Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume8 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

Kamijou’s group slowly drove the mobile combat vehicle through the District 6 amusement park.

There was a biting chill outside, but the cramped vehicle was filled with the sweet warmth of girls.

In the commander’s seat, Anna made occasional adjustments to the self-driving while she messed with the communications. Kamijou thought she was accessing a civilian frequency to listen to the radio, but she was apparently watching an online TV station displayed in a corner of the touchscreen. How much could she access with that thing?

“Today is January 4. Good morning and welcome to the Children’s Q&A Advice Show. You’re in for a treat because today’s New Year’s special is two hours long☆ Now, our first Scype call is a question from Azumi-chan, a 2nd grader from District 13. Happy New Year, Azumi-chan. What is it you want to know?”

“H-Happy New Year. Um, why do you catch a cold when it’s cold out?”

“That’s actually a really interesting question, Azumi-chan. But first I need to correct a misunderstanding there. It’s hard to tell because they’re too small to see, but colds are caused by germs you can find floating in the air any time of year. We see more cold patients in the winter because the air is drier. See, people have something called an immune system and…”

“Hee hee,” someone laughed.

It was Anna Sprengel with her hand over her mouth. It was an unusually gentle laugh for her how harsh she tended to be. It lacked her usual edge.

“Excellent. She honestly asks the question on her mind and then listens to the answer. She earns a perfect 100 as a student.”

“Really?”

“You need to be careful, you dull fool. All of you fools like to ask the question before even trying to think for yourselves. Instead, you need to listen, work to comprehend what you have learned, and – if you still do not understand – gather up what you know, put it in your own words, and feel no shame about asking. That is what I call perfect.”

So did he have to learn to act like a 7 or 8 year old to please Miss Sprengel? That honestly sounded way too hard.

“The problem isn’t how much or how little knowledge you have.”

Anna elegantly crossed her legs in the highest seat, rested her elbow on the armrest, and her head in her hand.

And she whispered in Demon Lord mode.

“Knowledge you never use grows rusty. If you avoid writing a word for fear of misspelling it, you really will forget how to spell it before long. So the greatest barrier to true knowledge is the silly pride that believes you are too good to study and master the fundamentals. Feel no shame, learner. The textbook lies before you. It might look intimidating, but your predecessors have proven that you will eventually achieve mastery if you take it slow and complete each step in turn. You must not skip past the basics and immediately attempt the practical side. Even worse is to fail to realize you have given up on thinking, fail to learn a single thing, and find all you have left is an inflated sense of pride.”

This advice had arrived unexpectedly.

He needed to listen, work to comprehend, and if he still didn’t understand, gather his knowledge, put it in his own words, and ask without shame.

Kamijou decided to put Anna’s advice to practice.

“So…what were you hoping to accomplish?”

“I didn’t have a lofty goal like guiding all of humanity in the right direction.”

Miss Sprengel’s thoughts had been transported elsewhere while she listened to that innocent exchange on the radio.

And the words spilled from her lips now.

“I wanted to share what I had if it could quench people’s thirst for knowledge. But only if they sought that knowledge in the proper way. In the end, that never came to pass. The incomplete knowledge I brought them only created hopeless conflict and self-proclaimed geniuses who arrogantly mocked everyone they met.”

“Let’s see,” continued the radio show. “Next we have Shunta-kun, a 4th grader from District 7.”

“Gyah! Wah!!”

“U-um, Shunta-kun? Shunta-kuuun?”

“What- ah ha ha! Wait, it’s about to start- (wham thud!!) Did you hear that!? Kya ha ha! Ah ha ha ha!!”

“…”

“You don’t have to get that upset!” shouted Kamijou. “It’s not like he’s your kid!!”

Kamijou quickly restrained little Anna who looked so furious she might utter a mysterious curse that not even the Anglicans were familiar with.

“That pissed me off almost as much as those self-proclaimed geniuses in the Golden cabal.”

“I’m really not sure what to say about that, but should I update my mental image of them?”

“Pant, pant. M-Miss Host,” said a new voice on the radio. “I’m a 47-year-old baby. Hee hee. C-can you tell me where babies come from? Bweh heh heh heh.”

“Yikes!” shouted the host. “H-how did this call get past the screening!? Producer!!”

“Anna? Him you can curse,” said Kamijou, staring into the distance and feeling very glad he didn’t have to deal with a live broadcast.

Maybe everyone just had too much time on their hands while forced to stay home all day. Choosing to stay home during the holiday and being told you couldn’t leave the house were two very different things.

(This martial law thing is scary. I never thought being able to go where you want could feel like a luxury.)

Anna wasn’t driving their vehicle at full speed, but not because she was focused on the online TV show playing on the screen.

“I don’t trust the quality of the pavement on private property. Worse, this looks like tile, not asphalt. I hope we don’t break through all of a sudden.”

“Break through to where?”

“That question earns you 0 points. You didn’t even try to think first.” The little wicked woman’s voice was ice cold. “There is more to an amusement park than what meets the eye. There is a lot built underground like the giant motors and industrial power transformers for the thrill rides. For example…yes. Just imagine it, fool. Have you ever seen an amusement park with power lines strung up overhead? Any realistic equipment that would break the illusion are buried underfoot.”

Was that how it worked?

Kamijou took a look at the monitor Anna was messing with.

“But it looks like the Ferris wheel and the other rides are all stopped. Is it just too early in the morning?”

“You have a fool’s imagination. The attractions are put through test runs before the park opens to ensure safety, so amusement parks are actually quite busy early in the morning.”

Anna poked at the touchscreen as she answered. The exasperated sigh was quickly becoming her default state. She was probably making an adjustment to the self-driving, but the lack of a steering wheel made it hard to think of her as operating a vehicle.

Their motionless surroundings made it look like the giant amusement park had frozen in the winter cold.

But did that mean the martial law was to blame? The amusement park was district-wide private property, so if the people at the top – the management? – decided to shut it down, it could be shut down in a matter of seconds.

“But aren’t there a lot of people here? This has facial recognition boxes popping up all over!”

“Do not breathe on me in your panic, fool. Do it again and I will shove yellow mustard paste down your dickhole.”

“I would’ve thought a wicked woman would understand male anatomy better than that! Do that and it would explode!!”

“It makes sense to me,” said Aradia, also sounding exasperated.

Kamijou bristled at the thought of her shoving something in there too, but that wasn’t what she was talking about.

“You can demand people stay home all you want, but some people are going to head out regardless.”

It was before the park even opened, so these people weren’t breaking the rules to enjoy a day at this land of dreams. They appeared to be here for work. About half seemed to be park staff and half seemed to be truckers. The sudden declaration of martial law hadn’t shut down District 17’s unmanned factories (because no one had to show up for work there) and what were they supposed to do about the cakes, twisted donuts, and other park exclusive foods they had prepared the day before? Maybe it was a good thing Kamijou’s group had left the gas station early on Aradia’s suggestion.

Anna shut off the online TV show and displayed the outside footage on the full monitor.

“Wow. Hey, Anna, what are things like outside? The lack of windows scares me.”

“Foolish fool. There is a periscope linked with a camera at your seat. That is the loader’s seat, so it has secondary 360-degree observation equipment separate from the gunner’s.”

“If you say so.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………You’re the one who asked.”

“Wait, no, put that yellow tube away! You lost me at the peri-whatever part!! And unlike with my phone, I can’t exactly learn how this equipment works through trial and error! I could press the wrong button and launch some weapon or another!!”

“It’s called a periscope. You know, like on a submarine? Oh, are my words converting properly here?”

Aradia was actually speaking a mystery language called “common tones” rather than Japanese, but she still helped him out like a kind older sister. The way he could actually hear her saying two different things at once was kind of scary.

“Coddle him like that and his foolishness will only grow.”

“I didn’t start it. You can blame a certain Magic God for that one.”

Anna had no interest in a child with no drive to learn, so she ended up doing everything on her own. She poked her fingers boredly at the thin touchscreen from the commander’s seat.

“I’m still scared, Anna. Can’t you let me see outside too?”

“Sigh. Do you never shut up, fool? Here.”

Anna stood up from the commander’s seat and let him take it. He was worried about her leaving the controls, but she seemed fine reaching in from the side to make the necessary adjustments.

So the spiky-haired boy sat in the warm commander’s seat.

Then something happened.

Little Anna sat down in his lap.

What now? He was seriously unsure where to put his hands.

He ended up holding them overhead.

She also seemed weirdly smooth, so he looked down to discover she only had her baggy dress held up at her chest. This was more than he could have imagined. Her defenses from the rear were as nonexistent as with a naked apron!

His eyes widened further when Miss Sprengel did not hesitate to lean back against him.

“Um, Anna-san?”

“I’m kind of busy right now, so stay still. I don’t have time for questions. Besides, I doubt a fool like you would learn much from looking at the screen.”

“I thought you were being unusually accommodating, but you’re still upset, aren’t you?”

“Oh? Finally figured something out on your own, did you? Good job. I’ll have you know I am the type to hold a grudge.”

Kamijou felt a kick at the base of the seat bolted to the floor.

He looked over to see Aradia refusing to look his way. Nothing he did got any reaction out of her.

But he had bigger worries.

He took a look at the screen past Anna’s head and noticed a shocking development.

Ice filled his stomach.

“Those aren’t workers, are they? I knew Anti-Skill would be here. Yikes, that’s a lot!! And they have tanks!!”

The deep rumble of diesel engines approached from up ahead. One would be bad enough, but this was several lined up in a column.

Little Anna sighed in a bored way.

“Those are not tanks. They are infantry fighting vehicles.”

“What’s the difference? And that longer name sounds stronger if you ask me!”

“How many times must I remind you to think before you ask a question, fool? These are only about half the weight of a tank and they only use smaller guns with barrels the size of a clothesline pole. Those are 35mm autocannons. They might as well be peashooters compared to a 120mm. And the armor is aluminum to keep them lightweight enough for air transport.”

“Y-you mean they’re lower grade than ordinary tanks?”

“Yes, I do. Although they can still punch right through the Predator Octopus’s armor since it’s only armored vehicle class.”

“So I should still be terrified!!”

A sweet tremor ran through small Anna’s back while she sat in his lap. The wicked woman was apparently willing to be riddled with bullets if it let her torment Kamijou like this.

A convoy of tanks(?), armored vehicles, and military trucks arrived from up ahead. But they must have already been here. If not for the many military vehicles driving around this private property like they owned the place, the Predator Octopus would have aroused suspicion among the workers.

If Kamijou’s group was discovered, it would mean a battle, but the amusement park employees were all around. Not to mention that the Anti-Skill officers were all teachers.

If that deep siren began to sound, it was all over.

Aradia rubbed her bare feet together while still occupying the gunner’s seat. That was how she used her magic. The look on her face said she was willing to take action at a moment’s notice.

Kamijou gulped, but Anna casually flashed the headlights. Drawing attention to themselves like that sent ice down Kamijou’s spine, but the other vehicles returned the greeting in kind.

And they continued on.

The siren remained silent.

Apparently their identity wasn’t apparent from the vehicle’s exterior.

Did that mean it was better to move around like they belonged than to sneak in the shadows like a ninja?

Kamijou took another look around and saw a lot of Anti-Skill beyond the fixed checkpoints. They were stopping their vehicles in the area and receiving large artillery shells from the gunless tanks.

“Those are specialized ammo supply vehicles, fool. I believe they reused the same frame.”

“I feel like it would be more efficient to do this in the city.”

Was the risk of accidents lower if they kept things simple?

Anti-Skill was also gathering carts loaded with the kind of metal trays seen at all-you-can-eat buffets. More than hold food, they appeared to also heat the food with a heating element, allowing for cooking. The adults were gathering around and receiving breakfast from a strange vehicle that Anna smugly explained was a field kitchen. Unlike the students at school, they formed an orderly line without any fighting. ''This martial law thing is just like being at war,'' thought Kamijou (one of their prime targets), which would have angered certain people had they heard it. Anti-Skill really did look more like soldiers than schoolteachers here.

After nonchalantly driving by, Anna bit her thumbnail in his lap.

“Don’t relax yet, fool. They will discover who we are eventually. A military vehicle not found on the central datalink’s timetable is wandering around and loaded with live ammunition, after all.”

And there was no real reason they had to get through this without being discovered.

The fuse had already been lit. They only had to reach District 15 before the explosion.

“?”

The Predator Octopus came to a slow stop.

Not even Kamijou had to ask why.

He lowered Anna from his lap and grabbed the ladder. He opened the hatch and poked his head out to view the 50m-wide obstacle blocking their way.

“A river.”

“Failing to find the right answer while looking right at it is unusual indeed, fool. That is technically a canal since it was intentionally dug by the amusement park.”

Anna’s voice pursued him through the hatch smaller than a manhole.

River or canal, the 20tn mobile combat vehicle could not float in water. Crossing would require using one of the bridges and bridges were crucial for transportation. There was of course more than one, but even from here he could tell Anti-Skill had checkpoints set up on all of them.

They had built barricades from steel beams and barbed wire and they were shining large construction site lights. They also had the firepower of tanks and armored vehicles at their disposal. Were those stacks of boxes full of ammunition?

Approaching any of those bridges would be a bad idea.

Kamijou looked down into the vehicle which had become an oddly warm and sweet girl zone.

“Could we drive right by them in this vehicle like we did before?”

“That may have looked simple to an ignorant fool, but that was a risky gamble. And at an official checkpoint, they will not even let their own people through without an ID check for the vehicle and its occupants. Try it there and we will be exposed and forced to fight. …Which will lead the Bridge Builders Cabal and Kingsford right to us.”

Anna was right. If they could drive right through, they wouldn’t have had such a hard time last night either.

“If they’re watching all the bridges…oh, I know. Could we create a floating bridge or something?”

“With some wooden boxes and ropes we find lying around? I do appreciate the attempt to think for yourself, but anything sturdy enough to allow a 20tn vehicle across would be extremely conspicuous, fool.”

Aradia seemed unusually happy given he was letting the cold air in through the open hatch.

“Ugh, I can’t resist any longer. Move aside so I can get some fresh air too.”

“Wait, Aradia, there’s no room!”

With two of them, the small hatch was cramped indeed. There was only one ladder to stand on, so it was a lot like having two people crammed onto the same side of a kotatsu. What was she, a kind but weirdly careless big sister?

They were practically in each other’s arms while Aradia took a deep breathe of the chilly air.

But…

“What are you looking at, Aradia?”

“The park workers. They do us a great service by giving witches a positive image of magic and dreams, so I need to make sure they’ll be alright.”

''But you don’t care about Anti-Skill?'' wondered Kamijou, but did that mean he was too distracted by their surroundings? When he thought about it, if a normal person came to the amusement park, they wouldn’t be here to see the armed enemy force.

“For me, people watching is more than just a hobby.”

“?”

Kamijou looked puzzled, so Aradia changed the subject to the main topic at hand.

“Couldn’t we abandon this vehicle, cross the river on our own, and steal a different military vehicle on the opposite bank? This 8-wheeled thing can be remotely controlled to an extent, can’t it? We can send it into one of those dangerous bridge checkpoints as a diversion.”

“That can be our last resort,” said Anna. “I want to avoid stealing another vehicle if possible to reduce the odds of them noticing I hacked the datalink. Both because it robs us of transportation and because I don’t want to give them even the slightest hint that our goal is data related – that is, accessing the magic database in District 15.”

Kamijou felt they should also spend some time addressing the fact that crossing the river without a bridge during the middle of winter meant jumping into water that was near freezing and giving off a white steam. And wasn’t this river more than 50m across? The Transcendents might be fine going for a celebratory New Year’s swim since they were walking around in what might as well have been swimsuits, but an ordinary high school boy like Kamijou would freeze and be swept away before he made it across.

Anna kicked the ladder with her small foot as a warning, so the other two ducked back down and shut the hatch.

Kamijou heard the rhythmic sound of a Six Wings helicopter passing by overhead.

“We need to think up a way to safely cross the river.”

“I already told you it’s a canal. Get it right or I’ll drag you around town with a nose hook, fool.”

The other two tilted their heads with “what’s a nose hook?” written on their faces and Anna cleared her throat for some reason.

The girl(?) had stepped on the gas a little too hard, so she stammered a bit before continuing.

“But Academy City aren’t the only ones we have to worry about. Let’s just hope Mut Thebes and Kingsford are polite enough to wait for us to find a solution.”