Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth1 (section)

===Part 3===

It was 7:30 PM.

“Ugh…”

Mikoto groaned while holding the Shinshin two seat custom’s control column.

She had taken off immediately after sunset, but that meant she had gone without dinner. Given the acrobatic flying likely to be coming up, she couldn’t fill her stomach just before heading out. If she drank something carbonated, the rapid pressure changes could even cause her stomach to rupture.

And in the rear seat, Shouhou’s head slumped down.

The dark despair in her eyes was even greater than in Mikoto’s. Her long hair was in her face, but she didn’t care.

“Why am I in here again?”

“Find something to do on your own.”

They were using the dark night for a scouting mission.

“Railgun 01 to squadron. We’re going to fly northeast toward the center of the Y-shaped continent. The no man’s land and missile silos apparently collapsed after that thing emerged, but still watch out for surviving surface-to-air missiles. Be ready to release chaff or flares at any time.”

“Teleport 02. Roger.”

“Rampage 03. Ditto.”

“Brat 04 to Railgun 01. …Are you sure you can stay balanced like that? As a fellow stealth fighter, I can barely stand to look at you.”

The Shinshin really had been heavily modified.

There was no chance of any stealth with the huge railgun and the drone pod attached, but the Ruler was a living creature that used her eye and ears. If she couldn’t use mechanical radar, then it didn’t really matter anymore.

This was mostly the work of the Kongou Airlines girl, but…

(Maybe there’s a technique to altering an existing aircraft to meet new demands. Like how the JASDF’s F-4 has so many variations due to modifications on top of modifications.)

YF-22A remained untouched, without even a skinny drone pod under her wings. Her role was to provide defense in case a battle did break out. So she was the same as always. Not fair, really.

A C-shaped bay coast came into view.

At the center of the Y-shaped continent.

But without advance information, Mikoto would have gotten lost despite being at the correct coordinates.



It was gone.

The huge mountain range she had heard so much about was missing.



An intense landslide had flowed toward the ocean and partially altered the very shape of the bay coast.

There was supposed to be a no man’s land with underground missile silos here.

There had been ultra-solid military structures that were made by humans but no one could destroy. …Mikoto couldn’t imagine where they were. The terrain itself had collapsed.

It was pitch black.

The lights of civilization were nowhere to be found on the surface. This wasn’t a case of the people intentionally hiding. Like an abandoned hospital deep in the mountains, the place was so dead it lacked any sense of life whatsoever.

“Brat 04. …I don’t think we need to worry about any surviving SAMs.”

Needless to say, that was no reason for celebration.

The four fighters crossed the coastline to reach the center of the continent.

Based on the laser range-finding of the surface performed by the drone pod hanging from Mikoto’s wing, the piles of debris were only between 300 and 500m tall.

“Izanami to fighters. I don’t believe it. The mountains were originally in the 4000m range.”

“Teleport 02. I see something even more unbelievable.”

Shirai gasped.

It was visible even from a distance.



Her.

The Ruler.



A massive hole gaped open with a radius of more than 200m.

Someone had her hands on the edge and her upper body resting against it.

She showed no sign of hostility or malice. Her unfocused-looking eyes wandered through empty space with just her upper body sticking out of the hole.

She looked just like a naked girl. Her long hair was light pink, or maybe purple? No, it may not have had an original color. Her hair glittered like the surface of a CD and it appeared to be longer than she was tall as it hung down over her large chest and hips.

But her size was anything but normal.

Even with just her upper body sticking out with her hands on the edge of the hole, she towered up more than 1000m. At this point, she had to be discussed in terms of elevation rather than height.

Wasn’t she estimated to have a height of 1800 meters and a weight of 750 thousand tons?

“Railgun 01. I have visual confirmation of the target.”

Mikoto knew it didn’t matter, but she still kept her voice low in the sealed cockpit.

This was still only a scouting mission.

She didn’t want to draw that thing’s attention any more than necessary.

“Railgun 01 to squadron. Let’s get some footage from the outter limit of visual range. That means gathering data at a radius of 18km. We can’t predict what will happen, so be prepared to escape outside that radius if she does anything at all.”

“Teleport 02. Roger that.”

Instead of carelessly flying straight toward her, Mikoto’s squadron approached the Ruler by flying around her in a large circle. Like a merry-go-round, they kept the same distance and filmed the Ruler at the center of their 360 degree circuit.

Using the drone pod hanging from the wing meant pointing the fighter’s belly toward the inside of the circle. Ordinarily, a pilot rolled in the direction they wanted to turn and then pulled the nose up in the direction, but this was the complete opposite. That made it feel kind of weird.

Had she not noticed them?

Or was she simply not interested?

The naked colossus did not turn her unfocused eyes in their direction.

But she was still terrifying.

Her presence created intense pressure.

This was probably what it felt like to fall into a cage at the zoo and find a bored lion inside.

Hostility wasn’t the problem. She was the ultimate predator. Mikoto could just tell.

“She doesn’t seem quite like the Girlish Weapons we’ve seen,” remarked Shokuhou from the rear seat.

“She has no weapons or armor. She hasn’t been altered by humans.”

She was in a pure state.

But then what exactly would she do?

If all she could do was punch, kick, and bite, then it felt like they could keep their distance and continually launch long-range missiles at her.

(I know it won’t be that easy, though.)

The giant mountain range had been reduced to this when she simply stuck her head up from the ground. 4000m mountains had been leveled and the underground missile silos and the no man’s land were just gone. The simple scope of the damage was greater than a nuclear attack.

What would happen if she began an actual attack?

Mikoto observed the naked body glowing in the moonlight.

Shokuhou tapped at the back of her seat. With obvious annoyance.

“Should we assume she’s basically a human, just bigger? That would mean her head and heart are her weak points.”

“Rampage 03. The center line of the body is standard: the top of the head, between the eyes, the throat, and the solar plexus. Beyond that, there are the eyeballs, the knees, the collarbones, and the Achilles tendons. With a man, you could also include the groin.”

…It was kind of scary how that physical fighter could rattle all that off as easily as the sa-shi-su-se-so of seasonings. What did she mean that was “standard”?

“Teleport 02. We are talking about mysterious life forms that eat petroleum to keep themselves moving. Will the usual assumptions really apply here?”

“Brat 04 to Teleport 02. I’m not going to forget you said that.”

Oh, right. Wouldn’t YF-22A know the weak points based on her own giant girl parts?

But…

“You shouldn’t even be comparing that colossal and barbaric monster to the masterpieces of technology that are Girlish Weapons! …I swear you little barbarians don’t understand anything at all. I am nothing at all like that thing, so why would you even consider asking me!?”

Apparently that angered her.

But Mikoto wasn’t quite sure why.

Not that it was worth debating here.

She wanted definite data she had gathered herself more than vague speculation.

“Railgun 01 to Izanami. We’ve gotten full 360 degree footage of the Ruler. We’ve sent the data over, so get to analyzing it with the carrier’s big computer.”

“Izanami. Roger that.”

“What should we do now? We could fight her to get more data.”

“Don’t joke. Safety comes first. You’ve finished your work, so get back to the Izanami. Good job.”

As she had expected.

Once they reached the southwest again, Mikoto and her wingmates left their clean circle to return to the ocean.

“Hm? Izanami to 101 Squadron. We’re detecting aircraft approaching from the northeast. Four readings!”

“Railgun 01. Visually confirmed. …What are those? It’s hard to be sure when they’re girls, but based on the weird front wings and the huge twin engines on their backs, it’s probably two MiG-35s and two Su-47s.”

“We haven’t seen those types before,” said Shokuhou. “That would suggest they’re from the United Sates of Narmeli.”

“Brat 04 to squadron. They also have a hidden stealth fighter. I have visual confirmation. She’s a Su-57 – a stealth fighter clearly meant to compete against my own perfection!!”

In this darkness, searching for a black aircraft by eye was difficult. They would have overlooked this without their scouting cameras.

A Su-57.

Of course, this wasn’t actually an aircraft. Mikoto herself had stopped questioning that part. This was a brown-skinned girl with long blonde hair.

(Is she of mixed race? Wasn’t that stealth fighter developed jointly with India back on our Earth?)

What she was wearing didn’t seem like clothing. Something like black plastic tape was applied complexly to her bare skin. It looked something like a strange swimsuit or like a pattern carved into her body.

The joints attached to her back connected to nearly triangular black wings and engines. Mikoto had seen a few different stealth girls already, but this one was flat even compared to those others. Flat metal panels circled around from the bottom of her wings to her belly, so she likely had missiles stored inside just like YF-22A.

These newcomers flew much more wildly than Mikoto’s squadron.

They may not have intended to hide.

The four United States fighters and one stealth fighter flew straight toward the Ruler and released small points of light. Those were air-to-air missiles.

“You idiots!!” shouted Mikoto, eyes wide, just before multiple explosions split the darkness of the night.

The missiles struck the nude colossus near the right temple.

But she wasn’t unbalanced.

She didn’t even bleed.

This wasn’t due to some kind of mysterious force field technology. Her body was simply too tough to harm her. Which was the most difficult thing for them to deal with.

The United States squadron showed no sign of panic.

After twisting around in midair, they fled due south. They even left behind thin trails of colorful smoke like this was an air show.

Heading south down the Y-shaped continent led to the Cutalularia Republic.

Had they grabbed that thing’s attention to direct her toward their enemy?

So they could force that enemy to battle both their army and the Ruler at the same time?

(I can’t believe they would do that!)

Lights flashed here and there. They were the headlights of military vehicle…girls. There were enough to look like the lights of a city. There had to be tens of thousands gathered on the national border.

So much for being as lifeless as an abandoned hospital in the mountains.

Your visual impression wasn’t reliable after all.

The situation was on the move.

“Railgun 01 to squadron. Emergency!! The Ruler is on the move. No need to stay in formation, so just get to the southwest ocean. Our quiet scouting mission is over, so get back to the Izanami immediately! Don’t collide with each other!!”

The colossal naked girl’s eyes, and only her eyes, moved.

Someone had her attention.

But who in this airspace was it!?

“…”

The naked girl didn’t take a single step.

She gathered strength in a much-too-large arm. She swung her hand horizontally with the fingers bent like hooks.



A gale roared out.

Only wind.



The Su-47, which thought she was at a safe distance, suddenly broke apart in midair. Powerful turbulence could at times destroy a 40m airplane. …But this was more than that.

“What…the hell? Did you see something flash just now!?”

An explosive boom followed.

Thick electricity scorched the darkness. It had been launched horizontally.

Mikoto gulped.

“The extreme pressure difference instantly turned the air’s moisture into a thick thundercloud. That released an ultra-high voltage current horizontally, which tore through the Su-47, causing her to rupture from within.”

1800 meters. 750 thousand tons.

Mikoto realized she had been thinking about this all wrong. She had assumed punching, kicking, and biting wouldn’t be a threat. But when a colossus like that simply swung an arm or a leg, it would surpass the average military weapon.

The remaining Su-47 and the two MiG-35s split to the sides. So at least one side or the other would escape. But that desperate resolve was shattered in an instant.

The naked girl kicked something up with a slender leg.

It was a metallic hunk of rock measuring 300m across.

When it fell back down, she kicked it forward, sharply compressing the air ahead of it.

The boulder flew like a railgun blast.

Both MiG-35s were brought down and the Su-47, which had fled in the other direction, stalled and fell toward the ocean. The air compression was so great it may have damaged the air intake or the interior of the jet engines.

Something exploded.

This time, rockets and missiles were being launched from the ground. They exploded into flames at her flank, but that was all.

Those had likely been launched in a panic.

They were too sporadic and spread out. There was no strategy behind it. The ground troops on the border were terrified.

That was clearly suicidal.

A shockwave spread out in a ring.

The colossal girl only had to jump straight up to set off alarms from all the seismographs in the vicinity.

She broke through the clouds overhead and dropped down while spread out like a skydiver.

She was going to hit the ground like that.

In this case, the immense area of the attack was far more terrifying than something with smart guidance.

“!!!?”

This wasn’t targeting Mikoto directly, but the blast was so great she nearly stalled. The wall of air her wings were slicing through had been forcibly ripped away.

The Ruler belly flopped onto the continent.

For the ground forces, it may have looked like a massive hanging ceiling.

Or maybe like a meteor strike.

An explosive blast and a shockwave spread out evenly in all 360 degrees, destroying everything in their path. The initial ground forces would have had tens of thousands of elite troops with tons of tank and armored vehicle Girlish Weapons, but they were swept away like dust by a broom.

Even in the air, Mikoto was nearly slammed down to the ground.

She didn’t even want to imagine how bad the direct shockwave was on the surface.

“Tele…02. What…do, Onee-sama!?”

There was nothing they could do.

But a question lingered in a corner of Mikoto’s mind. Something about that ordinary thought bothered her.

Yes…

(There was still another stealth fighter.)

“Where did that Su-57 fly off to!?”

Something exploded.

Far in the distance. Still lying on her belly, the naked girl had blown on something resting on her palm, sending it soaring. No, lots of somethings. And they flew over the horizon.

They were the multiple rocket launcher warheads that had been scattered around.

The brown stealth girl who had been trying to sneak away to the northeast stood out from the background. She was making an uncertain turn.

That was all Mikoto needed to see.

The Ruler wouldn’t be able to hear it, so Mikoto sent out an unencrypted transmission.

“Hey, Su-57!! Come with us if you want to live.”

“Wh-what? Who the hell are you!?”

“Your air base was just blown away along with the runway you need to land, right? So hurry!! If you keep flying around here, she’s not going to wait until you run out of fuel and crash. The Ruler will destroy you!!”

Mikoto operated her small display to mark where the two Su-47s and the two MiG-35s had crashed.

(I hope we can pick them up later.)

The Ruler.

She was far more than Mikoto had imagined.

She wouldn’t let the Girlish Weapons die in vain. There was no point in worrying about their original affiliations at this point. They needed every fighter they could get and then some if they were going to fight that thing.

“Railgun 01 to Izanami. We’re going to try to return to you, so prepare for our landing!!”

The ones who had messed with the Ruler would die first, so they might just have a chance to escape if they left her alone. Mikoto told herself that as if grasping at straws.

The Ruler stood up.

Straight up.

She really was big.

Which made sense when 1800m was around three times the height of that famous broadcast tower.

Her unfocused eyes wandered about.

She slowly turned her head and then stopped.

Their eyes met.

“!!”

Mikoto had been wrong. It didn’t matter if you messed with her or not.

It came down to whether or not you caught her interest.

It happened all of a sudden.

“Railgun 01 to squadron!! Eject your drone pods! Immediately!!”

The skinny pods attached below their wings (which were pure machinery covered in cameras, not girls) all ignited. They didn’t have to lock on in advance. After launched, they were remote-controlled to fly them back behind the fighters. They weaved sharply as they flew toward the naked girl.

This was what made them drone pods rather than scout pods.

They were loaded with explosives and could self-destruct after ramming something. At this point, they may have been more like missiles that flew complex courses and could last longer in the air than most.

Originally, they were meant to fly for more than an hour gathering data and, if a battle broke out between fighters, they would fly around to intentionally take the enemy’s lock and otherwise confuse them. And if they saw any opening whatsoever, they would ignite their solid fuel, slam into the enemy’s flank, and detonate.

They flew all around the Ruler, explosions triggering intermittently.

They bought maybe 10 seconds.

Even using all six pods, 30 seconds hadn’t been possible.

The air shook as the Ruler jumped high into the sky and dropped down from higher up than the aircraft. At about the same time, Mikoto’s squadron swiftly selected their weapons and tilted their noses up.

An explosive boom.

A shockwave.

The Ruler dropped toward them with her limbs spread out, but Mikoto managed to fire her mounted railgun first. The falling naked girl was bounced a few meters straight back up and 101 Squadron slipped through that slight gap to escape.

That was a first.

In that one moment, they had managed a win.

After floating for a few seconds, she dropped down from the empty air onto the coastline. The terrain crumbled again.

“Onee-sama, it’s…”

Shirai was speechless.

(Tch.)

The 19m railgun on the upper right had ruptured from within. That was the price of using it in ordinary atmosphere.

Mikoto had fully lost.

It hadn’t even been a real battle.