Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth6 (section)

===Part 4===

“Listen up!!”

The dorm manager’s voice rang loud through the Izanami’s large briefing room.

A map was displayed large on the wall behind her.

“The Liheilstaut Empire has contacted us to request peace talks. If these succeed, the danger to our lives and property will be eliminated and you can spend the rest of the time enjoying a summer break aboard a luxury cruise ship. We will be sending Shokuhou Misaki to their capital city of Frustburg as our representative, but just to be safe, we will also have Misaka’s 101 Squadron flying in the sky above their international meeting hall. The Empire has graciously given us permission to fly above their capital, but load your fighters with anti-ground armaments in addition to anti-air ones. We do not know how much we can trust the Empire. If this goes wrong, you will only have yourselves to rely on.”

Mikoto hesitantly raised a hand.

She was afraid of the answer to her question.

“Umm, how long will these peace talks last? I don’t think our fighters can continue flying from morning to night.”

“We plan to receive midair fueling from the Empire. That way there is no issue even if the talks get so heated they end up lasting 48 hours. Isn’t that right, Misaka?”

“Gwohhhh!” roared the #3, her head in her hands.

At her age, she badly wanted a simple kitchen and shower room in the fighter’s cockpit.

“Your purpose this time is diplomacy. This is a chance to use the manners and etiquette you have learned in your time as Tokiwadai students. Ladylike behavior shows its real value at a truly foreign party like this. Whether you will be appearing in public or not, this is an excellent opportunity for you to get a feel for real high society. Needless to say, anyone who shows insufficient courtesy or manners will be corrected afterwards. Do you understand the rules? Then it’s time to begin!”

The end of the briefing triggered a lot of bustling around.

As everyone stood from their chairs and departed, Shokuhou spoke to Mikoto from the side. With Hokaze Junko following behind her, the Queen brushed some long blonde hair off her shoulder in irritation.

“I will be borrowing Hokaze-san this time. I do want a reliable bodyguard with me.”

“Sure, whatever. They asked for this ceasefire, so I doubt you have anything to worry about.”

“My safety is worthless to you, isn’t it?”

Hearing how little thought Mikoto put into it, Shokuhou Misaki had to stare into the distance.

Really, she needed to think about what she had done in the past. She was lucky her own people weren’t going to blow her away and disguise it as an accident.

Mikoto shrugged.

“It’s the perfect job for you. You were voted Tokiwadai’s most likely to underestimate some low-level grunts only to get abducted and held captive as a damsel in distress.”

“My! Misaka-sama, when did they hold that delightful poll? If you had only told me, I would have gladly voted for my Queen!!”

“Completely worthless!?” shouted a bristling Shokuhou. At Hokaze, not Mikoto.

Admittedly, as someone about to visit the enemy capital, it probably wasn’t great to see your bodyguard’s eyes sparkling over the term “damsel in distress”.

(Knowing Hokaze-san, she’s getting excited over imagining herself rushing in to save her, not over the damsel in distress part itself.)

Basically, it was an expanded version of staring out the window during class and imagining what you would do if the school was taken over by armed terrorists. That girl really could kick butt in an emergency and she had the imagination to match.

With that, Mikoto parted ways with Shokuhou and Hokaze.

“That means I’ll only have Kuroko and YF-22A. Ugh, I’m going to have double twintails wingmates. Maybe I should do up my hair too…”

There were more non-girl F-2As, but Mikoto’s squadron was the only one really using them. The other girls had their hands full operating the carrier, so the piloting role had been shoved onto them.

After ascending into the abovedeck camouflage guest cabins, which still had plenty of empty rooms, Mikoto changed into her flight suit (she still wasn’t used to the thing) and then started back down toward the maintenance hangar which also contained the electromagnetic catapult.

She met up with Shirai Kuroko, who was also wearing a formfitting flight suit.

“Sigh.” Shirai’s shoulders drooped. “This place has been so stifling since the teachers arrived.”

“Tell me about it.”

“They make it so much harder to sneak into my precious Onee-sama’s room and to steal her underwear from the laundry room…”

“On second thought, we do need someone to preserve order.”

Mikoto expressionlessly stared into the distance as she pinched her underclassman’s cheek and zapped her. Now here was a pervert who would get excited over the damsel in distress part.

The salty sea scent was mixed with a hint of machine oil and exhaust smoke. That didn’t come from the clean nuclear-powered Izanami which didn’t produce any carbon dioxide.

They were near land.

The guest cabins structure had plenty of thick bulletproof glass to let the sunlight in, so they could see artificial structures on the horizon.

Their first glimpse of this world’s land was gray. From here, they could see a concrete harbor and a forest of skyscrapers beyond it. Based on this, there probably weren’t any wild elves or succubi there. Not too surprising when they’d heard this was a city of 10 million.

(But it’s a shame they don’t have any beaches for swimming. Then again, I bet Academy City wishes they could develop a coast like this.)

They had arrived at the Liheilstaut Empire’s capital city of Frustburg.

Or the sea next to it.

Instead of separating out the administrative functions like with Washington DC or Brasilia, this capital was also the most populous city like Tokyo or Paris.

They had already held the final briefing while the carrier was traveling here, but that had taken three days. Travel by ship was slow. Or was it weirder to be used to a fighter’s supersonic speed?

The countdown had just over 26 days left.

(If only we could spend the rest of the time out at sea, but I guess that wouldn’t work. We did already agree to this meeting date.)

This wasn’t going to be that easy.

Mikoto decided to focus on what she could do here. Ideally, that scheming Queen would be able to arrive at a ceasefire and peace agreement.

Once inside the belowdecks maintenance hangar, Mikoto spoke to the giant girl in a long-sleeved leotard.

“Hey, YF-22A. It’s time to risk our lives flying without any chance to rest.”

“My rights.”