Chapter 42: Chapter 3: Railgun. Part 2
Kamijou's body was knocked to the ground like he had been hit by a shell. His momentum kept him rolling for a few metres. As he lay face down on the ground with his arms and legs roughly sticking at, he looked somewhat like a broken doll.
"Eh?"
The one most shocked by the scene was Mikoto, not Kamijou.
Mikoto did not know what Kamijou's power was, but in their fights up to that point, not one of her attacks had hit him. As his unknown power had negated her attacks again and again, her attacks had escalated and escalated to the point that she had seen him as an invincible existence that could easily handle any attack.
That was why she had fired that lightning spear.
She had thought that boy would easily negate an attack like that.
In a twisted way, she had trusted him.
"But..."
(This has to be a mistake...)
Mikoto looked at the boy who lay atop the bridge. Mikoto knew very well what would happen to a human who received an electrical current of one billion volts. That boy would not stand back up. She knew that. She had done it. She knew that.
And yet...
An instant later, she saw a movement coming from that boy who should never have stood up again.
Gritting his teeth, the boy mustered all his strength and stood back up.
"Why...?" Mikoto said.
Her lightning attack had not been negated by Kamijou's power. It had clearly struck him. Yet that boy stood back up without relying on any power and using only his own body.
And even after receiving that one billion volt attack, the boy did not clench his fist.
That was why Mikoto had muttered "why" in shock.
"...I don't know." Kamijou gritted his teeth. "I don't know why I don't want to fight. I don't have some other idea! But I still don't want to see you get hurt! Not even I know what I'm saying! But I can't help it! I don't want to turn my fist on you!"
"Wha-...?" Mikoto was at a loss for words.
The boy yelled as if he were about to cough up blood as he desperately kept his feet planted on the ground because his body seemed about to collapse.
"Even if there is no other way!! Even if I don't know what else to do! I still can't let that happen! Why do you have to die!? Why does anyone have to be killed!? I just can't understand!"
That boy surely realized that his words would not reach Mikoto.
Even so, he yelled.
He likely had no real reason.
He understood her reasons, but he still had something he refused to give up on.
"..."
For an instant, just an instant, Mikoto bit her lip.
A certain girl had once muttered "help" so that no one would hear her.
That boy had appeared as if in response to her cry.
She was sure that boy would be able to carry out any miracle if she cried for help.
"But I can't let that happen," Misaka Mikoto muttered under her breath.
It was her own fault that over 10,000 Sisters had been killed.
She absolutely could not allow herself to rely on others to save them.
"Shut up," Mikoto said moving her trembling lips. "I no longer have the right to have people say that to me. Even if there was some happy world that everyone wanted and in which everyone could smile, there would be no place for me there! So get out of the way!"
Sparks flew from Mikoto's bangs.
She was sure that the boy would either give up and clench his fist, or move out of her way that time.
But he would not clench his fist no matter what.
At that point, she could no longer control the lightning spear as it pierced the boy's chest.
There was a tremendous roar.
But the boy did not die. He did not even collapse to the ground. He gathered all his strength in his legs and continued to stand in her way despite being so battered.
"...I'm sure...you've realized it, too. You can't save anyone this way. Even if you die...and save the 10,000 Sisters...do you really think they will thank you for saving them that way? Are the Sisters you want to save really that small minded?"
"Shut up! Just shut up and fight! I'm not the good person you think I am! Why can't you realize that even as I fire these one billion volt lightning spears into you!?"
As if to threaten him, Mikoto fired another electrical spear.
But Kamijou did not clench his right hand. The spear struck him directly in the chest.
Even so, Kamijou did not fall.
Even after receiving an attack like that, he would not fall.
"I have killed over 10,000 people! There is no reason for a villain like that to live in this world! Why are you standing up for a villain like that!?"
"You aren't a villain," Kamijou said.
Mikoto frowned doubtfully.
"Why am I still alive?"
"Eh?"
"You said these attacks had one billion volts. A normal human cannot survive voltages that high. Don't you find it odd? Or are you subconsciously holding back?"
"Holding back?" Mikoto had a bewildered look on her face. "Of course not. I was trying to kill you. I knew you weren't resisting...I knew you wouldn't resist...and yet...!"
"And yet you couldn't kill me."
"..."
Mikoto fell silent.
He was right. Normally, a human would not survive voltages as high as one billion volts.
But there was an exception.
For instance, commercial stun guns had voltages of two or three hundred thousand volts, but a human would not die from being hit by one. On the other hand, 100 volt household outlets could electrocute someone.
That was not caused by the voltage. It was due to the difference in amperage. The amount of electrical power was equal to the voltage multiplied by the amperage, so one would not be electrocuted even with extremely high voltages as long as the amperage was low.
In other words, Mikoto's lightning spears had extremely high voltage but extremely low amperage.
It was as if her attacks were just for show and did not possess any real substance like a fake sword for a play.
However, Mikoto had not intended to hold back. She had meant to fire her spears at full blast. That was why she merely stared at Kamijou without knowing why it had happened.
As she trembled like the frightened kitten, Kamijou looked her in the eye.
"For you, saving the Sisters with your life may have been your final hope," the battered boy said. "But in the end, you are still the kind of good person who cannot kill the guy who is trying to steal that final remaining hope from you."
As he spoke, he seemed completely exhausted but he also smiled happily.
"Ah...uuh..." Mikoto muttered in confusion as she looked at Kamijou.
Her eyes wavered like a small child who was lost.
Misaka Mikoto did not want Kamijou Touma to get any more involved in the experiment.
That was why she had so easily spoken of its repulsive contents when he had brought it up. She had wanted Kamijou to despair upon hearing about it. She had fired her electrical attacks on him despite his lack of resistance because she had wanted him to give up because he believed his words could not get through to her.
If Kamijou were to lose hope in her, he would not follow her and end up getting involved in that experiment that was nothing more than a spiral of death.
"Stop this."
Mikoto grabbed her head with both hands.
Even so, Kamijou had told her to stop. No matter what terrible things she said to him or how cruelly she attacked him, he did not care.
At that rate, the boy would get involved.
He would cross the point of no return and get involved with that abnormal world of spiraling blood and dirt.
"My death is the only way left to save those girls! So just accept it! If I die, I can save everyone! Isn't that wonderful!? If you agree, then get out of the way!"
Mikoto covered her ears with her hands and clenched her eyes shut as she yelled.
Even so, she felt like she could hear the boy saying he would not get out of the way.
"...You'll die," Mikoto said with her eyes still shut. "There's no saving you from here on! If you get hit by this next attack, there's no way you'll survive! So get out of the way if you don't want to die!"
The sound of the purple sparks flowing from Mikoto's body grew heavier and sharper.
As if some kind of weapon had been activated, the pitch rose and rose.
"..."
Even so, the boy did not move a single step.
It was as if he were saying that an attack like that was not a reason to fall back.
Mikoto bit her lip.
A bluff would not work on that boy.
If she did not actually fire a deadly attack, she could not get him to give up.
If he knew she was not bluffing, that boy would have to fight.
Even so, she heard him yelling that he would not get out of the way.
Mikoto finally could not stand it any longer and she yelled out.
A great flash seemed to pierce through her tightly closed eyelids. A great roar burst through her hands covering her ears. That was not a decorative high voltage attack that had low amperage. She fired a true lightning spear that was just like the real thing.
Amid that lightless and soundless flash, the sound of a direct hit resounded out like a fireworks factory exploding.
Even so, the boy did not clench his right hand even in the very end.
In the end, that was all there was to it.
Mikoto timidly opened her eyes and saw the boy lying on the ground a few metres away.
He was motionlessly lying face down and thin smoke was floating up from his clothes in places like incense. Just like how video game consoles grew hot after using them for long periods of time, objects gained heat referred to as Joule heat when electricity was passed through them.
The great amount of Joule heat created by the high voltage current had given the boy light burns in various places.
However, the boy did not writhe around in pain due to the burns.
"Ah..."
Mikoto suddenly realized that it was over.
That time, the boy would not get up again. That had not been a fake attack. The true high voltage current had likely stopped the boy's heart.
She heard the black cat mewing.
Mikoto unsteadily turned around and saw the utterly frightened kitten sitting a little bit away.
Its fur was not standing on end and its fangs and claws were not bared.
Its young eyes seemed to be asking her why she had done that.
"Ahh..."
Mikoto suddenly realized something upon seeing that black cat.
In the end, what Mikoto had done to that boy was no different from suddenly attacking that cute cat that immediately trusted people and rubbed its nose up against them.
That boy had actually had a few different options.
After reading the report, he could have hidden it and returned to a lie of a normal life.
Even if he chose to stop Mikoto, he could have hidden the fact that he had read the report so she would not be suspicious of him and then waited for her to turn her back on him so he could strike her on the back of the head to knock her out.
But that boy had not done either of those things.
He had revealed that he had gone into her room without permission and read the report and he had told her he did not want her to fight. He had revealed everything and still tried to stop Mikoto head on.
What he had done was like playing poker with his entire hand exposed to the other players.
It was like announcing beforehand that he was going to play scissors first in a game of rock-paper-scissors.
Why had he done something so dangerous?
If he had betrayed Mikoto's trust and suddenly attacked her from behind, it could have all ended safely.
"..."
The answer to that was obvious.
Mikoto had trusted that boy. At the very least, she had seen the area around him as a type of safe zone because he knew nothing of the experiment.
He had been like a cat curled up asleep in a sunbeam.
That boy had not been able to stab Mikoto in the back. Even if that was the safest and most reliable course of action, he had not wanted to.
She had pointed a gun at that boy, but he had still not wanted any harm to befall her.
He believed that it could be resolved by talking it out rather than resorting to violence.
But she had pulled the trigger before his words could reach her.
"..."
Mikoto gritted her teeth.
There was nothing left to stop her. A thin string within Mikoto that was something like resignation snapped, she felt as if she had been freed of something. She felt like she had been given a freedom that held definitive destruction within it like a balloon flying off into the sky after its string broke.
Kamijou's finger moved.
"!?"
Mikoto froze up upon seeing that.
As he lay face down, Kamijou's right hand twitched. His finger moved slowly as if softly caressing the ground.
That was not the action of one wanting revenge upon the person who had done that to him.
Nor was it the action of one filled with fear and wanting to flee the area as soon as possible.
From the very start, the boy had said that he would not fight and that he did not want to fight.
That persistence was nothing more than a desire to reach out a saving hand to a girl who had cried out for help.
"...Why?" Mikoto muttered.
Just reading the report did not tell him everything about her situation. He did not know that she had handed over her DNA map to help with a muscular dystrophy treatment, that the map had ended up being used for a military purpose at some point, or that her desire to save people had led to 20,000 people being faced with death.
That boy had no way of knowing about those things.
But he stood up for Mikoto despite not knowing those things.
He stood up for her.
But...
"Stop," Mikoto said like a child about to cry as she shook her head.
If he stood up again, she would have to take him out in order to save the Sisters. Of course, she could hold back, but it was already strange that the boy was still moving. Even a slight almost playful strike could stop his heart.
"Stop."
That was why she said that.
She did not want the boy to stand back up. If he was alive, then he should just pass out there. If he did, Mikoto could head to where Accelerator was without having to kill the boy.
If that boy would give up on her, she would not have to hurt anyone again.
If that boy would lose hope in her, he would be freed from that pain.
Yet the boy's finger moved.
He could no longer move his body properly, but he mustered up every last ounce of strength in his body to move that one finger.
"Ahh."
Mikoto slowly held her hand out toward the boy.
She was sure she could no longer stop him. Even if she ripped off his arms and legs and even if she crushed his eyes and ears, he would never give up as long as his heart was still beating. That meant she had no choice but to do it. If that boy would prevent her from saving the Sisters, she had to eliminate him before she could continue.
Mikoto slowly steadied the aim of her hand.
However, she could not shoot a lighting spear.
Her body was frozen, but heat burst from her tear glands.
She couldn't do it. She could not shoot that boy. She did not know why. She did not know what the right answer was. But she just did not want to. She did not want the boy before her eyes to die. Just thinking of that possibility sent a shock through her chest that made her want to go on a rampage.
"Help me."
Those words that she could not allow anyone to hear no matter what came from her mouth.
It was like she was praying to the god that she was not sure existed.
Her tear glands were supposed to have rusted over long ago, but now transparent rust fell from them.
Kamijou's vision flickered in and out.
He was still lying atop the iron bridge and he could see Mikoto standing blankly on the other end of his vision.
Her electrical attacks had stopped.
Mikoto stood still as tears overflowed from her eyes like a child.
(Think...)
He thought as if he were desperately trying to hold her heart in his arms as it was about to break.
The girl before his eyes had not said that she wanted to die or that she might as well die. She had said that she had no choice but to die.
That was all.
She did not wish for death. She merely had no other option available to her.
If you were given three options and forced to choose one but they all merely said "suicide", you would have no choice but to choose "suicide". It was horribly wrong to force that choice on that girl and then force all the responsibility for her choice on her as well.
(So think...)
If all three options said "suicide", then you just had to prepare a fourth option. If there were an option that said "I'd rather live", the girl who had no choice but to die would surely choose that new option.
(I need to think up a fourth option...)
He needed to come up with a dreamlike option where Misaka Mikoto did not have to die and the experiment would still be stopped. An option where no one had to lose anything and the Sisters would be saved. That girl had said something. She had not said it with words, but she had definitely said it.
She had said that she truly wanted to live, but she had no path left but to die.
(If I can't find one, then I'll just have to make on...)
If Accelerator killed Railgun 128 times, he would shift to Level 6.
They could not prepare 128 Railguns.
As such, they had prepared the Sisters, deteriorated copies of Railgun.
Killing 20,000 Sisters would produce the same result.
The experiment was based on predictive calculations by Tree Diagram.
Destroying the laboratories just led to another research institution picking up the experiment.
To stop the experiment, the researchers had to be convinced that the experiment would not produce any results.
(Huh...?)
Kamijou felt an odd out-of-place feeling.
But in the next instant, his consciousness that had been battered by the high voltage shock quickly sank into darkness.
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