Accelerator and Tsuchimikado were standing about 100m from the onstage Oyafune Monaka. They should be approaching her closer as planned, but considering the possibility of mobility loss in the crowd of people, they couldn't say it was a viable plan.
Using a GPS map from cell phone, they ascertained their locations.
"There are about thirty-two possible sniping positions. But because there's a stainless-steel board at the back of the stage, it's virtually a blind spot at the back for 180 degrees. In other words,"
"There are 15 places at the front covering 180 degrees. We smash them one by one and perhaps we'll stop the sniper!"
"...Sunazara Chimitsu, already into sniping condition, may not necessarily be into waiting leisurely,"
Tsuchimikado looked around the surroundings as he said that.
He was not looking at a gently smiling onstage Oyafune, and he was not listening to her voice or the children's applause. He confirmed a special vehicle stopping just off from the plaza. On top of the crane-like vehicle, a machine resembling a gigantic electric fan was installed.
"For now, it seems there's the anti-sniper Wind Defense in place."
"Hmm?"
"You probably know that sniping is easily affected by wind. That equipment deliberately creates gusts around the VIP, throwing off the trajectories. About four of them are used, creating wind swirls that surround the assembly area. Since they're third generation, they use random numbers to generate random air currents,"
Tsuchimikado was saying such, but Accelerator was preoccupied with something else.
He turned his head to the side, looking towards the vicinity of the confusion, when suddenly he *zip!* hid himself in the crowd.
Tsuchimikado shifted his gaze there, and in a spot not far from them, a young girl about 10-years-old and a middleschool girl with lots of flower decorations attached to her head were there, hands together and walking.
"'And so Misaka is looking for a lost child,' says Misaka as Misaka tries to present the action pointer!"
"Ha, uh, well, lost child?"
"'You may not understand it well, but Misaka believes he's around here,' says Misaka as Misaka tries to state the prediction. 'Somehow the area on the head is tingling,' says Misaka as Misaka tries to include intuitive supplementary info."
"Sigh... as I thought, that's one out-of-this-world ahoge, you know."
This is not an ahoge!! On hearing that scream, Accelerator reflexively did a facepalm.
"(...What's with that brat showing up in a situation like this!? That 'God' bastard sure is messing around!!)"
"(...Hahaha, that's life for you,)"
Tsuchimikado suitably said. But upon noticing a young girl in maid outfit mixing among the crowd, he too was troubled at the same time.
Let's look out for stray bullets flying onto strange places! As the pair strangely agreed on a single opinion,
"I didn't think that there's a Wind Defense to throw off the aim at the target. Things sure are complicated now."
"The side of the vehicle says that it's an air-purifier."
"That's right. It operates in the same way as the air cleaners used by the school staff smokers, but the sizes are quite a different story."
Tsuchimikado said, seemingly proud; however, Accelerator's eyes were cold.
He said,
"...That's one nice speech, but they ain't movin'!"
"HA!?"
A shocked Tsuchimikado confirmed it in hot haste — sure enough, the gigantic electric fan blades aboard the large car had abruptly stopped.
"They should have been running since a while back..."
It couldn't be a blunder by the VIP bodyguards.
In hearing range of Tsuchimikado who was thinking of that, a strange *ping!* sound resounded, adding to the chaos of the surrounding noise.
The sound of a metallic pot being dented.
"—"
Accelerator and Tsuchimikado both focused on the source of the sound at the same time.
There was a special car Wind Defense parked in a different location. As they thought, those gigantic blades were not moving. And, on the surrounding cylindrical outer wall which surrounds the electric fan, thumb-sized holes had opened up.
"Dammit, it's his doing. — Sunazara Chimitsu,"
Accelerator said.
"That bastard... He's gonna aim and shoot for an undefended Oyafune after taking those interfering Wind Defense out of action!!"
"Shit!!"
Tsuchimikado tut-tut'd, then tried to get closer to Oyafune by plunging into the crowd. But with so many people, it seemed he couldn't move forward as much as he would like. And during that time, the pinging, metal-hitting sounds occurred in succession. Those may be invisible for Accelerator, but perhaps they were destroying absolutely every Wind Defense equipment located elsewhere.
(Dammit. Because the magnetic sniper rifle doesn't use raw gunpowder, nobody realized that the equipment had been shot!)
Already the artificial defensive gusts were gone.
Tsuchimikado was trying to relay the danger to Oyafune Monaka, but it was unlikely he had time.
"Tch!"
Onstage, Oyafune Monaka continued her speech. The surrounding bodyguards were standing by, unaware of the danger.
At this rate it would be a checkmate.
"What a pain!!"