give before I make my attempt!!)

Press it.

Pressing her thumb down would open the way to survival.

She forced herself to think luck was finally on her side while she focused on her thumb.

The result?

A camera flash flooded the entire room with bright light.

===Part 3===

That was it.

Saten Ruiko’s soul was now fully out of her mouth.

(Stupid.)

She wasn’t faking it this time.

Saten’s eyes really had rolled back in her head while she howled on the inside.

(Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!! I-it’s true I couldn’t see the screen to check. And it’s true I generally don’t check every time to see if the flash is on! Did the auto setting decide the room was dark enough to need the extra bright LED strobe light!?)

Unfortunately, her silent laments would not turn back time.

“…”

Needless to say, Uiharu Kazari would have noticed the flash. Even if she was wearing a thick eye mask and napping in her seat, missing that would have been scary in a brand new way. Saten quickly let go of the phone and returned her arm to its original position. But that wasn’t going to convince Uiharu nothing was amiss. In fact, she couldn’t imagine what kind of miracle would lead Uiharu to not link that flash to her.

She had no choice but to shut her eyes and see what happened.

The footsteps approached. Slowly. The sound like straining leather may have been her squeezing the police staff painfully tight. Actually, would Thermal Hand let her release the limits on her muscles by forcibly keeping her body temperature at a level that provided miraculous strength in an emergency? Was she really only Level 1!? The darkness made it all scarier, but as much as Saten loved information, she knew opening her eyes now would be the last mistake she ever made.

(Ah, abh, abwababrabh.)

There was nothing she could do.

At this point, opening her eyes wide and attacking Uiharu in a last-ditch effort might be an option, but she lacked the courage to attempt it.

She tried to recall some more enjoyable memories to gather up as much courage as she could find.

Emotional control was crucial.

(It was always so easy to trick Uiharu with her skirt and underwear. She was wearing cute polka dotted ones just yesterday. Ah ha ha. Eh heh heh.)

“…”

She only managed to depress herself by discovering a possible motive for Uiharu to kill her.

She couldn’t imagine how she could escape this one.

There was an unseen power, a thick wall of pressure, and a violent aura that told her she didn’t stand a chance. Why did Uiharu seem so untouchable today?

She was normally so unobservant Saten had no trouble sneaking up behind her and flipping up her skirt.

Saten’s heart pounded loud in her chest.

It wasn’t even a physical threat anymore. Some invisible weight seemed to have taken Uiharu’s side. She was sure of it. That girl was a ruler. As long as she remained in this room, she was a little god who could shut down any puny human resistance in a single blow. But this wasn’t the kind of god found at a Shinto shrine like the one whose power resided in Saten’s good luck charm (which she still treasured despite always insisting on the latest and greatest of everything else). This could only be described as an evil good.

She could only endure it with her eyes shut.

“Saten-san.”

There was no warmth in Uiharu Kazari’s voice.

This was one of those deals where responding to the voice calling for you was the wrong move. In urban legend terms, it was like the Aka Manto or Hasshaku-sama, where responding would get your soul stolen away. Something had gone seriously wrong when her strategy was based on something as poorly defined as a soul.

(O-oh, no. Do I feel like the blood is rushing to my head because she’s using Thermal Hand on me? Can’t she kill me from the inside if she forces my temperature to stay at nearly 42 degrees? No, I’m imagining this. She wouldn’t attack me when she thinks I’m already dead. Or wait. Which is it? I can’t tell!)

She couldn’t control her racing heart anymore. She understood that, but had the extreme tension caused some kind of thread to snap and now she was having a slight out-of-body experience?

“Saten-saaan. ''I know you’re watching.''”

Uiharu called again.

(No, she’s bluffing. Don’t play along! She isn’t using Thermal Hand!!)

Uiharu may not have been expecting a response. She may have been watching closely for any movement of the eyelids or shoulders. Saten couldn’t tell what Uiharu was thinking anymore. It was even possible she was staring into space and speaking with some high priest or something. Oh, but an entirely illogical explanation was even scarier somehow.

Uiharu didn’t call her a third time.

Because another bright flash erupted from the phone.

After a short pause, another one.

They continued like that. Uiharu finally caught on and spoke her thought out loud.

“It’s on a timer?”

“…”

She’d bought it.

Saten heard rustling cloth. She couldn’t be certain with her eyes closed, but Uiharu had probably crouched down and picked up the phone again.

Saten had activated the timer just before letting go of the phone. If there was a reason for the camera to go off on its own, there was an explanation for the flash other than Saten’s survival.

“Hm,” said Uiharu after a long while. She didn’t trust it right away. “And I thought for sure I’d caught her in my trap by gradually dimming the room’s smart lighting.”

(Wow, so that wasn’t just an accident? When did we wander into a world of deception and superpowered battles, Uiharu!?)

Of course Uiharu would be careful. She was risking everything here as well.

Uiharu seemed to be teetering on the edge of believing it, but if those scales tilted in the wrong direction, she might just strike Saten’s head with that heavy police staff or the corner of the phone.

Eventually, Uiharu’s voice arrived from beyond the darkness.

“Could I check the photos?”

“?”

“If that initial flash took a picture of the ceiling, there’s nothing to worry about. But if it took a photo at any other angle, the timer ''alone'' can’t explain it.”

“!!!???”

Oh, no.

Oh, no, no, no!!

Saten couldn’t shut her eyes and suppress the shaking much longer. She felt more tension than any other time that day.

Uiharu grabbed her hand.

“Is it a fingerprint lock? No. It doesn’t use her eyes or face either. Hm. Saten-san must have known that an old-fashioned password is still the safest option when it comes to face-to-face trouble.”

“…”

Saten didn’t feel like she had escaped disaster yet.

Uiharu sounded awfully unconcerned for her plan failing.

The phone’s lock screen was fairly trustworthy against an ordinary person, but Uiharu Kazari was far from ordinary. She was probably Judgment’s top cyber crime specialist. In other words, she was a skilled hacker. She could easily break through a commercial phone’s password lock.

And needless to say, the angle of that initial photo wouldn’t check out because Saten had been holding the phone toward the door. Once Uiharu found that photo, she would know for sure that Saten was still alive and had taken the photo herself.

Simply put, Saten was screwed once her phone was analyzed.

Then Uiharu would finish the job with that extra-large blunt weapon. A lot of brain training apps promised to make your brain more flexible, but Uiharu was going to take a much more literal approach to that.

Saten wondered why her mind tried to make weird jokes in extreme situations like this. Maybe the terror was so great she would scream if she faced it directly.

(Wh-wh-wh-wh-what do I do!?)

She forced her eyes open a crack to see what she could see.

Uiharu appeared to be hooking Saten’s phone up to her computer with a cable. So what if she destroyed the computer? She didn’t dare move her head, so she used just her eyes to look around. There were thick cables tangled up on the floor. The power cables for the microwave, coffee maker, and so on were plugged into a power strip. One of course connected to the computer.

This would work.

But could she do it?

The cables were pulled pretty taut. If she reached out her leg and caught it with her foot, she might be able to pull the entire power strip’s plug out of the wall. What part of the computer was working when that LED was flashing? She didn’t know, but she thought it would damage the computer to lose power in the middle of that work.

But wait.

Would that actually work?

No matter what she chose, the cowardice crept up on her and struck her in the heart.

Knocking out the power wasn’t guaranteed to damage the computer. Maybe it would for an ordinary computer, but what if Judgment ones were made especially tough? Uiharu would know best, but Saten couldn’t exactly ask her and she didn’t have her phone to look it up on either. She was stuck. Her mind spun fruitlessly and she couldn’t reject the worrying possibility.

Besides.

Even if she did yank out the power cable and shut off the computer, wouldn’t Uiharu question why the cable had come unplugged? Saten would only be drawing suspicion back to herself. But if she didn’t do it, it was only a matter of time before Uiharu was through the lock screen. She was doomed if she didn’t escape the immediate threat, so she couldn’t sit around worrying about the threat that came after that. She just had to do it! Even if every option available to her was deeply flawed!!

Abandon your pessimism, Saten Ruiko.

Be reborn.

If you want to escape this and go on living, you need to take action!!

(Kh.)

While doing her best not to disturb the pool of fake blood on the floor, she gradually gathered strength in her leg. She slowly stretched it out, trying her best to not make any noise. She didn’t like that her skirt pulled up as she did so, but she could worry about that later. She focused her mind on her big toe. Could she reach the power cable on the floor? Just barely. It was going to be close. In fact, she was tensing her leg so much it was close to ''cramping''!!

She had to be careful.

A single drop of water would cause it all to blow up in her face.

But she was interrupted by yet another unexpected turn of events. This one came from outside her field of vision. The loud rattling sound did not come from inside the room. It probably came from the hallway outside the door.

“Uiharu? It’s nearly time to leave. You need to get ready for today’s joint training with Anti-Skill. We’re doing a mock crime scene investigation for a convenience store robbery. My family gave us an entire store to work with.”

(Huh!? Sh-Shirai-san!? Why did she have to show up now!?)

Saten’s heart was approaching its limit, but then she remembered Shirai was a member of Judgment and she visited Branch 177 a fair amount. An outsider like Saten was the one who had no business being here.

Also.

She couldn’t let the surprise distract her. Wasn’t this the chance she needed?

Armed with that police staff longer than a bamboo sword, Uiharu was the god of this room, but that localized divinity would mean nothing against a Level 4 Teleporter or the Level 5 Railgun. It was only valid against an ordinary person like Saten. Uiharu might be able to break the conservation of mass to cover up all the evidence of her crime, but she wouldn’t be able to defeat Shirai Kuroko in a direct conflict.

(Yes!! My savior has finally arrived!! That’s right. There’s more to this world than terror. Has Shirai-san always been like Temple Born T-san!?)

Then she could wait.

She could shut her eyes, lie flat on the floor, and let this play out.

Without making a single rustle of cloth.

Screwing up now and getting the police staff to the head 3 seconds before help arrived would be too tragic to consider. It was best to not even try it.

And Uiharu did seem flustered all of a sudden.

“Eh? Ehhh? Sh-Shirai-san!?”

In fact, her voice shot up in pitch. Her voice was trembling and tearful.

The god of destruction had rapidly deflated.

She was the usual mouselike Uiharu again.

Shirai Kuroko was oblivious to all of this, so the door clicked open without so much as a knock.

“What are you doing in here, Uiharu? You need to get ready for-”

''Whack!! Thud!!!!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Eh?)

This time, time really did stop for Saten Ruiko.

Her eyes were still shut, so she started to wonder if the entire world had vanished around her.

It was just that quiet.

What had those sounds been? What was this painful silence!? Had her savior, Saint Shirai Kuroko, been knocked out with the police staff!? Surely not, right!?

Then she heard the straining of a solid object under stress. Most likely, that was the ecofriendly plastic police staff being squeezed in someone’s tight grip.

Uiharu’s Thermal Hand was only Level 1, but what if she could alter her body temperature with hot water or the air conditioning and then lock it there in order to freely switch on or off the limiters for her muscles?

(Eh? Huh?)

Saten may have made a grave error.

Even a Level 4 was still human. An unexpected blow to the head would kill them the same as anyone else. It was possible she could have prevented this. Maybe she should have risked it all and gotten up to tell Shirai to watch out.

But it was too late now.

That ship had sailed. There was no going back to that crossroads.

“Hah. Ha ha.”

She heard dry laughter.

Uiharu Kazari’s voice sounded unstable as she talked to no one in particular.

“You can’t just barge in without knocking, Shirai-san. Fortunately, disposing of two bodies isn’t that much more difficult than just the one.”

(O-oh, no. Say it isn’t so, Shirai-san.)

Saten couldn’t suppress the shaking anymore.

(If she can knock out a Level 4 like Shirai that easily, what chance does a Level 0 like me stand!? Wh-wh-wh-what do I do!? Please, tell this isn’t really happening!! I can’t rely on the power level rankings and seek out Konori-senpai or Misaka-san’s help! But who does that leave? Haruue-san? Edasaki-san? I’d even take Janie or Febrie’s help right now! Oh, I never should have let them go! Is this my punishment for completely forgetting they existed recently!? Anyway, I need some goodhearted person from a more honest world or this is only going to get worse!!)

Actually, wasn’t Uiharu Kazari supposed to be one of those comfortingly good people? When the party’s soother had gone completely off the rails, sticky darkness rapidly filled the entire world. It was like sinking into a bog.

The darkness of her shut eyes was scaring her too badly now. She couldn’t stay like this forever, so she slowly opened them a crack while still lying on her side.

Mere centimeters away, the twintails girl lay entirely motionless with blood dripping down into her opened eyes.

Her face wasn’t even symmetrical anymore.

The one side looked weirdly shaded because it was dented in on the side.

Something pink and thicker than blood was oozing out from behind the eye on that side.

There was no doubting it. Shirai Kuroko had to be dead!!

“Bh-”

That was her limit.

Babbling nonsense left her mouth before her mind could keep up.

“Bwbhbjhahaerh!! Bhjfhwieurhbng!?”

Shirai was dead.

Did that mean she was breathing the same air that surrounded an actual corpse!?

And didn’t the rules of this small holy ground prevent her from ever overthrowing its master? She had already seen what happened to any who defied her.

She couldn’t let this room’s master know she was still alive.

Realizing she had just shouted out loud, she stiffened and trembled violently.

What could she do now? What options were left!?

“Ha ha. Saten-san.”

She was afraid.

Afraid to turn around.

But she was still the same urban legend lover who was never satisfied until she had gathered all the information. She chose to check behind her instead of meeting her end not knowing.

She turned silently.

A girl splattered with her victim’s blood had an incongruously sweet smile on her face.

Saten heard a dull straining sound.

The smiling girl was squeezing a red-soaked police staff in her hand. Level 1 Thermal Hand proved to be far from harmless and anything but ordinary as it bared its fangs here.

“I knew you had to be still alive. And it’s too late to escape now☆”

===Part 4===

When Misaka Mikoto arrived a bit later, she viewed Branch 177’s disastrous state in disgust.

“You say you need help carrying Saten-san out of here, but what in the world happened? Wow, she is out cold, isn’t she?”

There was blood everywhere.

Saten Ruiko was in the center of the room, lying on her back and twitching. She must have had a talent for looking somewhat sexy even when receiving karmic retribution. In a suspense drama, she would be the victim found in the inn’s open-air bath without providing any clue toward solving the mystery.

“This place is a mess.”

“All of this uses black bean cider and strawberry oden as an ingredient. She really needs to learn not to waste food.”

Uiharu Kazari managed to look cute even while upset.

She was puffing out her cheeks.

She was a mouselike girl with a grip strength of only 13kg.

Of course she was. Mikoto refused to believe Judgment had a hellish destroyer like that.

So what had happened?

“I could see everything Saten-san was doing while I was away from my desk,” explained Uiharu, wiping up the splattered blood with a wet towel. She was an ordinary girl once more. “I used ''the computer’s webcam.'' Those aren’t just special office devices anymore. You can see it attached to the top of the monitor there, right? I honestly hate them because they’re nothing but a nuisance from an information security perspective.”

Branch 177 contained lots of important documents and data, so she wouldn’t have left it unlocked and unmonitored. The usual automatic lock had been deactivated while they carried out the equipment needed for the largescale training today, but even when away from her desk for a short time, Uiharu had made sure she could monitor the inside of the office – with a particular focus on the presence any unauthorized intruders.

Shirai Kuroko shrugged.

“Then she used the webcam to keep an eye on Saten-san while she had her back turned. She pretended to shop on an industrial online store while actually contacting my phone with the computer.”

“I had Shirai-san make some of that fake blood using a VR instruction video.”

“And I took the liberty of putting on some special makeup while I was at it.”

They had been preparing for joint training with Anti-Skill.

And a mock crime scene investigation at that.

They had already had the necessary makeup and props to dress someone up as the victim’s corpse.

“I pretended to stop by Branch 177 by random chance and then get clobbered by Uiharu.” The twintails girl sighed and gave Uiharu a puzzled look. “But, Uiharu, how did you manage that with the police staff’s grip? It seems to have been an adlib.”

“Ah ha ha. I’m only a Level 1, remember? I can’t use Thermal Hand to release the limiter on my muscles or anything like that. But this is made of polyhydroxybutyrate plastic, a biodegradable plastic, which makes it a lot like wood. By getting it decently damp and then keeping the temperature steady, I can use the power of microbes to cause rapid rotting and fermentation.”

“(Hold on. That’s scary enough on its own.)”

“?”

That 1st year middle schooler was generally a good girl, so she must not have considered the esper combat applications of that ability.

Hopefully, she couldn’t put on a gasmask to protect her from the rotting gases and spend 10 hours erasing an entire bullfighting bull from the face of the planet. Mikoto had always suspected Thermal Hand had a disturbing number of possible applications.

“Hmm,” groaned Mikoto.

She looked down at Saten who was lying on the ground convulsing with her eyes rolled back in her head, which robbed her of all dignity as a teenage girl.

“I get pranking her back for trying to prank you, but I think you overdid it.”

“Tell that to her. I didn’t want to take the joke this far.”

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