Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter5 (section)

===Part 16===

Now.

Misaka Mikoto had left for her “inspection” of other regions.

While the foolish #3 went off to fight a war on her own, the very clever and beautiful Shokuhou Misaki worked on her plan to attack the capital.

She walked through the grass in her frilly dancer outfit below the strange blue sky with multiple layers of floating lands moving through it like pieces of eggshell. The fact that she could walk around in such a conspicuous outfit without the powers-that-be noticing proved how wonderful a world without security cameras could be.

“Let’s see, we need to defeat the three Demon Lords to complete the three treasures ceremony and return to Earth, but we don’t know anything about them. The royals or nobles have the grimoire that provides more information, so we need to threaten or brainwash the king at the top into ordering that all the grimoires owned by the various lords be submitted to him☆”

After muttering her thoughts aloud, Shokuhou shifted her focus to the outside world.

She faced the more immediate problem.

“Without Misaka-san’s brute force ability, we will have a harder time fighting. My Mental Out does not work against the wild animals that might attack without warning.”

“I did bring this, so I can protect you.”

Patissiet held a bow made of ash wood. It was a decently impressive longbow, which made it taller than short Patissiet was herself. Needless to say, it had been acquired in Valhalla, a city of commerce where you could buy just about anything.

A slave carrying a projectile weapon apparently warranted a summary execution for rebellion, so was Patissiet finally getting over those issues? If so, it was a good sign.

Shokuhou fondly viewed the little elf awkwardly wielding the big weapon.

But more importantly…

“It’s floating.”

“Yes, because it is a floating land.”

Patissiet’s dutiful response was cute and all, but that wasn’t Shokuhou’s point.

“Ahhhh! Is this all it takes to stop us without Misaka-san around!? We don’t have any way of reaching another land floating so close by! But if I turn back here, I just know Misaka-san will mock me ruthlessly later ooooooooooooon!!”

“Y-you have nothing to worry about! She is the weird one for flying around with that magnetism stuff. So without her, you just need to find a wild dragon and ride it to the next floating land!!”

“Again, my Mental Out only works on people!!”

Shokuhou was wandering the edge of the floating land trying to figure out what to do when she spotted an artificial glint that looked out of place in nature.

What she found was a lot like a giant propeller combined with a parachute.

It had apparently been attacked by a flying monster while crossing between floating lands.

(Why was it abandoned? I don’t like the idea that someone was attacked while using it.)

It looked like a type of paraglider, but it was powered by twisting animal fur with a hand crank instead of a gasoline engine.

With no other options left, Shokuhou held Patissiet in her arms and took off. However, she was too scared to jump off the edge of the cliff right away, so she tested it out in an empty field first. She had to run for a bit first to fill the parachute with air, but that went smoothly thanks to the propeller.

She began to float.

The wonder of it overpowered the fear as she felt gravity disappear from her feet. The cables didn’t get tangled up or anything.

“Oh? Oh, oh, oh…ohhh☆”

It was fun.

After she began to float, she rested her hips on something like a thick belt. It was an elegant thing, like a giant swing, and it would prevent Patissiet from slipping down too.

Unlike with a certain idiot she could mention who zoomed around with magnetism, this didn’t cause her stomach to rise into her throat like on a thrill ride, so she didn’t feel any fear. It was all so gentle and floaty. She was pretty sure she could safely leave the cliff like this.

Patissiet rejoiced in the back seat.

“This is incredible, Lady Shokuhou.”

“Hwa ha ha! We were fools to ever grow so reliant on Misaka-san!! Now, Patissiet, how do you steer this thing?”

“I have no idea.”

The elf’s head tilt caused Shokuhou’s stomach to rise into her throat.

There was already nothing below her feet.

Unable to play the comforting big sister any longer, Shokuhou screamed while somehow managing to adjust their height with the cords in her hands, achieving a soft landing on the new floating land about 100m from the previous one. If her angle had been off even a little, she would have found herself in a hell of flying into empty air forever.

“Pant, pant. I-I am never trying that again.”

“Hm? But don’t we need to use it to get back?”

“Vwahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

But now was no time to be holding her head and screaming.

The propeller-equipped hang glider’s presence meant there were giant monsters that attacked the people traveling between floating lands. There was no time to fold the vehicle up and cover it with grass and branches to hide it from view.

“Oh, no. Something’s coming. Th-that’s a Hraesvelgr!!”

The giant bird’s wingspan blotted out the blue sky above. At that size, a flap of its wings would cause a windstorm. Its giant talons were like a crane’s hook, so they could likely grab and tear apart a house.

This was no pigeon or crow – it was a true bird of prey.

And to reiterate, Shokuhou’s Mental Out did not work on nonhumanoid monsters.

“Eek!”

For once, it was the queen who cried out in fear.

Sensing that true fear, something changed inside little Patissiet with her ash longbow in hand. She took a step forward.

And spoke a single word.

“''Blaze''.”

The instant the arrow struck, the Hraesvelgr’s stomach ruptured from within.

“Bwuh!?”

Frightened by the sudden burst of red, Shokuhou fell not just onto her rear but tumbled onto her back too.

When Patissiet had a reason, she would kill. Lives really were taken unusually lightly in this world.

And she had previously explained how Celesaqphere’s magic worked.

But that had not been the basic fire attack magic!!

“Elfshot.” Little Patissiet sighed softly as she gently lowered her bow. “The attack is meant to imbue magic into a flint arrowhead and paralyze the target, but…ugh, when I do it, it always explodes inside the target’s body.”

“…”

So if she even scratched her target with her arrow, they were dead?

It didn’t matter that she was Level 11 and only had access to the most basic magic. Not when she could simply shove it inside her target’s body and detonate it there. This could possibly be even more deadly than the Railgun which strictly sent its power in from the outside.

Shokuhou’s eyes widened while she lay on her back in her frilly outfit.

“Wait, um, Patiss- what in the world was that?”

“I know. This destroys the target’s blood vessels and organs, so the meat doesn’t taste any good. It’s completely useless in real life. I really need to figure out how to do a proper Elfshot that paralyzes them so I can capture them alive.”

The elf tilted her head in disappointment with her ash bow in hand.

She apparently didn’t realize this ability made her a real candidate for being the strongest.

Celesaqphere was demonstrating yet another flaw by burying her talent without ever letting her know its true value.

“The meat kind of splattered everywhere, but it would be a waste to not gather it up and eat it. It should still taste okay once we cook it.”