Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 5===

One hit was all they needed.

A single clean hit would knock out the monster named Mugino Shizuri and she would go down.



The butlers and maids forcibly rotated an anti-air cannon with only two wheels in order to adjust the angle.

Its caliber was a shocking 8.8cm.

It had likely come from the family head’s antique collection. Keeping it operational was highly illegal, though.

“At this range, we can omit the preparation process. Prepare to load the first shell! Use a self-destructing warhead. That is, a dirt wall. The shattered pieces will slam into Shizuri-sama and render her unconscious!!!”

The anti-air cannon was fully covered by thick shielding, but that was meant to defend against enemy shells when battling a land target and to protect the gunners if a shell exploded closer than expected. In other words, it was thick enough to contain its own blast.



“Ahhhhh!! D-dodge!!”



It didn’t matter.

A scorching attack sliced diagonally through the shielding and, a beat later, the shell still inside the cannon exploded.

If the butlers and maids hadn’t leaped to the ground the second before, they would have been blown away along with it.

“Idiots!! In the end, directly challenging Mugino in attack or defense is suicide! What you need is mobility!! You need to keep moving…and dodging!!!”

Just as Frenda shouted, the heavy mortar hanging from an American transport helicopter was cut away by Meltdowner.

And as the transport helicopter tried to fly away in a hurry, a follow-up attack flew after it.

The mountain forest was suddenly set ablaze.

If the helicopter hadn’t fled over the sharp ridge to the other side of the short mountain, it would have exploded too.

Frenda caught a glimpse of something that made her throat go dry.

That frilly lace belonged to Sakuya’s dress.

She was in a daze while some maids dragged her away.

Had shooting Mujinayama done that? How much love and hatred had been spiraling inside her?

It looked more like this was a way to motivate the troops than to rescue her.

That said, it was over the instant Mugino Shizuri noticed. A barrage of Meltdowner blasts would pierce through any shield.

The time to act was now.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Butler Bakyaku kept his large motorcycle in constant motion while aiming this heavy machinegun at Mugino Shizuri. He didn’t get any clean hits. The light in her hand swirled around and formed a giant glowing shield. But without that barrage of bullets, Mugino would be free to act. Without that, the maids and butlers protecting Sakuya would have long since been vaporized.

The real attack was coming from someone else.

Ougigumo repeatedly fired with his nunchaku shotguns. Something like white smoke rose from wherever the bullets hit. He didn’t seem to be using nonlethal bullets made of salt or flour.

The young butler groaned.

“N-not even carbon monoxide works!?”

“Argh, you explosives amateur! That’s only toxic because of the incomplete combustion! When Mugino’s Meltdowner thoroughly burns it, it turns into harmless carbon dioxide!!”

A dull “thud!!” rang out.

While holding his heavy machinegun at his hip and spraying 12.7mm bullets, Bakyaku and his motorcycle were dragged to the side and collapsed. Mugino Shizuri had used her entire body like a spring to tackle the motorcycle. She had caught up to it with her flesh and blood legs.

She got on top of him and raised both hands.

Light compressed between her hands until it emitted a sinister glow.

“Tch. What a super pain!!”

Kinuhata Saiai kicked up a nearby rock, caught it, and threw it like a fastball.

It struck the light just before it was launched and exploded.

Apparently her own power was one thing Mugino couldn’t stop. After rolling off of the butler, she silently stood back up.

She glared at Kinuhata, viewing her as an enemy.





:::“Ah.”





Kinuhata’s breath caught in her throat.

Mugino had clearly locked onto her. As a dark side pro, she could tell there was no saving her from the next attack.

Takitsubo Rikou’s predictions just weren’t enough.

“Excellent work buying us time,” shouted the Molotov cocktail maid. “Detonating!!”

The earth split open.

It started from one point and spiderwebbed out like a pane of glass after a hit from a bullet.

The battlefield shattered over several kilometers. In only a few seconds, trenches two or three meters deep spread out like a spiderweb, creating a strange design made from countless straight lines branching out. To put it another way, the ground had a labyrinth several meters deep dug into it.

They could now escape below 0m. That is, below the ground.

Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai gestured them over and shouted.

“Hurry!!”

This was better than nothing.

Frenda and the others dove headfirst into the hole in the ground, just barely avoiding the deadly beams.

“Super how did you manage this?”

“Did you notice how each villa in this hot springs resort draws in spring water but there aren’t any rivers for dumping the water afterwards?”

The Molotov cocktail maid happened to be nearby, so she obediently answered.

Since they were a criminal organization, some of the butlers and maids were smoking to replenish their nicotine or passing around a small bottle of brandy to share. Regardless of what effect that might have on their judgment, the smell alone would give them away, but they entirely ignored that basic idea.

Frenda crouched down in the makeshift trench and looked up into the sky. She was dying for some canned mackerel.

“Oh. In the end, this was spring water drainage.”

“They had built special underground waterways for getting rid of the spring water. And they were spread out like a spiderweb. I didn’t even need to bother with long-hole blasting which would have required setting up explosives across a long distance. I only needed to send some coal powder underground and blow it through with a fan. The total length has to be more than 100km, but from there, I juts had to trigger one of those dust explosions that explosion lovers are so fond of.”

“Hm? Why don’t they super use the normal sewer?”

“Kinuhata. Hot springs have a lot of useful substances dissolved in them, so sending the spring water into the sewer would shrink the infrastructure lifespan. You need a dedicated spring water drainage made of special materials that won’t deteriorate.”

A fearsome beam passed by overhead, cutting off any further chatting.

They all fell silent.

“…”

They had escaped the open sudden-death zone, but the walls here were only dirt. If they stayed in one place for too long, they would be located and pierced by Meltdowner. But having anything at all to obstruct Mugino Shizuri’s aim was useful.

Frenda whispered a question while constantly moving through the branching trenches so they couldn’t be targeted.

“(In the end, what do we do now?)”

“(If we fall back, Mugino will only kill us with her beams. Our best bet is to approach without her noticing.)”

Fortunately, the land was covered by a spider web of trenches 2-3m deep. There had to be a route that would take them right up to Mugino.

If they waited too long, Mugino herself might jump down into the trenches, but then several beams flashed out in quick succession.

For some reason, the Meltdowner blasts were directed into the sky instead of at the ground.

And several explosions soon followed.

“That was…an ALCM launched from a bomber. Shizuri-sama’s body is no more sturdy than a normal human’s, so with half ton explosives dropping toward her one after another, I suppose even she needs to prioritize intercepting them,” whispered Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai while ducking low in the dirty trench.

Those tactical weapons were meant to be safely launched from outside the interception range to blow away an enemy fortress or fleet, but launching several of them only bought them some time here.

(Cruise missiles don’t work and she can burn away gasses or germs to neutralize them. Honestly. In the end, can that monster girl stop all existing weapons!?)

Frenda and the others held their breath as they moved through the straight line trenches.

They were doomed if Mugino noticed them. In truth, the result of a surprise attack was mostly determined by the enemy’s actions.

The blonde girl asked a question, her voice low.

“Hey, Molotov maid. In the end, what are you going with?”

“Maybe a concussion blast to make sure I knock Shizuri-sama out? If a close range shockwave with no fragmentary effect hits her skull, it will give her a concussion.”

“In the end, it’s gotta be that or to use intense vibrations to damage her red blood cells, prevent her blood from carrying oxygen, and give her cerebral anemia.”

The two bombers exchanged a nod.

If they were using different methods, it would be more effective if they both attacked at once.

The ALCMs were a threat, but that wasn’t a trump card a nonmilitary force could have. The difficulty of acquiring them would mean a limited stock. Not even the great Mugino Family could continue firing them forever.

It would be a miracle if they could even creep up to the #4’s position.

How many tactical, and possibly even strategic, weapons were being wasted for this one opportunity?

Frenda and Hanagai each pulled an explosive from their skirt.

“Three.”

Frenda was afraid.

She was, but panicking would only waste this chance.

“Two.”

She gulped, dug her toes into the soft earthen wall alongside the Molotov cocktail maid, and prepared to pop up from the 2-3m deep trench.

They were only a few meters away from Mugino.

“One.”

Something flew up over their heads.

Before they had thrown anything.

The sunlight sparkled as it reflected off of…a card? No, was it a semiconductor from the core of a Two Wings unmanned attack helicopter?

“Watch out, everyone,” warned Takitsubo Rikou.

A Meltdowner beam solidly struck the soaring circuit board.



The beam branched out and scattered in every direction like light from a disco ball.



After striking the semiconductor overhead, a storm of light rained down.

The term “air burst” came to Frenda’s mind.

Hiding in the trench was meaningless now.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

She screamed and rolled.

Intense pain ran through her right cheek.

A few drops of dirt melted to a glowing orange must have splattered onto her.

Meltdowner.

A direct hit from that would have sliced the blonde girl right down the middle before she could even feel any pain. And it wasn’t an attack you could reactively dodge.

But Frenda couldn’t rejoice in her survival.

The threat level had increased.



“D-diffusion!?”



Yes.

The density of beams filling the space overhead rapidly increased. Anyone standing on the surface would be fully annihilated with no room to dodge. Not even the ALCMs flying in from the sky would be able to slip through that barrage.

That had been Mugino’s first time using that air burst to attack the deep trench from above, so had she not been able to aim it well?

But she would fine-tune the various values next time. She could shoot down cruise missiles with perfect accuracy, so it wouldn’t take her long.

Frenda and the others had to rethink things.

The straight trench now had parts of its walls and ground orange and bubbling. Those spots were only the size of puddles for now, but if Mugino fired more beams, the entire maze-like safe ground would turn into a scorching moat filled with molten glass.

“The Two Wings,” said the track suit girl.

Despite the situation, Takitsubo Rikou placed her hands on the edge of the straight trench and poked her head out while looking to the nearby bushes instead of into the sky.

“That special semiconductor from one of the crashed attack helicopters happened to cause some kind of reaction in Mugino’s electricity-based Meltdowner.”

“Y-you’re kidding, right? Why would something like that be super conveniently lying around?”

“It’s not a coincidence. Mugino’s power can be used for more than just attacking. I think she was helping with the R&D for new AIs and quantum computers. In the end, if the quantum Hall large-scale hybrid integrated circuits used in the Two Wings are new Mugino brand products, it’s not surprising they would interfere with each other!!”

The seven Level 5s were used for research to earn great fortunes in a variety of fields.

It was an unpleasant look at how Academy City worked.

Used right, this could influence the #4 esper power, but they had too little data. And it hadn’t shown strong enough directionality to send the beams back at her.

Would they be pierced by a straight beam or riddled with holes by the diffusion storm?

When it only let them choose how they died, you couldn’t exactly call it a weapon. They had only found another card to go in cruel and brutal Mugino’s deck.

Takitsubo ducked back down into the battered trench and whispered expressionlessly.

“But this can’t be fun for Mugino either.”

“In the end, was there some delightful surprise I missed? It seems a little early for a visit from a miniskirt Santa.”

“Did you forget, Frenda? Mugino is using her ultra-powerful Meltdowner in a way not even she planned on.”

“Super what’s your poi-”

Kinuhata trailed off.

After hearing a sizzling sound.

Like water droplets on a hot frying pan. Those were burns. Mugino Shizuri’s own body couldn’t withstand the thick beam she was unleashing.

At this rate, her skin would peel back, her flesh and bone would boil, and her own power could char her body.

“…”

Everyone fell silent.

If all they wanted to do was defeat Mugino Shizuri, doing nothing at all might be an option. Who could say how many of the maids and butlers would be killed in the process, but this was over as long as Mugino burned herself to a crisp before the last of them had died.

Muddy Frenda raised her head toward the heavens.

For some reason, she was smiling.

“Ugh. In the end, the trouble I go through for her.”

“But her flaws are what make Mugino so cute,” added Takitsubo.

However, that wasn’t how Item wanted to win this.

What did it mean to win?

After some thought, they added a new win condition.

Their battle against the unbeatable now had a time limit.