To Aru Majutsu no Index part 2

Chapter 4: A Collection of Steel That Blocks out the Sky.

Kamijou finally figured out what exactly Oyafune Monaka, one of the board of directors, had wanted to stop. It wasn't that she had hated the Roman Catholic Church. And it wasn't that she had wanted to defeat the enemy of Academy City. She had wanted to stop a situation such as this where things had devolved to a conflict where anything and everything was destroyed.

(I have to stop this.)

Kamijou gritted his teeth and ran through the city that was now a battlefield.

(I can't just ignore this spiral of destruction. If anyone tries to justify this situation to me, I'll destroy every last bit of that illusion of theirs!!)

"W-we're there. That's it...!!"

And so Kamijou and Itsuwa had reached the Palace of the Popes.

The name had led Kamijou to imagine a solemn church or a gaudy palace, but the actual building was less a palace and more a medieval fort. The giant building was a collection of stones from a quarry and it gave a feeling of rejection to those who looked at it.

The outer walls looking down on Kamijou were over ten meters tall, but he looked surprised as soon as he saw the place.

"Holes..." Itsuwa muttered while carrying her spear in one hand.

The huge double doors of the main entrance had been blown inwards and walls around some of the windows on the higher floors had been destroyed. Someone must have been inside because there were intermittent gunshots and explosions coming from within.

"It's already started. Let's go, Itsuwa!!"

"R-right!!"

Entering a building with gunshots coming from it wasn't the best idea, but they had no choice.

2

Tsuchimikado Motoharu was covered in blood.

It wasn't because he had been shot by the powered suits. It was a side effect of the origami magic he had used in order to draw their attention elsewhere.

He had used the tiny opportunity from that to start running down a narrow road. He looked like he was about to fall over as he hid behind a parked car.

A number of gunshots rang through the air towards him.

Even though these gunshots were from blanks, the blasts of air were effective at suppressing the rioters. With one blast, the car's windows shattered and the metal door bent in.

(Damn them...)

Tsuchimikado clicked his tongue as he pressed against the side of the car.

He wouldn't die if he was hit, but he would pass out. And as he hid behind his shield, he heard a different thud.

He looked over in shock and saw that one of the powered suits had used its astounding jumping power to travel tenmeters through the air and was approaching from directly above him.

"Shit!!"

Tsuchimikado immediately jumped back and, at about the same instant, the giant powered suit landed on the car. The car was crushed beneath the great weight and exploded. The blast carried Tsuchimikado farther than he could have jumped otherwise.

As he rolled along the ground, the powered suit quietly aimed its anti-barrier shotgun at him while it was still surrounded by flames.

The area he was in simply had a line of cliff-like buildings on either side of the narrow street. Tsuchimikado tried to get behind a building at a street corner, but the powered suit was faster. The blast of air that came with the gunshot hit Tsuchimikado's feet.