Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth6 (section)

==Depth 6: Diplomatic Strategy==

===Part 1===

They were seated in the seiza style.

In this day and age.

The girls of Tokiwadai Middle School included the daughters of corporate presidents, holders of kazoku titles, and even an actual princess, but they were all seated in the seiza style on Camouflaged Carrier Izanami’s long landing runway. Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki were no exception. Without mats or cushions below them, their legs really hurt.

(Oh, ohh, ohhhhhh…)

“Listen, you fools!!” roared the monstrous teacher – no, the monstrous dorm manager – who had arrived from the landing ship.

Mikoto’s circumstances were none of her concern.

Solid footsteps rang from the deck.

An adult woman with black hair, glasses, and a tight skirt suit paced back and forth, her back ramrod straight.

The beginnings of dawn lit the horizon.

Mikoto was blowing in the sea breeze like dried grass and she didn’t even want to calculate exactly how much time had passed.

Such a waste of her life.

“It doesn’t matter what this place is or what the situation is! You are still students of Tokiwadai Middle School! Thus, any of you whose behavior is not befitting of that title shall be punished to correct your behavior. Listen, do not forget this even in death. Greet each other with ‘how do you do’, always strive for excellence in both literary and athletic pursuits, be thoughtful and kind to all, and always hold a ladylike hand over your mouth when you laugh! Do not think a little thing like traveling to another world conveniently excuses you from your duty as students!!!!”

The blonde mass next to Mikoto was trembling.

Seated and hanging her head, Shokuhou Misaki chose to speak.

In a barely audible whisper.

“I thought other worlds were supposed to be fun. I thought you were supposed to be so overpowered no one could stand in your way.”

“Shokuhou? I don’t recall granting you the lofty right to speak. Do not speak unless I ask you a question, boneless she-ham.”

Even that insult wasn’t enough for her to pull out a remote. No, the fact that she wasn’t willing to act carelessly was enough to establish the power balance. Her fangs as a high-level esper and her pride as an influential young woman had both been broken. Shattered even.

Misaka Mikoto rubbed her hands together in her seiza position.

This was a look she could never let Uiharu Kazari or Saten Ruiko see. She felt so thoroughly cornered her smile was stiff on her face.

“Heh…eh heh…eh heh heh. B-b-b-but, Madam Dorm Manager, we were dumped into this dangerous world and we were attacked before we could even get our bearings. We were responding to an emergency. If we hadn’t fought back, the first anti-ship missile would have killed us all. S-so can’t we call it self-defense and put it all behind us?”

“We cannot.”

“…”

“Karaoke, bowling, swimming, a sauna, and even beauty treatments? You have been living it up on this unfamiliar ship – including gorging yourselves on luxury foods. What about that was an unavoidable part of the bare necessity required to protect your lives and property? Does the act of preserving your lives really have such poor cost performance? Hm?”

That was the issue?

But she had a point. There was no denying they had indulged in the luxuries found aboard the Izanami. If you ran into trouble in the mountains, there was nothing wrong with wandering into an unfamiliar mansion seeking help, but it would still be indecent to start raiding the fridge without the family’s permission.

There had been an implicit understanding that they were free to do what they liked since they were in another world, but the dorm manager had just smashed that.



Arriving in another world was not enough to escape Tokiwadai Middle School.



Right?

Right.

Mikoto’s smile froze on her face, but she still spoke in a vanishingly quite voice.

“Those grownup arguments aren’t fair.”

“Call it the power of order necessary to restrain unstable children with deadly power at their disposal. …And, Misaka, when did I grant you the lofty right to speak? This is my time to talk.”

Whatever the case, it was a hellish time.

And it didn’t sound like the storm would be passing on any time soon.

The only girl who didn’t seem bothered was YF-22A in her long-sleeved black leotard. She alone was not seated in the seiza style.

As an outsider to Tokiwadai, she was lying prone on the landing runway and grinning over at the Tokiwadai students while kicking her feet. The locals had all the luck.

“Heh hehh♪ Now this is a nice view, dumbasses. It’s what every last one of you deserves. Peh heh heh.”

“You need to learn your lesson too, giant metallic girl. Come here and sit.”

“Eh!?”

The stealth fighter initially reacted with surprise, but then she looked to the students for help.

Every last one of them refused to look her in the eye.

Mikoto felt bad for abandoning her like that.

“B-but I’m not part of your Tokiwadai group, so its rules don’t apply to-”

“As you can plainly see, I am brimming with mercy and benevolence. I couldn’t help but notice your lack of education, so I am offering to provide it pro bono. I will transform you into a proper lady. Shall we start with your manners and etiquette? Really, you are such a lucky brat. If you know how exclusive Tokiwadai is, you would be shedding tears of appreciation.”

“Hgheeee,” groaned YF-22A as she shrank down in fear.

She would have been fine if she had only behaved herself, but that idiot just had to draw attention to herself in that dorm manager’s presence.

===Part 2===

Once the hellish punishment was over, Mikoto and Shokuhou were taken over to Landing Ship Izanagi which had pulled up alongside Camouflaged Carrier Izanami. Forcibly taken.

The sun was already high in the sky.

It was going to be another hot day.

A weary shadow hung over Mikoto’s face.

“Izanami and Izanagi?”

“Makes it sound like they were constructed as a pair.”

A landing ship was meant to send land troops into enemy territory by sea, but that didn’t mean the ship actually cruised up onto the beach. That would only get it stuck like a beached whale. Instead, it was more like a warship that would travel close to land and then release large quantities of transport helicopters, motorboats, and hovercraft.

That said, the Izanagi didn’t look much like a warship on the outside.

It had the exterior of a 200m cargo ferry, making it a size smaller than the carrier. It of course was a steel ship, not a giant girl.

Landing ships were originally meant to transport lots of soldiers and vehicles, so a ferry meant to transport people and cars probably made for good camouflage.

The dorm manager said, “Our objective is to return to our Earth alive. Without losing a single one of you.”

“Ugh. Th-then why are you so mad at us?”

“Because that objective is not necessarily the same thing as winning the war you numbskulls started on your own. You can fight as much as necessary to protect your lives, but you should avoid it when you will only needlessly lose your lives in the process. Forfeiting is a perfectly valid trump card, fools.”

Not even Mikoto had a comeback.

This grownup was too powerful. Which may have been the normal state of affairs if she thought about it.

“This way,” quietly instructed the dorm manager while turning the handle of a watertight door.

“Wow…”

The space revealed before Mikoto was even larger than the Izanami’s maintenance hangar. She looked down at a space covering more than three levels and saw the floor was large enough to play a basketball game or even a soccer match. It looked like the entire belowdecks area had been combined into a single space.

This was a landing ship.

Ordinarily, the space would be packed full of infantry, amphibious tanks, hovercraft, and more. As a sports stadium, it would hold tens of thousands at the least.

With no soldiers there now, the small boats didn’t seem to take up much of the space. Plus, they were all pushed over toward the walls.

Something else filled the space instead.

Eight girls who had to be between 15 and 20m tall. Those were the F-14D school swimsuit catgirls and F-15C leggings mamas that Mikoto’s squadron had shot down.

“Our crane comes in handy, so we have taken on the captured aircraft the carrier can’t hold. Analyzing the enemy technology and repairing their damage are both goods ideas in our situation.”

“Sure…”

Mikoto’s noncommittal response wasn’t because she failed to grasp the importance of it. The dorm manager’s explanation just didn’t seem to mesh with what she was seeing.

The eight giants(?) were seated casually in a circle on the floor.

And they were eating giant parfaits and crepes.

While smiling.

It felt more like a girls’ sleepover or a flower viewing.



“I was worried when I fell into the sea, but not anymore. The food is good too.”

“My, my. You have cream on your cheek. Here, mommy will wipe that off with her handkerchief.”

“Mmm☆ Thankies!”



(They don’t seem concerned about being captured by the enemy. Not even a little bit.)

That was apparently giving the dorm manager a headache too.

“They are weapons, after all. To them, being ordered around and made to fight by humans is normal and expected. A sad state of affairs. It doesn’t seem to matter much to them which side they fight on.”

“So they just expect to be used? That’s not right. Come to think of it, YF-22A and these ones didn’t hesitate to shoot at each other even though they’re all Imperial.”

It looked heartwarming at first.

But once you thought about it, it was disturbing.

Also, the F-14D’s seemed polite but childish while the F-15Cs acted more motherly. It seemed like each model had its own general personality and way of speaking. …Was that part of being a mass-produced aircraft? But among the identical F-14D school swimsuit catgirls, one ate her parfait’s cherry, one avoided it, and one tied the stem into a knot with her tongue, so did their more specific preferences change based on later experiences?

Girlish Weapons.

Cells were extracted from Frozen Fossils and the cells’ DNA was redesigned and cultivated into a base form which then had armor and weapons attached.

(They really are the most basic and biggest mystery of this world.)

“What is that?”

Meanwhile, Shokuhou was focused on something else.

A few cylindrical tanks were gathered in a corner of the large space.

That wouldn’t have been too remarkable, except they were all covered by a structure resembling a clear plastic greenhouse. Fully covered.

Or…

Shokuhou frowned.

“Is that a simple operating room used for field hospitals?”

“It’s best to keep germs out. It’s a vegetable plant. It can be harvested more than 20 time a year, so as long as we have water and electricity, we won’t have to worry about nutrition. We considered catching fish as well, but we can’t rely on having reliable results there. We can’t afford to spend all our time on that. Ideally, we would get some chickens for an indefinite source of eggs.”

Mikoto and Shokuhou exchanged a glance.

A war of another type was being waged here.

“Um, a-and what are those machines?”

“A water fuel production plant. That’s what those giant girls are eating.” The dorm manager pointed at the enormous parfaits. “When electric cars didn’t catch on as much as hoped and the government was desperate to meet the reduction goals for the greenhouse gasses, they started a project to rush the development. Since we’re on the ocean, I don’t have to explain what the source material is, do I? We’ve run a few tests altering the ratio of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, but it looks like we won’t have to worry about jet fuel. Whether you need JP-4 or JP-5, changing the mixture should provide the combustion rate needed for any specific engine.”

“…Seriously?”

“That said, this is certainly my first time altering the flavor of jet fuel and working it into the shape of a dessert.”

She was so matter-of-fact about it.

If she had been sent to this world at the same time as Mikoto and the rest of the students, only a day or two had passed. Yet the dorm manager and the teachers had built a brand new machine rather than just borrowing what already existed.

Academy City’s adults really were technology experts.

So much so that they could outdo high-level espers in some cases.

The dorm manager shrugged.

“We were sent to a world where we have no contact points for diplomacy or trade. Circumstances are different from Earth were we could buy anything we needed as long as we could pay. Securing the basic necessities comes before ammunition and missiles. It seems you battle freaks began fighting without a second thought once you ran into trouble, but war is a horrific thing once you run out of food and fuel.”

“…”

Mikoto and Shokuhou had gone blue in the face.

That was the most boring but hellish way of losing they could think of.

Mikoto shrugged.

“What were you trying to show us? The space for the captured fighters, or the water fuel plant?”

“Both.” The dorm manager sighed. “Think of it like a multi-course meal and wait patiently. The main dish has yet to be served.”

===Part 3===

They climbed a steep, narrow stairway to climb abovedeck once more.

“There is something else I wanted to show you,” began the dorm manager. “It is a piece of equipment we found already aboard the Izanagi, but not even we know how to use it.”

“Not even the grownup teachers?”

“Misaka, we are hoping your unfair ability to directly control electricity can shed some light on the mystery.”

Landing ships came in a variety of types, but the Izanagi didn’t appear to have a runway. That meant the top was cluttered rather than flat. It still seemed to have at least a heliport.

The dorm manager led them through a winding array of inner corridors. After passing by Watanabe-sensei on the way and exchanging “how do you do” greetings, they arrived at their destination.

An especially large bulkhead stood in their way.

Instead of opening it, they opened a smaller water-tight door to the side and entered through that.

“This is it,” said the dorm manager.

She needn’t have said so.

A bulky machine was stacked up in the center of the room. The stack was about 5m tall. Each individual part looked like a giant engine but wasn’t. An engine for a 10 thousand ton ship would be larger still and it wouldn’t just be situated above the deck like this.

Plus, you wouldn’t stick a bunch of engines together like this.

“At the same time…” said Mikoto, stunned.

Something like a plastic ruler was attached to the front.

It was a digital counter.



29:13:45:08



The red numbers were decreasing. The numbers 0-9 were formed from straight lines like on a cheap calculator and they were going down moment by moment.

The final number decremented once every second, so starting from the left, did the numbers represent days, hours, minutes, and seconds?

That meant less than 30 days remained.

What happened once they all reached zero?

Whatever the case, you would have to be pretty stupid to innocently ride around on a landing ship without noticing how suspicious this was…

“It wasn’t like this to start with,” quickly noted the dorm manager after noticing the two students’ gazes. “Specifically, the digital counter wasn’t there.”

“What do you mean?”

“At first, it was only a strange collection of machines. But we found the counter inside your carrier. We recognized the shape of the port, so we tried connecting it and the numbers appeared.”

“Does that mean the Izanami and Izanagi form a single giant device ability?” asked Shokuhou, sounding somewhat exasperated.

The dorm manager looked to Mikoto and jerked her chin toward the machine.

Was she supposed to use her power over electricity to figure out what the machine was?

She already had a very unpleasant idea.

“This isn’t just a self-destruct device, is it?”

“You don’t need to come out and state the obvious concern everyone is already thinking, Shokuhou. Not without real proof. That can wait until Misaka has gathered some actual information.”

The reprimand made the Queen scowl. Maybe it was a subconscious survival strategy, but Shokuhou Misaki had a tendency to mentally regress when around a grownup teacher. It was so weird seeing her like that.

Mikoto shut her eyes and held a hand out toward the machine.

She didn’t want to scatter sparks and blow the thing up while she was investigating, so she started carefully.

But the #3 frowned partway through.

“…? Just following the circuits in order, it doesn’t seem to have any explosives inside and it isn’t linked to the ship’s fuel tank.”

“You mean it isn’t a self-destruct device?” asked Shokuhou.

“But it does have a bunch of giant electromagnets. And they’re arranged in a torus.”

“Huh!? That sounds an awful lot like a tokamak fusion reactor that traps plasma at a temperature of about 100 million degrees!”

“It doesn’t have any nuclear materials. And if it was that, it would be shielded with lead. The details also aren’t right for a tokamak. That means it mus be meant to condense something else.” Mikoto sounded like she could hardly believe what she was saying. “Like a gravitational field.”

Even the dorm manager looked skeptical.

“You mean this is a miniature black hole?”

“More than that, it’s a smart black hole that can have its parameters controlled with external stimuli. Used temporally, it would work as a time machine. Used spatially, it would let you warp.”

But what about the digital counter?

Mikoto couldn’t be certain, but she had an answer.

“In 29 days, we will be sent somewhere. And that somewhere is almost certainly the Earth we left.”

“Got anything to back that up?” asked Shokuhou.

“No,” admitted Mikoto. “But if this device can send us to World A, World B, or World C, there would be no reason to send us from Earth to A and then on to C. It could have just sent us directly from Earth to C.”

“I see. So you’re saying World A – this world here – was the destination someone set for this thing? So this is the end point. Yet the device restarted after we arrived. Since they wouldn’t have a reason to send us from World A to Worlds B through Z, only one option remains.”

“Returning from the end point. In other words, a return trip from World A to Earth. That’s the only reason I can think of for the device to activate again in World A. …And since the digital counter exists, it must have already had a macro or program installed to do this.”

Shokuhou listened in silence, suggesting she had no argument.

Being sent back automatically sounded great.

However…

“Can you not fast-forward or rewind it?” asked Shokuhou.

“Nope. If you want to mess with it and produce a black hole outside the torus container, be my guest. The damage would go beyond this one planet, though.”

Mikoto shrugged.

…But this was weird. Where had the Izanami and Izanagi been built?

They had nothing in common with this world focused on Frozen Fossils and Girlish Weapons. And none of this had been in Academy City either.

Why had Mikoto and the others been brought into this? It must have happened intentionally. Someone somewhere had borrowed this super technology and even handed it over to them.

The dorm manager crossed her arms.

“So for the remaining 29 days, we must somehow get by in this world without anyone coming to harm.”

“That’s a much more realistic plan.”

“If only you hadn’t caused trouble and picked a fight with a world power.”

Tokiwadai’s Ace and Queen couldn’t look the dorm manager in the eye.

Could someone please let them know her weakness? Trembling, Mikoto tried to defend herself.

“They fired anti-ship missiles at us!”

“That is not the issue. You shouldn’t have established a hostile relationship, idiot. Dealing with an entire nation with only a carrier and landing ship will not be easy. Escaping them for nearly a month will require a bit of brainpower.”

“Is brainpower ability really enough to get through this?”

Shokuhou sounded exasperated, but it was the dorm manager who looked surprised.

“You can’t tell? I expected it from that idiot Misaka who runs headlong into every problem, but I thought you knew how to use your head, Shokuhou.”

“Gh, I’m not an idiot.”

“Yes, I really did think a Machiavellian idiot like Shokuhou would understand.”

“Who are you calling an idiot!?”

The scheming Queen snapped back on reflex and ended up with her wrist twisted around behind her back. That’s why you’re an idiot, idiot.

A call came over one of the small radios that were quickly becoming necessities.

“Queen, we are receiving an emergency signal.”

“Ow, ow, ow, ow. From who?”

“From the Liheilstaut Empire’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They provided a few forms of authentication over the radio, but we don’t know how this world works and have no way of knowing if they are legitimate. …They say they want to speak with our representative in order to negotiate for a ceasefire and peace regarding the accidental hostility between us.”

Mikoto and Shokuhou exchanged a glance and the dorm manager shrugged. 

They checked the time on their phones which weren’t good for much else while too far out at sea to pick up the signal from an antenna base.

10 AM.

Just about time for a government office to be opening.

===Part 4===

“Listen up!!”

The dorm manager’s voice rang loud through the Izanami’s large briefing room.

A map was displayed large on the wall behind her.

“The Liheilstaut Empire has contacted us to request peace talks. If these succeed, the danger to our lives and property will be eliminated and you can spend the rest of the time enjoying a summer break aboard a luxury cruise ship. We will be sending Shokuhou Misaki to their capital city of Frustburg as our representative, but just to be safe, we will also have Misaka’s 101 Squadron flying in the sky above their international meeting hall. The Empire has graciously given us permission to fly above their capital, but load your fighters with anti-ground armaments in addition to anti-air ones. We do not know how much we can trust the Empire. If this goes wrong, you will only have yourselves to rely on.”

Mikoto hesitantly raised a hand.

She was afraid of the answer to her question.

“Umm, how long will these peace talks last? I don’t think our fighters can continue flying from morning to night.”

“We plan to receive midair fueling from the Empire. That way there is no issue even if the talks get so heated they end up lasting 48 hours. Isn’t that right, Misaka?”

“Gwohhhh!” roared the #3, her head in her hands.

At her age, she badly wanted a simple kitchen and shower room in the fighter’s cockpit.

“Your purpose this time is diplomacy. This is a chance to use the manners and etiquette you have learned in your time as Tokiwadai students. Ladylike behavior shows its real value at a truly foreign party like this. Whether you will be appearing in public or not, this is an excellent opportunity for you to get a feel for real high society. Needless to say, anyone who shows insufficient courtesy or manners will be corrected afterwards. Do you understand the rules? Then it’s time to begin!”

The end of the briefing triggered a lot of bustling around.

As everyone stood from their chairs and departed, Shokuhou spoke to Mikoto from the side. With Hokaze Junko following behind her, the Queen brushed some long blonde hair off her shoulder in irritation.

“I will be borrowing Hokaze-san this time. I do want a reliable bodyguard with me.”

“Sure, whatever. They asked for this ceasefire, so I doubt you have anything to worry about.”

“My safety is worthless to you, isn’t it?”

Hearing how little thought Mikoto put into it, Shokuhou Misaki had to stare into the distance.

Really, she needed to think about what she had done in the past. She was lucky her own people weren’t going to blow her away and disguise it as an accident.

Mikoto shrugged.

“It’s the perfect job for you. You were voted Tokiwadai’s most likely to underestimate some low-level grunts only to get abducted and held captive as a damsel in distress.”

“My! Misaka-sama, when did they hold that delightful poll? If you had only told me, I would have gladly voted for my Queen!!”

“Completely worthless!?” shouted a bristling Shokuhou. At Hokaze, not Mikoto.

Admittedly, as someone about to visit the enemy capital, it probably wasn’t great to see your bodyguard’s eyes sparkling over the term “damsel in distress”.

(Knowing Hokaze-san, she’s getting excited over imagining herself rushing in to save her, not over the damsel in distress part itself.)

Basically, it was an expanded version of staring out the window during class and imagining what you would do if the school was taken over by armed terrorists. That girl really could kick butt in an emergency and she had the imagination to match.

With that, Mikoto parted ways with Shokuhou and Hokaze.

“That means I’ll only have Kuroko and YF-22A. Ugh, I’m going to have double twintails wingmates. Maybe I should do up my hair too…”

There were more non-girl F-2As, but Mikoto’s squadron was the only one really using them. The other girls had their hands full operating the carrier, so the piloting role had been shoved onto them.

After ascending into the abovedeck camouflage guest cabins, which still had plenty of empty rooms, Mikoto changed into her flight suit (she still wasn’t used to the thing) and then started back down toward the maintenance hangar which also contained the electromagnetic catapult.

She met up with Shirai Kuroko, who was also wearing a formfitting flight suit.

“Sigh.” Shirai’s shoulders drooped. “This place has been so stifling since the teachers arrived.”

“Tell me about it.”

“They make it so much harder to sneak into my precious Onee-sama’s room and to steal her underwear from the laundry room…”

“On second thought, we do need someone to preserve order.”

Mikoto expressionlessly stared into the distance as she pinched her underclassman’s cheek and zapped her. Now here was a pervert who would get excited over the damsel in distress part.

The salty sea scent was mixed with a hint of machine oil and exhaust smoke. That didn’t come from the clean nuclear-powered Izanami which didn’t produce any carbon dioxide.

They were near land.

The guest cabins structure had plenty of thick bulletproof glass to let the sunlight in, so they could see artificial structures on the horizon.

Their first glimpse of this world’s land was gray. From here, they could see a concrete harbor and a forest of skyscrapers beyond it. Based on this, there probably weren’t any wild elves or succubi there. Not too surprising when they’d heard this was a city of 10 million.

(But it’s a shame they don’t have any beaches for swimming. Then again, I bet Academy City wishes they could develop a coast like this.)

They had arrived at the Liheilstaut Empire’s capital city of Frustburg.

Or the sea next to it.

Instead of separating out the administrative functions like with Washington DC or Brasilia, this capital was also the most populous city like Tokyo or Paris.

They had already held the final briefing while the carrier was traveling here, but that had taken three days. Travel by ship was slow. Or was it weirder to be used to a fighter’s supersonic speed?

The countdown had just over 26 days left.

(If only we could spend the rest of the time out at sea, but I guess that wouldn’t work. We did already agree to this meeting date.)

This wasn’t going to be that easy.

Mikoto decided to focus on what she could do here. Ideally, that scheming Queen would be able to arrive at a ceasefire and peace agreement.

Once inside the belowdecks maintenance hangar, Mikoto spoke to the giant girl in a long-sleeved leotard.

“Hey, YF-22A. It’s time to risk our lives flying without any chance to rest.”

“My rights.”

===Part 5===

“Queen, the vehicle does not appear to be rigged with a bomb.”

“Good.”

After taking a motorboat from the Izanagi to the harbor, Shokuhou Misaki boarded a bulletproof car provided by the Empire. As the invited guest, she of course sat in the back.

Everything had a near future look.

Not that that meant much to Shokuhou since she was accustomed to Academy City. She had traveled all the way to another world and this was what she found? It felt like traveling overseas and then eating curry rice at a Japanese chain for your first meal.

“Wow.”

Next to her, Hokaze pressed her hands against the bulletproof glass and looked out. Nothing wrong with that sort of innocence, but Shokuhou really wished her bodyguard was paying attention to things inside the vehicle.

“Look, Queen. They have all sorts of things docked in the harbor.”

“Yes.”

“Is that an Aegis ship? And that’s a carrier. It makes sense they would have so many warships at their capital.”

…Of course, Hokaze wasn’t looking at steel ships. These were 100-200m bikini girls. They were all lined up and moored at a dock that appeared to be for both military and civilian use.

(They all look bored, so they must not be necessary for defense of the capital. Then are they only for show and they want people to see the warships here? Maybe the top brass are prideful and worried about appearances.)

The cruisers, destroyers, and other ships were in backstroke position, so their backs were hidden below the water, but they did appear to have the joints attached to their backs and hips and those were used to mount the ship-like weaponry to the outside edges of their arms. Their legs looked mechanical up to the base of their thighs. Their warship armor was attached to the sides of their bodies and the propellers on the soles of their shoes(?) were visible as they kicked their feet.

…There were also some submarine-looking girls moored out in the ocean. They were floating on their stomachs instead. Since they were meant to operate at the bottom of the ocean, they would have no trouble breathing underwater, but to Shokuhou it felt like viewing a crime scene. The way those plain girls were floating face down and motionless made them look an awful lot like giant drowned corpses.

''I’m letting this influence me,'' thought Shokuhou.

Was it a good thing she was no longer questioning it?

A giant shape passed by even higher up than the glass-covered skyscrapers. What looked like a giant winged waitress was probably the air tanker provided by the Empire. A few girls that looked like fighters were circling slowly overhead, presumably to look out for aerial threats.

One was a little girl in a short-sleeve shirt and athletic bloomers plus yellow and black striped thigh highs. Wings thinner than the other fighters extended from the back of her hips. Perhaps so she could deal with fighters and attack aircraft, she had various sizes of missile hanging from those wings.

Another was a gloomy looking girl wearing a black raincoat over a bikini. She had a sturdy metal joint attached to the back of her neck and black metal wings that looked like a paper airplane lazily made out of polygons spread out from her ankles. The missiles and bombs were stored there. If necessary, she could drop or launch them from her sides.

(An F/A-18E and an F-117A, huh?)

“Queen, why do you look troubled?”

“No real reason. I’m just disturbed by how good I’ve gotten at identifying them.”

Was this due to inviting in a possible enemy representative, or was the military always involved in politics here? Armored trucks and anti-aircraft tanks were blocking off the streets and restricting traffic. Although those were giant girls with wheels or continuous tracks attached who sat on the ground and slowly stood up with their legs together. Maybe it was for a parade, but there were a lot of military band miniskirt uniforms visible on the surface.

“All of their trucks have such thin armor, Queen.”

“Did they leave out all the tanks 30 ton or heavier because the roads and bridges couldn’t support their weight?”

But more than anything, Shokuhou looked to the driver’s seat separated from her by thick glass.

This was the real new information here.

“Sure enough, the humans here aren’t all that big. Just the normal 150cm.”

The glass must have blocked out what Shokuhou was saying because the female driver dressed in black with sunglasses gave her a curious look in the rear-view mirror.

This car and all the others driving in the city were ordinary machines. Same for the motorcycles, the trains on the elevated tracks, and the non-military cruisers in the river. Apparently the giant girl technology was limited to military weapons.

It made sense that there would be ordinary vehicles to carry humans as well.

Yet those ordinary things felt weird after seeing nothing but the giant Girlish Weapons for so long. Humans were humans and weapons were weapons. This world had a clear distinction between the two species.

The female driver spoke through the speaker.

“We will soon be arriving at Omega Site, the international meeting hall. Please get ready.”

“Will do☆”

The black bulletproof car descended a slope into the parking lot.

A group of women in suits, looking like an army of secretaries, was waiting. They surrounded Shokuhou and guided her to the elevator.

She was guided all the way to the meeting hall. Inside she found a gorgeous elevator hall decorated with carpet and chandeliers, but something odd was displayed in the center.

A 3m piece of flesh frozen at less than -100 degrees.

Any possible movement had been stopped, but it was clearly alive.

That symbolized this world’s strangeness.

No one was in control of it. No one could control it. They had only frozen it because they didn’t know how to kill it, but they still felt like they had won. Because thinking about it any other way would worry them. Shokuhou figured all that out at a glance without having to use any psychometry.

What was it?

What should she call it?

She couldn’t even imagine what kind of life form it had originally belonged to. It had no eyes, mouth, hands, legs, skin, or fur. It was only flesh. No more than a mass of red, pink, and black. Was that the whole thing, or was it only a piece torn off from the whole? Even that was a mystery.

That her Tokiwadai knowledge couldn’t find an answer held great meaning in and of itself.

This really wasn’t Earth technology.

Shokuhou came to a stop and spoke quietly.

“A Frozen Fossil.”

“Yes, it must be,” agreed Hokaze, looking thoughtful.

“Unlike us humans, it apparently evolved from petroleum-eating microbes,” politely but coldly explained one of the secretaries guiding them. “Its muscle fibers produce far greater horsepower than ours and it has a strong affinity for machinery. But it has far too much power for safe use in the city, so the resultant technology cannot be adapted for civilian use. It was only natural that it would be managed by the military and used as Girlish Weapons.”

“I see…”

But.

This was how they saw it?

It was displayed in the center of all the carpet and chandeliers.

Shokuhou Misaki updated her understanding and correlation chart.

A secretary opened the door to the meeting room.

A small old man emerged. The chest of his fancy suit was decorated with a few medals, so was he a soldier rather than a politician?

“Hello, hello. So glad you are here. My, aren’t you a young representative. And beautiful too. Your talents must belie your appearance if you could break through the old traditions of military society with your gender and age. Please come in.”

He smiled broadly, but he didn’t even offer his own name. And his references to her appearance, her gender, and her age seemed calculated to rub her the wrong way. He scattered rudeness like a shotgun blast.

“…I am Shokuhou Misaki. A pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise. This way please.”

Still, he didn’t give his name.

He was only interested in doing things his way.

(I would be impressed if none of it was calculated.)

Unlikely, though.

A national leader who spoke more faux pas than quotable soundbites was unlikely to keep a position like this into old age. This was definitely all on purpose.

He was already testing her.

His tactic was to anger his opponent into revealing their true nature.

(Sigh. He probably thinks he’s the expert, but he’s no more clever than a sleazy tabloid reporter.)

But this was not about comparing each other as individuals and seeing who came out on top.

They were here to negotiate.

Reaching a compromise here would require work on both their parts.

Shokuhou didn’t want an idiot tripping her up.

A brilliant negotiator would be trouble in its own way, but a dull fool could also be a threat at the diplomatic negotiating table. The two might seem like polar opposites, but both could suddenly make devastating decisions that no ordinary person would ever even consider.

How would his foolish cheapness affect the negotiation for a ceasefire and peace?

Shokuhou could only hope he wasn’t too far below average.

She set foot inside the meeting room while regulating her breathing.

The real challenge was about to begin.

===Part 6===

“I’m so bored,” grumbled Misaka Mikoto.

She was flying at an altitude of 1200m. With all the capital’s skyscrapers, she couldn’t bring her Shinshin two-seat custom any lower without risking a collision. Mikoto wouldn’t fail to see a building wall up ahead…but she had heard planes sometimes hit lightning rods, support wires for antenna towers, and other long, skinny things. News helicopters and movie camera planes would often fly surprisingly close to buildings, but that meant there was a secret manual explaining everything one had to watch out for.

(But…)

She was stuck like this until the meeting on the surface ended.

She felt silly earnestly gripping the control column like this. Couldn’t she manage this with autopilot or something? Large passenger planes could manage flights of ten hours or more almost entirely on autopilot. And these days, she was wiling to bet even the landing at the airport could be automated if the weather was calm.

Mikoto’s eyes looked dead as she flew in a gently curving circle larger than a railroad belt line.

“So bored.”

“Onee-sama, could you please stop tempting fate?”

''Why should I when Shokuhou’s the one at risk?

She would have said that out loud, but didn’t because she knew the (perverted but diligent) Judgment girl would make a fuss about it.

(But anyway…)

“Kyah! Yahh!”

“Ah ha ha ha! Coming through☆”

“Wait. You need to stay in formation and wait for our leader’s instruct- kyah!”

“My, my. 202 Squadron to 201 Squadron. There are a lot of people on the surface, so you need to shape up. That sloppy flying makes you look bad.”

Four F-14D school swimsuit catgirls made up 201 Squadron and four F-15C leggings mamas made up 202 Squadron.

Needless to say, these were the ones captured after Mikoto’s squadron shot them down.

Mikoto had a question.

(The F-14s were designed for use on carriers, but I didn’t think F-15s could take off from one.)

Yet, there they were in the air. Like it was nothing.

Attaching the carrier landing hook to the belly of the F-15Cs was one thing, but had Kongou Mitsuko also modified the power output of the electromagnetic catapult?

Also…

“Hm? Brat 04 to Railgun 01. Why do you look so suspicious?”

“Aren’t you Imperial aircraft? You’ve made it back to your capital, but did it not occur to you to escape us and go home?”

Some Imperial F/A-18Es (short-sleeve shirt, athletic bloomers, and striped thigh highs) and F-117A (bikini with black raincoat) were flying in the same big circle around the capital.

Did the captured ones not miss home?

But YF-22A’s response was simple.

“The IFF encryption update period has passed, so if we approached an airbase to land at a runway with our non-updated IFF signals, we would be treated like an unidentified aircraft. In the worst case, we could be shot down by a surface-to-air missile without warning. On the other hand, a noble aircraft such as myself couldn’t possibly land on a highway and trouble the Imperial citizens.”

“…”

Mikoto listened to the playful transmission coming from 201 and 202 Squadrons.

“Ah ha ha! Oh, Kitty 01. You’re acting all mad, but your swimsuit is running up in the back. Sexy!”

“Mhh. Kitty 03, stop staring at me from behind! I’m the squadron leader, so I’m the most important.”

“Oh, dear. I think it was too soon to let the F-14Ds form a squadron on their own. Mama 01 to 101 Squadron, don’t you think we should look after those children? Are you listening?”

…It sounded like it was more than just that.

They were even more carefree.

Was fighting on orders from humans just the ordinary state of affairs for them? So did they not care which side they were on as long as they could fight, or did they just lack any kind of national identity or patriotism toward the country or military created by the humans, who were another species entirely? Just like humans could walk through the neighborhood without considering the territories established by the local dogs and cats.

And while they flew in a big circle above the capital, something else joined them from an even larger circle.

It was a giant busty waitress. The 40m young woman was smiling sweetly.

She was a KC-135 air tanker.

The size of the wings spreading from her back were unthinkable for a fighter. The round aircraft fuselage…or rather, the fuel tank was held under her right arm like a surfboard. Of course, to a Girlish Weapon, that was part of her body, so it appeared to be attached to the joint on the side of her hip.

She had a mole just below one eye.

“Party Girl 00 to visitors. Hello, everyone, it’s refueling time. Please follow my instructions and wait your turn.”

“We’re supposed to fly up within a few meters below her? Really?”

Her miniskirt was flapping in the wind and her unnecessary large breasts created some extra obstacles on the downward-facing side. Even if they had to be girls for some reason, why did they have to design her to be so curvy? That just made this more dangerous!

While Mikoto hesitated to approach, a transmission arrived.

“Um, Kitty 03 to Big Sis. Can we go first?”

“F-feel free.”

But the F-14D girl appeared to find this normal. When Mikoto gave up her spot in the queue, the school swimsuit catgirls began flying around and fighting over spots.

“Yay, time to fuel up! Gulp, gulp.”

“Ahh! She said to wait our turn, Kitty 03! No fair!”

They were still being playful.

The F-15C leggings mamas showed no sign of stopping them. That meant this was safe. All those obstacles made it look terribly dangerous, but that was apparently just how they refueled.

Mikoto spoke under her breath.

“Oh, they aren’t drinking jet fuel from a baby bottle and she isn’t extending her flying boom from between her legs to act as a straw. That’s a relief.”

“?”

The KC-135 busty miniskirt waitress tilted her head.

Interesting.

Mikoto’s imagination had been too powerful for the residents of this world to understand. Had she been influenced by Kuroko there?

“Onee-sama, you can’t blame everything on me. That one was on you.”

Once the F-14Ds were done refueling, Mikoto sent a request and followed the tanker’s instructions by slowly slipping in directly below it.

“Party Girl 00 to, um, Railgun 01? What a strange shape for a fighter. It doesn’t even have a butt or boobs. Yes, keep going and…stop. Right there.”

Mikoto knew this was just how it worked and it was safe, but she was still nervous reaching for the button to open the fuel tank port mid-flight.

“Yes, I see you’ve opened up for me. I will now insert my thick thing inside you. Don’t worry. Just let me do my thing and it’ll be over before you know it.”

Mikoto heard a deep metallic clunk as she maintained her fighter’s attitude.

The waitress’s flying boom had connected to her fuel tank port.

The meter’s number rapidly recovered. While she waited for the work to complete, Mikoto took a look at the city below. Then again, she couldn’t see directly below with the fighter’s long nose in the way.

(Mh. Does that mean I need to aim the nose toward the ground whenever I want to see directly below? I should’ve had Kongou-san attach a ground observation camera or something.)

It was no comparison to a map app, but she could see quite a bit from this altitude.

She could see past the harbor to where the Izanami and Izanagi were waiting out at sea.

She could see the international meeting hall located a bit north, and thus inland, of the capital.

She could see that the distance from the international meeting hall to the harbor was about 10km as the bird flies.

And she could see a conspicuous group of black vehicles.

“…”

Those black vehicles were arriving from different highways and all gathering on the international meeting hall. After the infantry fighting vehicles or anti-aircraft tanks let them pass, they moved to blockade the roads again.

“Party Girl 00 to Railgun 01, refueling complete. Once you close your tank port, lower your speed and then safely fly out from under me. Once I have full visual confirmation of your position, yaw 45 degrees to the right and fly off. I look forward to your next visit☆”

Mikoto heard another metallic sound. The tanker’s flying boom must have been removed now that the refueling was complete.

Mikoto adjusted her grip on the control column.

And muttered to herself.

“Hm.”

===Part 7===

“And so I believe I have proven that the conflict between our forces was an accidental battle caused by a combination of misunderstanding and misfortune and we had no intention of attacking you. Any questions?”

The meeting room was large.

Both the area of the floor and the height of the roof were far greater than a school auditorium.

It contained about 500 seats arranged in concentric circles like tree rings and it was designed so all participants could be seated at the same level without implying any seat in a circle was superior to another. Of course, the only people allowed a seat in here were national representatives.

Although not a shred of that original concept appeared to remain.

Shokuhou sighed softly.

(Good grief.)

Calling it a “flowing speech” might sound nice, but the old man hadn’t raised his head even once. He simply read through a paper manuscript. And he never once paused, leaving Shokuhou no chance to get a word in edgewise.

And now he was asking for questions?

Did he really think they had a mutual understanding here?

It was so obvious. Even Hokaze appeared to have noticed where this was heading. She bent over and whispered in Shokuhou’s ear.

“…Queen.”

“Don’t worry.”

Shokuhou Misaki poked at the thick stack of paper in front of her. It looked like he had chosen intentionally complicated phrasings and gone back and forth on every little detail to increase the word count well beyond reason, but the Queen was no fool and she hadn’t let that camouflage hide the main points from her.

“Care to explain Article 45 Paragraph 1 where you say the Empire will handle maintenance of all weapons in our possession?”

“Even though you have no need of your armaments, maintaining them still requires money and personnel, right? We are offering to remove that burden from your shoulders.”

In other words, he was asking them to disarm and surrender.

“In Article 19’s special note, you say we must disembark the Izanami and the Izanagi?”

“You will feel cramped spending all your time on a rocking ship, won’t you? You are national guests with no embassy or consulate, so we invite you to stay at an official Imperial residence.”

In other words, he was asking them to gather together and be placed under house arrest where the Imperial military could monitor them.

“In Article 31 Paragraph 4, you say we will receive ‘legal privileges’ during our stay in the Empire?”

“You have come from outside, but you do not have an embassy or consulate protected by international treaty. If you will stay at our official residence, you will be protected under Liheilstaut Empire law.”

In other words, he was setting them up to be tried in a secret trial and either indefinitely imprisoned or even executed.

“Sigh.”

Shokuhou had to consider that countdown. 26 days remained. If they didn’t defend the Izanami and Izanagi, they would lose their chance to return to Earth.

So disarmament and a forced disembarking were out of the question. Not to mention a series of secret trials leading to the death penalty.

Of course, opening up about the gravity field and mini black hole would probably only get the Empire interested in the mysterious return device.

(Anyway.)

“It’s so blatant. Are you even trying to hold a serious dialogue here?”

“You can tell?” The old man no longer tried to hide it. “This discussion never meant anything. Our glorious Empire would never compromise with some puny armed fleet. All we needed was an excuse to lure that foolish group’s leader into our grasp. Whoever that leader might be, we knew this would be much easier once your brain had been dealt with!!”

Every door leading into the meeting hall burst open.

Without warning.

They were armed with .45 caliber submachine guns. Deafening gunfire opened up from all sides sand Hokaze Junko leaped on top of Shokuhou. Without hesitation.

“…?”

But then the ringlets girl frowned in confusion.

Not a single bullet had flown her way.

Despite the excessive amount of gunfire.

The special commandos fully equipped with bulletproof jackets and helmets were standing stock still. None of them questioned that they had just diverted their line of fire clockwise by 15 degrees and sprayed their bullets into empty space.

Something more frightening than lead bullets ruled this battlefield.

It hadn’t even taken 5 seconds from their entry.

While enemy and ally watched on in awe, Shokuhou Misaki (knocked to the floor by Hokaze) kissed the tip of her TV remote.

She was Academy City’s #5.

Mental Out.

“Now do you understand?”

===Part 8===

Things on the surface didn’t look right.

Once all their aircraft had been refueled, Mikoto sent a transmission.

“Railgun 01 to all squadrons. The layout of surface vehicles looks strange… Based on the position of the armored vehicle girls, it looks like they’re blockading the roads leading away from the international meeting hall. Just to be safe, prepare for anti-surface attack suppo-”

“Misaka-saaan!! As I suspected, the negotiations fell through. I’m about to steal a car and escape to the harbor, so I’d love some air support ability!!”

The request arrived before they could make their preparations.

Mikoto frowned.

But not at the Empire’s actions.

“Are you really in middle school? Since when do you know how to drive? Are you sure you aren’t actually some old wom-”

“I don’t want to hear that from the girl holding a control column. I’m obviously going to brainwash an Imperial driver, so don’t you dare call me an old woman. I also managed to snag a chicken in the confusion, so we can replenish our eggs!”

Some kind of commotion was underway.

Specifically, a black bulletproof car shot out from the international meeting hall’s underground parking garage, flying off the slope like it was a ramp. It broke through the makeshift barricade and swerved out onto the main street. Anti-aircraft tanks (girls in gaudy military band uniforms) aimed an autocannon per hand at the car while blocking the road from nearby. They fired. But before the line of bullets could reach it, the car took a turn and used a building as a shield.

“Oh, she’s up on the surface!!”

Misaka Mikoto yanked her control column over to roll and then made a rapid turn.

If Shokuhou were alone, she might have made her wait as payback for so very much, but Hokaze was with her as a bodyguard.

“Damn, she’s using the same move I did. Is this what you call just deserts?”

“?”

Shokuhou was blissfully ignorant.

Before the anti-aircraft tanks could do anything more, Mikoto silenced them with some destructive autocannon fire from the sky. Then she twisted her fighter around to rapidly pursue Shokuhou’s fleeing car.

(The 1200m limit is over now. If I don’t descend between the buildings, the building winds and heat island updrafts will scatter my autocannon fire and possibly hit some civilians!!)

“Wow, that was a close one.”

“Kyah! Wait for me, Big Sis!”

The F-14Ds innocently followed her down.

“God, doesn’t it scare you to have some brainwashed driver at the wheel?” asked Mikoto.

“How is this any different from a self-driving car?” replied Shokuhou.

Meanwhile, the situation on the surface was changing.

And not in a good way.

Shirai’s panicked voiced arrived over the radio.

“Onee-sama, are you keeping track?”

“Um, well…”

Shokuhou had brainwashed an Imperial soldier and escaped in a stolen car, so she was in the same kind of bulletproof car driven by the enemy.

So while Mikoto could target the enemy with air-to-surface missiles, they would lock onto all of the Imperial vehicles. The IFF wouldn’t automatically distinguish between friend and foe.

…Which car was Shokuhou in again?

“Oh, hey, wait.”

The cars were approaching the kind of exceptionally complicated five-way intersection found in big cities.

The black bulletproof cars coming from different streets mixed together and shuffled themselves with some sharp drifting.

And Mikoto had the bad luck of some glare reflecting off a glass-covered skyscraper dazzling her vision in that moment.

Did it last 1 second? Not more than 2 seconds, she was fairly certain.

But now those black vehicles were all mixed together on the surface. Her eyes widened.

“Which one…is which!?”

“Try to pay attention!! Ugh, fine. I’ll give you a signal. I’ll shine a strobe light from my phone in the back seat, so look for that!!”

The car with a flashing light inside the bulletproof window was Shokuhou’s.

That let Mikoto tell them apart, but this might not last forever. For one, the strobe light used power. Mikoto just had to pray the phone’s battery didn’t die and that the Empire didn’t notice the regularity of the light and mimic it.

Then the row of thick bollards blocking off the entrance to a park was squashed like aluminum cans as something slowly emerged.

An infantry fighting vehicle.

Which looked like a giant military band girl.

The undercarriage (of her legs) had eight wheels, but she was also equipped with (by holding it in her right hand) the same big gun as a tank. A second before she could accurately target the bulletproof car with lasers and microwaves, Mikoto’s Shinshin dropped an air-to-surface missile with the force of a lightning strike.

It exploded.

“Hey!?” protested Shokuhou. “This car is rattling at a really high pitch and some of the armor was stripped away!!”

“What did you say? I can’t hear you over the static!? What was that about a high bitch? Finally come to terms with what you are?”

“Gyaohhhhhh!!”

Mikoto frowned at Shokuhou’s sudden roar over the radio.

“Just trust the specs of the stolen car, Shokuhou. If I hadn’t launched that missile, you and the car would’ve been flipped over by a 120mm cannon!!”

A few explosions and dust clouds formed out ahead.

Mikoto and the other fighters weren’t responsible.

The Empire was detonating their own bridges to cut off any escape route to the harbor. They apparently didn’t care that they were blowing up the people’s tax money.

“You need a new route!! You can’t trust any of the bridges. If you turn east, the river passes underground as a culvert, so you should be able to cross it there!”

That detour would give Shokuhou a viable route, but it would of course take time.

“By the way, Queen, when did you realize the Empire wasn’t to be trusted?”

“Right from the start. The F/A-18Es and F-117As flying overhead are both Girlish Weapons designed for air combat and ground attacks. For the stealth fighters, the air-to-air missiles are add-ons, not standard equipment. With their default equipment, they don’t even have a radar. So those were meant to ensure we can’t escape, not to patrol the skies.”

“Wow, nothing gets past you, Queen.”

(Why does she sound so smug about this? What’s so smart about soaking in the middle of a trap like it’s a hot spring?)

Mikoto sighed in exasperation.

But this was relevant to her situation. The F/A-18Es and F-117As meant there were enemies in the sky too.

“Railgun 01 to all squadrons. Watch out for the F-117As. They’re stealth fighters, so don’t rely too much on radar or you’ll miss them!!”

If she and the others focused too much on the ground, they could get shot down.

But…

“Brat 04 to Railgun 01, are you sure you want to start an air battle above a densely populated city!?”

“…”

Yes, defeating the enemy here would be easy enough, but hitting the enemy with a missile did not make their mass just disappear. And this was a city of 10 million. How many people would be harmed if a mass of a few dozen tons (that happened to be shaped like a giant girl) broke apart and fell into the city from an altitude where a single screw or nail could be deadly?

If they did nothing, they would be killed.

But if they acted without thinking, they would end up being killers themselves.

(What do we do!?)

===Part 9===

This was playing out as expected.

The Imperial Air Force’s F/A-18E smirked as she pursued the strange white aircraft. The enemy was unwilling to begin fighting above a city, so they were forced to focus on defense.

That prevented them from protecting the runaway car rushing toward the sea, but…

“Hm?”

Something drew her attention.

It wasn’t just the one.

There were around a dozen fleeing aircraft in all, but they had all scattered something behind them.

It looked like confetti but wasn’t. The substance reflecting the sunlight to glitter bright was in fact pieces of aluminum foil.

Was that all supposed to be chaff?

Chaff was emergency evasive equipment meant to help you escape from a radar-guided missile. It reflected the guidance signal to obstruct it.

The F/A-18E short-sleeve shirt and athletic bloomers girls and the F-117A bikini and raincoat girls had been ordered to perform a precision bombing of the city. They belonged to Imperial military. They needed to attack Shokuhou’s fleeing car, but they could not afford to have one of their guided missiles mistakenly blow away part of the capital.

(I don’t know how well that would actually confuse the guidance, but we can’t act until we check.)

However.

The F-117A, an early stealth fighter, spoke in a whisper.

“Shadow 01 to Toxin 01. Wh-what…do we do?”

“The aircraft are our top priority. The car is slow, so we can worry about it later. First, let’s shut off the tap on that chaff.”

Chaff was only a temporary evasive measure. Even when scattered at maximum density, the odds of it fooling a radar-guided missile were only about 50/50.

“My signal is reaching you, right? A minute after they stop scattering that stuff, the interference will fully clear. So we’ll have plenty of time to target that car once we shut off the tap and the radar clears!”

“Toxin 02 to 01. We’re going to attack them above the city?”

“They outnumber us, so we either shoot them down when we can, or they’ll shoot us down. If we say they attacked first, then we can blame them if anyone ends up getting hurt.”

The enemy’s white stealth fighter was juking side to side, but it wasn’t willing to make a counterattack, which made it a sitting duck.

The F/A-18E placed the cursor box over the fighter like the facial recognition box on a camera app and the lock on seeker began to pursue it. Once the two aligned, they lock would be complete. After dumping all that chaff, the enemy probably had no way to avoid a missile.

The F/A-18E’s young face displayed the sadism of someone tormenting a stranger.

“Hee hee hee, heh heh heh. C’mon, c’mon. If you don’t hurry up, I’ll fire this missile!!”

Then the giant girl frowned.

Because of her nose.

She smelled sea salt.

She had passed the concrete boundary line.

Which meant she was past the harbor and fully outside Frustburg.

Over the sea.

“Ah.”

The F-2A and YF-22A following her both launched missiles that instantly shot her down.



Mikoto breathed a long sigh after using her Shinshin as bait.

The plan had worked.

After being “lucky” enough to visually detect the Shinshin despite its high stealth capabilities keeping it off radar, the enemy would of course want to make sure to attack and shoot it down before losing sight of it.

Once the enemy group had been lured out over the ocean, there was nothing to stop Mikoto’s group.

(This is our one and only chance! We can’t let them get back over the city!!)

Mikoto’s Shinshin turned sharply around. It directed its nose toward the F/A-18Es and F-117As that had been leisurely following after it.

From head on.

Given their relative speed, they would pass each other in an instant.

But Mikoto launched two missiles and fired her autocannon.

After a short delay, multiple explosions erupted behind her.

“Railgun 01, three down!!”

“Brat 04, one down for me.”

“I missed.”

“Leave it to me, Teleport 02. I’ll finish them off!”

While flying a crescent moon style evasive maneuver to escape an air-to-air missile, it was hard to rapidly switch to a new direction. Mikoto locked on and shot down the F-117A while it was restricted by its powerful inertial gs.

This all took less than two minutes. But the chaff scattered over the city would have already been swept away by the wind.

The enemy fighters were gone, but clearing the sky wasn’t enough.

This was all meaningless if they couldn’t get Shokuhou and Hokaze back aboard the motorboat that would carry them back to the camouflaged carrier and landing ship.

Mikoto made a sharp turn back toward the city.

Multiple black bulletproof cars were approaching the harbor.

“Railgun 01 to all squadrons, prepare for ground attack. Any car without a strobe light in the back seat is hostile. Commence attack!!”

===Part 10===

Somehow they had survived.

Once the aircraft were retrieved, Camouflaged Carrier Izanami and Landing Ship Izanagi departed.

The Imperial warships did not immediately fire on them. They must have truly only been for show and weren’t prepared for immediate action.

But Mikoto and the rest had to beat a quick retreat. The Empire had never intended to agree to a ceasefire and this entire battle had been a waste of effort.

26 days remained.

That limit couldn’t be fast-forwarded or rewound. If they didn’t consider how they would survive until then, their ships would be sunk before they could return to Earth.

But…

“Phew.”

Looks like we can finally begin our counterattack.”

“Why are you the only one here who looks remotely satisfied, schemer? Read the room. Don’t you get our situation here?”

“Misaka-saaan. I think you’re the one who doesn’t understand our situation. This is another world, which means Academy City and its esper development doesn’t exist here.”

“?”

Mikoto was about to ask why that mattered, but the Queen smiled darkly.

“That means they don’t know espers exist and won’t have any countermeasures in place to stop them. Now, Misaka-san, care to remind me what my power is?”

“Don’t tell me…”

Level 5 Mental Out.

The strongest psychological esper.

Even if it was to catch her in a trap, the Empire had badly miscalculated in appearing before that monster in person.

(Was this what the dorm manager meant by using our heads?)

That glasses woman loved to act like a responsible adult, but apparently she was as much a schemer as the Queen.

Shokuhou Misaki grinned.

“All the damn soldiers invited to that international meeting hall were the top brass at the center of their military, so I thought I would start by giving us a foothold there. Of course, if I have them act too strangely or stupidly, they’ll be kicked out, but if I play my cards right, I might just be able to cause that massive empire to collapse from within☆”

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