Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 9===

The girl with long black twintails went limp, her black kneesocked legs gave way, and she slumped down to the rehabilitation room’s floor.

“No…”

There had to be a connection.

Why had her family name made an appearance here?

“That’s ''mother''’s name. But why…? No!! It can’t be true!!!!”

“Sakibasu-san.”

Uiharu hurriedly tried to take her hand, but Sakibasu was too shaken to listen.

This went beyond simply being family.

Sakibasu Yuri may not have even known her mother was living inside Academy City. When a student’s parents lived outside the city, they would only see them two or three times a year at best. Her mother would only have to be there to greet her at the “family home” on those few days she could travel outside the city. She would have no way of knowing what her mother was doing normally.

However.

Why had Sakibasu Yuri been so obsessed with the Stativarius Ainsel?

She had created a trading card game at the age of five.

She had built up a massive fortune in a single generation, but she had feared that doing so had damaged her parents’ pride as they worked the old-fashioned way. They could no longer remain normal people, but they did not have the history and tradition for the upper-class world to protect them.

Just like the people who won the lottery and ended up worse off.

So.

So.

So was that why?

“She only needed to belong to a superior bloodline. That would solve all the problems plaguing her.”

Was that why Hanakawa Hinadori had stayed away from the playground equipment? Witch & Psychic was the trading card game Sakibasu Yuri had innocently created as a small child, but it had since become the funding source for the villain used to send hitmen after people. She could not have wanted to see something like that after having her own life targeted in that way.

“Everyone in Blue Blood has some kind of troubled life, but the representative is the most prominent example. Her obsession with history and tradition goes beyond the norm. There are some huge taboos when speaking with her, so avoiding those landmines was not easy. I’m not sure how she ended up like that, but it looks like you do.”

“Ahh, ahhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

“Shirai-san, help me restrain her!”

“Yes, she might harm herself at this rate!”

“It’s my…ahhh…it’s my…it’s all my fault!! It’s all because I left them dangling in that in-between state!!”

“No!! Sakibasu-san, you did nothing wrong!!”

The pancake-loving girl curled up on the floor, held her head in her hands, and shook her head wildly. Her violin case sat abandoned nearby. That did nothing to protect her at this point.

“I brought misfortune to my own family…”

“…”

“If only I had never made that toy…if only I hadn’t made all that money, none of this would have happened!! And no one would have gone astray!! You said they can do this because they have lots of money, didn’t you? Ahhh, does that mean I was the one propping them up!? I caused all this!? I paid for those bullets!? How…ahhh…how could this happen!?”

At the time, Sakibasu Yuri may not have been thinking about money at all.

As a young child, she had probably only been giving shape to the images in her head, just like any child coloring with crayons so the adults would praise them.

But it had resonated with far too many people.

An unstoppable current had formed and the girl had unknowingly built up a great fortune.

The next thing she knew, her life had run off the rails.

“I just wanted them to praise me…”

The gears and path of her life had become hopelessly broken and twisted.

“I just wanted to smile while mother rubbed my head. That was all. That was all I wanted!!!!!!”

“Don’t bother saying anything to her,” said Hanakawa Hinadori from the training equipment. There was a hint of pity in her voice. “Everyone faces their sins in their own way. And at their own speed too. Just because something helps you get over something doesn’t mean it will work for someone else.”

“Do you have no heart? This girl believed in her innocence and worked hard not to cause anyone any trouble and this was the answer she found. But do you feel nothing!?”

“Hey, I said not to blame me if you regret it. And what, would she have been happier if the truth was hidden from her and she kept fighting against some unseen monster? Then she’d just be a dancing fool.”

“…”

“We’ve reached the next stage. Thanks to your decision. This is the same as that fortune she created: what’s done is done. The question is what you’re gonna do about it. So how about I throw your questions right back at you: Do you have no heart? This girl believed in her innocence and worked hard not to cause anyone any trouble and this was the answer she found. But do you feel nothing?”

“Fine then…”

Mikoto spoke in a low voice as she tightly held Sakibasu and her shaking head in her arms.

That girl could not be forced to fight any longer.

That would be too cruel.

But that did not mean they could put off solving this problem. No matter how harsh the truth might be, they needed to settle this.

“Sakibasu-san, what do you want to do?”

“…”

“If you want to protect your mother, that’s fine. If that is the path you choose. But if you instead want to correct the path she has chosen, then I think I can help you out. And if not, then sorry. You can resent me then.”