Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter3 (section)

===Part 12===

They wanted to actually reach the nearby village today.

As their time out here camping wore on, it was easy to forget that Mikoto and Shokuhou were currently experiencing a near-death out-of-body experience where they had been partially sent to another world (by that stupid goddess’s mistake) and their goal was to return to Earth. Using the special return magic ceremony apparently required locating and defeating three Demon Lords, but they knew nothing about those three. They needed to find and rescue the elf elder who likely knew more than Patissiet, so they were on their way to the village that elder had been sold to.

“Damn, I’d dry some of these fish if we had time.”

Despite Mikoto’s regrets, they had no choice but to grill up and eat all the small fish now.

“But hm. With no science here, they won’t have freezers or preservatives. Is the best they can do placing them in a net and cooling them in a well or river? That’s a scary thought. How do they ensure food safety?”

“With no artificial chemicals in any of the food here, it sounds nice and healthy to me. I’m relieved to finally find even one nice thing about this world☆”

Was Shokuhou serious?

With long travel times and little to no sterilization technology, food poisoning would be a serious issue. They probably had to throw out more food here than in Academy City where convenience stores and supermarkets dumped tons of expired food every single day. At least in Academy City they never had to dispose of large quantities that went bad before it even arrived at the store. And if a bunch of people grew sick at once here, it would be blamed on a curse or something, so they would never investigate the real cause and continue making the same mistake.

A world where everyone had access to magic had its pros and its cons. It would be that much harder to fix mistaken beliefs about unseen facts or for people to see through scams.

Mikoto was vaguely worried about what might happen here, but for now they set off.

According to Patissiet, the “nearby village” was somewhere on this floating land, but…

“Ugh.”

Mikoto heard something.

She really didn’t want to look in that direction, but she already knew who the troublemaker was.

Shokuhou was a hyper-indoorsy city dweller who wasn’t used to camping out or even going for normal walks.

Walking on the unpaved ground (since the elf insisted on keeping off of the brick road) made bumpy with tree roots and stones was a challenge at the best of times. And the Dancer was wearing high heels (despite her job requiring vigorous dance steps). Muscle soreness often didn’t hit until the following day. Sweaty and exhausted Shokuhou grabbed at a nearby target like a zombie.

That target was Mikoto’s back.

“Please, Misaka-san. I’m tired, so carry me.”

“Hm? Get off of me, you Onbu Obake! Or should I say, Onboobs Obake!! You’re so heavy you’ll wear me out!”

“You should thank me for the reward. This is what being young is all about.”

“How are those sacks of fat a reward? All that extra meat is only weighing me down!!!”

This world ran on survival of the fittest, so the weakest were targeted first.

The tall grass parted and a monster emerged.

It was a multiheaded serpent. They looked up to see it staring down at them from a height of about 3m. At 3m, it really was around twice their height.

Mikoto wasn’t afraid of big snakes thanks to Kongou Mitsuko’s pet.

Shokuhou seemed to have completely frozen up, though.

“What’s this supposed to be? Yamata-no-Orochi?”

“A hydra! It’s a hydra!!”

“Hm, a girl tangled up in a bunch of snakes seems like a really niche scenario, but it still sounds like a job for Miss Lewd. C’mon, be bait already.”

“How could you say that!? I know you haven’t forgotten Mental Out only works on humans!”

Terrified, Shokuhou clung to Mikoto’s back.

She was even more useless in this world than usual and her boobs were still being a nuisance.

“Oh, no. Lady Shokuhou will be killed! Yah, yahh!! Shoo, hydra!”

Patissiet broke branches off a nearby tree and threw them like darts, but they didn’t seem to do any damage. Then again, she may have only meant to drive it away so both sides could survive. But it went without saying how a ferocious beast would react to being poked like that.

(Sigh. I guess I have to do it.)

According to Patissiet, that hydra would grow two heads whenever one was severed, so Mikoto used a Railgun to obliterate the base of the snake below where its heads branched off.

Patissiet must have been used to the boom and shockwave by now. She only sounded exasperated.

“Wow. That one attack was probably worth enough experience points to go up 10 levels all at once.”

“No thanks. Anywhere past Level 5 scares me. I’d probably just explode.”

They walked down the empty field using the red brick road as a guide.

With nothing else to do, Mikoto asked a question.

“You said this world has just one mythology and religion, but what’s it about?”

“The two goddesses are the most popular,” said Patissiet with a smile. Even though these goddesses hadn’t done a thing to rescue her from slavery. “The two goddesses are locked in an eternal battle. But the world of Celesaqphere runs on the vast power produced by their fighting. So they need to keep fighting forever. There is even a legend saying any normal person who irreverently interferes in the goddess’s level grinding will be destroyed by divine punishment, causing them to explode. And if our world is ever truly at risk, the goddesses will break through the invisible barrier and come to rescue us. Arguing with each other the entire time, of course.”

“Hm. So it’s great goddess worship,” said Shokuhou.

“What’s that mean?”

“That’s when you have a polytheistic mythology, but the most powerful god is a goddess. Like a sun goddess or a birth goddess☆ They aren’t all that unusual. Japan’s Shinto is an example. The top goddess is Sun Goddess Amaterasu Okami, right?”

“I guess.”

So what?

Bikini armor Mikoto sent over a skeptical look, so dancer Shokuhou shrugged and explained.

“The point is this world’s myths tell of a pair of goddesses with special powers who constantly fight. And they break through some kind of invisible barrier to arrive from some other world.”

“Hold on…”

“Sounds a lot like us, doesn’t it? Now, I’m all for treating myself like a goddess, but it’s embarrassing when someone else does it in all seriousness.”

The elf had a big smile on her face.

Mikoto and Shokuhou had done some wild things here, but small Patissiet had never even tried to run away in fear. No one was to stop the goddesses from fighting, after all. But Mikoto really hoped she wouldn’t beg them to continue that kaiju battle.

“Maybe we should have paid more attention to the structure of that cult in Academy City. It may have been identical to this world’s religion ability.”

So instead of a cult born in a city of science, had the small Academy City been influenced by the mythology and religion of this much larger world?

That was a fairly frightening thought, but Mikoto was more interested in something else.

“''Um, is that all''?”

“?”

“I thought for sure Celesaqphere’s unique mythology would explain the origin of the technology at the foundation of what they call magic.”

At the very least, there was nothing explaining the logic behind the magic. What were the fire, water, wind, earth, slash, pierce, impact, constrict, super, ultra, and legendary based on?

“Hold on. Then is there ''no'' system behind it?”

That was the most unpleasant possibility.

“We do know this world has a technology called magic and that it can be used to kill. It doesn’t require any qualifications or license, so anyone can use it if they follow the proper steps. And you’re telling me there’s nothing behind it!? How dangerous a world is this!?”

“I have a really bad feeling about that,” said Shokuhou, sounding cautious. Like she didn’t want to accept this but she had to share her concerns with someone. “''The magic here reminds me a lot of a video game. And this world uses Earth languages and decimal numbers. I really hope not, but could a distorted version of Earth entertainment have arrive in this world''?”

With a simple video game, that desperate magic would never actually work.

…But that logic only applied on Earth.

This was a world with pieces of crust floating above an ocean planet. Since the basic laws of nature and physics were different, nothing from Earth was guaranteed to apply to the fantasy world of Celesaqphere.

What if some gears happened to fit together such that experience allowed one to activate magic spells?

Just like medieval Europeans who knew nothing of bacteria still managed to make wine and cheese.

No one understood the real rules.

But there were bakers who knew nothing of yeast who could bake bread even fluffier and more delicious than a high-tech factory while believing they only had to pray to god every day and pour their love into the bread.

“Hm?” groaned Mikoto when she saw some people in the distance.

They were headed this way.

Were they travelers following the same brick road? Mikoto started to continue on toward them, but…

“Oh, no.”

The elf grabbed her long ears to hide them in a fluster.

These were not just ordinary passersby.

She feared these men who were purposefully approaching from the distance.

The hot-blooded men couldn’t suppress their smiles, like they were looking forward to tormenting their prey.

“Th-that’s the patrol. They won’t permit humans and elves to walk side by side.”

“We don’t need their permission.”

Mikoto blew them away with a billion-volts to silence them.

The elf’s mouth gaped, so Mikoto raised her index finger and winked.

“They’re clearly just some dangerously armed busybodies. You don’t have to follow all the pesky little rules they insist on. Always make sure to consider who came up with the rules and why. It’s not too late to follow the good rules after you do that.”

Defeating this one group of bastards wasn’t the end of it.

The small elf had a much more difficult battle she had to overcome on her own.