Mikoto and High Priest

There was nothing he could do if she chose to hop off herself.

Her hips rose from the seat and she left the acrobike as casually as stepping down from a swing. The soles of her leather shoes pressed down on the asphalt that seemed to be scrolling by below. She may have been using her power to help because she forcefully came to a stop quite quickly.

She turned around and prepared to attack the High Priest.

“Dammit!!”

Kamijou clicked his tongue and frantically performed a Flail Turn to bring the acrobike to a stop and turn 180 degrees. He was staring in the opposite direction from before.

Mikoto seemed to understand that this was not a normal enemy. She did not use a lightning spear or iron sand sword as a warning and skipped straight to pulling out an arcade coin.

She was using her Railgun.

This attack was her namesake. The cruel attack produced unequaled destruction by firing a piece of metal at three times the speed of sound. The friction of the air was so great that the coin itself would melt into orange and vaporize after traveling fifty meters.

But as soon as the High Priest swung his dried arm horizontally, the unleashed strike was deflected directly to the side.

“Wha-…!?”

Mikoto was dumbfounded, but Kamijou did not look at all surprised.

Before even thinking about winning, it was miraculous enough to be having a fight with a true Magic God in the first place.

The High Priest did not even stop running.

He had deflected a true Railgun blast as casually as shooing away a fly. One of the reinforced concrete buildings lining the road broke from its base and approached the road.

Another tree-like arm of mud grew behind the mummy.

It broke out through the asphalt and grabbed the building.

He did not use it for defense.

“Ah.”

Just as Mikoto tried to say something, the twenty-story building was swung down like a tree branch.
[-]
“Are you serious?”

“I’m not shameless enough to make a joke at a time like this.”

“You saw what happened earlier, didn’t you!? Even a full-power Railgun wasn’t enough to-…!!”

“Yes, I know all too well that I don’t stand a chance in a head-on battle!!”

Strength gathered in the arms around him.

She pressed her face into his back and seemed to groan.

“(It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough!! I thought I was on the same level as you and I thought I could handle this too, but I’m not and I can’t!!)”

Her namesake had been easily swatted aside.

And what had happened then?

Unlike her, that pointy-haired boy had not been remotely surprised by the outcome.

He had simply watched it play out as if to say he had known it would not work and that she did not need to worry about it.

That, more than anything else, had made her heart boil over.

But he was not the only person who had gotten her heart worked up.

There was another.

Kamijou knew nothing the two of them could do would work, but now this Fiamma person had butted in from a distance. Mikoto was right by his side, but she was of no use to him. Instead, he was placing his hopes on some third party.

What was this noisy feeling that had filled her ever since she stood in the center of Tokyo Bay?

“(You can just barely stand up against that mummy named the High Priest, but I can’t reach your level! I doubt I can catch up even if I use my prized Railgun!!)”

“What’s the matter, Misaka? Hey!”

“It’s nothing,” she said while removing her face from his back.

This was no time to sulk. She could not give up.

No one was going to wait around for her.

Not the High Priest and not the boy so close to her.

“So I won’t do anything that reckless. I know I can’t win, so I’ll stick to buying us some time. Are you willing to listen now!?”

“How can you slow him down?”

“It isn’t impossible if I only have to do it once.”
- To Aru Majutsu no Index NT 13