Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 11===

Reality was heartless.

No matter what emotions had just been exchanged between Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai, the silver-haired girl only had to input a simple command on her phone to send 250 thousand drones rushing in to attack. Each of those unmanned weapons was loaded with an explosive and the swarm made a merciless physical attack.

There was an explosion.

But it happened far off in the empty blue sky. Within the dragon of closely-packed drones.

More explosions followed. The chain reaction continued on and on.

The drones attempting to blow up Mugino and Kinuhata broke apart well before reaching them.

“Wha-?”

Norsitro Chatellenie was speechless.

Apparently this was something not even the Information Broker understood.

…Like any aircraft, drones were at risk of breaking apart when pushed too hard. When attempting maneuvers beyond their limits, the combined force of the air resistance and shockwaves would rattle the main wings and cause the aircraft to shake apart. Within Earth’s gravity, you could never forget that it was ''unnatural for anything to leave the surface and fly.

But what had caused this?

The 250 thousand drones were electronically controlled by the parallel processing of 250 thousand CPUs and fully guided by Norsitro’s smartphone. She couldn’t see any reason for them to break apart on their own!

“A maximum of 1.75 million drones? With 250 thousand operated at once? Your swarm control system can break through even if a fair number are shot down by anti-air weapons?”

This came in a casual, singsong voice. And a wicked one.

Mugino Shizuri spoke even while stained red by her own blood.

“But all you’ve done is gather an ass-ton of the same craft, which means they all have the same weakness. I just have to find a single vulnerability and I win. And I had plenty of time to gather information while they were pummeling me. Your trump card was laughably easy to defeat.”

“Oh, is that so? And what exactly are you going to do? Fry all their CPUs with an anti-ship EMP bomb? Or maybe pull an anti-air microwave cannon out of your ass? Fantastical super weapons are great for winning theoretical arguments, but they can’t protect your very real life. Do you have an attack method that can help you in the real world!?”’ shouted Norsitro in her glittering neon green bondage outfit. “You won’t run away? You always protect your own? …Absurd. Why would you ''make that kind of performative claim in front of me''? Did you not look into the legend of the Information Broker? Yes, yes. You have my full attention now. And I won’t rest until all of you are dead!!”

But bloody Mugino gave a snort of laughter.

(Well, she does attack with lightning. I suppose they would be designed to withstand an electric surge.)

That Norsitro would give an actual response to that kind of speculation showed how naive Norsitro was.

When the enemy gave the answer themselves, she had only two options: scoff at the answer for being way off, or frantically try to throw them off because they made a lucky guess.

But if she hadn’t said anything at all, doubt would remain. Whether it was right or wrong, staying quiet had likely been Norsitro’s best option. But she couldn’t help herself. Even though this was like playing concentration and giving up your turn by flipping over cards for your opponent.

“Kh. I have the power to change the weather. The drones can fly through rain or hail without issue!!”

“Sure. ''For unnatural weather you designed yourself'', right?’

Mugino didn’t even glance over behind cover.

Standing out in the open, she pointed her index finger straight up into the blue sky.

“You adjust the drones’ maneuvering based on the weather. There’s an optimal speed for sunny weather, an optimal angle for rain, and so on. When you know it’s coming, you can use your own program there. But with truly unexpected gusts of winds blowing between the buildings, the drones will tilt on their side. And during a sudden downpour, the apparent viscosity of the air changes and the main wings will rattle until they break.”

That was where Mugino had to strike to win.

Meaning…

“It comes down to the ''air’s viscosity''. Or the apparent viscosity anyway.”

She gave the answer.

Saying it here wouldn’t change the result. She had only said it to assert dominance over her opponent in an act of villainous cruelty.

“If I burn the air with Meltdowner, it will reduce the humidity, which dries out the air. But if I instead blast a water tank, the water inside will pour out, greatly increasing the apparent air resistance. It’s simple once you know the trick, but that is enough for the 250 thousand and 1.75 million drones to tear themselves apart. Pretty neat, right?”

“Kh… You mean…that’s what you did?”

It might seem obvious, but that kind of obvious thing could be the most dangerous among all the unusual things found in the supersonic world. Quite a few of Academy City’s prototype fighter craft had ordinary air tear off their main wings because they were unable to withstand their own vibrations.

“The last thing you want is for someone else to alter the weather. That’s why you control it yourself. No matter how unnatural it might look, you needed to alter the environment for all those drones! Even if it meant using some strange power!!”

The maximum of 1.75 million was a certainly a threat, but using the exact same craft for all of them had been a mistake.

Securing multiple different models would have been a challenge when manufacturing, operation, and maintenance were taken into account. The simple financial cost and effort of operation would have been several times greater. But the choice had come back to bite her in combat. The world’s armies would not use a single standard craft just because it was the latest and greatest. Just like Academy City used the Two Wings and Six Wings simultaneously.

A single vulnerability would affect them all.

Throw them off there and the entire swarm would be suddenly destroyed.

The explosions continued. Mugino wasn’t aiming Meltdowner in that direction, but the drones couldn’t approach the former training ground where their targets awaited. They all broke apart on their own and their explosives detonated.

Mugino Shizuri sneered.

She might fight for Academy City or the greater world beyond its walls, but she was neither good nor righteous.

This was the smile of a villain who knew the taste of blood.

“Now, that takes care of those annoying drones buzzing around. Which only leaves your power to deal with.”