Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter3 (section)

===Part 9===

They had been eager to get started, but the distance proved to be much greater than anticipated.

They walked and walked without the scenery ever changing.

Maybe it was her nature as a nature-loving elf, but while Patissiet did use the brick road as a guide, she still insisted on walking alongside it. Mikoto was used to walking on asphalt, so the bright color of the red brick road running down the green field was so conspicuous it wore out her eyes to stare at it constantly, but she guessed that was so the road would be easy to find if anyone strayed from it and got lost. Yes, this was a world full of nature where a short walk could mean death.

Patissiet was used to walking, so she kept a step ahead of the others.

“You need to be careful walking on floating land,” said the elf. “Especially when you’re tired.”

“Hm? But we’re in the middle of a giant empty field. And I don’t see any ferocious bears wandering around.”

This world did seem dangerous since vacuum blades called Continent Blades could apparently occur at any time, but Mikoto could sense weather changes with her microwave radar. She wouldn’t be killed by a thick vacuum blade flying in from a blind spot.

But…

“In the taller grass, it can be hard to notice a hole in the ground. If you fall, it can sometimes mean plummeting all the way to the ocean below. And at that height, hitting the water will kill you.”

“Ugh,” groaned Mikoto in belated realization.

If you could fall to your death in a flat field, then the rules she knew from Earth really didn’t apply here. Ther was a risk of falling from these floating lands no matter how large and stable they seemed. If a floating land happened to be donut-shaped, you could end up falling off while walking toward the center.

Mikoto could always magnetically pull herself back to the floating land, but if she panicked and failed to react in time, she could instead slam herself against the cliff wall, breaking an arm or a leg.

“The air currents are different around any holes, so you can sense danger by focusing on your skirt. If wind suddenly blows up from below, come to an immediate stop and watch where you’re going.”

Was that why Patissiet had been walking out ahead? Mikoto sighed, grabbed the shoulders of the elf who had decided to risk her life by testing the ground for the others, and pulled her to the back. Mikoto had been focusing on the sky above and her surroundings, but she decided it would be a good idea to also send her radar toward the ground obscured by the tall grass.

Patissiet meant no harm, but Mikoto didn’t feel entirely comfortable simply accepting the elf’s methods and assistance. Despite being the victim, she was so accustomed to the slavery system that she didn’t value her own life highly enough. Mikoto did want to return to Earth as soon as possible, but could she fix that stubborn bad habit first?

(How did that idiot deal with the Sisters during the experiment?)

“Y’know, it’s incredible that this entire world uses a unified language and currency. The place looks pastoral, but it may be more globalized than our world.”

“It apparently has churches that can dispel curses or apply temporary anti-undead magic to weapons. Having a single mythology or ideology ability for the entire world sounds kind of concerning to me,” said Shokuhou, despite living in a city of science.

As a psychological esper, she may have had her thoughts about religions which were so closely related to psychology. Of course, she would only be interested in researching the charisma and group psychology aspects.

“Misaka-san, are you one of those silly people who don’t believe in god but still celebrate Halloween and Christmas?”

“You can’t convince me that an extreme brainwashing schemer like you believes in god. If you wanted to, you could brainwash everyone into seeing you as a holy woman so they would worship you.”

“Did you think I was born with such perfect good looks by random chance ability? This miraculous balance only happens when you have the favor of a goddess of beauty or victory or something☆”

“Oh, is one of the myriad Shinto gods a god of fat? Learn something new every day.”

It turned out the concept of science did not exist in the world of Celesaqphere. For the people here, education meant gaining experience in the natural environment and studying the system of magic.

“Isn’t it worrying not having science? Seems to me that would leave you with no foundation for your thoughts or reasoning.”

“Hm? We have the goddesses for that,” replied Patissiet with a smile.

That answer didn’t make any sense to Mikoto, but was that because she lived in a city of science?

But that aside…

No matter how far they walked, the green horizon never changed and the brick road without any streetlights was the only artificial thing they could see. With no apparent change, it felt a lot like they were walking on a giant conveyer belt.

The classroom-sized rock where they had fought the slaver may have created a false preconception because Mikoto had assumed the next floating land would also be fairly small.

But it was possible the very next floating land they tried was larger than the Japanese archipelago.

They were supposedly on their way to a nearby village, but there were places like America and Australia where “nearby” could mean as far away as 50km. And hadn’t Mikoto herself been reminded of a milk ad when she saw this vast field?

Patissiet was from this world, but she gave up first.

“We might not arrive today. We should consider setting up camp just in case.”

“Eh? You mean camp out for the night? That sounds like fun!!”

“Not on your life! I am never lying down to sleep on the bug-infested ground! Surely this fantasy world has inns. I can’t sleep without a sanitary shower and bed!!”

The #3 and #5’s opinions were split.

Of course, it was rare for the two of them to agree on anything.

“Ah…ah ha ha. As a slave, I have never stayed in one, but I have heard the inns for adventurers are so infested with ticks and fleas it can be hard to sleep.”

Shokuhou curled up on the spot, covered her face with her hands, and sobbed.

Now the (seemingly) little girl elf was being more mature than her? Was she really in middle school?

If this was based on Medieval Europe, then it would have little waste disposal infrastructure and people would generally just throw their garbage wherever. People probably even walked through the inn’s guest rooms in the same muddy shoes they had worn outside. And there would be no bug repellents or insecticides made in a chemical plant. With so many people moving in and out of the rooms, it would be a biological mystery if the blankets and carpets ''weren’t'' infested.

“It’s getting late. Once you hear a sharp cry from the flying harpies, you know it will be dark soon.”

Once the orange of evening came into view, night arrived quickly.

The light faded away. It wouldn’t be long before they were left in a pitch darkness without any streetlights.

The first day of their other world adventure tour was going to end without accomplishing much of anything.

“Oh, no, no, no! But setting up camp requires so much preparation!!”

“You’re kidding. We really aren’t going to reach the village? And we’ll have to spend the night out in this field!?”

The pair from an indoor civilization had no idea what to do.

As the sun set, visibility shrank. They would have quickly lost sight of the straight road through the grassy field if it weren’t for the bright red bricks. Then they might have panicked, rushed off in the wrong direction, and gotten lost.

“Th-the road? Where’s the road!?”

The road would be built along the shortest route between two villages while taking the most walkable terrain. And it would be designed to reach any waterside or campfire spots along the way.

They continued along the red line until they arrived at a large lake. But they had no tent or blankets. Before the sunlight completely vanished, they opened the leather trunk and searched for anything they could use.

They found clothing, clothing, makeup, clothing, and gold coins that were probably the local currency.

“Are you serious?” muttered Mikoto in a daze.

The electric girl could start a fire if necessary, at least.

“Are we going to have to burn a pile of fabulous dresses once it gets cold? Are we stuck being that uncivilized already?”

Mikoto felt like a bank robber carrying a ton of paper money while lost on a snowy mountain.

For that matter, the trunk didn’t even have any of this world’s preserved foods like dried meats or bottles of pickled vegetables.

Couldn’t that fancily-dressed slaver at least have brought some snacks with her!?

“Argh, we should have bought some cup noodles and chocolate bars while we were in that fake Academy City!!” complained Mikoto, but turning back now would be difficult.

Both because it was dark and because they had no landmarks to go off of. This wasn’t like a city night where 24-hour convenience stores and gyudon shops were lit up and there were large landmarks all over the place. This was a floating land. If they tried to find their way along in the dark, they could suddenly fall into a hole and plummet to their dooms.

With a gap of a few dozen meters, Mikoto could magnetically jump between the floating lands. And with her microwave radar, she could get a sense of the terrain even in the dark. But her power only let her magnetically pull herself in, not to fly. If she misjudged a jump and flung herself into empty air, she wouldn’t be able to recover and would fall. A single mistake could mean death.

(At least we have water here. In the worst case, we can go without food for tonight. Preparing a place to sleep is probably more important.)

Mikoto turned around to find Shokuhou had disappeared.

“?”

Mikoto decided she would just let the girl go if the thought of camping out had broken her so badly she simply ran off, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

Mikoto heard something from the water.

There were some odd splashing sounds coming from the large lake-like body of water.

The #5 Queen was causing them.

“Abwabh!? Help, Misaka-san, what is happ-!?”

“What is Miss Lewd Boobs doing now? Is she drowning herself because it’s all too much for her?”

“No, she’s being dragged in. L-look, there are a bunch of slimy things emerging from the water. I think those are kraken tentacles!!”

Sure enough, there were slimy things thicker than a human arm coming out of the water. One side was covered in suckers, so they were reminiscent of an octopus or squid. If one of those wrapped around you, removing it would be a challenge. And that unathletic girl might be the most powerful mental esper, but she was helpless against physical attacks.

Some sleepy sylphs? Undines? Well, some kind of half-naked translucent girls had fled onto land to avoid being captured along with the idiot.

“Hm.”

To sum up, the sexy one had her ankle caught by a thick tentacle that was dragging her into the water.

Good luck, Shokuhou Misaki.

As can be seen by all the shrimps, crabs, and other aquatic life found on drowned corpses washed up on the beach, an actual giant creature would mercilessly devour that helpless and immobilized hunk of meat. If she didn’t want to become a mess of blood and gore, she would have to work hard at avoiding that fate. Hint: being swallowed whole is a lot less gory☆

“Oh, no. W-we need to find some way to save Lady Shokuhou…”

“Hey, elf-chan? Don’t you think it would be faster to give up on that idiot Queen and go make a new friend?”

“Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Mikoto’s smiling suggestion made kindhearted Patissiet cry.

Mikoto had nothing against Shokuhou meeting a watery end, but she didn’t want to trouble the little elf.

(But what am I supposed to do?)

If she used a lightning spear against the giant aquatic creature, it would probably shock Shokuhou too. And when she was soaked with water, the high-voltage current would probably kill her.

“Wait, why am I thinking so hard? It’s a waste of effort. It’ll be a lot easier to just do what I can and, if it ends up killing her, I can apologize to Patissiet afterwards.”

“Bleh, I can hear you! Cough, cough!!”

A moment later, the sucker-covered tentacle wrapped around Shokuhou’s torso was sharply severed.

By an iron sand sword.

Mikoto separated out a clump of vibrating iron sand and swung it like a whip. It could cut through most anything like a chainsaw.

The kraken(?) had more than one tentacle.

Tentacles thrashed from the pain all across the lake.

“Outta the way.”

Before they could do anything, Mikoto sent the black sand whipping every which way to sever all the tentacles. The kraken itself finally broke the lake surface. Mikoto honestly didn’t know what counted as a squid’s head and what counted as its body.

She just sliced through the whole thing.

For a finishing blow, she flicked a coin with her thumb and blasted the kraken to smithereens with a Railgun.

A strange sticky fluid that glowed a fluorescent yellowish-green exploded from it.

(What is that, poison!?)

“Wah!?”

Mikoto immediately moved to keep any of it from getting on Patissiet.

She heard a steaming sound.

Or maybe it was more of an acidic sound.

She looked over to see Shokuhou’s summer uniform was full of holes now that she had been freed from the sucker-covered tentacle. But instead of looking like a sexy photoshoot, it was more like her clothes – and only her clothes – were dissolving.

“Do you have to find a way to make everything sexy!? Naked with a handbag is a new one, but you can’t even cover anything up like that!”

“You say that, Misaka-san, but the entire back of your uniform has dissolved! Is that some new form of naked apron!?”

It was too late.

Mikoto felt something come apart and then the remnants of her clothing fell away with nothing left to support them. Including her underwear.

It was strange how it did all that without having any effect at all on their hair and skin.

“What is it with tentacled things and being lewd!?” shouted Mikoto, blushing bright red.

At least Patissiet was unaffected thanks to the #3 shielding her from it.

The well-informed elf had something to say about this.

“Um, the slaver said she wanted to have at least five changes of clothes just to visit the next town over. Something about clothes getting torn and dissolved so much.”

“Does this lewd world have something against girls’ clothing!?”

Was that also why the elf’s dress was in such poor condition? The trunk had been full of clothes, but maybe that hadn’t ''just'' been that young woman being spoiled.

The two naked Earth girls could not believe their uniforms and even their socks and underwear had dissolved.

Was this their initiation into this world?