Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS2 Chapter7 (section)

=== Part 8 ===

Despite being covered in bandages, the security guard Enirya G. Algonskaya was still continuing her work.

“So the riots are spreading through the central business facility more than the hotels and airport. The number of people trying to take advantage of the chaos is increasing…”

Enirya thought as she checked on the situation using the Semipublic AR.

The rioting had begun on the pretext of protecting the peace by eliminating the dangerous person from Academy City who was trying to detonate a hydrogen bomb, but that surface reason was beginning to crumble.

However, that also meant that the rioters were regaining their ability to think rationally. If the situation reached the point where they could shake them mentally using verbal warnings rather than having to resort to force, the situation could be resolved more easily, but…

Suddenly, one of her colleagues who was similarly injured called out to her.

“I have a report.”

“Not much is going to surprise me after all this.”

“A giant 70 meter construction has been spotted within the grounds of the business facility. It appears to be moving about while destroying the building.”

“What!? What does it look like!?”

Enirya snapped at her colleague, but he did not seem to have a good grasp on the situation himself.

Enirya let out a groan as she received the explanation that it was a mysterious construction that could possibly be a weapon or a vehicle and that looked like a collection of many giant wheels.

“…Are the higher ups trying to literally crush the rioting using some secret weapon of a road roller or something?”

“The details are unknown, but it seems to be having the effect of putting a stop to the rioting in various places. It seems the people’s thoughts are changing from joining in a dangerous situation to watching a situation they do not understand.”

Suddenly, a new piece of information appeared on the Semipublic AR Enirya was looking at. She frowned and set the screen at a level where her colleague could see it.

“It seems the use of martial law has been approved.”

“The approval of the higher ups is needed for that.”

That was indeed their chance to put an end to the rioting. If martial law was declared while the rioters were focused on the giant construction, they could cut the rioters off from each other by cutting off the flow of information. After that, they could crush the riots individually until enough of the rioters had been defeated that the rioting could not continue.

Her colleague looked relieved.

“We lost track of where they were during the riots, but it seems they’re okay. And they are still powerful enough to take the actions necessary to bring functionality back to the city.”

But…

“Wait a second,” Enirya said cutting him off. “Don’t over half of the higher ups have to give their electronic signatures to enact special orders such as declaring martial law or imposing a gag order?”

“Y-yes. What of it?”

“For security reasons, those electronic signatures are only valid if they are carried out through the devices in the manager’s room. And with the higher ups missing, they of course are not in that room.” Enirya paused for a second before continuing. “Who made those electronic signatures and from where?”

“C-could it just be because we are in a state of emergency? I don’t know where the higher ups have evacuated to, but as long as they are all gathered in one place, they could still enact one of those special orders without going through the manager’s room.”

“That isn’t the issue. Even if it was the higher ups that did this, they can’t just ignore the security issue. Even if they are secured in some kind of shelter, they would not be able to send out electronic signatures at this level.”

“Then…”

“Once again, there is some system we are unaware of,” Enirya said as if she had given up on something. “But if so, we have no proof that these electronic signatures actually came from the higher ups. In order to accurately judge the situation, we need to find out who made these electronic signatures.”

“…”

“We will thoroughly investigate this.” Enirya pointed at the wall with the window displayed on it. “We will find out who made these and where they were sent from.”