Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth6 (section)

===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.”