gunshot block car door

“Check.”
Blank.
The calm voice that reached him from the side made Kamijou Touma’s mind go completely blank.
(Wait…there’s someone else here. There’s someone else in this smoke!? And they found me right away! But how!?)
His thoughts were scattered.
He did not even have time for his throat to dry up.
Dry gunshots flew toward him from the side.

- Toaru Majutsu no Index: Biohacker, Chapter 3 Part 2

***

She confirmed the boy’s presence through the smoke.
She dangerously approached him through the obscuring smoke and did not hesitate to speak.
“Check.”
The flow of time reverted to normal for her.
Dry gunshots flew toward him from the side.

After confirming his general distance and direction with Measure Heart, she had fired thrice for good measure toward the figure curled up beyond the smoke. But she still kept her gun at the ready because this was Academy City. She did not know this person’s name, so she did not know what their power was. Just like she had located him by breaking the rules, he might have some kind of barrier that also broke the rules. That might sound ridiculous, but she had to consider the possibility that he could gather up the air or sprinkler water to create a solid wall or that he could use pure telekinesis to repel anything flying his way.

Not knowing what to expect made things difficult.
If she had a special fourth move in this game of rock-paper-scissors, then he might have a special fifth move.
When she circled behind the scrap metal that looked like a sponge after a dog chewed it up, the person she had supposedly shot was nowhere to be seen.
A car door with broken hinges lay there, but its position could not be explained by the gunfire coming from just the one direction. Someone had likely grabbed the broken door and then throw it away later.
The paint was stripped away by cheap bullet holes different from the youngest sister’s Gatling gun rounds.
It had been used as a shield.

The girl in a dress grimaced.
She lightly poked her slender foot at the damage on the metal panel.
“He blocked it and ran away?”

- Toaru Majutsu no Index: Biohacker, Chapter 3 Part 3