italics - thoughts
Bold - Emphasis
Italics Bold - Magic names or titles
"normal" - speech
" underlined bold " - Mental transmissions
Underlined - Flashback
{Bold}- Magic spells or abilities
Disclaimer:I do not own Toaru Majutsu no Index nor its characters. All rights belong to Kazuma Kamachi. Except for my own characters that I create
Chapter 22: Robot? Or Cyborg? Which is it?!
"Ha…ha…ha…" A spiky-haired black boy(somehow, his hair was still retaining its spiky shape, even though it was wet) was keeled over, panting hard.
"Please, stop overreacting." Beside him, the dirty-haired boy wrung out his soaked clothes, allowing the water to splatter onto the ground. "You did not die after all."
"I'm pretty sure nearly dying is a good reason to react the way I am acting!" Touma countered, shouting hysterically as he did so. "How many times have you nearly gotten drowned, nearly flattened, and shot at, all in the same event and time frame?"
"…" Informant stayed silent, choosing instead to whistle innocently as he looked away from the boy.
Seeing his reaction, Touma chose to sigh instead, taking off his shoes to empty them of water. "…So, what do we do?"
"First, we get Jade off the playing field." Informant took off his hoodie, instead replacing it with a vest that he took out of his watch. "I got some tools in my storage unit here. It's not to the extent of Percival's items, but it would do for now. Thankfully, Daybreaker stayed on your body. With your luck, it would have been washed off somewhere, never to be seen again."
"…That is too accurate and true for me to make a retort." Touma sighed. Unconsciously, his hand drifted over the piece of leather-like armour, his hand tracing the fabric.
When he had first laid eyes on it, it looked similar to the bullet-proof vests that Anti-Skill wore. But the piece of armour had gone through some modifications since the last time he saw it.
Now, it looked similar to a skin-tight body suit that went down to his abdomen. When he ran his fingers over the armour, he could feel many 'scales' coating the outside, the rounded plates somehow not making a single noise as it rubbed or hit against each other as he moved. "Actually, how does this thing not make a single sound whenever I move? Shouldn't it make some noise, since the entire thing is made of metal?"
"Not too sure." Informant patted himself down, making sure the vest was attached to himself properly, before he took out two weapons. "You are gonna have to ask Percival about that. But first…It's time to smash some illusions, as you would say."
"Well, damn." Dom looked at his partner. "This looks bad."
Jade could only glare at him. Her arm was stuck beneath a few wooden beams and mud. What's more, it was the arm that was holding her axe.
"You think?" Jade tugged at her pinned arm once more. It shifted the rubble pinning her arm, but other than that, it did nothing. "…maybe me bringing in a large wave into the house was not the nest idea." She admitted, stopping her tugging action.
"Hindsight is 20/20, I guess." Dom made a shrugging motion, some mud slipping or shooting off of his large frame from the action. "None of us thought that your control over water would not allow you to adjust water flow fast enough for you to knock bulky items out of the way… … …speaking of, where DID these beams and clay come from?"
Jade knew where they had come from. Because of the person she was using as a base for her magic, there was also the drawbacks from the powerful attack she launched.
Yu the Great. An emperor from great China. There were a few myths surrounding him. But they all originated from the one thing that history recorded: The manipulation of the floods that plagued his land, preventing the large overflow of water from destroying the crops his people planted.
The axe she had was a spiritual weapon. But it was a culmination of several different myths, instead of just a single one. The axe was from the myth where Yu used said weapon to split a mountain in half to allow a river to flow through. But said axe also could be used as a shovel, thanks to it's head being vaguely shivel-shaperd. This tool was one of the many things that helped Yu the Great build up the dams and flood canals need to control the floods that plagued his land. It was also because of that representation that Jade was able to summon gallons of water at will and control them.
There was a downside to this, however. Before the canals and such were completed, this meant that the effort that Yu made were in danger of being washed away or destroyed.
And the most common things that could have been washed away were wooden beams that were used to brace structures. And as for the clay…they came from the river banks, where some of the floods Yu had to contain came from.
"Less wondering, more helping please." Jade tugged at her arm again, but to no avail. "Those two could be coming any minute."
"So what?" Dom asked. "One is a guy whose luck is so horrible, losing cash every day is the norm. The other is a magician. Both are bad match-ups against me." Despite that, Dom walked over, using his shield arm to scrap away at the clay covering her hand.
"…!" Suddenly, Dom pulled back, confusing Jade for a minute. That is, until large, honest-to-goodness steel spears smashed themselves into the mass of clay and wooden beams. Jade felt fear grip her heart when she felt one of the spears embed themselves VERY close to her arm. That thing cut through the clay and wood like butter!
"…colour me impressed." Dom's voice was still as gratingly painful on Touma's ears, but it was not as painful as the first time he heard it. "You managed to survive. I swore that I threw a washing machine at you."
"So you were the one who nearly crushed me!?" Touma shouted out. He felt like he should not be surprised, but thinking one thing and feeling another are two different things, even if they may be similar. "Were you trying to kill me?!"
"Not really." Dom's answer threw Touma for a small loop. "You are too tough to die to something like that. You survived having your arm torn off, being dropped from a couple thousand feet in the air, and being beaten within an inch of your life by a Saint who was pissed off. I'm sure you nearly being crushed would only slow you down long enough for the both of us to escape. Besides, even if your limbs were crushed, you could see a doctor to fix them and get them back to normal before the week was out! Academy City has tech 30 years into the future after all."
Touma shuddered a little. It's a little scary how accurate what he just said was! "Being able to survive does not mean I enjoy it!"
"Who said anything about enjoying it?"
"…Informant, if you could…"
"No need to say anything else." Informant unsheathed the sword that he had hung from his waist. "I get this so many times from Percival." With that, Informant leapt at the android.
"Failure for your actions, young one." Dom raised its shield arm, tilting it such that its sharp edge was facing the blade. "If you just head into things headfirst, you would lo-"
*shink*
"-se…" Dom cut itself off, head staring at the weapon that had cut off a chunk off the sharpened edge of the shield. "…I see. A magical weapon?"
"Something like that." Informant grinned, swinging the sword once more at the android. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"If you can cut through something that can hold up against nuclear weapons, then all I have to do is dodge them." Dom moved swiftly to the side, unbefitting his large frame. "Or, just repair my wounds faster than you can cut through them."
"How would you repair any damaged parts of yours?" Informant retorted. "You going to take a break and enter the workshop?"
"With magic, of course."
""…eh?"" Both Touma and Informant blinked in surprise as the android's arm was covered in a grey light. As they watched, the shield's edge that had been cut off slowly regrew back, like a plant growing in fast motion, from a seed into a tree.
"Good as new." Dom made a show of the new regrown part, swinging it at Informant like a club. Like before, Informant swung his blade at the shield-
*shi~nk*
-only for it to get stuck inside halfway.
"Ah, shit." That was all he could say before he was blown backwards, hands being forced to release the deceptively plain looking sword from his grasp by the superior strength of the android. Luckily for him, he landed onto something soft.
Unluckily for Touma, that object was him.
"Bufoh!" Touma coughed out air as he felt Informant elbow him in the gut. Would my luck stop getting worse!? If I did not know better, God was doing this for laughs!
"On second thoughts, perhaps it is better than new." Despite the haze that had clouded his mind from the friendly fire inflicted upon him, Touma could hear a hint of smugness in the android's voice. Is he even an AI?
Shaking his head clear of those thoughts, Touma picked himself off the floor, taking a moment to recompose himself and check that the item he was holding was still in one piece. Thank goodness its fine. Surprisingly, the haze was clearing faster than normal. Must be the drugs helping me recover. "Hey, Dom!" Touma pitched the item in his hand. "Catch!"
"Wha-" The object that Touma threw smashed into the lenses of Dom's head. He did not have much time to react before it exploded on impact, completely covering his head in a grey paste. "This is…clay?"
"That's right!" Touma circled around Dom, throwing more random items at the bot, each of them striking true. "It might not help me much, but it would serve its purpose well enough!"
..
Touma had a plan. That much was a little surprising, since he usually dropped into fights and events with no plan in place whatsoever.
Well, this time, he had one. It had three phases. Hinder, reduce and the final push.
First, he would hinder Dom however he could. It could be his movement speed, his sights, or his fighting strength. Either way, it would lead to his movements and actions being hindered.
At that point, Touma would attack from a distance.
Now normally, Touma had no way of attacking like this. His opponent would either fire off magic spells or launch minions at him, forcing him to defend, whilst also getting up close enough to land a heavy blow on his attacker. But because of Dom's nature as an android, this made his usual tactic null and void, severely reducing his combat effectiveness, as his usual go to fighting style was buried.
At the same time, this led to several new options being opened up to him. Because of Dom's nature as being a physical attacker, this meant that his right hand had no effect on him. Meaning Touma could fight with anything and everything on/at hand.
Sticks, stones, even bullets from guns. As long as he could get his hands on them, he could use them. It did not matter if he dd not learn how to fight with a particular weapon. His new armour helped feed that information directly into his body, allowing it to become muscle memory.
Anyway…going back on track…
Touma would use whatever he had to aim at certain points on the android's body. Namely, its joints and moving parts. This was to hopefully make the android even slower. Even if it did not get slower, the movements would be more predictable for Touma and Informant to predict, since there would be some sounds coming from its body trying to overcome whatever was jamming it's moving parts.
That led to the final phase. The final push. Touma would keep Dom occupied, while Informant would finish it off while it was distracted. He would aim to incapacitate, not destroy, as the AI could hold valuable information for them about Legion in the case they did not get any information from any captured foes.
..
Well, the purpose that Touma wanted worked… …even if it was not the way he wanted.
Most of the items he threw either exploded upon impact, or simply slid off of the shining parts that made up Dom(well, the parts not covered by clay and mud, anyway). As for the remaining items that stuck, they did not do much in reducing his actions. In fact, it looked like they were faster!
Informant could not get close enough to get his sword, which was still tuck in the flailing shield. Nor could Informant use another weapon, since that was the strongest in his arsenal in terms of cutting ability(his words, not Touma's.)Pretty soon, the clay that had been smashed onto Dom's head was flung off, allowing the robot full visual prowess once more. And from the looks of it, he. Was. PISSED.
"…maybe I should stick to just rushing in like always." Touma muttered, slowly backing away from the visibly enraged robot. Steam is literally coming off his body and head!
"I admit, that was a smart move." Dom's voice was deceptively calm as he spoke. Reaching an arm out, he ripped the sword out of his shield, the damage dealt to it quickly being repaired. "But you see, there are two reasons why you failed. The first," Dom tested out the sword, swinging it a few times, before he settled into a stance. "Was that you did not have anything that could go past my amour made of titanium, steel and diamond. And for the second…you pissed me off!" Dom roared out, dashing towards Touma.
Eyes widening, his body moved subconsciously, barely dodging the attack. As it was, the speed and force behind the swing caused the skin on the back of his arm to be sliced open, spilling a little blood.
"Do you KNOW how long it takes to make my body look the way it is!?" Dom swung his sword with swift, precise movements. Even to an amateur like Touma, he could see that they were the movements of a veteran swordsman. And by the ranting he was doing, it seemed he was not going all out either. "It takes at least a quarter of a day of buffing, scrubbing and soaking to remove any dirt that gets stuck on me! Then I would have to oil all my moving arts as well as replenish the energy wasted on washing myself too! All in all, it takes one entire DAY for my entire frame to be clean and working at optimal condition! And not to mention my sensors!" Dom swung downwards, embedding the blade in some concrete and clay. Feeling the small bit of resistance, Dom lashed out with his shield-blade instead, nearly catching Touma on the cheek. "They get so messed up, it gives me the android version of a headache, goosebumps, and chaffing all at once! How do I even get those two anyway? I don't have any skin on my metal, non-organic body!"
Touma let out a hiss of pain as the shield narrowly missed his cheek, cutting another wound there.
That was when he tripped. Over a banana peel.
"-Eh?" Touma blinked as suddenly, he found his back on the floor. Not that he was complaining. That slip up had actually saved him from getting his arm sliced up.
"Gah!" Then, came the pain on his lower back.
When Touma rolled off whatever had smashed into his lower back, he realised it was a part of a table. More specifically, its legs. Because of the way it had broken off from it's main body(aka, the table top), the top part had broken off in such a way that it became a mess of splinters, perfect for impaling a person. Thankfully, Touma was wearing the armour he got from Percival(handed to him by Informant, though), so he only felt a sharp pain.
But that moment of hesitation was all his enemy needed to land a finishing blow.
"Go to hell!" Dom's voice was filled with rage as he swung his arm down like a guillotine, its sharp edge glinting menacingly as it headed towards Touma's neck-
*pop*
-only for the shield, arm and all, to pop off, flying and embedding itself into the ground next to Touma's head.
Too close! Touma took a quick glance at the shield-axe hybrid. Any closer and my ear would have been cut!
"What…" Dom looked at the place where his arm once was, his lenses and cameras adjusting as it took in the empty space, before it turned to look at where the arm had been sent. "How did my arm fly?" Dom shook its head slightly. "No matter. I can just-"
"Not a chance!" Informant popped out from behind some rubble. A pistol was in hand, primed and ready. With a whizzing sound, multiple pellets smashed into the legs of the android.
"…was that it?" If Dom had a face, Touma was sure that he would have raised his eyebrow in mock concern. "That barely did anything to my structural intergr-"
*cra~ck*
Dom stopped moving. As did Touma. When they looked towards the source of the sound-
*cra~ck*
-they saw that Dom's legs had frozen, large cracks running through them.
Dom only had one thing to say when he saw the large cracks running deep through his lower body.
"Crap."
*Cli~nk*
With the sound of shattering glass, Dom's entire lower body cracked even more, finally shattering into millions of tiny pieces, the frozen shards exploding everywhere, and forcing Dom to stay put, his main source of movement destroyed.
"…well now." Dom sighed. He knew that he would not be able to steady himself. His legs had given out under him...or rather, shattered into many shards, unable to handle his weight any more. His weaponized arm was also no longer attached to him, leaving him one less in terms of offense and defence.
Manipulating his body, Dom fell sideways, letting out a tiny grunt as he felt his servos(or what remained of them) impacted the muddy ground, the brown liquid sloshing and covering him from the impact.If I could just-
His thoughts halted in its tracks when he felt the mana that was constantly circulating through his body cut off. …No…Kamijou has Imagine Breaker on me...
..
Dom's other ability was not one that healed, like Informant and Touma had thought. Oh no, it was something much more overpowered than that.
It reversed time.
His magic allowed him to reverse the damage dealt onto him by others to five seconds prior. If this was used on, or worse, by a human, they would find that their mana reserves would be tapped out, AND their bodies reverting back a few years. In the worse-case scenario, if it was used on the caster, the caster would cease to exist.
This is because while the magic itself had an easy enough and very influential source, the Titan Khronos from Greek Mythology, it also had its downsides. And in this case, the demerits far outstripped the rewards.
Firstly, the main magic that came from using this deity as a base was slowing or speeding up of time around the person. That would give the caster an edge over others. The demerit for this was the loss of one's sense of time for a day, as it threw their biological clock out of whack.
The second one was localised time speed up, meaning one could make a plant grow into a tree in a matter of minutes, or cause a infected wound to spread and outright kill a person in a matter of seconds. The demerit for this was either stunted growth on ALL sides(age, intelligence, cell replication), or increased growth to the point that it developed cancer cells.
Then, there came the clincher. Control over time. Meaning someone could reverse time, or forward it.
This was different from the ones earlier. The first one merely increased or decreased the perceived time, while the second one increased or decreased time affecting an individual.
This one, reversal or forwarding of time, made it such that ANYTHING that was done to the object, be in the past of future, could be experienced in the PRESENT. Or they could make it such that time does not affect the person in ANY WAY.
This third magic was practically immortality in magic form.
But there was a catch.
This magic took massive amounts of mana, the amount comparative to the time it was reversing, forwarding, or freezing. One use of such a spell would drain a person dry of mana, even if it were for five seconds. And this state would be brought over to the five seconds that have passed, or have yet to pass.
And to add on to that, this magic required complex calculations. One that a human could not manage within a small timeframe, as in a battle, even a few seconds were crucial, and the caster had to pay attention to his surroundings. Add in calculations? The caster might as well be a Level 5 for completing such a feat.
The calculations themselves are also a huge hurdle. One misstep, and the caster could be turned into a mummified husk, or be erased out of existence, having turned time back too far.
Dom, being an android, could handle such calculations. Especially if they were limited to times he had done before. And as for the mana...he managed.
..
Right now, since Imagine Breaker was on him, it prevented him from using magic. Somehow, it was able to disrupt mana flow. And as mana flow was the base f almost all spells, including his…he would be unable to cast even a single magic attack. In that case…
Dom wanted to laugh. Out of all the things that I would have to use…I did not expect to unveil this so soon…
Touma was ensuring that his hand was still on Dom's body when he heard an artificial sound.
It was a sigh. And it came from the android he was clasping onto lightly.
"It would seem that I would have to use my last card." Dom sighed.
Touma raised his guard. He has more weapons?! Where? His shield-axe is gone, and his legs are destroyed from those nitrogen bullets. So, what would he-
*Kachik*
The constantly rotating cylinder that was in Dom's chest fell forwards. As Touma watched on, the smooth sides that covered the large cylinder contracted and dented itself inwards, some parts falling out as well. It slowly took the shape of eight, large barrels. When it fell forwards, it revealed even more smaller barrels being surrounded by the eight larger ones,
…As if to answer his question(and to mock his luck, it seemed), he found the answer staring at him in the face…
IS THAT A FREAKING MINIGUN!? Touma felt his eyes bulge out of their sockets when the familiar-looking barrel popped out of Dom's chest cavity.
The minigun was much smaller than its usual brothers and sisters, coming to a total length of around a third, or a quarter of the original length. But it more than made up for its lack of length with a greater number of bullets that it could fire in under a minute.
*vrrrrr*
With a whirling sound, the minigun that had made its appearance began to spin, the multiple barrels spinning at such high speeds that it gave the appearance of a singular, large barrel. Acting quickly, he jumped away from Dom, the action of preventing Dom from casting any spells long gone from his mind.
"Systems hot." Dom spoke out loud. Touma had but a split second to prepare himself. Then-
"Fire!"
*Duruu~ Dopan~*
With a blasting and whirling sound from the firing minigun, Touma felt like his eardrums burst from the sound. I'm dead!
He could see the holes it had managed to make in the first few seconds, having felt the debris it carved out from the centimetre sized hole pepper his back. He wagered it would be in a few seconds that Dom would locate his position, and turn his body into mince paste within milliseconds!
…
…
…
…why am I not dead?
Confused by the lack of extra wind holes on his body(not that he was not thankful for that), hesitantly, Touma peeked out from the slab of concrete that was his hiding place.
It was also then that he noticed that all the loud sounds had disappeared, making it eerily quiet besides the crackling of small fires and the running water.
He was lying flat on the ground to make himself a smaller target, and right now, this position allowed him to see what had happened clearly.
Instead of the gunner position he had assumed(despite the lack of legs), Dom was listing to the side, sparks flying all around him. Why?
Because his entire body was practically useless now.
Dom's legs had been slowly regenerating the moment Touma had let his hand off the large frame. But the half-formed legs were now of no use, even if they managed to allow Dom to move. Because right now, there was little left of his body to move or attack with. The area from his lower body, just above the newly reformed legs, all the way to his chest where his turret once was, had turned into a blackened, twisted mess of metal, the wires that had run through his frame exposed and sparking, no longer connected to the components it once controlled.
In fact, the only things that remained of Dom's body was a partially exposed exoskeleton, his left arm, a small area that would have comprised of a person's shoulder blades, a small part of his right shoulder, his legs(up to his thighs), and his head.
What happened to him? Touma narrowed his eyes as he slowly moved out of his hiding place.
With Dom the way he was, it was like asking the impossible to get him to attack both Touma and Informant. So, he moved towards the nearly destroyed android.
"Hey!" When Touma turned his head, he saw Informant approach him, a large broadsword hanging off his shoulders. "What on earth are you doing?"
"Stopping Dom from healing." Touma replied, never taking his eyes off of Dom for a second. "Dom looks like he is in no condition to fight, so that helps us quite a bit. But, if he get the chance to heal himself, we would be in a bind once again."
"…I can see your logic, but aren't you assuming too much?"
"I know I am. But with you here, you can counter anything not magical in nature that comes at me." Touma gave Informant a brief look. Informant has taken out a few weapons already. A gun, a sword, and now, this large broadsword. If he had these weapons on him, there should be more inside that storage device of his. Plus, he looks pretty skilled with them too. "I trust you."
"…jeez, way to pressure a guy." But Informant did not deny Touma's guess, so he took it to mean that the boy would do what he had just said with little question.
As Touma got closer, he could see Dom moving his head to look at him. Or attempting to do so, since his entire frame was practically a skeleton at this point. Nevertheless, his lenses managed to look Touma dead in the eye(after some ear-splitting shrieking of metal).
"Looks like it is my loss." Dom gave a self-depreciating chuckle. "I can't heal myself, since your Imagine Breaker would disrupt my mana flow. I also can't attack, seeing as my weapons have either self-destructed, or are out of my grasp."
"Really?" Touma bent down to pick up a stray sword. Is this Informant's? Or is it Dom's? Hesitantly, Touma poked Dom. With the sword he picked up.
"Hey!" If Dom had arms, he would have most likely swatted at the misfortunate boy. "Stop that!"
"Why?" Touma asked curiously. This time, he used the sword to poke Dom's head. "Can you feel it?"
"No, but it's damn irritating!" Dom snapped. "I might have an android's body, but I can act pretty damn close to a human! Why are you doing this anyway!?"
"To see if you have any other weapons." Touma explained. "If you had any extra limbs, you would have tried to the sword from me. Any ranged weapons, and you would have tried to shoot me, but the sword would have gotten in the way, plus, Informant would have stopped any bullets from hitting me should some have hit me. I know you can act like a human. Your mind seems pretty close to one, anyway. If a person gets poked with something, they are bound to feel irritated or annoyed in some way."
"… …Heh"
At first, Dom did not say anything. Then, he gave a small laugh. "Kamijou Touma. You are someone who is flunking at school, but when it comes to things related to humans, you become one step ahead of others, one way or the other… …indeed, that does feel quite misfortunate."
"I feel insulted by that." Touma frowned, passing Informant the sword he had on hand. He was more familiar with his bare hands, after all. Plus, he did not know a single iota about handling weapons. "So, what happened? Informant, did you-"
"Nope." Informant put away the newly acquired blade with a frown. "I mean, I could have done this level of damage, but not right now. Only Percival would have the skill to shoot into a super-fast rotating barrel and detonate an incendiary bullet to blow Dom from the inside. I AM assuming that is what happened?"
"…you guessed correctly." Dom spoke after a hesitant pause. "Well, close enough, actually. My systems blew themselves up."
"You seem pretty forthcoming with telling us what went wrong with you." Touma noted.
"Well, I am not the type of android to hide certain things or outright lie to others, even if they are my enemies." Dom admitted. "Besides, this benefits me too. I can review what went wrong and rectify the problems if I manage to get out of a sticky predicament."
"…I want to say that that seems a little too convenient, but it benefits both me and Kamijou-san, so what the hell." Informant shrugged, relaxing his guard, but not dropping it completely. "So, what went wrong exactly?"
"Kamijou Touma." Dom readily admitted.
"…okay, how exactly?" Touma blinked in confusion. To his knowledge, the only times he had met Dom was when they first met Akikawa Mie, and right now. "We only met two times total, including right now."
"Your first entrance, actually." Dom began to explain. "When we first met, you had slipped and fell, right?"
"…what does that– Oh don't tell me my misfortune created this situation where you would blow up when you tried to fight me, which would make me think that this was a blessing, but actually, it was bad because the explosion would cause more bodily harm to me." Touma groaned. I swear, if that is right…
"…well…you are not wrong, I guess." Dom slowly spoke. "When you slipped, some pebbles fell into my joints, which slowed my movements a little and cause some pressure. This pressure caused some areas of mine to overheat, disrupting connections between my main CPU where my AI is stored, so I was unable to detect problems in my body as fast. As for the explosion, that was due to a banana peel that slipped into my firing mechanism. It would seem that the peel had jammed the chamber where the bullets would come out, causing the still loaded bullet to smash into one another and detonate, causing a chain reaction that blew most of myself up, sans my more heavily reinforced parts of my body."
"…I'm sorry?" Touma got lost around the banana peel part, more from shock that it was the remains of a FRUIT that caused this rather…explosive outcome.
"…In simpler terms, the banana clogged up the conveyor belt that led my bullets into my camber, causing one of the bullets to smash into another and explode, since they were explosive bullets. All of them." Dom gave an electronic sounding sigh, a surprising thing too, since his speech was uncannily similar to a human's, besides the horrible distortions that came out when he spoke. "And in hindsight, that was a foolish decision. Even though each bullet could open up a hole of about 5 cm in diameter in a flesh body, effectively instantly fatally injuring someone, upon contact, should they explode inside me, it would set off all 10,000 rounds I had stored in me."
"WHAT THE–" Touma felt his head spin. 10, 000 rounds!? And each of them could turn a person's body into practically mincemeat if aimed at the correct areas…and he conveniently blew up? Okay Misfortune, you are playing me, right? Right? Please tell me you are just joking with me, and this is the end of my bad luck for today!
"…is that all each round could do?" Besides him, Informant gulped nervously.
"…if I aim and time each of my shots right, I could break destroy a tank similar to an RPG would." Dom admitted.
"Now it just sounds like you are bragging about your firepower!?"
"…Negative. Just stating facts." Dom's grating voice did not increase nor decrease its decibels. Although, Touma felt a tone akin to confusion laced in the android's sentence.
"Such misfortune…" Touma sighed. "You said that you would not attempt to hide information, right?"
"It goes against my code, so yes."
"Then…what are Legion's goals? Why did they need the liquid diamond and how to make it?" Touma decided to look for valuable intel.
"…quite a straightforward question there, Imagine Breaker." Dom chuckled. Or tried to anyway. It came out as a series of grating noises. "Well, for the liquid diamond…we needed it as part of a component for a machine we are making."
"A machine?" Informant and Touma blinked. They were not expecting that. What sort of machine would need liquid diamond as a component to make it work?
"Now, as for the goals of my organisation…let's just say it is closer and more common than you think." Dom said.
"Closer than we think?" Informant narrowed his eyes, getting closer to the android which could be mistaken for as scrap at this point. "Elaborate."
"I would. But my time with you is up."
*thunk thunk thunk *
What in the-? Touma was shocked to see an arrow pierce itself into Dom's neck, before getting ripped out, taking the head and part of its neck with it. Siimilarly, a few other arrows whizzed past his head. Eyes following their path, he came upon the slowly standing form of a girl, before she grabbed a arrow that had embedded itself at her foot and was pulled away
"Do your best to survive, boy!" Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught sight of two whizzing projectiles hitting Dom's battered body.
Specifically, the remains of the left shoulder.
"Informant, there's a-" Touma's instincts shouted at him, telling him what he already knew: There was a bomb hidden within Dom's left shoulder.
Touma was willing to bet that Dom had planned for them to get close enough that they would get caught in the blast radius, no matter what they attempted to do. It would also explain why he had been so forthcoming with the information. After all, dead men tell no tales.
The last thing that his brain processed was a bright flash of light, a shout, and loud clanging, before his consciousness sank into a sea of darkness once more.
"–Bomb!" Touma shot forward, adrenaline rushing through his body. "…Ow…"
Wincing from the sudden pain, it took Touma a while before he remembered what happened.
Right. Touma recalled. We were talking to Dom about Legion's goals, and then…
"You lucid?"
Touma turned his head to the owner of the voice. "…Shutaura-san?"
"Looks like you are." Shutaura nodded, a nonverbal response to his question. Then, he winced, feeling some pain near his arms. "Careful now. You got some nasty burns. Take some water. You've been out for a while."
"Where are we? And how long was I out?" Touma gratefully took the cup of water Shutaura gave him.
"We are in that hospital you always visit. And as for how long you were out…about a day." Shutaura indicated to the room around them before she winced, rubbing an area above her right wrist. "Ow."
"What happened to you?" Touma could faintly see a purple bruise on the girl's arm.
"We got attacked by members of Legion as well. Turns out, the Board decided to cut its losses Well, the ones that wanted to, anyway." Shutaura said angrily. "Most of us managed to get out alive. This is just a parting gift Huntress left behind."
Most of us… Touma noted Shutaura's phrasing. Does this mean that someone died?
"Never mind me. Are you sure you are okay?" Shutaura attempted to gloss over the subject, touching Touma's arm briefly. "You took quite the fair bit of damage on your body."
"Why?" Touma raised his hand up(the one which Shutaura was not touching) and patted himself all over. "I feel fine."
"Well, you were standing next to thermite and plastic explosive mixture. And judging by the area surrounding you when we found your bodies, you would have turned into ash had Informant not done something to shield you." Came the dry reply.
"…how bad would the explosion have been?" Touma gulped.
"Well, from the tests we ran, the amount of thermite would have been enough to melt through a couple of bank doors. As for the plastic explosive...there was enough to demolish a couple of reinforced buildings." Shutaura explained. "Frankly, you were lucky. When we observed the scene, all that was left around you was a black box filled with holes, some ashes and dried clay, and charcoal wooden beams from the safehouse we were in."
"From what we could gather, the bomb was built in such a way that a smaller packet of plastic explosive and thermite would detonate first, melting some metal to release holes in the container it was in and simultaneously forcing other balls of plastic explosive mixed with thermite to scatter before they explode, turning them into very dangerous fragmentary grenades, only in this case, the fragments were ignited thermite that could melt skin and bone if they came into contact with a person's body."
Hoooooooly crap! Touma felt cold sweat drip…well, all over his body when he heard Shutaura's explanation. That was close! Too close for me. actually! I knew Informant would protect me, and I'm glad he managed to react in time to do so! Otherwise, I would just be a puddle of melted Kamijou-flesh!
Right! Touma's brain thought of something. "How about Mie? Is she okay?"
"For now." Shutaura smiled, albeit bitterly. "Remember when I said that the Board wanted to do away with Akikawa Mie? Well, turns out, it was the faction who wanted to get rid of her mother's project for other, more profit bearing ones." Shutaura scoffed. "Well, even if it would have brought in result, I'm not sure the would have benefitted much from it…"
"…so, where is she?"
"Akikawa Mie is in a new, fortified dorm room. She wanted to continue to go to school. Like a certain high school boy." Shutaura eyed Touma for a bit before she continued. "Anyway, the room also has a super-bike that would bring her to a pre-programmed location to keep her safe. The activation of the super bike would also alert us that Legion is after her again presumably for more info that they were unable to obtain the first time. It would also send out an alert to free members of the Crow Unit. That part was the hardest to get actually, since the Board would have rather sent in Anti-Skill members instead of an elite team, but because I said that the threat was of an outside nature, they allowed it." Shutaura sighed.
"…that seems overkill?" Touma stated, but he was mainly asking Shutaura for her opinion, which she picked up on.
"Well, to be honest, I think that almost all of this is unnecessary, since Legion wanted Akikawa Mie's data to cross-reference with the ones they already had." The girl admitted. "They already had the data they wanted from Akikawa's mother. The targeting of Akikawa Mie served two purposes, mainly as a distraction so that they could nab the equipment they needed, while also as a way to ensure that they would have all the data to make liquid diamond as soon as possible."
"…I see." Touma's mouth morphed into a frown. "Oh, right. I nearly forgot! We asked Dom a few questions just before he blew up his body. Apparently, Legion is using liquid diamond as a component for something."
"That quiet the information." Shutaura raised an eyebrow. "Well, presuming he was not lying, this means that we can eliminate a number of possibilities already." She paused. "Did you learn anything else?"
"Only that Legion's main goal is closer than we think." Touma heaved a heavy sigh. "Dom was pretty forthcoming with he info he gave, so I want to believe that everything he said was true. But the way he phrased it… …" He closed his eyes, shaking his head. "It makes me think that he wants to hide their goals for a reason."
"Aren't bad guys supposed to hide their intentions until it is not possible to stop them?" A new, male voice jumped in.
"Informant?" Touma asked, turning his head.
His eyes quickly met the prone form of the dirty-blonde haired boy, who was slowly sitting up as he spoke, groaning. "Yep, I am alive. No need to wear out my name, even if it is a codename at the moment."
"…You were saying something about hiding their intentions?" Shutaura raised an eyebrow.
"Yep. I did say that. For good reason too." Informant winced, rubbing his left arm as he did so. "Most enemies would hide their intentions at the last second to ensure that we would be unable to stop them. If we managed to figure out what they were doing, that's good for us."
"Dom did seem similar." Touma nodded. "But…my gut says that his goals aren't that bad. He felt a little like Percival."
"What do you mean?" Informant asked. "Percival and Dom are nothing alike. I should know, since I am close with Percival."
"Their actions are very similar." Touma explained. "Both of them are giving out information to potential enemies: Percival with Shirai-san, Ero-, I mean, Kanzaki-san and Shokuhou-san, and this time, Dom with us. But the way they gave out their info is vague, but it is possible to discern their intentions from it."
"... ...I can see your point." Informant agreed after a while.
The trio stayed like this for a while, enjoying the silence. Then-
"Leader!"
AN
The end is nigh!
No, actually, the end is pretty close to home here, since it's coming pretty close to Christmas! Yippee!
And, as a present, I decided to release this chapter as on Christmas day!
That said, this is pretty much the end of the Liquid Diamond arc. Touma got a nifty upgrade in the form of armour, Informant lost quite a bit in his personal arsenal, but got some information out of it.
Well, that's enough for now. As part of a Christmas special, I am releasing two chapters in one go. Plus, it has been one year since I started this fic! Woohoo!
Honestly, I was expecting to have finished this fic already. But then, work came. Work, and work, and work and work… Plus, the Covid situation and the fact that I have writer's block like, half the time.
Still, this is good enough(for now), seeing as this is my first multi-chapter series. Gonna have to polish up my writing skills in the coming years. If I continue writing that is.
Anime is Life, and please review!