Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth2 (section)

===Part 2===

They needed to hide themselves to some extent.

From the enemy and from the Izanami and Izanagi. They couldn’t have the Izanami joining them after working so hard to divert the Cutalularia Republic and United States of Narmeli’s attention away from them.

Of course, Shirai, Hokaze, and the rest would likely run a search within flight range of the Izanami. They couldn’t have the Shinshin visible from the air.

That was why they couldn’t compromise with a jungle runway or parking lot and had to rent a roofed hangar.

“Phew…”

Mikoto sighed softly after changing into a swimsuit.

It was a pink one piece with frills in places.

She had bought that with money too.



The sun shined in a sky so blue it looked like a bluescreen for chroma keying.



13 days remained.

With the threat of ballistic missiles mostly eliminated, Mikoto stared up into the sky and thought.

They had less than two weeks left.

The Liheilstaut Empire could no longer function, but the world was still a dangerous place. Was there anything she could do to eliminate that pressure?

“…”

Mikoto was in the Adeleden Sky Pirate Port, which was located in a coastal jungle at the south of the continent. Boxy concrete roofs stuck up from the deep green in places. An airfield runway had been paved directly on the beach and the sandy ocean bottom had been dug out to allow warship (girls) to dock at a temporary port. Around all that, the tunnel of dense trees hid hundreds if not thousands of small houses and shops made from containers or bungalows.

Of course, those trees didn’t seem like enough to prevent aerial detection of such a large facility.

Most likely, whoever was in charge was paying off the soldiers to keep quiet about it.

Mikoto looked down at her frilly swimsuit.

“Was this really necessary?”

“Of course☆ When going undercover, you need to wear what the locals wear. Everyone would know we don’t belong if we wore our Tokiwadai uniforms or that flight suit.”

Shokuhou, who wore a gaudy bikini, said this while viewing the small destroyers (eyepatch girls) who were docked at the temporary port and were now being used as work boats for illegal undersea mining. …That exhibitionist idiot just wanted to show off her own body, didn’t she? Mikoto was pretty sure the whole thing would come off if they ran into trouble and had to start running. Just slip right off of her.

“So what now?” asked Mikoto.

“We have two options. First, we hop from Sky Pirate Port to Sky Pirate Port, doing everything we can to keep outside of Hokaze-san and the others’ search range. Second, we stay in one Sky Pirate Port and search out information.”

“Search it out how?”

“This place is full of delinquent and runaway soldiers from the Empire, Republic, and United States, so it might be loaded with rumors related to the weaknesses of the world powers.”

Of course, even if someone here was hiding some important secret, they wouldn’t let it slip so easily. But the two of them each had a way of cheating.



Misaka Mikoto could neutralize any electronic lock or password to steal data from computers and mobile devices.



Shokuhou Misaki could read people’s minds or the residual thoughts they left on objects to steal their secrets.



Mikoto had already known the answer even as she asked the question.

…If they could find some kind of Achilles heel they could threaten the world powers with, they could keep Shirai and the others safe.

“Let’s start by gathering all the information we can here in Adeleden. We can escape whenever we need to.”

“Sounds good to me☆”

And so it was time to gather information.

If they only wanted to extract whatever they could, it would be best to head somewhere crowded.

They got right to it.

“Apparently the Cutalularia Republic’s hot climate means it has the fewest buried Frozen Fossils out of the world powers.”

“?”

Shokuhou had said “apparently”.

It wasn’t clear whose mind she had read while passing them by in this crowd, but she whispered to Mikoto while walking the underground city in a gaudy bikini and with a remote in hand.

“So they’ve only managed to keep up with the Empire and United States by making more efficient use of the limited materials they can find deep in caves. They use low corporate tax rates to attract large corporations and then absorb all their technology.”

“That system sounds like it would cause a lot of problems…”

“Of course it does. They have more than 30 groups who came from outside the country, so their people have a mix of origins and ethnicities. You can’t except them to have much in the way of patriotism or national identity for the Republic.”

According to Shokuhou, Cutalularia called itself a Republic, but all of that mess meant they hadn’t been able to decide on a prime minister or president for a long time.

So they instead had a “director” who led the country in an interim capacity.

It was probably to avoid running afoul of any ethnic conflict, but that title didn’t sound much like a politician. Still, that was apparently who was at the top.

“if they recruited soldiers, they would end up with different internal groups forming and fighting each other, so they have instead worked on advancing the use of unmanned weapons.”

…Unmanned weapons. The Academy City ones had been able to attack the surface from the sky and even dogfight in a way that would make an acrobatic pilot go pale in the face, but how advanced was that technology in this world?

“But wait. Don’t the Girlish Weapons already think for themselves and fight on their own? What good is turning them into drones?”

“Don’t ask me.”

That mental maze was cut off by the yelling voice of a young woman in a bikini, miniskirt, and a pirate like hate and eyepatch.

“I’ve got some real bargains for you here! This isn’t like that rusty junk you’ll find on the online auctions. I’ve got a Centauro II and a Rafale that were damaged and abandoned after a collision during a transport job in the Republic! How did I get my hands on them!? We’ll all be a lot happier if you just don’t ask that! This quality for this price isn’t something you’re going to find every day! Any takers!?”

An eight-wheeled vehicle with a big gun and a delta wing fighter (both shaped like giant girls) were being sold in the market like it was normal.

“Ugh, I hate being an imposition. I hope I can find regular work soon.”

“Who wants to be my next master?”

Mikoto recoiled at first, thinking she was seeing human trafficking, but the Girlish Weapons looked unbothered and made no attempt to escape. It looked more like the giant girls were searching for their next employer.

Mikoto pretended to be inspecting the human-sized guns and giant Girlish Weapons while she actually copied the contents of the arms dealers’ computers onto her phone. Surreptitiously, of course. Nothing could stop her thanks to her power to directly control electricity.

It looked like those arms dealers primarily dealt in Girlish Weapons. Selling handguns, ammunition, and other human-use weapons was considered gang work while it was the professionals who sold armored trucks, attack helicopters, and such (all shaped like giant girls, of course).

But…

“Hm? There’s a lot these files don’t cover.”

“I’m not a weirdo freak like you who can directly read the 0s and 1s straight from the semiconductors, so you’re going to have to use your words ability to share that information with me.”

The arms merchants’ laptops and tablets contained several manuals and texts on the maintenance and use of the Girlish Weapons, but there was nothing explaining what exactly the crucial Frozen Fossils were. It was like finding a lot of information brushing up on the topic, but nothing on the topic itself.

After hearing that explanation, Shokuhou (in a bikini that made it look like she had lost a bet) put a hand on her hip in exasperation.

“Or maybe not even the people who use the Girlish Weapons know what they are.”

“Is that possible?”

“You fought alongside the captured fighters, didn’t you? But can you explain ''what exactly'' a Girlish Weapon is? You don’t need to be able to provide a fundamental definition if all you’re doing is using them.”

Yeah, that was true.

But the Girlish Weapons were made from military cells, which were extracted from the Frozen Fossils dug up from the ground. Frozen Fossils, some kind of natural frozen meat, were the most crucial resource for building the tanks, fighters, and warships needed to win the struggle for supremacy over the continent.

The frozen part made sense.

But what exactly were they fossils ''of''?