A Certain Magical Index, Vol. 8 (11 page)
“Still…,” said Little Misaka into the empty air. If she asked him for help, it would mean sending that boy into a battlefield yet again. At the same time, though, she knew that even if she avoided getting him involved and kept quiet, then if and when the experiment was started again, he would go charging in, no questions asked.
Yes—she could say for sure.
He would come no matter what.
If the experiment did get resumed, if the Sisters began to be killed off according to a plan again, then he would clench his fist, not even thinking about how much of a risk it would be to intervene.
“If he would get involved whatever the case, then it would be safer to tell him before the situation worsens, concludes Misaka. Of course, it would be best that nobody got involved in Misaka’s problems, but Misaka does not seem to have the right to such lip service, given how she has left this to someone else already, says Misaka, her shoulders sagging as she continues her all-out sprint.”
She got out onto a large road, then skidded on her heels and turned. She began to run faster as she weaved through the waves of people.
That moment.
Crack!
came an ache in her temples.
…!
Her head was spinning. White noise had come across the electrical network comprised of the Sisters’ brain waves, which was something that almost never happened. As Little Misaka sent a message to the network warning them that something strange had occurred, she sharpened her senses to search for a cause, bringing the goggles on her forehead down to her eyes.
Electromagnetic wave interference due to super-high voltage electrical current…Perhaps the Original could output this sort of power,
speculates Misaka without any evidence. I can estimate the location to be within five hundred meters, but…
Such an immense high-tension current would have no use other than battle. Little Misaka was worried about that, but heading for the student dormitory came first. She put her goggles back on her forehead and ran farther.
A second later, she arrived at the dorm’s entrance.
Diving into the elevator, she pushed the button for the seventh floor, then as the elevator slowly ascended, she went over in her mind how to parse and reduce the information she needed to tell that boy. Whatever the case, time was of the essence. She needed to convey correct information to him as quickly as possible, while also conveying the sense of danger she felt from the situation.
She wondered if he’d listen to her if she barged in at this late hour. She wanted to know the exact time, but she didn’t have a watch. Sending a signal out to the network, she immediately received various times at places around the world from the other Sisters. Combining them and recalculating led her to the current time in JST.
The elevator made an electronic noise.
Its doors opened with a shaky, uncertain clatter. Little Misaka immediately resumed her all-out dash. The entrance to her destination was the one door that had had its railing rebuilt recently for some reason.
Coming to an abrupt stop in front of the door, she politely rang the intercom, then turned the doorknob a moment later anyway, not caring what he thought of it. The knob turned with an insecure lack of resistance. Perhaps, for those living here, it actually wasn’t late enough that she would be considered rude, concluded Little Misaka vaguely to herself, throwing open the door.
Touma Kamijou was inside.
The girl named Index was inside with him.
They were both in pajamas, and for some reason the girl had climbed up the boy’s back and had her teeth in his head. A cat, perhaps reacting on instinct upon seeing the female devourer, was trembling alone in a corner. Surprised at the sound of the door opening, they looked at Little Misaka at the entrance.
She considered.
What sentence would change his mood the fastest in this situation?
Logic gave up on answering that, and experience guided her instead.
She spoke.
“I have a request, says Misaka, looking straight at you and speaking her mind.”
As she spoke, she wondered what had changed about her to allow her to say that.
“Please save the lives of Misaka and Misaka’s Sisters, says Misaka, bowing to you.”
The boy didn’t have any questions.
He just prompted her to continue.
Those Who Settle the Score
Break_or_Crash?
1
As Mikoto Misaka searched for her, Awaki Musujime stood beside a window with a white rolling suitcase next to her, and looked down at the other girl from above.
Awaki Musujime was inside a building. The fourth floor of this one in particular belonged to a pizzeria. Not a delivery place or a fast food restaurant, but a real one that served pizza for its menu. Given the cheapest single thing available cost over 3,000 yen, it wasn’t a place meant for middle school kids. The establishment catered mainly to university students and faculty, so even now that it was approaching nine in the evening, it showed no signs of closing up for the night.
There were many fancy tables with brand-new tablecloths on them, and although it took away the silence from the restaurant, the French pop music playing through the cable radio was soft enough that it wouldn’t get in the way of people having conversations. The tables filling the room didn’t even cover half of it, but a sign saying
CLOSED
was already posted at the entrance. The moderate amount of space between the seats was part of how the place created its atmosphere.
Despite people seeing the Move Point esper suddenly appear from nothingness, chaos didn’t ensue inside the restaurant. Perhaps they were long since aware that this was just that kind of city.
Using their consideration to her advantage, she continued to look down. She could see Mikoto look about, then go into one of the narrower roads somewhere.
Phew…
Finally, she knew relief—she could breathe again.
No amount of straight-line distance would help her against Tokiwadai Middle School’s ace. Unlike her Railgun, which slowed due to air resistance at a certain range, her electric attacks went at the speed of light. They would reduce any distance to zero in the blink of an eye.
—It didn’t matter how close she was; she only had to flee into Mikoto’s blind spot.
—And she needed to be able to see Mikoto Misaka losing track of her from a safe location.
Those were the two major conditions. Thus, for her location, she had chosen “up.” From here, she could watch her enemy go past and think up a way to escape at her own leisure.
Urgh…!!
As soon as relief came over her, she was overcome with a violent urge to vomit—an urge she’d forgotten about until now.
The burning stomach acid caused pain in her throat. Barely managing to return the contents of her stomach to where they belonged, she appeared, on the surface, to avoid any further difficulties. Sweat had formed in the hand gripping the military-grade flashlight.
In the past, Awaki Musujime had lost a handle on her control over her ability, Move Point, and ended up in an accident. Because of that, whenever she tried to move her own body with it, she felt immense tension and fear, enough to negatively affect her physical condition.
Therefore, she wanted to avoid teleporting her own body as much as she could.
Damn it. Maybe it’s unavoidable, but why is it so terrible?
Thinking on it, she didn’t like guiding VIPs into the windowless building at that person’s command, either. Just sending someone to the other side of a wall was one thing, but especially the part where she had to Move Point along with the important people, not even the smallest failure would be allowed. On top of that, there were a few people who didn’t seem anything like VIP material mixed in: like a blond high school kid with sunglasses and a red-haired priest.
She placed the luggage on its side and sat down, then wiped off the sweat forming on her brow with a handkerchief. It certainly was nerve-racking jumping into a building you couldn’t see inside. Warping into an oven would get her roasted, and coming out over a ventilation shaft would mean she’d fall a moment later. You could snort and say that wouldn’t happen normally, but just the fact that cases like this were
at all possible
was plenty scary enough.
In any case, Mikoto Misaka had completely lost Musujime’s trail. Normal people confined themselves to actual roads to look for someone. That meant if she warped from the top of one building to another, people on the ground would probably be blind to her. Her maximum teleportation distance was over eight hundred meters. Unfortunately, she wasn’t confident that she could keep her body moving continuously. If she warped four times, the contents of her stomach would spurt out of her mouth, her senses would be confused, and she might not be able to keep using her ability in that state.
From a mental health perspective, the most she would use Move Point on her own body was once or twice. For now, that meant completely escaping pursuit with just that, then running on foot for the rest of it. Her plans were starting to coalesce—
Dpshh!
There was a high-end corkscrew stuck in her right shoulder.
“Agh…?!” She knew that corkscrew. It was the one she’d stabbed the Judgment girl with just a few hours ago. When she really considered what that meant, a familiar voice came to her from behind.
“I’m returning this. It hasn’t even a scintilla of taste, after all. People don’t want to see things like that. Oh, and these, too.”
Right as she said “too”—
Gsh-dbsh-gshh!!
Sounds like things thrusting into a mud-soaked cloth repeated. Her side, her thigh, and her calf. She knew all too well why the metal darts were stabbing into those particular locations.
The searing pain surged through her, converged in her brain, and exploded.
“Hah…gah…”
Awaki Musujime turned back into the restaurant from the window. The patrons looked confused, startled, and generally at a loss for what to do at the sudden occurrence.
Among them was only one who didn’t.
A girl was sitting on one of the fancy tablecloths on a table, grinning confidently.
The restaurant seemed too high-class for its own good.
Just like when Musujime had come in, nobody particularly seemed to care when Shirai teleported there.
“There’s no rush. I missed your vitals…Quite easy to understand, isn’t it? I pierced all the places you stabbed me. Oh, and that reminds me.”
Shirai theatrically reached into one of her pockets. Musujime was immediately alert, but what she brought out wasn’t a weapon. It was the tube of blood coagulant from her Judgment first-aid kit.
She flicked it from her fingers. It landed on the floor at Musujime’s feet.
The girl with the twin tails grinned an evil grin.
“Use as much as you like. Please, remove your clothing, including your underwear; crawl around on the floor like a worm; and tend to your wounds. Then, and only then, can you say we’re even, you piece of shit.”
Maybe they had considered the hostility in her words, or maybe they were afraid they might be included in the vilification themselves; the dumbfounded patrons and staff finally and suddenly rose and stormed for the exit. Tables and chairs were overthrown in the very
un
classy atmosphere, and with a tempest of footsteps, the restaurant emptied in no time.
Now it was just the two of them, staring each other down.
The distance between them was around ten meters. Teleportation and Move Point. It was within the effective range of both; at this point the concept of distance held no meaning.
Only the faint noise of the air-conditioning and the relaxing French pop music broadcast could be heard, sounding oh-so-innocent.
Shirai was sitting on a table.
It didn’t appear to be due to composure. It secretly showed that her wounds weren’t even letting her hold up her own body as she liked. Still, Musujime was in the same situation. Both had attacked the exact same spots with the exact same weapons. All one of them needed to do to guess at the damage done to the other was to imagine her own.
“…Now you’ve…done it. But…I suppose…I can’t bring myself to hate…such a childish reprisal.”
Musujime was sitting on the luggage by the window. She was forcing herself to appear relaxed—either as a combat bluff or because her pride was making her.
Whichever the case, neither of them was going to have a very easy time walking around.
But each of them had an alternate means of moving around.
“Well, this isn’t very good,” said Shirai with a smirk. “If they make too much of a fuss, my sagacious and impulsive big sister will come running straight here.”
“!!”
“Your personality would never let you run from someone you could beat without doing anything, would it? No, I’d thought your methodology involved a lot of inflicting a lot of pointless wounds and feeling superior about it, then leaving, like you did with me.”
Come to think of it, not once did Musujime attack Mikoto during their fight at the building under construction. Staying on the defensive and never launching a counterattack was proof she knew that she’d never be able to hold up in a square fight.
That meant that as soon as Mikoto Misaka arrived here, Musujime would lose.
The wound-covered Shirai didn’t need to strain herself to beat Musujime. If she bought enough time for Mikoto to get here, she could get a second victory.
Musujime acted brave even when presented with that truth. “Hah. You seem to be pretty worried about Tokiwadai’s ace. But even the Railgun isn’t all perfect. Take Academy City’s number-one strongest esper—she’d die for sure against
him
.”
“Oh, I wasn’t under the impression that either of
us
could reach that place anyway—the Level Five world.” Shirai smirked. She spoke her self-defeating words with pride—as though it were proof that she really was worried about Mikoto Misaka.
Musujime couldn’t help but scowl and click her tongue.
Is that why she made all the noise…? Not only did she pull a surprise attack on me, she created another victory condition by letting that Railgun know where she was…! In that case…
She started thinking immediately. What would decide her own victory wasn’t whether she could take down the Judgment officer in front of her. It was whether Railgun chased her down or not. If she decided not to deal with Kuroko Shirai, and used Move Point to escape immediately—
“It will not work,” declared Shirai, interrupting her thoughts. “You can’t get away for good. I’m sure you know that! You and I are very much alike, you know. In this situation, with these wounds, in this place, with our abilities, with Big Sister following us…So what will you do? Do you think an esper with the same ability as you would be unable to predict where you would be going?”
“?!…You…You little…?!”
She lost it. She lost her cool so much that she couldn’t put more than two words together. Shirai smiled very thinly at her. “Come, now, do you think I would be bluffing? If you do, then please, abandon that optimistic thought right this instant. I have prior information from the data banks. I have experience from crossing blades with you before. Plus, I have a similar mental structure as an esper with the same ability. My gut instincts have already given me quite a few pieces of supplemental information.”
It was at that moment when Musujime finally figured it out. What was the meaning of all the actions Kuroko Shirai had taken up until now?
She stabbed me in the same places with the corkscrew and the darts…
to put me into the same situation as her
?! She was making my movement patterns easier to predict by compensating a little bit for the difference between us!
They had similar abilities, similar handicaps, and similar thoughts—Shirai was trying to read ahead of time how Awaki Musujime would move.
I can’t let this stupid girl do this
, she thought, gritting her teeth. She could use Move Point to get out of here, but her destination would be exposed for certain. She couldn’t even be relieved if she warped to the other side of the world. There was no way. With just one teleport, her stomach hurt so much, it felt like it was being strangled. She couldn’t stand it. She had finally prepared herself for death and used Move Point on herself, and this stupid girl could nullify that as many times as she wanted. Three or four teleports in succession were the absolute limit of her body anyway. She didn’t want to waste her precious warps. Which meant…
“Yes, you have just one means of victory: to crush me before Big Sister arrives,” she announced with an air of composure. “I, however, have two. Either I defeat you directly or I wait until Big Sister appears…Please, must I declare which of us is in the dominant position?”
That in itself
was
the declaration, and Musujime found herself surprised. She felt like the choices she’d had were being narrowed down, picked off one at a time. She shuddered—but then shook her head.
No.
She figured it out.
This Judgment officer wasn’t making room for Railgun to intervene.
If she wanted to get her involved, she would have teleported her here right along with her.
Musujime smiled a bit. Once she figured that out, all sorts of other facts followed in its wake. Perhaps knowing her opponent’s thoughts had backfired on her attempt to set up those artificial conditions.
Her mind cooled, and she began to regain her calm. “I swear…What a strange twist of fate has brought us together. Let me get this straight—you gave up not one but
two
chances to win?”
“…”
“The first chance was not bringing Railgun here. And the second was this attack. If you weren’t so hell-bent on making this a game, you would have just killed me by crushing my brain or my heart or something. If all that really was for those cute ramblings of your Railgun, then you really are a sad person.”
After she’d asked the question, Shirai’s body had shaken a little. Musujime knew why. She had the same sorts of wounds, after all. The damage they caused was severe. Plus, Shirai had been chasing her like that for hours now. Simply closing up the wounds wouldn’t be enough to replenish her lost stamina. She was more exhausted than Musujime was. Musujime had just been injured now, but Shirai had been running with those injuries, so they had a different amount of stamina.
So she smiled—at her own dominant position and at the recklessness of her opponent. “How pathetic. You could have just compromised on your second hope. Why bother trying to go for your first one? Is your life really worth putting in that much danger?” she asked, still seated on the luggage.
“To protect the world that Railgun selfishly thinks is real…”
Kuroko Shirai looked back at Awaki Musujime’s face. There was a strong, forceful light in her eyes, despite the fact that she was sitting on the table because her legs couldn’t hold her up and her arms were dangling at her sides without energy. Both those things made it very clear how few options she had, but she wasn’t making a false show of courage. She was just staring straight into the eyes of her enemy.
Even if it made her look stupid, she answered without hesitation.
“…I want to protect it.”
To make matters worse, she was running on fumes—and she was pouring the last of her energy into this.
“Why wouldn’t I…want to protect it? Of course I do. She may be selfish, and she may not ever spare a thought for our circumstances, but Big Sister wishes for something: a situation where neither you nor I would have to do any of this. It’s so selfish and stupid, isn’t it? She…Big Sister really believes she can settle everything just by getting everyone together, punching them in the face, and lecturing us. Even now that everything has gone to heck in a handbasket. I am actually considering trying to save you, even after everything you’ve done!”
Shirai smiled. It wasn’t a mean one, just a normal one. “Big Sister is the kind of person who could look at this situation and say she didn’t want us to fight, that she would appreciate it if we stopped trying to kill each other. There is no way Big Sister would feel nothing after imagining what I must look like now. She could blow you to pieces in five seconds if she felt like it—and that’s exactly why she doesn’t. She hopes there’s some other way. Even though she could end things instantly with a coin and the flick of a thumb, even after all this, all she does is hope she can work things out and bear by herself all the pointless suffering that brings.”
“…”
“Did you think Kuroko Shirai would refuse such a ludicrously infantile wish? By catching you by surprise and digging out your brains with a metal dart?! By bringing this to a swift end steeped in death and fresh blood?! All for my own self-preservation?! Do you think I am so unrefined I would get mud all over a doormat someone else laid out for me?!”
As Shirai shouted, she slowly lifted herself from the table. Her legs trembled but were firm. She was declaring that now was when things got serious. “I will grant you a return to your normal life. Just as someone, somewhere, wanted, and just as I’ve agreed with them.”
“Then if I betrayed that, I suppose I would win,” answered Awaki Musujime, still sitting on the luggage. She was declaring that she didn’t want to go along with any of that.
It is so simple in the end
, thought Shirai. Both she and Musujime were in very bad shape from their injuries. Even though she’d closed up the wounds, her stamina wouldn’t return immediately. Just one shot—yes, just one light blow to tip over the opponent would be the end of it. With as many stabbing wounds as Shirai had, just ending up on the floor could potentially make them open back up.
If this turns into an all-out battle…I’d have about ten seconds at best.
She didn’t need to be hit by an attack—just moving her limbs with all her energy would make her cuts open up. Nor did she have much stamina left in the first place. Losing any more blood would immediately put her into an unconscious state.
Musujime’s power was overwhelming. If not for the condition stating teleport espers couldn’t be moved with teleportation abilities, she’d probably just have warped Shirai into a wall or the ground and been done with it.
They stared each other down.
Ten meters between them.
Commotion could be heard outside the window.
There was one ringing sound, as though part of the framework of the building Mikoto had recklessly fired upon had collapsed.
And that was their signal to start.
Shirai brought her fist down on the table she’d been sitting on. With the sensation of ripping flesh, it shattered a plate. Grabbing the sharp pieces, she set up her teleportation. The ability made every attack sure to kill—she just needed to cut out of her target from the inside. Defense was impossible even by creating a wall, since the ability sent an object straight from one point to another.
In the same moment, Musujime activated Move Point.
Matching the movement of her flashlight, a silver tray shot toward Shirai, trying to hit her directly. It may have only been a tray, but a direct attack from Move Point could easily penetrate skin. It would be no less than instant death if it hit.
Shirai, however, moved before that.
She warped her body but a footstep’s length to the side. The silver tray guillotine materialized in empty air and clattered to the ground.
Musujime had vast power, but she had the habit of swinging her flashlight whenever she triggered it, perhaps to get the timing right. Shirai would have a hard time taking the opportunity to launch a counterattack, since it ran the risk of a mutual death, but it made evasion a nonissue.
“Damn.” Musujime frowned a bit. At the flick of her flashlight, five or six tables around them vanished and reappeared in front of her. They stacked atop themselves and fanned out, forming a giant shield that concealed her body.
She messed up…?
thought Shirai.
No, that isn’t possible! They’re to conceal the fact she’s moving out of the way…!!
She’d fallen for this trick once already. Coordinate attacks sent things from point to point, so the slightest differential in the target’s coordinates would cause the attack to miss. Musujime had built a wall so that she wouldn’t know she’d moved herself.
In that case!!
Shirai teleported.
With the plate shards in her hands, she moved her entire body to a targeted location.
After she landed on the other side of the wall of tables, she prepared the plate shards again.
Correcting aim!
If the wall obstructed her vision, she only had to jump to the other side of it. Then she would recalculate her target’s coordinates, letting her accurately warp the plate shards to Musujime’s location.
Awaki Musujime couldn’t use Move Point on her own body at the drop of a hat.
Shirai lined up her shot, hoping for a quick conclusion…
Whoosh.
She heard something whipping through the air.
Musujime was standing just a step away from her. She had the heavy luggage handle in both hands and was twisting her body to try and bash Shirai in the face with the centrifugal force. With both her hands full, she held her flashlight in her mouth.