Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth6 (section)

===Part 8===

Things on the surface didn’t look right.

Once all their aircraft had been refueled, Mikoto sent a transmission.

“Railgun 01 to all squadrons. The layout of surface vehicles looks strange… Based on the position of the armored vehicle girls, it looks like they’re blockading the roads leading away from the international meeting hall. Just to be safe, prepare for anti-surface attack suppo-”

“Misaka-saaan!! As I suspected, the negotiations fell through. I’m about to steal a car and escape to the harbor, so I’d love some air support ability!!”

The request arrived before they could make their preparations.

Mikoto frowned.

But not at the Empire’s actions.

“Are you really in middle school? Since when do you know how to drive? Are you sure you aren’t actually some old wom-”

“I don’t want to hear that from the girl holding a control column. I’m obviously going to brainwash an Imperial driver, so don’t you dare call me an old woman. I also managed to snag a chicken in the confusion, so we can replenish our eggs!”

Some kind of commotion was underway.

Specifically, a black bulletproof car shot out from the international meeting hall’s underground parking garage, flying off the slope like it was a ramp. It broke through the makeshift barricade and swerved out onto the main street. Anti-aircraft tanks (girls in gaudy military band uniforms) aimed an autocannon per hand at the car while blocking the road from nearby. They fired. But before the line of bullets could reach it, the car took a turn and used a building as a shield.

“Oh, she’s up on the surface!!”

Misaka Mikoto yanked her control column over to roll and then made a rapid turn.

If Shokuhou were alone, she might have made her wait as payback for so very much, but Hokaze was with her as a bodyguard.

“Damn, she’s using the same move I did. Is this what you call just deserts?”

“?”

Shokuhou was blissfully ignorant.

Before the anti-aircraft tanks could do anything more, Mikoto silenced them with some destructive autocannon fire from the sky. Then she twisted her fighter around to rapidly pursue Shokuhou’s fleeing car.

(The 1200m limit is over now. If I don’t descend between the buildings, the building winds and heat island updrafts will scatter my autocannon fire and possibly hit some civilians!!)

“Wow, that was a close one.”

“Kyah! Wait for me, Big Sis!”

The F-14Ds innocently followed her down.

“God, doesn’t it scare you to have some brainwashed driver at the wheel?” asked Mikoto.

“How is this any different from a self-driving car?” replied Shokuhou.

Meanwhile, the situation on the surface was changing.

And not in a good way.

Shirai’s panicked voiced arrived over the radio.

“Onee-sama, are you keeping track?”

“Um, well…”

Shokuhou had brainwashed an Imperial soldier and escaped in a stolen car, so she was in the same kind of bulletproof car driven by the enemy.

So while Mikoto could target the enemy with air-to-surface missiles, they would lock onto all of the Imperial vehicles. The IFF wouldn’t automatically distinguish between friend and foe.

…Which car was Shokuhou in again?

“Oh, hey, wait.”

The cars were approaching the kind of exceptionally complicated five-way intersection found in big cities.

The black bulletproof cars coming from different streets mixed together and shuffled themselves with some sharp drifting.

And Mikoto had the bad luck of some glare reflecting off a glass-covered skyscraper dazzling her vision in that moment.

Did it last 1 second? Not more than 2 seconds, she was fairly certain.

But now those black vehicles were all mixed together on the surface. Her eyes widened.

“Which one…is which!?”

“Try to pay attention!! Ugh, fine. I’ll give you a signal. I’ll shine a strobe light from my phone in the back seat, so look for that!!”

The car with a flashing light inside the bulletproof window was Shokuhou’s.

That let Mikoto tell them apart, but this might not last forever. For one, the strobe light used power. Mikoto just had to pray the phone’s battery didn’t die and that the Empire didn’t notice the regularity of the light and mimic it.

Then the row of thick bollards blocking off the entrance to a park was squashed like aluminum cans as something slowly emerged.

An infantry fighting vehicle.

Which looked like a giant military band girl.

The undercarriage (of her legs) had eight wheels, but she was also equipped with (by holding it in her right hand) the same big gun as a tank. A second before she could accurately target the bulletproof car with lasers and microwaves, Mikoto’s Shinshin dropped an air-to-surface missile with the force of a lightning strike.

It exploded.

“Hey!?” protested Shokuhou. “This car is rattling at a really high pitch and some of the armor was stripped away!!”

“What did you say? I can’t hear you over the static!? What was that about a high bitch? Finally come to terms with what you are?”

“Gyaohhhhhh!!”

Mikoto frowned at Shokuhou’s sudden roar over the radio.

“Just trust the specs of the stolen car, Shokuhou. If I hadn’t launched that missile, you and the car would’ve been flipped over by a 120mm cannon!!”

A few explosions and dust clouds formed out ahead.

Mikoto and the other fighters weren’t responsible.

The Empire was detonating their own bridges to cut off any escape route to the harbor. They apparently didn’t care that they were blowing up the people’s tax money.

“You need a new route!! You can’t trust any of the bridges. If you turn east, the river passes underground as a culvert, so you should be able to cross it there!”

That detour would give Shokuhou a viable route, but it would of course take time.

“By the way, Queen, when did you realize the Empire wasn’t to be trusted?”

“Right from the start. The F/A-18Es and F-117As flying overhead are both Girlish Weapons designed for air combat and ground attacks. For the stealth fighters, the air-to-air missiles are add-ons, not standard equipment. With their default equipment, they don’t even have a radar. So those were meant to ensure we can’t escape, not to patrol the skies.”

“Wow, nothing gets past you, Queen.”

(Why does she sound so smug about this? What’s so smart about soaking in the middle of a trap like it’s a hot spring?)

Mikoto sighed in exasperation.

But this was relevant to her situation. The F/A-18Es and F-117As meant there were enemies in the sky too.

“Railgun 01 to all squadrons. Watch out for the F-117As. They’re stealth fighters, so don’t rely too much on radar or you’ll miss them!!”

If she and the others focused too much on the ground, they could get shot down.

But…

“Brat 04 to Railgun 01, are you sure you want to start an air battle above a densely populated city!?”

“…”

Yes, defeating the enemy here would be easy enough, but hitting the enemy with a missile did not make their mass just disappear. And this was a city of 10 million. How many people would be harmed if a mass of a few dozen tons (that happened to be shaped like a giant girl) broke apart and fell into the city from an altitude where a single screw or nail could be deadly?

If they did nothing, they would be killed.

But if they acted without thinking, they would end up being killers themselves.

(What do we do!?)