Touma Kamijou was on the run.
He was just about to return to the main city to stop the angel, which was his
top priority, after losing sight of Vento at the iron bridge. And just like he had
when going after Last Order, he'd managed to bump into the black-suits.
He fled into a narrow alley too small for a car to easily enter, then tried to
throw off their pursuit by following a complex pattern of roads. But despite his
home-field advantage, he couldn't lead trained professionals around by the
nose. It was a miracle he hadn't been shot by now.
"No, don't, Touma! Please don't kill Hyouka!!"
So when he heard the yell, he thought his heart would stop. It wasn't so much
what she said as the fact that he simply conflated the "loud noise" with a
gunshot and thought he'd been shot.
"!!" He froze in place and then took two seconds to turn around. Finally, when
he saw Index and Mikoto running toward him, he relaxed a little. Right away he
changed his mind—this wasn't the time to relax—and grabbed their arms and
dove onto another back road.
Several splashing footsteps rang out on the main street.
It was the black-suits.
They were looking here and there, but they'd eventually find where they were
hiding. But Index—and Mikoto, of course—didn't care a wink about the blacksuits. Index looked up at him with frightened eyes for some reason.
She didn't ask what had happened or why he was on the run. She only stated
the more important things. "Please, Touma, don't go over there. I don't know
how or why, but I'm pretty sure that angel is Hyouka. I have to stop what's
happening no matter what, but you can't get involved! If you touch her, she'll
disappear, even if you don't mean for that to happen!!"
Index urgently pleaded with him, grabbing his shirt, which had absorbed
water. She must have been agitated, because her words didn't link together.
But he knew the name "Hyouka," at least.
Hyouka Kazakiri. An aggregation of involuntary diffusion fields. One with a
human mind but not a human body.
Seriously…?
The girl Kamijou knew had nothing to do with such destructive behavior. But
if someone outside were to interfere with the composition of the fields, maybe
it could cause that sort of change. If they were completely in control of them,
then maybe they could even control everything, from her form to her actions.
It seemed like a natural phenomenon, somehow incomplete.
But then who made her like that?
Is it because Vento took down all the students in the city…? No, it's not…
As Kamijou thought desperately to himself, Index continued in earnest.
"Touma, I'll do something about Hyouka, so please, don't get involved!"
Hyouka Kazakiri was the first friend Index had ever made. She wouldn't want
to make Kazakiri her enemy, even if she did waver due to her position as the
archive of forbidden books.
Kamijou mulled it over. Hyouka Kazakiri was a good person. But if she was out
of control, all bets were off. Someone's usual personality didn't matter if they
were dead drunk, either.
So he said this: "That won't work."
"Touma!!"
"I'll be the one to stop her. And she's not the only problem here. I can't leave
everything to you."
"But if you use your right hand, Hyouka will die!!"
"I won't let her die!!" Kamijou yelled back, forgetting that they were hiding
from the black-suits. He grabbed the complaining Index by the nape of her neck
and pulled her to him. When she froze in surprise, he continued. "I'm not doing
this to kill her! I'm doing this to rescue her! Does that look like how Kazakiri's
supposed to be to you?! Of course it doesn't. Something happened to make her
like that! I need to go save her, damn it!! Don't get involved? Screw that. I don't
need your permission to save her!!"
Index's mouth opened and closed.
Kamijou continued anyway. "I don't know exactly how she's built magically or
what an angel is supposed to be here. I need your knowledge for that. But the
involuntary diffusion fields are involved in all this, so you won't know
everything, either. I'll tell you about that part of it. Together, we can save
Hyouka Kazakiri!"
The sounds of rain started to grow distant.
Eventually only the boy's words dominated their surroundings.
"A ton has been happening in the city today. I honestly don't even know the
half of it, and I don't have any clues how to solve it, either. But I know that I've
gotta do this! We're going to rescue Kazakiri! Am I wrong?!" he demanded.
He had to wake up the girl going on about misdirected things regarding her
friend, like kill or don't kill.
"Let's go, Index. Help me out so we can save her!!"
Index heard his voice and nodded.
Kamijou let go of her neck.
Then he scanned the exit of the alley again. First, they had to shake off the
black-suits on the main road somehow. The bullets were really just normal
bullets, without any sorcery or powers behind them. They were the worst kind
of problem for Kamijou. His right hand worked only on unnatural powers.
Then…
"Haaah…" Mikoto, who'd just been pulled into here with them, heaved a sigh
and tossed her umbrella aside. She examined Kamijou and Index with a tired
expression for some reason. "I don't get what's going on, but I can tell you're up
to your necks in some ridiculous problem."
"W-well, you're not wrong."
"And that an acquaintance of yours is at the center of all this."
"Not an acquaintance, a friend," corrected Index.
Mikoto's face grew even more exasperated as she stared out of the alley.
"Just to make sure, she's not a bad person, right?"
"Definitely not," said Kamijou immediately and without hesitation. "Index
says so, too. That person's our friend."
"Your friend…"
Mikoto looked at the angel spraying around electrical discharge–like
phenomena between its wings as it moved in the distance, then back at
Kamijou and Index one more time. "You mean, um, that person, right?"
Index and Kamijou answered at almost the same time.
"Of course, who else?"
"Quit asking the obvious."
"Ha-ha-ha. Anyway, those people in black before were bad guys, right?"
"Can't figure out why they're after me, though. They're not good guys, at
least."
Then they heard several sets of footsteps enter the alley. The black-suits, who
had been examining the entrance, had stormed in. Not simply entered but
stormed in. There was no time.
Mikoto grinned anyway. "Oh, whatever. If that's your friend, who cares? I
won't ask again, so go save her already. I'll make do here."
"You idiot, you'll…!!" Kamijou tried to grab Mikoto's shoulder.
"Sorry, sorry. No time to stop. Starting now!"
Mikoto had already launched an arcade coin toward the alley's exit.
The Railgun.
Her Mach-three strike gouged out the walls on either side, thundering and
spraying flashes as it darted toward the main street. She probably picked a
trajectory that wouldn't hit the black-suits, but the shock wave alone flipped
over several of them.
A gray dust cloud danced into the air.
Before the raindrops could push it back down, Mikoto stomped on one of the
grounded black-suit's stomachs to knock him out, then leaped onto the main
street, which had no cover.
"Misaka!!" shouted Kamijou.
Unfortunately, the black-suits who had been waiting on the main street were
returning fire, so he couldn't go any farther. Meanwhile, Mikoto, who had
incredible strength in terms of "normal combat force," shouted back to him
from the battlefield of bullets.
"The punishment game!!"
"What?!"
"Where you have to do anything I say! It's effective all day, so you have to
save your friend and come back, got it?!"
Kamijou tried to shout something back, but the sounds of crackling electricity
and gunshots cut him off. Shit, he swore to himself. "I'll protect her! Don't you
die either!!"
He let Index pull him along, and he ran farther into the alley as though
shaking free of something. They had one destination. If Index was right, it was
where Hyouka Kazakiri was waiting.
After hearing the wet splashing of footsteps, Mikoto sighed on the battlefield.
She'd totally drawn the short lot.
The punishment game…Ended up using it for something like this, huh?
But she figured there was no helping it.
He said he'd risk his life to save a friend. She couldn't put a damper on that.
But if these black-suits (was that what they were?) hadn't caused this issue in
the first place, maybe she'd have gotten to continue the punishment game in a
better way.
When she thought of that, she got a little mad.
"I am in a really bad mood right now."
Several muzzles openly pointed at her.
But right before they could squeeze the triggers, a bunch of manhole covers,
water pipes, and signboards in front of her gathered to her to form a shield. It
was magnetism. The bullets all bounced off the shield of steel.
"If you're not going to run, come at me like your life depends on it."
Right on the heels of her shield, she fired lances of lightning out at random.
She didn't plan to lose.