Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS2 Chapter1 (section)

=== Part 6 ===
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Mikoto’s frank impression of the store could be summed up in the word “strange”.

She had thought there might be some occult stores like that outside of Academy City and overseas, but it was still strange. She may have been affected by the atmosphere of the world’s largest shopping mall that gave the baseless impression that anything could be found there.

But then…

(If I stay away too long, the guards may figure out something’s wrong from the lack of noises. I probably need to be heading back.)

Over the next three days, she had a rehearsal, a demonstration for the press, and a demonstration for the public. She was of course planning to duck out when she found an opening, but she would still not be able to play around as much as that day.

Mikoto started regretting not having taken a picture of that store with her cell phone and then decided to head straight back to the hotel.

However, not everything went as planned.

On her way along the path leading to the exit of the large shopping mall area, Misaka Mikoto was forced to come to a stop.

This was not because the exit had been sealed.

Nor was there a thug or someone blocking her way.

At that time, in that instant, everyone but Mikoto was coming and going through the entrance like nothing was happening. Despite it being late in the evening, a large flow of people was formed by the great number of people entering or exiting the facility. Parents were heading for an amusement park with their kid who was waving a helium balloon around. Tall lovers were huddled together and talking while pointing at the floor. They were likely using the Semipublic AR to call up a guide to the facility. Mikoto was the only one that stopped.

There was a single reason.

There was something small that gave her an uncomfortable feeling lying on the floor near the entrance.

Lying on the floor as if someone had accidently dropped it was a single large orange.

“…”

It was an unpleasant coincidence.

There was a boy carrying many paper bags full of souvenirs and a girl walking into the facility while biting into a hamburger, but Mikoto alone was purposefully regulating her breathing.

Mikoto recalled the story she had heard from Setali about the very valuable orange. In the story a traveler sightseeing in a foreign country bought an orange that had the eggs of a large kind of ant packed inside of it. Mikoto felt the rumor should just be dismissed as absurd, but she could not get it out of her head.

(That…couldn’t really be true…right?)

Mikoto tried to deny it in her head, but it still bothered her. She could not just overlook it.

She slowly looked around, but there was no store selling fruits nearby.

While looking at the orange that looked oddly isolated just lying there on the floor, Mikoto approached a nearby thick pillar.

The Semipublic AR reacted to her presence.

She searched for “crimson long-legged army ants”.

Mikoto had no real plan behind doing so.

What looked like an encyclopedia page opened up.

''Crimson Long-Legged Army Ants. 

''2-3 cm long. As their name suggest, they have characteristically long legs. They also possess 5 mm fangs.

''Their bodies are black, but their six legs are bright red. Also, the males have transparent wings.

''Carnivorous.

''In this rare species, both males and females are soldier ants. They prefer mammals to other insects or arthropods. They have been found within the flesh of fruits, but this is not because they are eating the fruit. It is speculated that they enter the fruit when a colony is destroyed due to lack of food so that they can camouflage themselves and more likely capture some prey.

''As army ants, they have no specified nest and instead construct a colony of around 50,000-100,000 ants with the queen in the center. They then wander around a set area in search of prey.

''While hiding within a fruit, a stimulus to the fruit can remove the queen’s limiter causing the eggs to hatch with a seemingly inexhaustible supply. When that happens, a great number of queens have been reported to appear despite queens usually being limited to one.

''There have been numerous reports of such out of control colonies attacking human habitations.

''In the Second International Conference on the Prevention of Harm from Dangerous Insects, it was decided to work on bringing down the number those incidents to half what they are in 10 years’ time and Academy City is providing technology to help.

''-> Related: The Hennis Village Incident.

Mikoto knew that only regret would await her if she clicked on that link, but she did so anyway.

She was taken to a video sharing site.

She could not tell the exact location shown, but it seemed to either be Africa or South America. The area had small spots of short vegetation growing on dried earth. A few run-down wooden buildings were standing there.

A black and red sandstorm was blowing.

Below that, people with tanned skin were running about.

It almost looked like they were trying to avoid sparks from a conflagration, but they were not. The large amounts of red light were squirming around. They were bright red insect legs. Thin, transparent wings were moving.

Doors closed one after another.

The people who luckily managed to slip inside the buildings beforehand were the lucky ones.

However, the people who had the doors slammed in their faces were…

“…!!”

Mikoto slammed her palm against the thick round pillar. Her strike had enough force to break a panel of glass and the Semipublic AR took it as the command to close the window and complied.

Her breathing was erratic.

She had not been able to watch that video any longer.

Instead of those images of the past, Mikoto turned her gaze on something from the present.

She looked over at the oddly isolated orange.

She thought she saw its skin move slightly.

“…Eh…!?”

It really may have only been her imagination.

It also could have been due to the minute vibrations from the feet of the people walking around it.

But whether it had been a mental effect or physical movement, that vague appearance of movement did not stop with that one instant. Mikoto continually saw the same thing happening. A strange chill ran down her spine.

What if that story had been true…?

(…I need some kind of sealed container.)

Mikoto looked around.

(If I have a something like a microwave that can contain it, then the contents of the orange won’t be scattered around even if it does explode.)

That shopping mall had all sorts of things for sale. They had to at least have the basic kinds of appliances sold in department stores. The problem was that the stores were so large she had no idea where to find what she wanted.

Mikoto operated the Semipublic AR on the floor and a twisting arrow appeared there indicating where the appliance corner was. Mikoto looked back at the orange lying on the floor and…

“You’ve gotta be kidding…” she muttered.

It was gone. The orange was gone.

Mikoto frantically looked around for it. A lot of people were coming and going through the entrance like a shopping district on a holiday. It did not seem that the orange had been trampled underfoot, but she could not tell where it had gone. Someone may have kicked it.

And then she heard children’s voices. She could not see the children because of all the people, but she clearly heard the innocent voices of children speaking in Russian.

One was a boy’s voice and the other a girl’s voice.

“What’s with this? It’s all squishy.”

“What did you get that for? Are you going to eat it?”

“Of course I’m not going to eat it. I found it on the floor. I’m gonna kick it all the way to the car.”

Mikoto’s head shot up.

She really could not see the ones speaking. She hurried in the direction of the voices which led her to the exit.

“Wait,” Mikoto called out despite not knowing who she was speaking to as she pushed her way through the crowd.

She was in such a panicked hurry that she was tempted to emit a weak electrical current, but she resisted.

The eggs forming the colony of crimson long-legged army ants were hiding within the fruit waiting for some prey.

A stimulus to the fruit would remove the queen’s limiter causing the number of ants to increase seemingly endlessly. The normal limit of a single queen would also disappear.

Once that happened, it would end like the video she had seen on that site…

“Wait!!”

Mikoto charged out of the building.

There was a parking lot large enough to be at a major soccer match, but tools for home gardens such as spades and buckets were lined up nearer the exit. The crowd was cutting around various corners creating a large flow of people.

(The voices sounded around 10, I guess. The boy’s voice didn’t sound like it had changed yet.)

She looked around.

There were a lot of parents with their children. There were even quite a few around the age of 10. Some were holding their parent’s hand, some were waving around balloons, and some were riding on their parent’s shoulders.

The boy had mentioned kicking the orange.

Mikoto looked down to the ground and quickly moved her gaze into the distance.

She saw something orange-colored fly by.

“There it is!!”

About 200 meters ahead, a family of four was walking in one section of the packed parking lot. The orange was at the boy’s feet. He must have kicked it again and again. Part of the skin had torn off. The orange was squirming eerily. It looked a bit like a heart about to die.

It looked like something breathing was about to burst out of it.

There was no time.

Mikoto had no idea how many crimson long-legged army ants were hiding within the orange, but she did not want to think about what kind of damage would be done to the boy that was kicking the orange were it to burst and there were even 50 or 100 of them inside. And if even a few of the ants that would scatter in every direction were allowed to escape, they would begin breeding after only a short period of time creating a seemingly infinite number of them.

She could fire a lightning spear or her Railgun.

A few options came to mind, but none of them would work.

She may be able to obliterate the orange, but that level of attack would only scatter the tiny ants around making it entirely pointless.

She could not solely rely on her power.

“…!!”

Like she was juggling a soccer ball, Mikoto lightly kicked up a tin bucket lying in the outside area for home garden products.

She manipulated magnetism.

An invisible force caused the tin bucket to swing around like a wrecking ball on a chain.

A heavy sound echoed out like when one swung a bat through the air.

The bucket flew down from diagonally above the boy, flew upside down just past his shoulder at high speed, and struck the ground covering up the orange on the parking lot ground. A metallic clang rang out as orange sparks flew.

“Ee!”

“Out of the way!!” yelled Mikoto, but she clicked her tongue immediately afterwards because Japanese wasn’t going to get through to the boy.

Luckily, the family of four was paralyzed by the sudden occurrence. Their lack of motion made things easier for Mikoto.

Purple electricity flew from her bangs.

With a feeling like the power in her forehead was being released externally, she controlled her power and the charged high voltage current was released all at once.

A loud noise similar to a gunshot rang out.

Mikoto put herself between the boy and the bucket and forced him away. She kept her gaze on the upside down bucket.

(I-is it over…?)

She then heard a slight scraping noise.

It sounded like claws scraping at metal.

Mikoto’s shoulders jumped and the noise continued.

It was coming from the bucket.

From inside it.

From within.

The scratching noise continued and continued and continued.

(You don’t mean…)

“They’re trying to eat through the metal bucket…!?”

One shot had not been enough to annihilate them.

The simple command telling them to frantically survive gave the ants greater leadership.

Mikoto stepped forward and fired two more high voltage currents into the bucket. She stepped on top of the bottom of the upside down bucket with one foot. She then poured a massive amount of electricity into the bucket just to be sure.

The tin bucket conducted electricity.

The inside would have been transformed into an environment more severe than an electric chair.

“…”

After firing over 20 electrical attacks at it, Mikoto finally stopped. The noise and light had been so great that even the onlookers remained silent.

She remained still for 30 long seconds with her foot still on top of the tin bucket.

She could not grasp the situation like that.

Without removing the bucket, she could not check to see what had been inside the orange or if they had been properly exterminated.

When dealing with bombs, checking to make sure it was truly not functioning was as nerve-wracking as deactivating it in the first place. It was a similar feeling to that.

Mikoto slowly took her weight off of the bottom of the upside down bucket.

She gulped.

She brought the bottom of her foot to edge of the bucket and pushed ever so slightly. The bucket moved a bit from just that. It was not a perfect defensive wall. Just tapping it with her toes had been enough to almost knock it over.

She pushed harder.

The bucket wobbled quite a bit and then flipped over. The contents were now exposed.

The skin and flesh of the fruit had been torn apart by the high voltage currents and now lined the inner edge of the bucket. Most of it was burnt black, but some still retained its original color. A marmalade-like smell reached Mikoto’s nose.

And something like black sesame seeds were scattered about. Gravity sent them pouring down into a small pile. Mikoto recognized them instantly. They were insects. The small six-legged insects had been turned to ash by the massive electric currents.

None of them were moving.

After confirming that, Mikoto manipulated magnetism to cover it all up with the tin bucket again.

She breathed a sigh of relief and sat weakly down on the parking lot ground.

An orange.

Crimson long-legged army ants.

The world’s largest shopping mall where anything could be bought.

A treasure trove of urban legends.

(So…it was true?)

The family of four was finally starting to make a fuss asking what she had done to their child, but Mikoto did not have the energy left to respond.

She ignored the cries in Russian and muttered in Japanese.

“…I guess I ended up making an unexpected demonstration a bit early.”

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