Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter4

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Or perhaps that was the fear of the vacuum of space.
 
Or perhaps that was the fear of the vacuum of space.
 
===Part 11===
 
 
Outside the window, welding-bright lights slashed continuously here and there, burning afterimages into Mikoto’s vision.
 
 
The tentacle mantis earthlings used oddly shaped weapons that looked like 15m humanoid robots wearing satellites on their backs like backpacks. The technology may have developed from killer satellites designed to destroy enemy satellites in space.
 
 
These were machines, but it seemed important to them that they be manned weapons. It made sense they wouldn’t want to rely on AI-controlled unmanned weapons when they were at war with androids.
 
 
“Whoa!?”
 
 
“Please avoid looking directly at it.”
 
 
“Those might be even more powerful than my Railgun… So how do you secure the energy needed to power those long rifle-like things!?”
 
 
“Each craft does not produce its own energy. The large generator on the flagship provides the energy to them all using lasers and microwaves. We have developed an overall strategy based heavily on wireless power transmission technology.”
 
 
That explained how 15m robots could fire laser beams and linear guns capable of bringing down 30km motherships and warships.
 
 
Their tech was specialized in that direction.
 
 
And they had said the electrification device had been accidentally discovered while creating an artificial blackhole, which was a lot like creating supernova-levels of energy.
 
 
“Urp.”
 
 
“Are you not feeling well?”
 
 
Mikoto couldn’t answer that simple question.
 
 
…They were shooting with reckless abandon in outer space where a single millimeter hole in their craft would mean instant death.
 
 
But maybe nausea was the correct reaction.
 
 
The lack of concern about killing monsters to level up in Celesaqphere had been the oddity.
 
 
But.
 
 
The androids were frightening in their own way since all of this still wasn’t enough to end the war with them.
 
 
Compared to the tentacle mantis earthlings, the androids were losing a lot more ships.
 
 
They used unmanned weapons, so they used their greater numbers to overwhelm the earthlings.
 
 
Specifically, they had streamlined flying craft that resembled aquatic rays. But they probably weren’t ballistic missiles. They were more likely weapons of war based on civilian spacecraft.
 
 
Tons of them were scattered across space.
 
 
Their cylindrical space station sent them out across kilometers to surround the earthlings with a density so thick it felt like a cloudburst.
 
 
“The loathsome androids’ strength is their military construction kit that uses blank circuit boards with a grid for attaching components and wires. They fire their strategic factory warhead toward the coordinates they want and it will endlessly produce unmanned weapons to spread out in all directions and conquer the area.”
 
 
“That sounds like something I could handle. But this world makes it a problem again by letting the #5 control them with her power.”
 
 
“Their standard strategic doctrine is to produce the optimal firepower for the situation instead of raising excellent soldiers. Once a weapon has played its part, they dispose of it to avoid any further fuel costs. That consumption strategy is only an option for nonliving beings.”
 
 
This world had been in a constant struggle between the two sides.
 
 
Or rather, their plan required the bodies and the wreckage to pile up.
 
 
Protecting the Solar System from the ultra-massive impactors required a massive amount of weapon wreckage. It was a twisted history where everyone wanted the long stalemate and deadly chain reaction.
 
 
But the rules were different today.
 
 
It began with a single ship.
 
 
The android flagship, the largest in their fleet, charged straight toward the side of the earthling flagship.
 
 
“!? Was the radar controller asleep at his post? How could they get this close with no one noticing!?” shouted Floria in surprise.
 
 
None of the tentacle mantis earthlings seemed to notice Mikoto turning her back and sticking her tongue out a bit.
 
 
They just barely avoided the ramming attack, but a further attack was launched as the two flagships passed above and below each other in an X shape.
 
 
Mikoto heard a rumbling and the deck shook below her feet, causing her to float up since she wasn’t used to zero gravity.
 
 
There was no sound in space.
 
 
So to hear anything at all meant something had directly contacted this flagship.
 
 
In other words…
 
 
“They fired directly at us…from point-blank range!?”
 
 
The lighting switched to red and an emergency siren sounded.
 
 
The floating images had been giving orders to the fighters, but now they also gave orders to the mining and production facilities.
 
 
“We have already retrieved the resource-rich ship debris and are rapidly processing it into repair materials. A hull breach is not enough to sink this flagship!”
 
 
Hm, so that was how they did it.
 
 
But…
 
 
''Boooom!!!???
 
 
This explosion clearly came from within the ship itself and it sharply shook the air.
 
 
It was close.
 
 
It wasn’t just Mikoto this time. Every single person in the 30km enclosed space was shaken. In the heart-clutching terror and tension, Floria clicked her tongue in her mantis mouth. Apparently she had a tongue.
 
 
“The androids were inside a 200m piece of debris? Was that the true purpose of their reckless attack!?”
 
 
Mikoto glanced at a square window and saw beautiful men and women with mannequin-like perfection walking across a dust-free facility reminiscent of a semiconductor plant.
 
 
Were those the androids?
 
 
They were so pretty it was kind of annoying. No, they took beauty so far it became uncanny.
 
 
They fought the earthlings at the plant entrance while also gathering together and quickly putting together a cylinder the size of a vending machine. Was it some kind of tank? No, it was their unmanned lab containing those blank circuit board construction kits. Military drones resembling longhorn beetles swarmed out. Seeing tens, hundreds, or even thousands of those meters-long weapons sent a chill down Mikoto’s spine.
 
 
“They stole the production facility’s power supply? The blueprint processor and the construction materials themselves too… Argh, those loathsome viruses!!”
 
 
“?”
 
 
Mikoto initially assumed Floria meant a computer virus, but then she realized she meant the original meaning: pathogens that could not reproduce on their own so they sent mistaken production commands to the infected life form’s cells to have themselves mass-produced.
 
 
Largescale combat aboard the ship was inevitable now. Of course, the 30km ship had enough space for the kind of battle found in the Records of the Three Kingdoms.
 
 
Mikoto focused on her phone.
 
 
“(I hacked in and messed with their control and close-range defenses to let the androids onto this flagship, which is carrying the electrification device. Shokuhou, what about you? You have stolen the controller from the androids’ flagship, haven’t you!?)”
 
 
“(Is that even a question worth asking, Misaka-san? I’m all ready to escape. I’ll find a chance in all this chaos to move to your ship, so where should we meet up?)”
 
 
“(There’s a hidden door in Area 4. Head straight down the long corridor behind it! That will take you to the electrification device, so we’ll meet there!!)”
 
 
With that said, Mikoto turned around and started toward the corridor leading to ''Area 5''.
 
 
When Floria noticed, she turned around.
 
 
“Where are you going?”
 
 
“I’m a noncombatant guest, so I’m getting away from all this fighting! Oh, and you might just find an idiot making a beeline for Area 4 even though it’s nothing but storerooms, so I recommend focusing your fighting there♪”
 
 
(I can snag Shokuhou’s controller during the confusion after the extermination is complete. If Floria and the others find something that important, they’ll lock it away. I’m sure they have strict electronic security in a world full of mechs, which means I won’t have any trouble☆)
 
 
Yes.
 
 
She had to return to Celesaqphere to save the elves, but no one ever said she had to return with Shokuhou.
 
 
(Besides, leaving her with the one-of-a-kind controller would be a bad idea. If I told her the electrification device’s real location, she probably wouldn’t bother waiting for me and electrify the blackhole to try traveling between worlds on her own. I know she would because that’s what I would do in her position.)
 
 
In Area 5, Mikoto entered an engine-like space larger than a stadium completely filled with thick pipes and machinery. As soon as she stepped inside, a blob of fat caught her.
 
 
It was Shokuhou Misaki, motionless and tearful.
 
 
“Misaka-san, was I mistaken about the scent of love and peace we were giving off by declaring a truce so we could go help Patissiet and the other elves back in Celesaqphere!? Why did you lure me into a trap!?”
 
 
“You have it all wrong. I so thoroughly believe in you I knew you could still make it here after creating a diversion for me. …Tch.”
 
 
“You just clicked your tongue, didn’t you!? I know you did!”
 
 
“Anyway, Shokuhou, where’s the controller?”
 
 
“…”
 
 
Shokuhou pouted her lips as she very reluctantly pulled the controller out of her diagonally-worn handbag. It looked like an ordinary silver smartphone with a white cover. But it had to be a bizarre piece of technology on the inside.
 
 
Mikoto ignored it and felt across Shokuhou’s body.
 
 
The two of them spun in the zero-g space as they flirted.
 
 
“Whoa, hey, what do you think you’re- hyah!?”
 
 
“Shut up, you embodiment of lewd,” coldly spat Mikoto as she pulled an identical device from Shokuhou’s chest.
 
 
The #5 grew flustered in a different way from before.
 
 
“Hey!? H-how did you know!?”
 
 
“The androids have developed circuit board manufacturing tech to the point they use it as a strategic weapon, so I knew you’d create an identical mockup with one of their construction kits and try to trick me☆ …I know better than to think a scheming villain like you will do as she’s told.”
 
 
Now Mikoto had the controller.
 
 
“Okay, where’s the artificial blackhole? Oh, is that it? It’s right here on this ship.”
 
 
“Wow, so this world lets you use a touchscreen to remotely send instructions to the blackhole?”
 
 
Did that idiot think you would go up and interact with it directly?
 
 
The artificial blackhole already existed. If they could externally electrify it, they would have a gate between worlds.
 
 
Luckily, that didn’t require any complicated operations on their part.
 
 
The big, metal console had an indentation on one side the same size and shape as the smartphone-like controller. Faint red and blue light was leaking from the edges of the indentation. It felt more mysterious than creepy. How the tech worked was a complete mystery, but it did intuitively tell Mikoto how to use it. An SF world with advanced interfaces was a wonderful thing.
 
 
Mikoto and Shokuhou did not trust each other, so to ensure neither of them pulled a fast one on the other, they held the device together as they inserted it into the indentation. The motion was a lot like newlyweds cutting the cake at their wedding.
 
 
The view around them seemed to burst as blue and green light divided out a piece of the space.
 
 
Using straight lines.
 
 
The electrification device could electrify anything, even an artificial blackhole.
 
 
The controller was a connector made with ultra-precise circuit board manufacturing technology that surpassed even a natural crystalline structure.
 
 
Their exit was there.
 
 
When would those two species settle their differences and allow these two things to come in contact again?
 
 
“Shokuhou, brainwash this thing.”
 
 
“?”
 
 
Mikoto tapped the inserted smartphone-sized controller.
 
 
“You said all machines in this world are given a ‘mind’, right? Using some kind of app. After confirming we’ve made our jump, have it forget all its memories and skills, ensuring it can never be used this way again.”
 
 
“I see. I guess that’s a good idea.”
 
 
“Floria and the others still haven’t realized it can be used this way, but I want to make sure they can’t travel to another world even if they do. They said the electrification device and controller were created by accident and can’t be reproduced, so set a timer or whatever you have to do to ensure it will ''forget everything'' after we leave and never be usable again. We want to avoid ‘killing’ if we can, right?”
 
 
Setting up that insurance didn’t take long.
 
 
Afterwards, Mikoto and Shokuhou once more gazed into the 3m square hole of light.
 
 
That unnatural hole had been directly opened in space.
 
 
And the Queen of Tokiwadai had one more thing to say.
 
 
“Misaka-san, just to be sure you know, we could forget all about Celesaqphere and return straight to Earth.”
 
 
“You don’t really mean that.”
 
 
“What makes you so sure?”
 
 
Because she trusted the #5 who looked like a domineering queen but was actually kindhearted?
 
 
''No.
 
 
“Someone as awful as you wouldn’t even mention the possibility out loud if you really wanted to head home and abandon Patissiet and the elves. A liar like you would keep quiet and then make your move when you had the chance, right? Not that I would let my guard down long enough to give you that chance.”
 
 
Shokuhou sighed softly.
 
 
She clearly wanted to complain, but she didn’t do anything about it.
 
 
That settled it.
 
 
They exchanged a nod and stepped toward the electrification device.
 
 
Just then…
 
 
“Wait…please wait.”
 
 
Somone entered Area 5. She had a body like a giant mantis with tentacles growing from it. She had gained that form through excessive evolution.
 
 
“Please do not leave us here.”
 
 
But even if she no longer looked anything like Mikoto or Shokuhou, Floria was still human.
 
 
She could cry, grow angry, and laugh. She had all the usual emotions.
 
 
“Who are you? Wow, there was another unchanged human left.”
 
 
The next to arrive was Victoria, the android who looked extremely beautiful.
 
 
Maybe the dark-skinned girl technically wasn’t human, but with her body and mind so perfectly identical, there was no real meaningful distinction to be made.
 
 
Mikoto sighed and briefly stopped.
 
 
Could she really abandon them?
 
 
She did want to return to Celesaqphere as soon as possibly for Patissiet and the rest of the elves. But was it heartless to leave this world without solving its problems first? For one thing, there was no guarantee the passage of time between worlds was the same, so maybe it would be best to intercede between the endlessly fighting humans and androids.
 
 
Or so she thought until the two of them pushed up in front of her.
 
 
“This isn’t over yet. Your presence could provide the decisive blow needed to end this stalemate. We must slaughter them!! As humans, it is our duty to gather up every advantage we can find and use them to bury every last one of those detestable androids. And you too!! As a human, you too can help us slaughter those uncannily perfect androids!!!”
 
 
“Hwa ha ha ha ha!! No one should accept such hideous creatures as human. The two of you retain your original beautiful bodies and minds, so you must understand how we androids feel. We must bring an end to that mistaken evolutionary branch and reclaim the pure and beautiful form of the rightful humans. We must kill those vermin to right the course of Earth’s history!!!”
 
 
“Ugh,” groaned Mikoto, staring into the distance.
 
 
Those two were not here because a budding friendship made them sad to see Mikoto and Shokuhou go.
 
 
They had only seen the two girls as a way of furthering their war.
 
 
Humans were humans. There was no point in whitewashing their nature.
 
 
Shokuhou glared over at the #3 girl. Her eyes showed contempt for Mikoto’s brief hesitation.
 
 
It wasn’t an issue of how they were born or how their bodies worked. Nor was it an issue of their knowledge or experiences.
 
 
But Misaka and Shokuhou could tell it was best if they did not stay in this world.
 
 
Mikoto could directly control electricity and Shokuhou could mentally control the over-evolved machines, so they held too much power in this SF world. They couldn’t hope to predict what would happen if they did choose to support either the mantis humans or the beautiful androids.
 
 
Maybe the war would worsen.
 
 
Maybe one side would win a crushing victory and the war wouldn’t continue long enough for them to redirect the ultra-massive impactors.
 
 
Maybe both the humans and androids would simply be wiped out.
 
 
Whatever might happen, they would be diverted from the course they had worked so hard to create for themselves. Worse, neither Mikoto nor Shokuhou knew how they actually could save this world.
 
 
So they couldn’t do anything.
 
 
Floria and Victoria were rulers with the absolute freedom to do whatever they wanted, yet they chose to continue fighting. Their situation was nothing at all like Patissiet and the other elves who had been helplessly trampled on as slaves.
 
 
A helping hand changing the course of their world could possibly save the elves, but changing the course of Floria and Victoria’s world would could mean extinction.
 
 
In both cases, Mikoto and Shokuhou could only bring change.
 
 
Visitors from another world could never cause things to stay the same. They were an embodiment of the butterfly effect. Looking back on their journey through the two worlds, it was obvious that their very presence messed with the status quo.
 
 
So what if the changes they caused would have the polar opposite effect between two worlds?
 
 
(I swear, this really is a completely opposite world!!)
 
 
So this time, the #3 and #5 did not hesitate.
 
 
They had chosen for themselves which world they would give a helping hand.
 
 
“So our destination ability should be the fantasy world of Celesaqphere, correct?☆”
 
 
“Hold on, Patissiet. Help is on the way!!”
 
 
The two of them walked through the square gate and disappeared.
 
 
They both knew they had just wasted a ticket to a happy ending.
 
 
But this proved that travel between worlds was possible.
 
 
That had to be enough of a find for now.
 
 
===Between the Lines 2: Reincarnation Goddess Salinagaritina’s Miscalculation===
 
 
Reincarnation Goddess Salinagaritina made a heavy sound as she leaned forward without thinking.
 
 
Which meant she did in fact have mass.
 
 
“Ahh!! No, no, no, nooooo!!!”
 
 
What was the problem?
 
 
For that matter, what was she even trying to do?
 
 
That was probably unknowable for the humans having their souls and fates manipulated.
 
 
Even after having their game pieces moved all the way across the board, the humans could never understand this. Only the goddess herself could.
 
 
(Ehh? This wouldn’t have been a problem if they just kept traveling to new worlds, so why would they go out of their way to turn around and repeat a world? Now they’ve opened some weird power field…and that’s going to make a remote activated reincarnation for them difficult. If I wait for that to settle down on its own, they’ll probably have conquered another world already, so what am I supposed to do? …Man, I’m going to be in so much trouble.)
 
 
She was a reincarnation goddess.
 
 
She controlled all loops and all power that ran through them. She ruled over all ''one-way'' cycles such as the destination of individual lives, the food chain cycle, and the supernovas that caused an overgrown red giant to create a blackhole and scatter the materials for new stars. Although it may have been more accurate to call her one of the beings who ''externally'' implanted those functions and roles into a world.
 
 
But at the same time, she could not touch anything that did not take the form of a loop and she could not reverse the cycles that already existed.
 
 
When there were actions, there were reactions.
 
 
It was by enjoying and accepting those costs that you could become a goddess with a single specialty.
 
 
Did you notice the crucial term in that thought?
 
 
She saw it as something you could ''become''.
 
 
That meant her role as a goddess was not something she had been given at birth.
 
 
If that pointy-haired boy were here, he might have approached an understanding of what she was by comparing and contrasting her to the one-eyed girl who called herself a Magic God.
 
 
“But on the other hand…”
 
 
Salinagaritina took a deep breath.
 
 
She regained her calm.
 
 
In her white dancer’s outfit, she produced a chair in the vast empty space and sat in it.
 
 
She spoke aloud even though she was the only one around.
 
 
Almost like hearing her voice confirmed that she physically existed.
 
 
That was how she controlled her mental state.
 
 
“This leaves me with only one option: saddle those two with the ultimate distortion this creates☆”
 
 
She sounded somehow regretful.
 
 
But at the same time, she sounded disinterested, like it was none of her business.
 
 
<noinclude>
 
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:MvM_Chapter3|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:MvM_Chapter5}}
 
</noinclude>
 

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