Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume8 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 5===

“Brr.”

Mut Thebes bent over, wrapped her arms around her shoulders, and shivered.

She was generally the strongest, but she was also a girl who couldn’t stand the cold.

She hated seeing her breath.

During her time in the cabal consulate, she had loved staying indoors and curling up next to the fireplace to keep warm. In fact, she had only ever gone outside to welcome Alice. Before going to bed, she would soak in the tub to warm her body, perform a thorough stretching routine to further increase her body temperature, drink some hot milk, cover her bed with three layers of blanket, and even set the air conditioner to 28 degrees. Not at all environmentally friendly.

(How are the Bologna Succubus and Aradia fine walking around dressed like that? Have they developed an insulation spell to keep themselves warm? And they didn’t tell me? No fair.)

She was in District 6.

But not because she had located the enemy here.

“You can move closer to the heater if you want, miss. Don’t be shy!”

“Thanks.”

“Are you part of the parade? I know it’s important to take the rehearsals seriously, but you’ll catch cold dressed like that this early. Make sure to wear your staff coat during off time! Y’know, the fluffy waterproof one!!”

“If you say so.”

“Oh, I know. Want some hot cocoa?”

“I would love some.”

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The Transcendent made sure to bow politely to the man with the gravelly voice of a smoker.

The board chairman at the top had declared martial law, but since it was a holiday, not everyone had been able to contact their employer. And employees couldn’t afford to be late the way students could. Thus, a decent number of employees and truckers had arrived at the amusement park for work and were now stuck there. Mut Thebes had joined one of the small groups that had formed across District 6. The people were gathered around an outdoor heater someone had dragged out from the back of storage. It was a giant metal umbrella containing the kind of compressed gas cylinder used for a portable stove and it was likely meant to be placed at a café’s outdoor tables or alongside the lines for the popular attractions.

“I’m a trucker myself, but I can sympathize with your situation. How can they declare martial law like this? How are you supposed to do your job if no one can reach the park, right!?”

“Well, I don’t actually work in the park…”

“Want some mochi? I have some left over from the holiday.”

“I will take four.”

“Oh, you’ve got an appetite. That’s what I like to see!”

The man shouted for someone to bring over a metal mesh. But how did a truck driver manage to cook these on January 1?

Mut Thebes dunked the fresh-cooked mochi in her hot cocoa for something resembling cocoa shiruko and enjoyed the multicultural flavor before looking into the sky above.

A giant craft flew by at surprisingly low altitude.

It looked like a large passenger plane with a giant plate on its head.

“An AWACS plane.”

The man appeared to be more traditional. He poured some soy sauce on a small plate and added sugar from a café-style packet to achieve the perfect tare sauce.

“It’s probably flying so low because District 23 is so close, but what’s the point of that thing in such a small city? Feels like a waste of tech, but maybe it shows how panicked the board of directors is. What’s the point of the martial law, for that matter? I’m not even sure who we’re supposed to be fighting.”

“What is an AWACS plane?”

“Basically a giant reconnaissance plane.”

“I’m not even sure what reconnaissance means.”

“Hm. It really just means you send it out to find the enemy. With the Academy City HsAWACS-05, that plate-like radome has a range of 1000km. It also has a big server and computer aboard, so it can order around its unit based on the data it receives. It can perfectly track more than 1500 enemy and ally craft and share lock info on 500 of them so its allies can attack them. If it gets a lock from afar, the fighters don’t even need to circle behind the enemy craft and carefully take aim. The thing is, it’s only meant to secure air superiority by circling the airspace in question from a distance. Oh, and I only know all this from video games. I love me some flight simulators! Lately, there’s been some great ones even on cheap smartphone VR.”

“Hm.” Mut Thebes looked overhead while poking her fork into and stretching the mochi she had dropped in her sweet mug.

This hobbyist had given her quite the lengthy lecture.

She hadn’t understood even half of it, but she didn’t need to understand every little thing.

The Bologna Succubus’s divination only worked once. She had already played that card. That meant her biggest necessity now was locating the enemy.

And she did not need to fly up into the sky and directly tear the parts from the craft.

It was early morning.

The holy sun had appeared in the eastern sky once more.

Its low altitude was convenient too. The AWACS plane’s large shadow was already moving across the ground and rapidly approaching her.

The brown girl crouched down and lovingly held the steaming mug between her hands. She took a sip of the sweet hot cocoa she had forcibly dunked her mochi in.

“Yes, this combination is a winner.”