Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS1 Chapter7

Chapter 7

The sky was blue.

Seeming to ignore the swirling emotions of all the people, the weather was completely clear. The light rising above people’s heads early that morning was so clear and bright that it made one forget that it was September.

Along the border between America and Mexico near the shore of the Pacific Ocean was the front line base of the organization named Return of the Winged One which had its main base in Central America.

In modern terms, it was something like an aircraft carrier. They had bought an old large tanker and loaded it with lots of Mixcoatls. As a disguise, a pile of iron ore lay on top of the flat metal sheet that was easily over 200 meters long, but anyone within Return of the Winged One knew that their ultimate weapon lay beneath that ore.

“Xiuhcoatl, hm?”

Xochitl stood on one end of that large metal sheet. With the sun shining on her brown skin, she looked up at the pile of iron ore that was many times taller than she was.

Next to her stood another girl.

She was Tochtli, Xochitl’s colleague.

“Apparently, the preparations are finally complete, so it can truly be activated. Now we can blow that damn research facility to smithereens. Really, this would have been so much easier if we could have done this from the beginning.”

“Yes, it’s too bad Liberal Arts City stole the spiritual item needed to act as a key. …Well, at least it’s unlikely they were able to analyze how it worked.”

As Xochitl spoke bluntly, she stared up somewhere in the sky.

Tochtli smiled while looking at her.

“Are you worried?”

“About what?”

“That girl.”

“…”

“With this thing, we can’t aim precisely. Liberal Arts City will just be turned to wreckage on the sea.”

“So?” Xochitl spat out as if she were shaking off her hesitation. “I gave her the hints she needed to make the right decision.”

A clunk sounded as the heavy metal sheet started to move.

Multiple alarms started ringing.

“They have begun to move due to the spiritual item! They’re moving, so get out of the way!!”

All of the Return of the Winged One members working on the metal sheet moved away from the pile of ore. As they watched, the black pile collapsed. With a horribly rough noise, majestic faces peered from within.

The giant weapons were over 100 meters long.

They were Return of the Winged One’s trump card.

They were Xiuhcoatl.

Like a large serpent writhing about atop the pile of ore, the four trump cards were raised up diagonally by remote control and peered down at the ocean’s surface. As she watched them, Xochitl frowned.

Flave and Over were working on Liberal Arts City’s #3 short runway.

“…So how many usable ones are left?”

“Numbers 3, 5, 7, and 8. ..It seems that electrical princess really does want to make a deal. She left only the runways that could truly be used.”

“Hey, but didn’t she blow up the hangars with something like lightning?”

“She only did that to the maintenance buildings. The buildings with actual fighters in them weren’t even scratched. You can tell she was being considerate. …It makes me wonder if she’s really an enemy.”

“Oh, do you like strong girls?”

“I hate all kids.”

The two pilots continued their offhand conversation as their fighters were towed out of the hangar. The Laveze Squadron fighters were based off of F-35s, but their additional equipment made their VTOL functionality almost entirely unusable. They used a short runway of about 700 meters to take off.

Flave spoke while looking at the uniquely-shaped stealth fighter.

“…Do you know what that princess wanted?”

“She wants all the unrelated tourists and workers to be allowed to leave on the Salmon Red lifeboats. It’s a pretty broad request. Apparently, she even wants us to board them if possible.”

“Does she really think that’s possible? Those Mixcoatls can exceed Mach 2. It’s obvious what would happen if we were just floating in the ocean in those slow ships.”

“Yes, protecting those large lifeboats in this situation may indeed be difficult.” Over toyed with the dog tags around his neck. “But it’s also a good chance to test my pride.”

“You do like strong girls, don’t you?”

Suddenly, static came from the radio placed on a nearby folding chair.

The operator’s voice reached their ears.

“Mixcoatls have been detected 20 kilometers east of the city!!”

“…Time for work.”

“And they’ve appeared in a position that cuts us off from the American mainland.”

With small smiles on their faces, Flave and Over reached over to their flight helmets.

A great gap in firepower had been created by the damage they had taken the other day. With the armaments they had on hand, they were clearly at the disadvantage. Even so, they ran over to the fighters filled with bombs and missiles that were lined up on one portion of the runway.

“The world police, huh?”

“I’m already getting used to the term, but it isn’t a bad one.”

“Everyone, please hurry.”

An announcement in English flowed through Liberal Arts City.

The woman’s voice was coming from the countless large and small televisions scattered throughout the city.

“A major fault in the structure of Liberal Arts City’s foundation has been discovered. Due to continually receiving large waves with an average of over 7 meters for a long period of time, the manmade beaches are in danger of being washed away into the ocean all at once. Depending on the specific situation, the entire manmade island could be destroyed as a result.”

There was no video.

It may have been because only the bare minimum of a transmission could be maintained, but the screen was black. Using only the speakers, the polite announcement continued.

“A few hours ago, a tropical cyclone appeared at a point 40 kilometers southwest of Liberal Arts City. There is a danger of it becoming a hurricane.”

Those in their hotel rooms, those playing on the beaches, and those shopping in the malls heard the announcement in various ways from the large exhibition screens on the walls of buildings to the small monitors of their cell phones.

“There is a possibility that this hurricane would damage Liberal Arts City’s foundation, but there is no guarantee that would capsize the island even then. However, the lifeboats will be leaving in two hours. Anyone who chooses to leave for the mainland should hurry as quickly as they can. As for the various locations of the Salmon Red lifeboats…”

After reading through the entire script, the blonde-haired, huge-breasted genius girl Beverly Seethrough turned off the microphone.

“Was that good?”

“Yes, thank you. We know we should not have gotten you involved in this, but Saten-san and I cannot speak English…”

Uiharu bowed in thanks.

They were in a management office for the officials on one of the beaches. Normally, the facility would be used for lifeguard-like duties of ensuring the safety of the swimmers, but none of the officials were there. It seemed most of the personnel had been sent out for the battle.

Uiharu had used the computer there to hack into the local cable broadcast in order to make that pirate broadcast over the city’s televisions.

The other girl there, Saten Ruiko, looked out the office’s window.

“But I hope everyone heads to the lifeboats after hearing that…”

“Yes. No matter how many times we send that out, it will be meaningless if they do not believe it,” agreed Uiharu in a worried voice.

However, Beverly puffed her chest up proudly.

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“?”

“Miss unfashionable flower print one piece, you couldn’t tell because you don’t know English, but I did not read off the script verbatim. I rearranged it as I saw fit and ad-libbed some of it.”

“Y-you did?”

Uiharu looked puzzled because she was not quite sure what Beverly meant.

“Yes,” Beverly nodded. “It’s important to remember that I’m a film director. I’m an expert in the techniques needed to make a work that draws in viewers, secures them, and remains in their hearts. In other words,” she paused for a second, “there is no one out there whose heart I did not grasp with the words I came up with.”

A tremendous roar made the windows shake.

Uiharu and Saten’s eyes widened in shock as they saw all the men, women, adults, and children that had been on the beach running in the same direction. Their faces were anything but calm. In fact, they seemed quite panicked as they ran as quickly as they could.

“The trick is not to force them. If you leave the final decision up to them, it robs them of the ability to just optimistically assume someone will do something about it. Once you create an implied divide between the group that will be saved and the group that will not, they will want to be in the winning group. This method is especially effective in America.”

The officials who had been on the beach yelled something.

The officials had not publicly announced the existence of the Salmon Red lifeboat docked there. They would not be willing to let all those tourists in, so they would likely try to stop them. However, those efforts were pointless. When that many people were charging in a single direction, there was no way of stopping them.

Saten’s mouth flapped open and closed.

“Wah wah wah wah wah!! This has gotten out of hand!!”

“Okay, one more push. …Kyaaahhh!! The asphalt is cracking!!”

“Beverly-san, that’s too much!! With the provocation from that scream, the officials are being swallowed up!!”

Uiharu was worried that they might use riot control guns, but they were at the disadvantage against the Mixcoatls and Mikoto had already gone on her rampage. Mikoto had suggested the announcement strategy because she had doubted they would waste their precious fighting force on something like that.

They might deal with an intruder or two, but intruders numbered in the tens of thousands were a different story altogether.

The Salmon Red lifeboats were in classified areas, but those areas had little to do with the research Liberal Arts City was doing on psychic powers development using a different system from Academy City. If they compromised when it came to the lifeboats, they would not need to fight the crowds of people, so they were unlikely to put up a thorough resistance.

At any rate, it seemed Beverly’s skills as a film director had succeeded in grasping the hearts of the tourists across Liberal Arts City. In that case, Uiharu and the others had no reason to stay there.

“Okay, Saten-san. You too, Beverly-san. We need to head for the nearest lifeboat.”

Saten voiced her agreement, but no one heard it.

The tremendous roar of a fighter engine drowned out her voice.

Their eardrums shook. Saten covered her ears with her hands and crouched on the ground while Beverly looked out the window with tears in her eyes. Uiharu looked outside, too. Fighters were continuously cutting across the blue sky as they flew at low altitude after taking off from the runways.

Uiharu spoke to Beverly as she lent a hand to Saten who was still crouching down on the ground.

“Hurry to the lifeboat!! We have no idea when the battle will reach the city!!”

“Y’know, I now know that isn’t a show, but I still haven’t been told who is attacking and from where.”

Beverly seemed to want something in return for her help, but they did not have time to explain everything there. In fact, it was doubtful if the concept of psychic powers development using a different system from Academy City could be explained easily to someone from outside Academy City.

At any rate, they had to think about ensuring their safety first, so Uiharu pulled on Saten’s arm and left the management office along with Beverly.

Finally, Saten said something.

“I wonder if Xochitl is coming…”

Misaka Mikoto stood on the beach with her sandal-covered feet. As she watched the explosions and water spray visible near the ocean’s horizon, she gritted her teeth.

“It’s already started!?”

Almost all of the tourists and general workers in the city were in the process of boarding the Salmon Red lifeboats positioned at 12 points around Liberal Arts City. The ships would be able to leave soon, but it would be of no use if the route to the American mainland was cut off.

The Salmon Reds were large, but they were still basically lifeboats. They moved automatically according to the GPS in order to take the shortest route and they were only loaded with the bare minimum of supplies needed for that. There was simply no way of avoiding the battlefield by heading to Hawaii or Guam instead.

“The boats cannot move until that is over,” said Shirai Kuroko while staring into the distance with one hand above her eyes. “Well, let’s think positively. At least, it will be easier to fight now that the city isn’t overflowing with people. Even if the Mixcoatls come charging in here, there will be no one injured.”

“True…”

Mikoto looked back toward Shirai.

The girl was wearing her sexy swimsuit as usual, but she was now wearing something like a fluorescent jacket over it and its front was completely closed. It was most likely a piece of equipment for the officials. From what Mikoto could see of the fabric, it seemed to be resistant to blades to a certain extent.

“Wouldn’t you have more protection if you used all the equipment?”

“…If I was dressed like that, I would collapse from heat stroke.”

“I see,” Mikoto responded. “Where are Uiharu-san and Saten-san?”

“They have already headed for one of the Salmon Reds. More importantly, what should we do? Is there anything we can do from here before the Mixcoatls get here?”

The truth was that they could not really do anything from where they were.

Mikoto’s Railgun only had a range of 50 meters and Shirai’s attacks using teleportation could only reach about 80 meters away. They could not get involved with the battle occurring near the horizon.

And then…

“I have no obligation to tell you this, but it’s an emergency…” said a woman’s voice.

Mikoto and Shirai turned around to find Olive Holiday standing there in her usual racing swimsuit and lifejacket. Her body must have been hurting from her repeated battles because there were bandages wrapped around her in various places and her face was looking a bit pale.

Olive was holding a small radio on her hand.

“I can’t stand requesting your help, but we have no other choice.”

“Enough with the intro,” Mikoto said to cut her off. “What is it?”

“New enemy crafts are approaching from 30 kilometers to the west of the city. That’s the complete opposite direction. They may have advanced stealth capabilities or the ability to dive under the water because they made it around there without us noticing.”

Mikoto’s eyes widened in shock and she looked back at Olive’s face.

“W-wait! What about your fighters!?”

“We are sending some of the Laveze Squadron to intercept them, but they’re coming from the complete opposite direction…” Olive trailed off there for a second. “Our PAC-3 surface-to-air missiles were destroyed by the Mixcoatls the other day and our remaining firepower is at its limit dealing with the enemy to the east. At this rate, they’ll fly right in and destroy a few of the stationary Salmon Red son the west side of the city.”

Those large ships were currently having a large number of tourists and workers board them. They could not be sent out right away, but it would also be difficult to have all those aboard evacuate from them. There were simply too many people. If those ships were attacked…

There was no need to think about what would happen then.

Mikoto merely looked her partner in the eyes and called her name.

“Kuroko!!”

In response, Shirai grabbed Mikotos’ hand and they disappeared via teleportation.

Her teleportation could only travel about 80 meters at a time, but she could teleport again upon reaching each point allowing her to quickly travel long distances. If you converted it into a traditional measurement of speed, it would probably be over 200 kph.

“Maybe the reason you aren’t getting enough exercise is because you always rely on your power like this.”

“Fgn!?”

Mikoto’s unnecessary comment made Shirai’s mental state a bit unstable, but she somehow managed to retain control over her power. They continued on and cut across the 10 kilometer diameter of the island in around 3 minutes.

Unlike the eastern coast they had been looking at before, the western coast had lots of pillar-like objects sticking up from the ocean surface. They were giant lights and they were lined up at even intervals across the area. Shirai spoke while looking at that mysterious scenery that headed with even intervals beyond the horizon.

“…Is this another piece of intentionally created scenery? This place was originally created to have the same look as an SF movie.”

It may have been that and it may have been created later, but they did not have time to worry about that.

Mikoto headed for the lifeguard platform installed on the beach. She used the binoculars there to see farther than she could with her eyes alone.

“What is that…?” she muttered in surprise.

She was not looking to the horizon.

She was looking into the sky.

A giant object that was blurry due to the air was visible at such a distance that it should not have been visible given that the earth was round. How high up was it? How fast was it moving? It was so far away, she could not tell. It was the same as how it was hard to tell how fast a large passenger plane flying overhead was moving.

At any rate, the Mixcoatls they had been fighting up to that point were nothing compared to that.

It was probably their true attack.

She could not allow it to make it to Liberal Arts City.

While staring into the distance, Mikoto asked Shirai a question.

“Kuroko, can you travel over there along those decorative pillars?”

And so, Mikoto and Shirai headed out over the ocean.

Because of the unstable footing, Shirai wrapped her arms around Mikoto’s waist to make absolutely sure that she did not let go between teleportations.

Mikoto left the travelling to Shirai and looked back. She could see black smoke.

The only parts of Liberal Arts City she could see at that distance were the large structures like the giant buildings and rollercoaster tracks, but the smoke was more noticeable. She could see it rising up from various places staining the blue sky.

At about 15 kilometers from the island where the fine net sectioning off the living things within and without was, the line of decorative pillars suddenly ended. However, there were mine-like buoys floating beyond the pillars. Those buoys must have been equipment for Liberal Arts City’s research. The two girls travelled along them moving further and further out.

After heading another 7 kilometers out, they could see the entire form of the giant weapon.

The long, narrow craft flying through the sky was over 100 meters long.

It was fundamentally the same as the Mixcoatls in that it was made of wood, cloth, and obsidian. Its body looked like a rugby ball that someone had forcibly stretched from either side. It had large and small wings on the sides and back, but they seemed to ignore the laws of aerodynamics. It looked like a giant fish swimming through the sky.

And there was more than one.

Three more of the things could be seen flying behind the one Mikoto and Shirai were looking at.

There were four of the giant weapons in total.

“Is this the Xiuhcoatl thing Saten-san mentioned?”

If so, they absolutely could not allow them to reach Liberal Arts City. Mikoto had no idea what kind of attack they were capable of, but from what Saten had heard from the girl named Xochitl, they held tremendous power.

“Onee-sama!!”

Shirai’s shout brought Mikoto back to her senses.

That was not the time to get caught up in thought.

The Xiucoatl ship was much faster than it had appeared from the distance and before Mikoto knew it, it had passed by over her head. Even the second and third ones were about 50 meters past.

Mikoto finally reacted to the final one.

While looking up at the giant form cutting through the sky at about 100 kph, Mikoto pulled out the coin holder strapped to her sandal. She spoke to Shirai who was her means of transportation.

“Head back! I need to shoot them down! With your speed, you should be able to catch up!!”

“Well, I’ll take that to mean you trust me,” replied Shirai while closing one eye.

Suddenly, both of them disappeared.

Mikoto and Shirai travelled at tremendous speed along the buoys floating in the ocean. They caught up to the last Xiuhcoatl in no time at all and Mikoto flicked a coin from the coin holder with her thumb while Shirai was still wrapped around her waist.

(Its altitude is about 50 meters…That’s just barely in range!!)

Mikoto gritted her teeth, moved her thumb, and fired the Railgun. As the coin flew through the air at three times the speed of sound, friction caused it to glow orange making an orange line through the air.

With a slight delay, a great noise exploded out.

Because she had fired at an angle rather than from directly below, the coin melted and disappeared just before it struck the Xiuhcoatl ship. Even so, the melted remains just barely reached it. One of the wings made of cloth and obsidian on the side was forcibly torn off.

Mikoto clicked her tongue.

“Kuroko, we’re still too far away here! Get right below it somehow!!”

Suddenly, a great light was emitted from the side of the Xiuhcoatl that had its wing torn off. The source of the crimson glow was flames. However, it was not simply fire. It looked more like a great amount of a thick burning liquid was being scattered about.

Like water coming from a fire truck’s hose, it was not being emitted in an accurate trajectory.

As if a giant hammer was falling down toward them, an amorphous red mass about 20 meters across fell toward Mikoto and Shirai’s heads.

“!?”

Shirai was the one that reacted.

With her arms still wrapped around Mikoto’s waist, she travelled across the buoys one after another. The giant hammer of flames struck the ocean, but it did not disappear even as it evaporated a large amount of water. The sea of flames spread out as if it were going to cover up the entire ocean’s surface.

“What is that!? Are they scattering fuel oil around or something!?”

However, they had no time to be surprised.

The Xiuhcoatl with its wing destroyed may have decided to seriously try to eliminate Mikoto and Shirai because the same type of crimson mass was released from eight points on the sides of the craft. The blue sky was covered up many times over and the flames spread across the ocean’s surface as they landed. Mikoto and Shirai were running out of places to flee to.

They were going to be trapped before long.

“Above!!” Mikoto yelled out of irritation.

Shirai immediately grasped what she meant.

She was not limited to horizontal movements with her teleportations. As if she were passing straight through the falling masses of flames Shirai travelled into the sky while still holding Mikoto.

They landed on another one of the wings coming from the side of the Xiuhcoatl.

The openings from which the flames had come turned toward them.

Mikoto took it as something like a human turning around in surprise, but she did not hold back.

An arcade coin was already on top of her right thumb.

An explosive noise rang out.

The Xiuhcoatl was torn in two and Mikoto and Shirai headed for their next target.