Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth1 (section)

===Part 14===

In an instant.

In only an instant, the entire situation had been turned on its head.

Just by getting up and standing straight, the 1800m Ruler nearly collided with an F/A-18E flying in the sky above.

Her long, long hair swept around.

She lifted one leg from the ground. She gathered momentum around her hips and swung herself around with her heel swinging horizontally around her.

She threw a roundhouse kick.



Her foot gathered all the surrounding air to transform into a colossal hammer.



“Kyah!”

“Mama 01 to Kitty 02! The air current was stripped from your main wing and you’ve stalled. First, spread your variable-sweep wing wide and then calmly reignite your engine. Hurry!!”

Their entire wing of aircraft might as well have been leaves tossed in the wind. Being hit wasn’t the only threat. They could easily crash without even being hit.

Mikoto heard a shrill whistling sound.

It came from the corner of the naked girl’s mouth.

That was a breath.

She had filled her lungs with the oxygen she had lost. She had recovered her full strength.

Which made it her turn.

“Teleport 02 to Railgun 01. What do we do?”

“…”

“Onee-sama!!”

The situation was deteriorating by the second.

They had to recover their advantage as soon as possible.

Mikoto knew that, but her brain refused to give her any ideas.

She couldn’t find a solution!!

And then…

“Hey, T-90A to all you dumbasses in the sky and sea. You should really start thinking about making a quick retreat.”

“Railgun 01. This is our last chance. We can’t run away leaving the Ruler here! I don’t want that regret weighing on my mind!!”

“Count yourself lucky you’ll be able to regret it. We can’t move from the land here, so there’s no way we can escape her.”

“!?”

Mikoto gasped.

A supersonic fighter was certainly a lot faster than a tank traveling on the ground. While the destroyers might be able to escape by heading out to sea, the tanks would be stranded on land with the Ruler. She would eventually catch up to them.

And what would happen then?

Mikoto didn’t want to think about it.

“No…this can’t be happening!!”

“Don’t sweat it… We were considered destroyed in the last battle, so the end result is the same.”

“Destroyer Sheffield to our dangerous neighbors. Don’t worry about us. We won’t leave you behind.”

“Wait…”

“Besides, we do have to buy enough time for every last one of my adorable corvettes to escape. …So let us buy you some time. You and your carrier can escape along with my adorable corvettes.”

“Don’t just change the objective like that!! We need to win and all return alive!!!” shouted Mikoto.

There was no weight behind her shout. That was only a baseless fantasy. Her words rang hollow and sounded so unrealistic.

She could sense where this was headed.

Things were trending in a bad direction.

At this rate, they would all be split up.

The tanks and other ground forces were a lost cause. Could the destroyers and corvettes escape her with their speed? For that matter, who said they were safe out at sea? The Ruler’s 1800m height meant she could just walk along the ocean bottom as long as she didn’t reach a decent-sized ocean trench. And even if her feet couldn’t reach the bottom, there was always the chance that she could swim with the crawl or the breaststroke.

That meant escaping to the Izanami or Charles de Gaulle didn’t mean much of anything.

In fact, if they directed her attention out to sea, she could sink the carrier fleet by either throwing a boulder or stirring up the sea to produce towering waves.

The operation had been a failure. From the initial planning phase. The fighters were mostly loaded with thermobaric explosives, so there was just no way they could defeat the massive Ruler with their autocannons and what few air-to-air missiles they had.

Was there nothing?

Nothing at all?

Feeling trapped in the dark, Mikoto searched desperately for a way out into the light.

And.

She remembered something she had forgotten. Wasn’t there one question they still hadn’t answered?

Mikoto raised her head to look up past the canopy.



Mounted Railgun S.



(That’s right.)

The 19m railgun mounted on the Shinshin had provided the only effective counterattack during the scouting mission.

It hadn’t harmed the Ruler.

It had been far from a decisive blow.

But why had she flinched?

It had only happened with that attack.

It didn’t make sense.

(There must be more to it. There’s something we still don’t get. I don’t know how to use it yet, but I’ve had the most important key in my hands all along!!)