Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS2 Chapter6

Chapter 6

Part 1

“A nuclear bomb!?” Misaka Mikoto yelled into her cell phone in the backroom of the occult convenience store.

Shirai Kuroko was on the other end.

“Yes. I don’t know how the rumor ended up changing like that. …It may have simply been that the original story had to do with a uranium crystal, so it made people think of a nuclear bomb.”

“…I wonder if this change was part of their plan.”

The problem was who it was that was going to intentionally cause an incident related to the urban legend.

And there was the fact that there were currently terrorists hidden in Academy City who were armed with weapons that used ultra high frequency electromagnetic waves. Not to mention that they had been brought in from the Russian shopping mall.

The ultra high frequency electromagnetic rifles were enough of a threat, but the possibility of the danger being much, much higher had just gotten a lot more likely.

After all…

“The shopping mall used the Code EIC system to spread the rumor. If the uranium ornament is part of the plan of the shopping mall’s higher ups, then they will cause an incident related to it. If their plan is to cause catastrophic damage to Academy City so the value of their unreliable scientific information on developing psychic powers rises astronomically, then the bigger the scale of the incident, the better for them…”

“It’s true that this would resolve everything much more simply than just creating small bits of damage with the ultra high frequency electromagnetic rifles and the harmful electromagnetic wave detector.”

“The ones trying to cause the incident may have revised the contents of the urban legend in order to detonate a nuke…”

Lessar operated the screen of a smartphone with her index finger and then lightly struck the table with a corner of the device. When Mikoto looked over, Lessar showed her the screen.

It showed the search results from a search engine.

There was a list of sites and boards that had the keywords “uranium ornament” in them. The number of results was already beyond 100,000.

Mikoto started thinking that the rumor must have really started to spread through the Russian shopping mall too, but then she realized she was wrong.

The search engine Lessar was using was not a local one that only searched the shopping mall. It was a worldwide one.

(…What? Are the effects of Code EIC expanding?)

“Kuroko, have any actual nuclear materials or bombs been found in Academy City?”

“Not yet. But Uiharu is…a colleague of mine is tracking their escape route. I assume they have not already made into a bomb and I do not think they can put one together while on the run.”

“But it’s still possible. There’s even the risk of damage caused by having the enriched uranium leave its container in the process of suppressing them.” Mikoto thought for a bit. “What about evacuating the residents of Academy City?”

“This wouldn’t be so difficult if we could do that. If we made this information public, it would cause a panic throughout the city which would create secondary damages. If all 2.3 million residents tried to leave at once, the transportation facilities would be paralyzed and it would all fall apart near the gates.”

“…”

“Also, the majority of Anti-Skill is skeptical of the existence of the nuclear bomb. They are interpreting this as the terrorists with the ultra high frequency electromagnetic rifles trying to bring the city into a panic so Anti-Skill will be unable to function properly allowing them to escape.”

Mikoto felt that was being too calm given the situation, but it was true that they had no proof of a nuclear bomb in Academy City. It was just an urban legend.

“Understood. Contact me again once Anti-Skill begins their suppression operation.”

“What will you do, onee-sama?”

“I’ll do what I can,” Mikoto sighed. “The people truly behind this are in this city. If I defeat them, I should be able to get accurate information on what the terrorists in Academy City have and what they plan to do.”

She hung up.

The situation had gotten even more serious. The new crisis made the living bombs using special ants pale in comparison.

“That certainly seems bad,” said Lessar as her fingers raced across the smartphone once more.

She sounded as if the situation did not affect her. For a foreigner like Lessar, it may have seemed like nothing more than a war in a distant country.

“The urban legend that had been spreading through both the shopping mall and Academy City has begun to spread throughout the entire world. Someone is clearly behind it. I don’t know what they’re trying to do, but it seems the window to ‘outside’ has been opened in Code EIC. …They likely can’t conveniently control the media outside the shopping mall in the same way, but they can provide a stimulus through various media with a time delay by using ‘foreign news’ as a substitute.”

Even just within the shopping mall, Code EIC had caused a rather large problem.

If its effects spread to the entire world, the scale of the incidents would skyrocket.

Baseless data could have an effect on the physical world.

Just by adding in data, they could destroy people’s minds.

“Before, you spoke like you knew how Code EIC was controlled. You said you wanted to explain it, but that there wasn’t enough time.”

“I wasn’t trying to put on airs of importance or anything. That just happened to be when the remote controlled snowplow drove into the building.”

“But now’s fine, right?” Mikoto said cutting her off. “Tell me right here and now what is at the center of Code EIC. We need to go directly destroy the source of the urban legends.”

Part 2

Mikoto exited the occult convenience store and sensed that something was off. It was an unpleasant prickling feeling in her skin. It was an odd sense of tension where the slightest sound seemed as if it would set off bloodshed like during a standoff between a police squad and a group of people about to riot.

“Wait, what is going on out here…?”

“Well, Academy City is not the only place filled with urban legends,” Lessar said and laughed. “Nee hee hee. The people in this shopping mall have reached their mental saturation point. They can’t distinguish between the truth and lies, so when they hear a rumor that a nuclear bomb in an unknown location could detonate at any time, they have begun to take it seriously. That’s how it seems to me, at least.”

Suddenly, Mikoto heard a slight noise.

They were in an area filled with small tenant-owned shops and a large white man had come out of one of those shops.

There was an odd light in his eyes.

Fear, anger, and joy at being permitted to destroy could be seen in that light.

When he saw Mikoto, he first muttered something in Russian.

Then, he let out an explosive shout.

“He’s shouting ‘I’ve found her’.”

“You don’t have to tell me that! I can understand Russian!! More importantly, what’s with that reaction!? Did the security guards release a picture of me as the suspect in the orange case!?”

“Hmm, it seems the details of the uranium ornament story were altered for easiest use for the Academy City version and the shopping mall version. But I think that change happened in the process of spreading from person to person rather than by using Code EIC to control it.”

“What?”

“Just saying the people of the shopping center are villains running a black market wouldn’t hold much interest here, so the story ended up changing. Here the story says some enriched uranium was sold here, but that it was brought in by someone from Academy City who is trying to cause a nuclear explosion here in order to get rid of the shopping mall.”

“In other words…”

As Mikoto started to take over the explanation, the large shouting white man reached for his waist. There was a holster attached to his belt.

“…they may have been keeping my personal information a secret up to the day of the demonstration, but there could still have been some partial rumors such that I was a girl and around middle school age.”

While looking at an oddly small handgun that did not suit the large man, Lessar spoke.

“I suppose right now any Academy City Asian middle school girls will be treated like terrorists in this city.”

Mikoto and Lessar moved at the same instant as if being repelled by the other.

As they moved quickly to the left and the right leaping behind nearby pillars, a dry gunshot exploded out.

“I don’t like this society of guns!! Why would you let just anyone have a gun!?”

“That’s not really something a girl who can fire a coin at three times the speed of light should be saying.”

“The problem is,” Mikoto said changing the subject, “less about this cheerful man and his gun and more about whether these gunshots will rouse up the rest of the people.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I will of course…”

While multiple bullets caused sparks to fly from the pillar she was using as a shield, Mikoto calmly watched the motions of her target without shutting her eyes.

“…quickly silence him.”

Immediately after she said that, an electronic noise came from right beside the white man.

What looked like a human figure jumped in his peripheral vision.

The man immediately looked over there, but then he froze.

There was only a wall there.

The man had turned his vision to an image of Mikoto on the Semipublic AR.

(His aim has gone astray!!)

Immediately afterwards, the sound of building materials breaking could be heard.

It was coming from above.

A power cable as thick as a thumb ran across inside the ceiling. And that cable was attached using iron fixtures at even intervals.

Mikoto magnetically manipulated those fixtures to indirectly move the power cable.

The white man stopped moving again more in shock over the fact that the cable was unnaturally floating than at the destruction being done.

The sound of something slicing through the air could be heard.

A strike swooping up from below knocked the handgun from the man’s hand. However, that was not enough to neutralize him. Mikoto continued to swing the cable around.

Five consecutive strikes assaulted the man.

The man used his thick arms to cover his face and upper body and Mikoto darted from behind the pillar and dashed toward the man. By ducking under his guarding arms, she tackled him as if trying to embrace his waist which knocked the man to the floor.

A dull sound exploded out.

“Okay!! Now I-…!!”

Mikoto was about to bind the man’s arms and legs using some smaller cables, but she suddenly froze in shock.

The man who had been struck to the ground was still stretching out his arms.

Normally, the blow should have knocked him out.

At the very least, he should have been having trouble breathing.

“He’s in a riotous state! He’s full of adrenaline, but his reason has been compromised!! The Code EIC rumors have agitated him. It’s possible that he can’t feel normal pain!!” yelled Lessar from a short distance.

“…!!”

In order to avoid having her legs grabbed, Mikoto stepped back and put some distance between her and the man.

With his body leaning to the side, the white man slowly tried to stand back up. Also, the handgun was now back in his hand.

“What am I supposed to do about this…?”

Just being prepared to knock someone unconscious or stop their movements was not enough.

Most likely, they would still come for her even if she broke their arms and legs. Most likely, even if she damaged their organs, they would keep moving until the moment their hearts stopped. To stop the rioters for sure, she would need even more violence.

In other words, she could not stop them unless she killed them.

And she did not have time to hesitate.

She saw a few more men and women peering around a corner.

They had most likely headed over after hearing the gunfire. At first, they looked shocked upon seeing Mikoto and the white man, but their expressions soon changed.

(This is bad.)

Mikoto felt a chill run down her spine.

She could practically see an illusion of a small fire spreading throughout the area.

“Help me out!! She’s a monster! She suddenly came and struck me while I was just walking along!!” the white man yelled out in anger to clinch things.

Mikoto had no time to cry out in protest.

The expressions of the men and women who were glaring at her (the terms peering or looking no longer accurately expressed what they were doing) from around the corner were so twisted they barely looked human.

“Oh, crap.”

Mikoto took swift action upon seeing one of them holding the kind of axe that was used by firefighters or for emergency escape.

She magnetically manipulated the rebar at her feet to cause the floor to cave in.

With a great noise, Mikoto fell down to the next floor down.

“If you’re going to run, give me a sign first,” Lessar said in a carefree voice.

Mikoto had no idea when the girl had manage to get so close to her.

But she had no time to worry about it.

“Oh ,dear. This is bad, this is bad. …I’m not even close to joking when I say this area is really, really bad.”

“Wh-why?”

“It looks like everyone came rushing here hoping to turn their life around in one shot. The gun shop corner is pretty much being looted.”

“Ugehgeh!! Why did we fall down into an area full of guns!?”

Mikoto’s eyes widened.

It seemed to be a place packed full of all the gun shops registered with the shopping mall, but they were selling ice cream like normal right next to it all. It was being treated just like the bookstore corner. The feelings toward guns were completely different than in Japan.

“I thought the shopping mall was supposed to be divided between necessary daily items and the entertainment or luxury items!”

“What are you talking about? A rifle is necessary for daily life.”

“…Seriously?”

“In this country, things don’t get to the level of entertainment or a hobby until you get up to a rocket launcher or a Gatling gun.”

“Oh, god damn it… Next you’re gonna tell me people here fire railguns for fun.”

“Anyway, things could get bad if this looting continues.”

“Are you saying something even worse is going to happen!?”

“With their blood rushing to their heads like this, I doubt they’re intentionally going for it, but there is a large vault in the underground space further back in the gun shop corner. It’s about the size of a hangar from a private airport.”

“What’s inside the vault?”

“Viner,” Lessar quickly responded. “It’s filled with weapons scheduled to appear in a summer weapons show that specializes in ground weapons. There are weapons from the 14 major companies in the world as well as Academy City. There is more of a difference than you would ever want to know between these ‘everyday necessities’ out here and what is in there.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

Tons of rifles were neatly lined up in large glass showcases as if they were brand name bags. The storage areas in the back were packed full of guns and ammunition.

But the glass had been smashed to pieces.

High-pitched alarms hurt their ears.

No one had turned around when Mikoto had come crashing down from above because they were causing similar noises themselves.

Dozens of pairs of hands grabbed at brand new rifles like people fighting over items during a good sale. Ammunition was spilled all over the floor. Some people ran around while shoving multiple guns into shopping carts, some people stuck handguns into their belts, and some people grabbed up a bunch of rifles and then were punched from the side by someone else who took all the rifles from them. No mercy was shown to anyone regardless of age or gender. Guns were flying all over the place like when each customer was limited to one package of eggs so people had their kids line up to buy some, too.

Mikoto’s face paled at that scene that was outside of common Japanese knowledge.

“…Are they stupid? I could understand one or two, but what are they planning to do with an armful of guns!?”

“I wonder if the precious metals are being stolen in the same way or if the people here are leveling themselves up in order to attack stores with more value. At any rate, it does not look like things are going to be quiet.”

It may have been a mistake to start speaking in Japanese.

The people had not reacted when the ceiling had come crashing down, but their gazes and the barrels of their guns all pointed in Mikoto’s direction when she spoke.

“Wow. An enemy sure is a powerful thing when it comes to justifying crimes!”

“This is no time to be giving carefree commentary on the situation!!”

Mikoto pulled on Lessar’s arm and jumped behind a nearby shelf. After she did, she came to the shocking realization that the shelf was filled with ammunition, but it was too late to hide elsewhere.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of gunfire followed them.

The relatively heavy looking shelves and the products lined up on them were mercilessly pierced by the bullets. Their opponents were firing military rifles rather than handguns. The shelves would not act as a shield against that.

Mikoto complained quietly as she jumped behind another shelf that had everything from ammunition accessories to something like a tripod.

“What the hell!? That old man is firing at us with a monstrous look on his face!! Someone needs to stop him before he collapses from high blood pressure!!”

“It’s lucky those are downgraded civilian models. If they had proper full auto functionality, this truly would’ve been bad.”

“Even with semi-auto, it’s still pretty much a constant stream of bullets with that many guns.”

Their opponents were not soldiers under a unified command. They were just worked up rioters. It seemed a few of them were trying to circle around, but Mikoto was more worried about them taking each other out in friendly fire.

Mikoto looked around the area while rushing out of the area lined with shelves, across the open hallway, and into another area lined with shelves.

“Where are the security guards?”

“They won’t be able to put out this fire. The fire has already spread to the dry grass. As the number of people with guns grows, not even the security guards will be able to do anything about it. All they can probably do is isolate the fire so it doesn’t make its way to the truly important petrochemical complex.”

That city was noisily crumbling.

The instant the power balance between those protecting the peace of the city and those destroying it reversed, it was as if oil scattered on the floor had caught fire. The curtain opened on a nightmarish stage where people devoured other people.

Mikoto realized her entire body was trembling.

That violence was in a completely different dimension from the times she had gotten in fights with delinquents in the back alleys of Academy City. If it gained enough momentum, it would just swallow everything up. Both the good and the bad, both the assailant and the victim, and everyone else would sink down into the sea of blood they had created with their own hands.

“I have to stop this…” Mikoto muttered as she stopped her feet that were carrying her from one row of shelves to another. “I have to stop this before those guns make it everywhere in this city!!”

“Personally, I think that’s rather pointless,” Lessar said in an almost ridiculing manner.

It was possible that was not the first time the mysterious girl had been in a situation like that.

“Things are already flowing in that direction. It has permeated every nook and cranny of the city. Even if you manage to suppress everyone in this gun shop corner, it will not stop the overall disturbance. Plenty of people already have handguns.”

“Then what?” Mikoto said speaking overly quickly due to her nervousness. “It’s true that there are probably people who already have handguns and that defeating the people in this gun shop corner will not stop all of this primitive violence. But if all the guns here get scattered around, the density of the violence will rise significantly. It will get to the point where no one will even be able to survive even by a miracle. That’s why I have to at least stop that from happening. I need to bring the violence down to a level where the word miracle can at least still have its place.”

Lessar sighed.

“…Um. Are you aware that you’ll be doing nothing more than satisfying yourself as long as you don’t resolve the fundamental problem?”

“I know, I know.”

“And are you aware that you’ll be risking your life in order to satisfy the feelings of a single individual?”

“I know that too,” Mikoto said while looking Lessar in the eye. “That’s why I’m not asking you to stay with me. You need to head to the facility with Code EIC’s centralized control in it as originally planned. We can’t let this riot spread any further, but that’s also why we can’t just ignore Code EIC either.”

“You say it likes it easy…” Lessar thought for a bit and then spoke quietly. “You’re suggesting we split up, but how am I supposed to escape in this situation? All of those rioters have rifles. Not to mention that we’re pretty much surrounded.”

“Not necessarily.”

“?”

Lessar frowned and Mikoto tapped her foot on the ground.

“There’s a convenient duct passing through down below. However, if we both went inside and disappeared from view, they would notice right away.”

But if they split up there and one of them went on a rampage, the rioters’ focus would be drawn to that one. In that time, the other could safely sneak to the center of Code EIC and destroy it.

“…At the base, these rioters are in a panic stemming from the urban legend of the uranium ornament, so they may calm down if Code EIC is stopped.”

“We have no proof of that. That many people is enough to wear even you down. If you go all out and run around expecting them to stop, it may be too late by the time you realize they aren’t going to stop.”

“…”

Mikoto understood that danger.

After all, she was the primary target of the rioters. If she made a mistake, she would definitely be given a long, painful death in a flood of primitive violence.

Understanding that quite well, Mikoto spoke.

“…That isn’t for you to worry about.”

“Seriously? This kind of hot-blooded mood just isn’t part of my character, so I’m not going to go along with it.”

“Then get going.”

“Chehh,” Lesser muttered before pulling a four-bladed spear-like weapon from somewhere.

She stabbed it into the floor and one of the blades passed through the gap around the square duct cover. She used the principle of leverage to easily open it.

“I won’t shed any tears if you die, so try to stay alive.”

“I’ll haunt you if I do, so at least tell me where the center of Code EIC is.”

“It’s in an underground facility called the stock market center. The stocks of all the countless stores registered in this shopping mall are traded there and deals are made using money from all over the world.”

“I see. A large scale communications network needs a processor that can calculate that massive amount of data instantly. That would be perfect to act as the center of Code EIC.”

“Given the location, it really does seem like they intended to spread their reach beyond the shopping mall in the end. It gives me a bad feeling and it fits with this disturbance.”

After saying that, Lessar jumped into the square hole.

Just her head was sticking out.

“Okay, I look forward to seeing you again assuming it isn’t as a ghost.”

“Sorry, but people from Academy City don’t believe in spiritual phenomena, so if I’m going to haunt you, I’ll do it scientifically.”

Lessar ducked her head down and Mikoto moved the square cover with her foot so it closed up the entrance.

Mikoto then heard a creaking sound.

It was not coming from just one place. The sound seemed to be surrounding her and it seemed to be slowly approaching her.

“Now then…” Bluish-white sparks flew from her bangs. “I thinks it’s time for a fun demonstration of just how powerful Academy City’s #3 is.”

Part 7

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