Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM2 Depth2
Depth 2: What to Protect[edit]
Part 1[edit]
They had left Carrier Izanami and Landing Ship Izanagi, but they were reluctant to visit the northern Empire after it had been struck by so many ballistic missiles. They flew the Shinshin two seat custom east and, by the time dawn arrived, Mikoto and Shokuhou had decided on their next destination.
“Adeleden Sky Pirate Port?”
“That’s right,” said Shokuhou, checking her notes while riding the fighter in her summer uniform. (She had either gotten used to it or had used Mental Out to erase her nausea.)
She had apparently jotted down a few coordinates before leaving the Izanami.
Mikoto was cautious.
“A port rather than an island? That’s on the south of the Y-shaped continent, so isn’t it part of the Cutalularia Republic mainland?”
“It’s the last place they’ll think to look. Either way, we can hide out at any of the sky pirate locations. And while they could bomb an island without any backlash, the military has to worry about the civilians watching when it’s part of the mainland. So this is actually safer.”
“If you say so.”
Mikoto decided to leave all this plotting to the scheming Queen.
The Sky Pirate Port wasn’t hard to spot. A few transport planes (which were of course giant girls) could be seen landing at a crude airfield in the jungle, but the process was a mess compared to an official air force. They were probably helping smuggle contraband or people into the country.
“It’s a miracle they aren’t colliding with each other…”
Astonished, Mikoto set the radio channel and contacted the control tower. She descended toward a flashing light on the ground and landed on a 3000m runway. That length actually felt new to her. Without the wire, she decelerated slowly and she was afraid she was going to slip. The open view around her felt really weird.
…No, maybe the hellish combination of landing in a gap between buildings on a 300m runway rocking from the waves had been the weird part. Mikoto stared into the distance. Had she gotten started all wrong?
“You new here?” asked a bearded man who had helped with the landing process.
A group of what looked like guards approached.
Maybe stolen from some military or another, a pair of (gloomy track suit girl) SIDAM 25 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns stood on thick continuous tracks at either side, aiming – just a bit – this way to keep the Shinshin from taking off from the grass.
(Now, then.)
Mikoto opened the canopy, stood from the Shinshin’s cockpit, and looked down at the man standing on the ground.
“We’re customers. We’re only here to rent a hangar to hide this and for some fuel. Oh, and we have water fuel in our tank, so if you use gasoline-based JP-4, make sure to empty the tank before filling it back up. We haven’t using any ammo, so we don’t need any.”
She had carelessly mixed fuel types when refueling from the Imperial air tanker and it had worked out fine, but it was still better to play it safe.
“Can you pay?”
The bearded man was straight and to the point.
Fuel, repairs, supplies, storage, modifications, investigation, food, lodging, entertainment, survival, and more.
The Sky Pirate Port was convenient, but everything cost money.
And it was doubtful this world accepted Japanese yen.
Mikoto was as casual as could be.
“Shokuhou, how about you pawn that brand-name bag?”
“That isn’t funny!!”
Shokuhou hurriedly protected the bag with her body, but she also pulled out something else.
“I happen to have money we can use. You are set up to accept e-money, I hope?”
“Your phone?” asked Mikoto, frowning.
Was Shokuhou going to sell her high-quality Academy City mobile device instead of her bag?
“We couldn’t use them while out at sea, but now that we’re on land and the signals from the antenna bases can reach us, we can use our phones like normal. I registered with a fake name and started trading, and I have already earned some of this world’s stocks and crypto-assets.”
(Oh, but wait…)
Mikoto realized something, but ignorant Shokuhou waved her smartphone to show off all the zeroes on the screen.
The blonde Queen winked.
“Now, now. This should prove our ability to pay. So if you would kindly let us hide the Shinshin before- huh?”
The men wordlessly drew machetes.
Did that girl not realize what it meant for this to be a Sky Pirate Port?
The men must have decided they would make more money stealing all of that money than by engaging in an honest deal. She could have only paid the necessary amount, but that idiot just had to show off how much she had.
Mikoto silenced them all (including the track suit self-propelled anti-aircraft guns a short distance away) by firing a Railgun warning shot.
“Okay, people. You aren’t so stupid you aren’t familiar with the idea that money doesn’t do you any good dead, right!? We said we’ll pay, so get to work to earn that pay. If you do anything other than what we’ve asked, we’ll consider that a betrayal and defend ourselves. So what’ll it be?”
Part 2[edit]
They needed to hide themselves to some extent.
From the enemy and from the Izanami and Izanagi. They couldn’t have the Izanami joining them after working so hard to divert the Cutalularia Republic and United States of Narmeli’s attention away from them.
Of course, Shirai, Hokaze, and the rest would likely run a search within flight range of the Izanami. They couldn’t have the Shinshin visible from the air.
That was why they couldn’t compromise with a jungle runway or parking lot and had to rent a roofed hangar.
“Phew…”
Mikoto sighed softly after changing into a swimsuit.
It was a pink one piece with frills in places.
She had bought that with money too.
The sun shined in a sky so blue it looked like a bluescreen for chroma keying.
13 days remained.
With the threat of ballistic missiles mostly eliminated, Mikoto stared up into the sky and thought.
They had less than two weeks left.
The Liheilstaut Empire could no longer function, but the world was still a dangerous place. Was there anything she could do to eliminate that pressure?
“…”
Mikoto was in the Adeleden Sky Pirate Port, which was located in a coastal jungle at the south of the continent. Boxy concrete roofs stuck up from the deep green in places. An airfield runway had been paved directly on the beach and the sandy ocean bottom had been dug out to allow warship (girls) to dock at a temporary port. Around all that, the tunnel of dense trees hid hundreds if not thousands of small houses and shops made from containers or bungalows.
Of course, those trees didn’t seem like enough to prevent aerial detection of such a large facility.
Most likely, whoever was in charge was paying off the soldiers to keep quiet about it.
Mikoto looked down at her frilly swimsuit.
“Was this really necessary?”
“Of course☆ When going undercover, you need to wear what the locals wear. Everyone would know we don’t belong if we wore our Tokiwadai uniforms or that flight suit.”
Shokuhou, who wore a gaudy bikini, said this while viewing the small destroyers (eyepatch girls) who were docked at the temporary port and were now being used as work boats for illegal undersea mining. …That exhibitionist idiot just wanted to show off her own body, didn’t she? Mikoto was pretty sure the whole thing would come off if they ran into trouble and had to start running. Just slip right off of her.
“So what now?” asked Mikoto.
“We have two options. First, we hop from Sky Pirate Port to Sky Pirate Port, doing everything we can to keep outside of Hokaze-san and the others’ search range. Second, we stay in one Sky Pirate Port and search out information.”
“Search it out how?”
“This place is full of delinquent and runaway soldiers from the Empire, Republic, and United States, so it might be loaded with rumors related to the weaknesses of the world powers.”
Of course, even if someone here was hiding some important secret, they wouldn’t let it slip so easily. But the two of them each had a way of cheating.
Misaka Mikoto could neutralize any electronic lock or password to steal data from computers and mobile devices.
Shokuhou Misaki could read people’s minds or the residual thoughts they left on objects to steal their secrets.
Mikoto had already known the answer even as she asked the question.
…If they could find some kind of Achilles heel they could threaten the world powers with, they could keep Shirai and the others safe.
“Let’s start by gathering all the information we can here in Adeleden. We can escape whenever we need to.”
“Sounds good to me☆”
And so it was time to gather information.
If they only wanted to extract whatever they could, it would be best to head somewhere crowded.
They got right to it.
“Apparently the Cutalularia Republic’s hot climate means it has the fewest buried Frozen Fossils out of the world powers.”
“?”
Shokuhou had said “apparently”.
It wasn’t clear whose mind she had read while passing them by in this crowd, but she whispered to Mikoto while walking the underground city in a gaudy bikini and with a remote in hand.
“So they’ve only managed to keep up with the Empire and United States by making more efficient use of the limited materials they can find deep in caves. They use low corporate tax rates to attract large corporations and then absorb all their technology.”
“That system sounds like it would cause a lot of problems…”
“Of course it does. They have more than 30 groups who came from outside the country, so their people have a mix of origins and ethnicities. You can’t except them to have much in the way of patriotism or national identity for the Republic.”
According to Shokuhou, Cutalularia called itself a Republic, but all of that mess meant they hadn’t been able to decide on a prime minister or president for a long time.
So they instead had a “director” who led the country in an interim capacity.
It was probably to avoid running afoul of any ethnic conflict, but that title didn’t sound much like a politician. Still, that was apparently who was at the top.
“if they recruited soldiers, they would end up with different internal groups forming and fighting each other, so they have instead worked on advancing the use of unmanned weapons.”
…Unmanned weapons. The Academy City ones had been able to attack the surface from the sky and even dogfight in a way that would make an acrobatic pilot go pale in the face, but how advanced was that technology in this world?
“But wait. Don’t the Girlish Weapons already think for themselves and fight on their own? What good is turning them into drones?”
“Don’t ask me.”
That mental maze was cut off by the yelling voice of a young woman in a bikini, miniskirt, and a pirate like hate and eyepatch.
“I’ve got some real bargains for you here! This isn’t like that rusty junk you’ll find on the online auctions. I’ve got a Centauro II and a Rafale that were damaged and abandoned after a collision during a transport job in the Republic! How did I get my hands on them!? We’ll all be a lot happier if you just don’t ask that! This quality for this price isn’t something you’re going to find every day! Any takers!?”
An eight-wheeled vehicle with a big gun and a delta wing fighter (both shaped like giant girls) were being sold in the market like it was normal.
“Ugh, I hate being an imposition. I hope I can find regular work soon.”
“Who wants to be my next master?”
Mikoto recoiled at first, thinking she was seeing human trafficking, but the Girlish Weapons looked unbothered and made no attempt to escape. It looked more like the giant girls were searching for their next employer.
Mikoto pretended to be inspecting the human-sized guns and giant Girlish Weapons while she actually copied the contents of the arms dealers’ computers onto her phone. Surreptitiously, of course. Nothing could stop her thanks to her power to directly control electricity.
It looked like those arms dealers primarily dealt in Girlish Weapons. Selling handguns, ammunition, and other human-use weapons was considered gang work while it was the professionals who sold armored trucks, attack helicopters, and such (all shaped like giant girls, of course).
But…
“Hm? There’s a lot these files don’t cover.”
“I’m not a weirdo freak like you who can directly read the 0s and 1s straight from the semiconductors, so you’re going to have to use your words ability to share that information with me.”
The arms merchants’ laptops and tablets contained several manuals and texts on the maintenance and use of the Girlish Weapons, but there was nothing explaining what exactly the crucial Frozen Fossils were. It was like finding a lot of information brushing up on the topic, but nothing on the topic itself.
After hearing that explanation, Shokuhou (in a bikini that made it look like she had lost a bet) put a hand on her hip in exasperation.
“Or maybe not even the people who use the Girlish Weapons know what they are.”
“Is that possible?”
“You fought alongside the captured fighters, didn’t you? But can you explain what exactly a Girlish Weapon is? You don’t need to be able to provide a fundamental definition if all you’re doing is using them.”
Yeah, that was true.
But the Girlish Weapons were made from military cells, which were extracted from the Frozen Fossils dug up from the ground. Frozen Fossils, some kind of natural frozen meat, were the most crucial resource for building the tanks, fighters, and warships needed to win the struggle for supremacy over the continent.
The frozen part made sense.
But what exactly were they fossils of?
Part 3[edit]
The sun had set and night had fallen.
Stars studded the sky, but it was still warm enough to walk around in their swimsuits. In fact, they would have been suffering in their ordinary clothing.
“But,” said Mikoto while walking freely in the underground city hidden below the palm trees.
Frozen Fossils.
Military cells.
Girlish Weapons.
“We found some curious information, but nothing like an Achilles heel that could immediately bring the United States of Narmeli or the Cutalularia Republic to their knees.”
“We aren’t going to get that lucky right away. So how about we relax and get something to eat? There are a lot of people gathered there now, so we might find some new information.”
Shokuhou tugged on Mikoto’s arm and pointed with her other hand. Mikoto looked over to see a bunch of small food stands.
Frilly swimsuit Mikoto sighed.
“I’m surprised.”
“You are? You can see how they prepare the food here. So much better than some award-winning restaurant with a professional sign out front that could be using who-knows-what kinds of chemical seasonings back in the kitchen☆”
This world’s money felt like a toy and Mikoto barely felt like she was actually spending anything, but she did appreciate being able to order enough to cover a table with only a few coins.
As for the flavor…hmm.
Mikoto tried some and looked skeptically down at the spoon.
She couldn’t really call it good or bad. She just wasn’t used to this kind of flavor.
It was like going to a gyoza place and finding the little plate of soy sauce had whipped cream or chocolate ganache on it.
Yes…
“Is it just me or is everything here sweet? This one seems a lot like curry, but it has a ton of something like peanut butter in it.”
“Hot countries always use sweet foods to replenish their body’s nutrients. Meat is usually boiled in coconut milk or glazed in honey and grilled. Mmm, soft shell crab☆”
The Queen looked surprisingly blissful after taking a bite. She held a hand to her cheek and grinned. She must have been kicking her feet under the table because she sometimes hit Mikoto’s shins, which hurt.
In her mind, anything that didn’t have artificial colors or preservatives gained a two star buff. Strong spices were A-OK with her.
“There’s a secret United States weapons factory below Ghost Town.”
“The Republic’s new transport plane project’s engine isn’t working out.”
“The top brass have been taking bribes. Yeah, in the Republic.”
“The United States covered up the accusations that one of their government workers is a spy.”
“A United States submarine’s detection specs aren’t as great as their propaganda claimed, so you can apparently pass right through the strait.”
Mikoto and Shokuhou enjoyed a tropical-style sweet meal while speaking back and forth as if holding a conversation.
Each and every statement was powerful enough to get the related politicians or military officers fired, but that was really all it would do.
They were up against world powers.
The entire Republic and United States.
They could reveal an individual’s indiscretion or mistake, but the fired official would be quickly replaced and the government itself would continue on like nothing had happened.
“None of it would be decisive enough,” said Shokuhou.
“We need something that can directly cause a war. …Urp, so sweet!?”
The food was sweet and the drinks were too. After taking a sip of a white drink that tasted like a mixture of room temperature milk, yogurt, and condensed milk, Mikoto gave her glass a second look. It wasn’t bad. But with something that sweet, a sake cup of it would be enough. An entire glass was too much. It felt so thick going down.
Shokuhou (who could eat any number of eclairs) had no trouble gulping hers down.
“Misaka-saaan, did you notice a few people with a professional look in their eyes during the day?”
“The ones who looked like spies?”
“Right, them. I bet they’re here to search out any Imperial, Republic, and United States traitors who are hiding out here. Which means they’ll have been gathering information here a lot longer than we have.”
So when Shokuhou was wandering around during the day, had she been searching out special targets instead of hoping to find classified information in the minds of random passersby?
“I’ve found a few good candidates, so let’s focus on them tomorrow. That should give us most of the information there is to find here.”
(And if we don’t find anything useful there, we’ll have no reason to stay in Adeleden.)
They finished eating.
They had been introduced to an inn, but the cheap motel’s lock was far from safe. In fact, it easily broke when Mikoto gave the door a testing kick. They felt like they might get some unwelcome nighttime visitors if they stayed in the inn, so Mikoto and Shokuhou grabbed a pillow and blanket each and curled up in the especially sturdy aircraft hangar.
Fortunately, there were a few old sofas in one corner.
“Misaka-saaan.”
“What?”
“Can we keep the bug zapper on?”
She shut it off and went to sleep.
Part 4[edit]
From there, they spent a few days focusing on the professional spies.
But instead of wearing black suits and sunglasses, these spies looked like restaurant waitresses or gas station part-timers.
They seemed to have chosen jobs and positions with high turnover so the locals wouldn’t question speaking with a newcomer.
That said, Mikoto and Shokuhou’s powers meant they didn’t have to participate in the spy games.
Just by approaching them in a crowd, Mikoto could snag all the data in their electronics and Shokuhou could directly steal the information in their heads.
“Hm, hm.”
The financial markets were rocky after the loss of the Empire in the west, so the Republic in the south was concerned that all of their 30+ foreign corporations could collapse.
The United States in the east had the most Frozen Fossils, but that did them little good since they lacked the technology to process them.
“So just because they can’t grow crops in the permafrost, the States ends up being attacked by Girlish Weapons made from the very Frozen Fossils they sold to the other countries?”
A lot of it was fascinating, but none of it was critical enough to immediately stop the launch of more ballistic missiles.
That morning, Mikoto and Shokuhou had seen a pair of F-2As flying overhead. Mechanical aircraft F-2As, not Girlish Weapons.
Was that Shirai and Hokaze?
Apparently the Izanami was still nearby.
They were accompanied by a YF-23 and F-23B. Had those two been recovered from the ocean?
“If they are following witness accounts, they will land here,” said Mikoto. “Maybe they figured out what we were thinking.”
“Maybe we should move on to the next Sky Pirate Port or Island soon.”
Hopefully the others wouldn’t have predicted that too. Nothing would be sillier than trying to avoid them only to run right into them.
“But where should we go next?”
“Either Wellslake Sky Pirate Port 900km south of here or Halborn Sky Pirate Island 1200km north-northwest of here. But Halborn would mean approaching the central mountain range – the permanent no man’s land between the three countries which is filled with missile silos. Security will be tighter there.”
“Then the more obvious choice would be Wellslake. But Kuroko and the others could probably predict that…”
Mikoto considered it for a bit.
And come to think of it…
“Actually, is it really true that the three countries kept all their missile silos in the central mountain range? Even if they were creating a permanent no man’s land that no one can conquer even with ten thousand years to work at it, that’s the front line. It sounds crazy.”
“That shows it’s all for show at this point. No matter how it started, the three world powers will never make a direct attack on each other like that. Which created a shared idea that they should make good use of that “extra land”.”
“But what if some country physically occupied the missile silos for all three world powers?”
“They would still need authorization codes from two of them. And who would be stupid enough to authorize a missile launch targeting their own country? Physically occupying the silo wouldn’t get you much, so they decided there’s nothing to worry about.”
Even so.
…This really was another world. The order of inventions and the path of history were different, so maybe they viewed nukes and missiles differently. They didn’t view nuclear weapons as much of a threat, maybe because they had been invented here but fortunately had never been used in war.
“So it’s time to move on, is it?”
“I’m not saying we should land on the highway, but with Hokaze-san and Shirai-san making an appearance, don’t you think we should consider using something other than a runway?”
“Are you serious?”
“No, because I certainly don’t want to crash because we blow a high-pressure tire or have a plastic bag melt inside the air intake. But if we could make those two think we were trying something like that, it would increase the number of wrong answers they’re looking at, making it easier for us to get away.”
To do that, they would have to leave behind some (fake) information before leaving. Shirai’s Judgment training would have her follow certain procedures when gathering information, so that would be easy to take advantage of.
(It isn’t necessary, but maybe we should buy an IR or radar ILS receiver and maybe an extra air intake filter at one of the shops around here. If we were pushy about haggling, the shop owners would remember us. I just know Kuroko will ask around at the shops.)
Just as Mikoto had settled on a plan to prepare for leaving, something else happened.
“Everything’s half off. You expect me to actually work on such a joyous day? I want to close up shop early!!”
“Beer’s on the house today!! C’mon, everyone, come get a drink!!”
“Anyone need a rapid charge station for your phone? You wouldn’t want to find you can’t take photos or videos during the celebration, would you!?”
The street suddenly filled with energy.
Only Mikoto and Shokuhou failed to adapt and were left looking around.
“Is this some kind of festival? This is part of the Republic, so is it a national holiday?” asked Mikoto.
“But why would it start partway through the morning like this?” asked Shokuhou.
The two of them exchanged a glance.
This seemed strange.
Mikoto tried asking a friendly-looking hawker.
“Hey, mister. Is today some kind of celebration?”
“Of course it is.” The man grinned. “This place might be a Sky Pirate Port, but we’re still part of Cutalularia. Maybe it’s wrong when we’re a bunch of ruffians who refuse to take a side most of the time, but it’s still a cause for celebration.”
So it was a Republic thing?
Mikoto wasn’t sure she liked where this was headed.
“I mean, the Republic’s invincible Offense Fleet is back after its voyage around the planet! Today we’re looking to the western sea and celebrating!!”
The Republic’s invincible Offense Fleet.
A voyage around the planet.
Returning from the western sea.
“Oh, no,” muttered Mikoto under her breath.
The Izanagi and Izanagi were in the sea west of here. And this invincible fleet was coming from further out at sea.
So it would run into them.
If the Izanami and Izanagi tried to keep their distance from the Offense Fleet by escaping eastward, they would instead be approaching the Republic. They would be trapped between the two sides. Run or not, they would eventually come in contact with the primary Republic force and end up in a battle.
“That sounds like really bad news to me!!”
Part 5[edit]
The Cutalularia Republic’s invincible Offense Fleet.
Even though the Izanami was camouflaged, it probably couldn’t sneak past that fleet by pretending to be a cruise ship. After its skirmishes with the world powers, they would have aerial photos of the ship’s appearance and they had probably recorded the acoustic signature of its propellers.
Mikoto clenched her teeth.
(All the more reason I wish we hadn’t immediately given ourselves away with that SOS. We completely wasted the benefits of the camouflage. If we had known we would be up against every world power here, we could have made more use of it even if we would be found out eventually.)
Shipboard aircraft and warships. Mikoto and Shokuhou would have to deal with enemies in the air and sea if they were to protect the Izanami and Izanagi.
“So much for hiding out. Misaka-san, prepare the Shinshin. This is all meaningless if the Izanami is destroyed.”
“I hate to interrupt your motivation, Shokuhou, but what will you do? Are you going to ride the fighter in your swimsuit or summer uniform?”
“I will be wearing a flight suit, obviously. I just need to go buy one from one of the arms dealers real quick!!”
That was the obvious answer.
Or it would be on Earth.
“I doubt they sell flight suits for humans in a world that uses Girlish Weapons. Did you forget that the Izanami and Shinshin are the products of some world other than ours or this one?”
“…”
Trembling, Shokuhou gave her the puppy dog eyes.
With tears forming in the corners of those eyes.
(Ugh, what a pain. I should really just abandon her here to-)
“Wait, Misaka-san! I’ll do anything, so please anything but riding the fighter without any protection at all!!”
Shokuhou grabbed at Mikoto, crying for real now. The #5 must have finally remembered that there was someone her tearful “feel sorry for me” beam didn’t work on.
Not wanting to deal with someone clinging to her in the already hot tropical climate, Mikoto made an alternative suggestion.
“…I do have a spare flight suit.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“I-it’s so tight!! Ugh, I can barely breathe. Is this some kind of prank, Misaka-saaan!?”
“Huh? That’s weird. My legs and butt fit in it just fine.”
“I was talking about my boobs.”
Anyway, it was time to take off.
Mikoto wanted to get in the air as soon as possible.
Adeleden Sky Pirate Port would accept anyone from anywhere, but the festivities proved that the Republic was still influential there. The people here were practically throwing a parade for the returning Offense Fleet, so if those cheerful partiers discovered Mikoto and Shokuhou were about to go battle that fleet, they might block the runway.
The Shinshin raced down the long, long runway and the aircraft left the ground. The landing gear were stored within the fuselage.
“Shokuhou, if you have nothing better to do, monitor the radar.”
“Based on the size of the readings, the Offense Fleet appears to contain one nuclear-powered carrier, one large repair ship, five cruisers, eight destroyers, and three other small ships. Maybe tankers?”
“So it really is a big fleet.”
“To be clear, that is only what I can see on radar. Given the size of the repair ship, it probably also works as a submarine supply carrier.”
So was the fleet spread out below the surface of the water too?
And even the relatively small destroyers would be a major boss battle for a single fighter.
How much could they even accomplish with the weapons aboard the Shinshin?
“How far is the Offense Fleet from the Izanami and Izanagi?”
“They’re facing each other down from about 300km apart in the western ocean. But the Izanami is being pushed back. If they move any further east, they will probably be spotted by the mainland’s radar ability and interceptors could be sent out.”
Mikoto doubted the fighter’s radar was enough to tell all that over such a wide area. Shokuhou was apparently intercepting the encrypted transmissions being sent through the air.
“That’s pretty close. Not enough to directly use quick-firing guns or anti-ship missiles, but well within range of carrier aircraft.”
The Offense Fleet had been quick to react.
The Shinshin had excellent stealth, but it had a 19m railgun forcibly attached. It would be fully visible on enemy radar.
“There they are.”
“Yes, they have fighters up already.”
The enemy had sent out canard delta wing Rafales (maids whose wings spread outwards from their hips down in a way that looked like a long skirt when they held their legs together) and Eurofighters (storybook princesses whose dresses were formed in the same way).
Mikoto still couldn’t see the Offense Fleet itself. Given the location of the cluster of dots on the radar, it was probably more than 50km away. The fighters had likely been sent in to shoot down the Shinshin before it reached the fleet.
They couldn’t afford to waste time on a small number of fighters.
A full-sized nuclear-powered carrier would be loaded with dozens of them. More and more would be launched if nothing was done. And they didn’t have time to battle all of those fighters.
So…
“We’ve gotta attack the carrier before it can launch all its fighters!!”
“Anything other than an electromagnetic catapult needs to charge after each launch, but even then, it’s going to be a race against time.”
Ordinarily, there wasn’t much chance of a single fighter sinking a fully-equipped warship. It simply wouldn’t have enough firepower. The warships would be equipped with long-range anti-air missiles and several (girl) fighters were already in the air, so even approaching the fleet was going to be a challenge.
But things were different here.
Mikoto had the railgun she had used to shoot down a ballistic missile in space.
It was meant to be fired in ultra-high altitude to intercept a ballistic missile with perfect accuracy.
Based on what she had seen before, its range probably reached several hundred kilometers.
So if she ascended far enough that the horizon wouldn’t be in the way and fired it down towards the fleet, she could strike the central carrier from outside the range of the Aegis ship’s anti-air missiles. The projectile would be moving much too fast for the close-in defense Gatling guns to shoot it down.
Even on a sunny day, the air wasn’t perfectly transparent. The naked eye could only see about 20km.
Mikoto still couldn’t see the giant girl warship, but that may have been for the best.
She wouldn’t hesitate.
“Targeting the Offense Fleet flagship – the nuclear-powered carrier.”
She locked on by radar and fired the mounted railgun toward the side of the carrier.
“Fire!!”
Something exploded close by.
“Wha-!!?”
The Shinshin shook hard. Something seemed off about Mikoto’s vision and she realized the fighter had stalled. She immediately yanked on the control column to raise the nose and zip just off the ocean surface. If she hadn’t, the sharp nose would have plunged into the sea and the fighter would have been smashed to pieces.
Shokuhou struggled to breathe in the rear seat.
“Cough. Was that a shockwave? …Yes, a shockwave. You were so high up there was barely any air last time, but in normal atmosphere it compressed the air only for it to burst right in front of us!!”
Fortunately, the railgun barrel itself hadn’t been blown away.
“Misaka-san, a Rafale is coming. It has another two behind it! Get out of their way!!”
“(Come to think of it, what can this out-of-shape girl even accomplish onboard a fighter? It just kind of happened, but what was I thinking letting that dead weight on the Shinshin? She isn’t good for anything other than sex appeal.)”
“Please stop staring into the middle distance! You’re holding the control column, so you need to face reality!!”
As the Shinshin skimmed across the ocean surface, its nose suddenly pointed straight up.
By grabbing at the air with the entire aircraft, it rapidly braked and the Rafales approaching from behind overshot it.
That was Pugachev’s cobra.
And the Shinshin was capable of locking onto multiple targets at once.
(Oops. Wait. I need to save the missiles for attacking the ships.)
Mikoto was calm enough to consider such things.
She fired the autocannon from behind, the light of the tracer rounds pursuing a Rafale until she tore through the left leg half of the delta wing.
The Rafale fell into the ocean.
“One got away. But pursuing the carrier comes first!! …? Shokuhou, why are you so quiet all of a sudden?”
“Ugh, blehh.”
Even a specialized flight suit only made sure you didn’t pass out. It didn’t reduce the strain to nothing.
“M-Misaka-san, are you a massless hologram who isn’t bound by gravity?”
“All that excess fat at your chest and butt are increasing your inertial damage multiplier. Besides, you’re the one who told me to shake them. Oh, a Eurofighter is coming from the right, so this is going to get rough. About three times more than before.”
“…”
“Hm? Hey, wait, Shokuhou! Get your hand off of that ejection lever!!”
The lever clunked as it moved, but the ejection device did not activate. If Mikoto wasn’t using her control over electricity to control every last wire inside the Shinshin, this would all have ended with her ally’s betrayal.
Shokuhou’s head slumped to the side in the rear seat.
“Wh-why did I ever get in this deathtrap?”
“Seemed like a good idea at the time?”
Ignoring the Queen now that she had stopped resisting, Mikoto juked sharply to the sides to confuse the Eurofighter approaching from behind. When the Eurofighter failed to keep up with the weaving turns and her course diverged from the Shinshin’s, Mikoto began a sharp counterattack.
This time, Mikoto swiftly got on the enemy’s tail.
The autocannon tore up the princess’s storybook dress, partially undressing her, and sent her down into the ocean. Maybe it was the speed and maybe it was the angle, but the 20m girl bounced off the water a few times and passed right by the Izanami.
Mikoto’s Shinshin flew above the familiar Izanami at full speed.
“…”
(The Izanami and Izanagi are still fine. I swear I’ll keep them that way!!)
A loud missile lock alert sounded.
The lock came from the Offense Fleet up ahead.
This wasn’t like with a fighter. The radar screen was filled with dots. That meant 20-30 anti-air missiles had been launched at once. It was basically a small fireworks show at this point.
But the ones fired from out ahead weren’t anything to fear.
They would pass each other by in an instant.
Mikoto swung the Shinshin around and actually approached the enemy Rafale pursuing from behind. The IFF safety would prevent the anti-air missiles from detonating near friendly aircraft, so they passed on by despite recognizing the Shinshin.
Mikoto shot down the Rafale maid with her autocannon and then approached the Offense Fleet while skimming just off the water’s surface.
She could see them with the naked eye now.
Several 200m girls were floating on their backs as if doing the backstroke.
The joints and thick metal arms attached to their backs had to be hidden below the water, so their weapons were lined up along the bridge, vertical missile launchers, and other equipment spread out past their arms to give them a ship-like silhouette.
Mikoto flew past the destroyer in the lead and sharply avoided a cruiser to continue on in. The cruiser launched anti-air missiles and rockets as she passed by, but couldn’t hit the Shinshin.
Another warship girl lamented nearby. She was a supply ship – aka, a navy paradise loaded with hens that laid eggs daily, milk, and other foods.
“Ahh, I’m so unlucky. I can’t even fight, but they still send me to the front line? They must hate me. Oh, and now the enemy has a lock on me…”
“Ehhh!? Why would they be going after you!? Protect her! Protect her our favorite depressed girl! If all our food is sunk, fleet morale will drop to the ocean floor with her!!”
The view changed with dizzying speed. Not even Mikoto could keep track of it all as she held the control column.
She only had so many missiles.
She was around 300m from the largest ship: the nuclear-powered carrier. Sinking just that one would be a challenge.
But without taking out the carrier, the sky would be filled with dozens of fighters.
A wall towered up like a cliff face.
That was the carrier’s bow. Or in this case, the top of a backstroke girl’s giant head.
The Shinshin was approaching the giant body from a diagonal angle. On either side, something like a flat carrier deck floated in the water, but Mikoto needed to prioritize something else.
(The landing runways can wait. I need to take out the launching catapult!!)
“Air-to-air missiles can’t blast a hole in that thick carrier!!” warned Shokuhou.
“I just have to keep the fighters from launching!!”
Mikoto pulled up a bit to fly directly above the carrier girl. She selected an air-to-air missile. The carrier appeared to use a bit of an older style system than the Izanami, but Mikoto still managed to spot the catapult. Instead of launching the missile, it felt like placing it in the air.
On a carrier’s deck, even a 5mm screw could lead to a major accident. When launching a 15-20 ton mass at more than 250 km/h, any mistake could cause a disaster on the deck from the kinetic energy alone.
Mikoto forcibly placed a few air-to-air missiles on the flat deck.
As soon as the Shinshin had passed by, the missiles exploded behind her.
“Eek, I’m falling!”
“Oh, no, no! I need something to grab onto! Noooo!”
The Rafales (maids that formed a delta wing when they held their legs together) waiting their turn on the deck were overpowered by the blast and the tilting of the carrier, so they slid off the port side and into the sea.
Mikoto doubted a surface explosion alone would sink the carrier itself, but the area around the catapult was now littered with small fragments and garbage. No matter how many dozens of fighters were waiting inside the carrier, they could no longer take off.
“I just hope they don’t have any VTOL craft.”
“Even if they do, they can’t take off so easily with all that chaos and the fire fighting team rushing around.”
But it wasn’t over yet.
The carrier could no longer attack, but the rest of the Offense Fleet was still there.
After the Shinshin left the Offense Fleet, Mikoto made a large U-turn to face the fleet again.
“What now?” asked Shokuhou.
“Our priority is the remaining Rafales and Eurofighters. There aren’t many, but there are enough to defeat us.”
“The destroyers and cruisers seem like a threat to the Izanami and Izanagi to me.”
“But between sea and air, air wins.”
Something flew in from the east.
Two (non-girl) F-2As were rapidly approaching just off the ocean surface.
Piloted by Shirai and Hokaze.
The Japanese-made F-2A had originally been developed to protect the sky and sea. That made it perfect for attacking ships. It could even directly attack an enemy ship from a distance of 150km.
A single Shinshin could only do so much with its autocannon and missiles. And the mounted railgun was useless in the ordinary atmosphere.
There was only one way to win this.
To clean up the sky before the enemy fighters could interrupt the F-2As.
Instead of approaching the Offense Fleet, the F-2As launched air-to-ship missiles to target the destroyers and cruisers from quite far away.
The enemy appeared to notice the missiles skimming just above the ocean surface, but their close-in defense Gatling guns didn’t seem capable of shooting them down.
The missiles pierced into the ships and exploded. Even the carrier took more damage.
Mikoto switched on her radio.
“Railgun 01 to Teleport 02. You don’t have to sink them all. Once you’ve reduced their numbers enough, ask for their surrender. There should also be plenty of submarines below the surface, so keep your guard up even if they appear to raise the white flag. Always keep a lock on the carrier flagship.”
“But, Misaka-saaan. There are still a few Rafales and Eurofighters left.”
“Have you considered their fuel and flight range? Their carrier is partially in flames, so they have no runway to land on even if they win. If the Izanami offers to let them land there, they should do what they’re told.”
It looked like they had protected the Izanami and Izanagi.
Mikoto sighed softly.
“Railgun 01 to Teleport 02. I’m leaving. Don’t try to follow me.”
“Onee-sama!”
“If the United States and Republic join forces, they can launch a nuclear warhead at any time. Their primary focus is the Shinshin. If I land on the Izanami, they’ll attack us all at once with a ballistic missile. No matter where on the planet we are. So this is the only-”
“Izanami to all fighters. …No, wait, Railgun 01. Something isn’t right.”
“?”
Mikoto was puzzled, but then she heard a voice from a different angle.
From Shokuhou Misaki.
“What…is that? Misaka-san, something like a long horizontal wall is approaching from the north.”
“Uh. Railgun 01 to Izanami and Izanagi!! Attention, everyone! Grab onto something! There’s a big wave incoming. All crew on the carrier deck needs to get inside and shut the waterproof doors!! The wave is more than 10m, so anyone on the deck will be swept overboard!!”
“The continent’s central mountain range…is gone?” said Kobayashi from the Izanami. “All the missile silos have been destroyed. From below. And something…something enormous is crawling out!!”
Was that what had caused the wave?
But what could eliminate missile silos designed to withstand a nuclear attack along with the mountain range around them?
And what did it mean…
…that something enormous…
…was crawling out!?
Part 6[edit]
Thoooom!!!
Something emerged.
As if crawling out from the depths of the planet below the collapsed missile silos.
It was a colossal…humanoid hand.
Part 7[edit]
Misaka Mikoto had viewed it wrong from the start.
She had the wrong idea of why Earth’s fighters and warships had been replaced by girls.
This was another world.
The fundamental rules were different.
What were Girlish Weapons?
What were military cells?
What were the Frozen Fossils?
And most fundamentally of all, what had been frozen to create those fossils?
“It’s her.”
YF-22A aborted her pursuit of a remaining Eurofighter as the Izanami’s last line of defense.
The ultimate fighter so proud of her stealth and mobility stared into the distance and spoke quietly to herself.
With fear in her voice.
“She’s here.”
