Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth3 (section)

===Part 3===

It was still before dawn when Misaka Mikoto was woken by a deafening noise.

It wasn’t the roar of a fighter’s engines.

It was an electronic tone. Like a fire alarm or a siren.

“Ugh!!”

She groaned in bed, but the sound didn’t end even after she waited a bit.

Throwing a cardigan on over her pajamas, she staggered out of her cabin. No one could sleep with this going on, so quite a few girls were poking their heads out of their cabins to see what was going on.

“Wh-what is that?”

“I don’t know,” said Mikoto before remembering that, as much as this part looked like a gorgeous and luxurious cruise ship, they were in fact aboard a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Hopefully this wasn’t trouble with the nuclear part.

Accompanied by an extremely sleepy looking Shokuhou (wearing a horrible sheer negligee), Kobayashi approached while operating a tablet.

“This is an emergency alarm. Apparently the problem is related to the maintenance hangar.”

In fact, the problem was some metal objects that had been fixed along the wall in front of the maintenance hangar in order to keep them out of the way. They were each about the size of a vaulting box and more than ten of them lined the corridor.

Together, they functioned as a transformer used to regulate a high-voltage electric current. Mikoto didn’t know if it had been on the Izanami to begin with or if Kongou and the others had installed it while modifying the electromagnetic catapult.

A faint smoky smell hung in the air.

And the disconcerting sound of popping electricity.

There was a short.

“W-without these…the catapult won’t work,” said a dazed Kongou, who spent all her time in here. She was slumped down with her hand still on an alarm with its protective glass broken.

Mikoto knew what this had to mean.

For an aircraft carrier, that device was like its dominant hand. She doubted the aircraft they had here were enough to defeat a world power like the United States or the Republic, but their situation felt so much more hopeless if they couldn’t launch any of those aircraft.

The captured Girlish Weapon F-35B might be able to make a vertical takeoff, but that was just one aircraft. They couldn’t expect much more than reconnaissance from her. She could only carry so many missiles, so she could be overwhelmed by superior numbers even if each individual enemy was inferior.

This left Tokiwadai as a whole defenseless.

Also…

“Is that a soy sauce based seasoning? Come to think of it, there were several industrial-sized containers of it in the ship’s galley.”

Mikoto had noticed the powerful scent but hadn’t commented on it, but Hokaze came out and mentioned it.

The place was soaked.

The air felt as heavy as lead.

This was no accident. And the seasoning had burned onto the machinery, making repairs more difficult than with simple water. Someone in Tokiwadai had intentionally tried to destroy the homemade transformer for the electromagnetic catapult.

There was a traitor in their midst.

Mikoto looked to the maintenance hangar. YF-22A, the giant girl in a long-sleeved leotard, was in there, but she only gave Mikoto a puzzled look in response.

She must not have seen anything.

The transformer was right in a blind spot. And the exit was too narrow for the fighter-sized Girlish Weapon, so she couldn’t even stick her head through to take a peek. That too seemed intentional.

A heavy mood hung in the air.

Kobayashi clasped her hands in front of her chest, forced a smile, and encouraged everyone. To keep them from freezing up.

“A-anyway, we’ll just have to repair it. Fortunately, the electrical system only got some seasoning on it, so we should be able to-”

“How?” asked Kongou, her head still lowered. “How can you be so sure the damage isn’t worse than that? Unless you were here when it happened.”

“Eh?”

Kobayashi didn’t catch the implication at first.

She also failed to notice the people around her pulling back like a receding wave when Kongou glared at her.

“Thinking back, it never made sense. Kobayashi-san, you knew too much. You knew when the dam was about to break, you knew about the Empire’s supposedly secret deal for Frozen Fossils, and you knew exactly how much damage the ballistic missiles caused.”

“Only because I’m usually the one in charge of radar and communications…”

“And you intercepted encrypted transmissions down in the CIC? You couldn’t find all those details from a scattering of messages. Not unless you were communicating with an outside force like the United States of Narmeli or the Cutalularia Republic!”

The air seemed to freeze.

Kobayashi hadn’t expected this at all, so her mouth flapped wordlessly a few times before she got her voice out.

“That’s…that’s absurd! I’ve never even set foot on the continent. How would I secretly get in contact with someone I’ve never even seen?”

“You have all that communication equipment, don’t you? And it’s the professional stuff that can support an entire fleet.”

The first shot had been fired.

And once one person began to doubt, it was hard to stop.

“If you could receive encrypted transmissions, you could send them too. You struck a deal with someone you’d never met without ever taking a step outside the CIC. Was it for money? Or power? Or maybe they’ve already decided when they’ll launch their ballistic missile attack on the Izanami and you agreed to sabotage us in exchange for helping you escape to safety in a submarine or something.”

The tension in the air was palpable.

This was all just wishful thinking. Kongou was only looking for some kind of escape route. But that one drop of hope stimulated the other girls with that entirely fictional story.

Kobayashi shouldn’t have faltered.

When suspicion turned to the communication equipment, she should have demanded Kongou provide evidence from the usage logs or recording tapes. The burden of proof lay on the one making an accusation, not the other way around.

But she didn’t.

So Kongou leaned forward and raised her voice.

“You and only you had a reason to destroy the carrier’s catapult. For anyone else, it’s nothing but suicide!!”

Most likely, the fact that the entire hangar deck hadn’t been trashed by an esper power meant the sabotage had been done by someone who knew a fair amount about how the catapult worked. So wouldn’t the most likely candidate be…Kongou? But no. She wasn’t a good enough liar to cause a scene like this in order to cover her tracks.

“…”

“…”

But Mikoto suspected it was one of the two swim team members who were always assisting Kongou with her work: Wannai and Awatsuki.

One look at their pale faces as they huddled together a short distance away was enough to know that.

Of course, they hadn’t done it because they were working for the United States of Narmeli or the Cutalularia Republic. They had probably thought it would be best if the Izanami lost its ability to fight. They probably naively assumed the world powers would cease to see them as a threat if they couldn’t fight anymore.

Mikoto had no proof.

It was all speculation. And in this unusual situation, stating a guess that came to mind would only end with others asking for evidence and proof.

She couldn’t let this continue.

Mikoto scratched her head and called a name.

“Shokuhou.”

“Mental Out? Don’t bother! Kobayashi-san is Shokuhou-sama’s friend, so she would just say she looked in her mind and found she was innocent, but is that true? Who knows!”

Kongou immediately snapped at her.

As if she were afraid to have control of the conversation taken from her.

But Mikoto had successfully shifted the focus from Kobayashi to herself.

Mikoto gave a quick nod to Kobayashi who had frozen up a short distance away.

Kongou failed to notice and spoke while red in the face.

Although that flush may have come from an emotion other than anger.

“Kobayashi-san and Shokuhou-sama are in the same clique. And come to think of it, it doesn’t make sense that you, the #5, would fail to notice what was happening. Yes, that’s it. I bet it wasn’t just Kobayashi-san. The entire Shokuhou Clique was in on it!”

It wasn’t a bad argument.

With Mental Out and any psychological esper power, it was crucial to maintain the trust of those around you.

That scheming Queen would be well aware of that.

But in this case…

“That’s not possible.”

“And why not, Misaka-sama!?”

“The Shokuhou Clique is the largest group in Tokiwadai.”

“If you think being outnumbered will silence me, you are sorely mistaken!”

“It isn’t that. It’s a miracle we can run this giant carrier at all with less than 200, so what would happen if the largest clique went on strike?”

“Oh.”

Kongou froze.

That she could rationally assess that question suggested she wasn’t motivated by anger here. She was yet another victim influenced by the risk of a ballistic missile attack.

“Shokuhou wouldn’t need to order Kobayashi-san to sabotage the catapult in the night. If she raises the white flag, the carrier stops. But she didn’t do that. I don’t know who is behind the damage to the catapult’s transformer, but I am confident the Shokuhou Clique as a whole isn’t responsible.”

“…”

“So what reason does Shokuhou have to lie about what Mental Out tells her? She doesn’t have one, does she? If she did want to stop the carrier, she wouldn’t have to hide it.”