Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

A snapping sound could physically be heard.

It happened in the short break between exams during Tokiwadai’s weeklong midterms.

The pudding container was empty.

Tragically, this was the last one.

Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki exploded on either side of that dangerous item.

“''I know you must have eaten it, so you’d damn well better go and buy me a new ooooooooooooone''!!!”

They were in Academy City’s District 7.

Specifically, in the School Garden, a special area containing several prestigious girl’s schools.

Tokiwadai Middle School was supposed to be the very center of that space of class and good manners, so the shouting voices sounded horribly out of place in its peaceful and verdant courtyard. The beige sleeveless sweaters, white short-sleeve blouses, and dark gray skirts were definitely Tokiwadai uniforms, but Mikoto and Shokuhou were not cosplaying. They were supposedly legitimate students there, yet they were behaving like this.

Their twintailed underclassman Shirai Kuroko (with a caramel dessert staining her mouth) smiled bitterly as she intervened.

“C-calm down, both of you. I know that was a super-rare luxury pudding you have to stand in line to get your hands on, but most schools don’t even let their students eat desserts at school, even during their lunch break. So instead of lamenting this missed opportunity, why not be thankful you can eat things like this every single d-”

With a click of a remote, Shokuhou brainwashed Shirai into motionlessness while Mikoto launched her into the sky with a Railgun blast three times the speed of sound.

Really, if she wasn’t a pervert, that would have killed her.

Mikoto and Shokuhou turned their heads toward ringlet-hair Hokaze Junko who had tried to intervene along with the girl who was now a constellation in the daytime sky. The synchronized movement made one suspect those two actually got along very well indeed.

“Did you have something to say?” the both said.

“N-no, I wouldn’t dream of it.”

As usual, the ringlets girl wisely backed down. With a smile. Although if they had allowed Hokaze to speak, they would have been reminded what exactly was on Shirai’s mouth before she was blasted away.

However, the pudding was only the tip of the iceberg.

All their past frustrations were at play here.

Short hair vs. long hair.

Cute vs. pretty.

Shorts vs. no shorts.

Cats vs. dogs.

Summer break vs. winter break.

Skyrockets vs. sparklers.

Can easily perform a back hip circle vs. can’t and just ends up kicking her legs.

Beef curry vs. seafood curry.

Ultra high resolution Pleystation vs. casual Sketch.

And last but not least: no shoulder stiffness vs. constant shoulder stiffness.

In other words, flat chest vs. busty.

Sadly, humanity could never be united. No matter how long they try to work things out, there are people who were born unable to get along with each other.

So this had only been the final spark.

A direct clash between Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki had begun.



A quiet metallic clink rang out.

It came from the arcade coin Misaka Mikoto had flicked up with her thumb. Academy City’s #3 Railgun was showing no mercy right out of the gate.

With practiced skill, she caught the flicked coin back on her thumbnail, and…

“What kind of idiot holds the big guns in reserve when faced with the final boooooooss!!!”

Metal tore through the air at three times the speed of sound. The speed and destructive force were so powerful the friction drew out an orange path and the coin would vanish after only 50m. This was Mikoto’s ultimate attack as Academy City’s #3. A hit from this would be deadly (for anyone other than a well-trained pervert).

But…

“Hee hee☆”

Shokuhou was still smiling as the coin hit the center of her body, right near the navel, twisting her around like a whirlpool, but then her silhouette vanished like an unnatural fog fading away.

Shokuhou stood 5m to the right of the impact point.

Mikoto had screwed up.

She’d been tricked.

Tokiwadai’s Queen bewitchingly pressed her lips against the tip of her TV remote.

“''That’s my line ability.''”

“Hm? Your insidious brainwashing isn’t supposed to work on me. How could you create that illusion when my subconscious EM barrier is supposed to deflect your power?”

“Thanks for the detailed explanation ability☆ But what do you think happened here?”

If Mikoto wasn’t wrong about something, then what she had seen made no sense.

It took less than 2 seconds to arrive at the correct answer.

“Oh, I get it. That illusion didn’t come from my mind. You didn’t break the rules. ''You simply controlled all the girls around you and forced one of them to use an image projection power''!! (Lightning crash!!)”

“Sh-she what!?” shouted Hokaze Junko with a look of shock drawn in extreme contrast.

Shokuhou twirled her remote.

“Correct☆ Misaka-saaan, I can’t help but notice you keep explaining every little thing even though literally no one asked you to. Do you like it when shounen manga do that or something? And, Hokaze-san, whose side are you on?”

Do not underestimate Tokiwadai’s Ace. She was the kind of person who could ignore the glaring clerk to read magazines for hours on end in the convenience store without buying anything. The magazine has a sticker to prevent that? This tyrant will simply remove it.

Tokiwadai didn’t even have 200 students, but every single one was ''at least'' Level 3. With a single remote, Shokuhou could brainwash anyone (other than Mikoto) she wanted, so the number and variety of powers she could indirectly draw on was literally an order of magnitude higher.

She started with around 30 or 40. Girls with blank eyes surrounded Mikoto at a distance. And if this didn’t work, Shokuhou only had to brainwash and call in more girls.

“You and your small guns. I don’t think we can ever get along.”

“You’re only now figuring that out? Oh, and that wasn’t a very nice thing to say. These ‘small guns’ include a Level 4 like Kongou-san.”

Shokuhou made sure to jiggle her large boobs every time she responded.

“The hero’s the one who’s supposed to take time levelling up, not the lewd villain!”

“And what about you?”

''Boing, boing, boing, boing'' – the jiggling would not stop.

Was she – ''boing'' – really in – ''boing'' – middle school?

“If you want to be the hotblooded good guy, why are you acting like the demon lord who sends in all his forces right away and burns down the protagonist’s hometown?”

“…”

“To be fair, you never have been able to trust others and you try to solve everything on your own, so you would do better as an evil demon lord than as a hero who has to form a party to fight alongside.”

''Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, shake, boing, shake, boing, boing, boing, shake, boing, boing, boing, shake, boing!

“Argh, could these things be any more annoying!!?”

“Wh-why would you just grab them while crying!?”

Not even the strongest mental esper had managed to predict the mental state of the flat-chested girl weeping tears of blood. A beat later, the #5 girl shook her off and backed away, blushing.

This was why Tokiwadai’s Queen simply could not get along with her!!

Electricity crackled from Mikoto’s bangs and iron sand magnetically gathered at her right hand to form a rapidly-vibrating black sword.

Mental Out could control large groups and Railgun had a wide variety of single-fighter uses.

But Mikoto immediately arrived at the optimal answer: ''an immediate retreat.

(Tch. Whoever she brainwashes here is a win for her. Every one of her rolls is a guaranteed legendary or greater, so facing her here in Tokiwadai is a bad idea!!)

“Crush her!!!”

Shokuhou gave her command at the same moment Mikoto used her magnetism to leap to the nearest building wall and plant her feet on it.

Shockwaves, a flamethrower, telekinesis, ice blocks, dangerously rusted metal, and gravity.

A variety of attacks made short work of the school building’s wall, but they couldn’t keep up with fleeing Mikoto. She jumped from building to building and made her way off of school grounds as quickly as possible.