Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter1
Chapter 1: A Single Pudding Triggers the Apocalypse[edit]
Part 1[edit]
A snapping sound could physically be heard.
It happened in the short break between exams during Tokiwadai’s weeklong midterms.
The pudding container was empty.
Tragically, this was the last one.
Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki exploded on either side of that dangerous item.
“I know you must have eaten it, so you’d damn well better go and buy me a new ooooooooooooone!!!”
They were in Academy City’s District 7.
Specifically, in the School Garden, a special area containing several prestigious girl’s schools.
Tokiwadai Middle School was supposed to be the very center of that space of class and good manners, so the shouting voices sounded horribly out of place in its peaceful and verdant courtyard. The beige sleeveless sweaters, white short-sleeve blouses, and dark gray skirts were definitely Tokiwadai uniforms, but Mikoto and Shokuhou were not cosplaying. They were supposedly legitimate students there, yet they were behaving like this.
Their twintailed underclassman Shirai Kuroko (with a caramel dessert staining her mouth) smiled bitterly as she intervened.
“C-calm down, both of you. I know that was a super-rare luxury pudding you have to stand in line to get your hands on, but most schools don’t even let their students eat desserts at school, even during their lunch break. So instead of lamenting this missed opportunity, why not be thankful you can eat things like this every single d-”
With a click of a remote, Shokuhou brainwashed Shirai into motionlessness while Mikoto launched her into the sky with a Railgun blast three times the speed of sound.
Really, if she wasn’t a pervert, that would have killed her.
Mikoto and Shokuhou turned their heads toward ringlet-hair Hokaze Junko who had tried to intervene along with the girl who was now a constellation in the daytime sky. The synchronized movement made one suspect those two actually got along very well indeed.
“Did you have something to say?” the both said.
“N-no, I wouldn’t dream of it.”
As usual, the ringlets girl wisely backed down. With a smile. Although if they had allowed Hokaze to speak, they would have been reminded what exactly was on Shirai’s mouth before she was blasted away.
However, the pudding was only the tip of the iceberg.
All their past frustrations were at play here.
Short hair vs. long hair.
Cute vs. pretty.
Shorts vs. no shorts.
Cats vs. dogs.
Summer break vs. winter break.
Skyrockets vs. sparklers.
Can easily perform a back hip circle vs. can’t and just ends up kicking her legs.
Beef curry vs. seafood curry.
Ultra high resolution Pleystation vs. casual Sketch.
And last but not least: no shoulder stiffness vs. constant shoulder stiffness.
In other words, flat chest vs. busty.
Sadly, humanity could never be united. No matter how long they try to work things out, there are people who were born unable to get along with each other.
So this had only been the final spark.
A direct clash between Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki had begun.
A quiet metallic clink rang out.
It came from the arcade coin Misaka Mikoto had flicked up with her thumb. Academy City’s #3 Railgun was showing no mercy right out of the gate.
With practiced skill, she caught the flicked coin back on her thumbnail, and…
“What kind of idiot holds the big guns in reserve when faced with the final boooooooss!!!”
Metal tore through the air at three times the speed of sound. The speed and destructive force were so powerful the friction drew out an orange path and the coin would vanish after only 50m. This was Mikoto’s ultimate attack as Academy City’s #3. A hit from this would be deadly (for anyone other than a well-trained pervert).
But…
“Hee hee☆”
Shokuhou was still smiling as the coin hit the center of her body, right near the navel, twisting her around like a whirlpool, but then her silhouette vanished like an unnatural fog fading away.
Shokuhou stood 5m to the right of the impact point.
Mikoto had screwed up.
She’d been tricked.
Tokiwadai’s Queen bewitchingly pressed her lips against the tip of her TV remote.
“That’s my line ability.”
“Hm? Your insidious brainwashing isn’t supposed to work on me. How could you create that illusion when my subconscious EM barrier is supposed to deflect your power?”
“Thanks for the detailed explanation ability☆ But what do you think happened here?”
If Mikoto wasn’t wrong about something, then what she had seen made no sense.
It took less than 2 seconds to arrive at the correct answer.
“Oh, I get it. That illusion didn’t come from my mind. You didn’t break the rules. You simply controlled all the girls around you and forced one of them to use an image projection power!! (Lightning crash!!)”
“Sh-she what!?” shouted Hokaze Junko with a look of shock drawn in extreme contrast.
Shokuhou twirled her remote.
“Correct☆ Misaka-saaan, I can’t help but notice you keep explaining every little thing even though literally no one asked you to. Do you like it when shounen manga do that or something? And, Hokaze-san, whose side are you on?”
Do not underestimate Tokiwadai’s Ace. She was the kind of person who could ignore the glaring clerk to read magazines for hours on end in the convenience store without buying anything. The magazine has a sticker to prevent that? This tyrant will simply remove it.
Tokiwadai didn’t even have 200 students, but every single one was at least Level 3. With a single remote, Shokuhou could brainwash anyone (other than Mikoto) she wanted, so the number and variety of powers she could indirectly draw on was literally an order of magnitude higher.
She started with around 30 or 40. Girls with blank eyes surrounded Mikoto at a distance. And if this didn’t work, Shokuhou only had to brainwash and call in more girls.
“You and your small guns. I don’t think we can ever get along.”
“You’re only now figuring that out? Oh, and that wasn’t a very nice thing to say. These ‘small guns’ include a Level 4 like Kongou-san.”
Shokuhou made sure to jiggle her large boobs every time she responded.
“The hero’s the one who’s supposed to take time levelling up, not the lewd villain!”
“And what about you?”
Boing, boing, boing, boing – the jiggling would not stop.
Was she – boing – really in – boing – middle school?
“If you want to be the hotblooded good guy, why are you acting like the demon lord who sends in all his forces right away and burns down the protagonist’s hometown?”
“…”
“To be fair, you never have been able to trust others and you try to solve everything on your own, so you would do better as an evil demon lord than as a hero who has to form a party to fight alongside.”
Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, shake, boing, shake, boing, boing, boing, shake, boing, boing, boing, shake, boing!
“Argh, could these things be any more annoying!!?”
“Wh-why would you just grab them while crying!?”
Not even the strongest mental esper had managed to predict the mental state of the flat-chested girl weeping tears of blood. A beat later, the #5 girl shook her off and backed away, blushing.
This was why Tokiwadai’s Queen simply could not get along with her!!
Electricity crackled from Mikoto’s bangs and iron sand magnetically gathered at her right hand to form a rapidly-vibrating black sword.
Mental Out could control large groups and Railgun had a wide variety of single-fighter uses.
But Mikoto immediately arrived at the optimal answer: an immediate retreat.
(Tch. Whoever she brainwashes here is a win for her. Every one of her rolls is a guaranteed legendary or greater, so facing her here in Tokiwadai is a bad idea!!)
“Crush her!!!”
Shokuhou gave her command at the same moment Mikoto used her magnetism to leap to the nearest building wall and plant her feet on it.
Shockwaves, a flamethrower, telekinesis, ice blocks, dangerously rusted metal, and gravity.
A variety of attacks made short work of the school building’s wall, but they couldn’t keep up with fleeing Mikoto. She jumped from building to building and made her way off of school grounds as quickly as possible.
Part 2[edit]
“Hm.”
“Queen?”
This was no longer about the pudding. Shokuhou Misaki knew that she would not be satisfied until she had settled things once and for all with that girl.
Without answering the question from Hokaze Junko (who had a vacant brainwashed look in her eyes thanks to the tearful and sulking Queen’s complete intolerance for NTR), Shokuhou twirled her TV remote.
She could not directly brainwash Misaka Mikoto with her Mental Out.
She tried aiming the remote at the ground but received no response. She could ordinarily read the residual thoughts from someone’s footprints on the ground, but something prevented her from doing that here.
(Does she burn some weak electricity into the ground too, destroying the residual thought? A lot like a novelty item that erases personal information from a letter by stamping it with a random assortment of alphanumeric characters☆)
After making some rough guesses, she aimed her remote at Hokaze.
“I know you must have eaten it, so you’d damn well better go and buy me a new ooooooooooooone!!!”
The previous exchange played back in Shokuhou’s mind without issue.
The weird noise coming from Mikoto’s body and voice didn’t affect this.
“So I can’t brainwash or read anything from Misaka-san herself, but anything a third party saw or heard is untouched.”
“?”
Uncertain what this was about, Hokaze tilted her head,
It might seem basic, but knowing what your power could and couldn’t do was crucial. Shokuhou wanted to have that line clearly drawn before she was in a crisis. This took priority over pursuing Mikoto.
She could begin running at any time. Really, I can.
(Who else?)
What other pawns could she brainwash like Hokaze? She had plenty of girls in her clique, but giving them ordinary orders wouldn’t do much good if their morals or their basic fear of Mikoto got in the way.
Brainwashing them all would be more certain.
Shokuhou pressed the tip of the remote against her slender chin.
“Kobayashi-saaan.”
<I am nearby.>
A voice sounded directly in her mind.
It belonged to Kobayashi Satori, a telepath and one of the Shokuhou Clique’s advisers.
However…
“Why are you hiding?”
<You seem on edge in this battle. Enough so to brainwash anyone you see “just in case”. Because our Queen does not believe in the goodness of basic human nature.>
The blonde girl clicked her tongue.
Kobayashi had seen right through her.
<I will pursue Misaka-sama on my own and let you know once I locate her. Once I have linked with her, I can track her location. In military action, intelligence is more important than power. All the firepower in the world is meaningless if it can’t hit its target.>
“You do that☆”
<And if necessary, I will stay quiet on the link to spy on Misaka-sama’s thoughts. Being able to predict her actions should come in handy.>
“I would recommend against that. She lives in the world of binary where she converses with machines like it’s normal. Listening too deeply to her thought ability could fill your mind with unreadable data and noise, crashing your brain.”
Did Kobayashi’s silence mean that had scared her?
The basic rules were as follows:
Mental Out did not work against Misaka Mikoto, but witness information could be gathered from third parties.
Hokaze Junko would participate in the conversation, but she had been brainwashed into a mindless yes man.
Shokuhou would brainwash all of her allies. How well they got along was irrelevant.
“Okay, Hokaze-san, let’s get this chase started☆”
“Yes, Queen.”
Part 3[edit]
She knew how to move her pieces.
So it was finally time for the #5 to fight on the board too.
“How long do you think you can keep away from me, Misaka-sa-!!”
Shokuhou began her pursuit of Mikoto and, on the second step, tripped and fell flat on her face.
She was (although she would never admit it) extremely unathletic.
Tokiwadai’s Queen shouted into the ground while still lying face down.
“Hokaze-san, a little help!!”
The brainwashed ringlets girl placed her beloved Queen over her shoulder and began running faster than an electric car.
“Hey, um, could you show more class ability!? You look like a bandit taking me home with you!”
The blushing and tearful Queen had to hold down her fluttering skirt. She had brainwashed and ordered Hokaze, but the selfish girl still complained.
The School Garden was home to several fancy girl’s schools.
Hokaze was faster than anyone else on foot since she could boost her muscles with electric signals, but Mikoto had gained unthinkable speed by making large leaps while magnetically drawing herself to streetlight poles and cars parked on the curb.
However, her ability was not perfect.
Mikoto could only magnetically attach to the building walls because of the steel frames and rebar inside. The same principle applied to the streetlight poles and cars. Conversely, she could not use wooden 2x4s or piles of bricks. It might look like she had it easy, but she was risking her life. If she misread a jump, she would end up plummeting from a dangerous height.
Meanwhile.
Mikoto had used her lead to make a detour.
She was inside a small room(?) about the size of a phone booth.
“Smash her!!”
Which was crushed underfoot.
A 3m foot made of clear water had dropped from above to squash the booth. Water was convenient because a simple calculation using a relative density of 1 would tell you how much was needed for a certain weight and deadly force.
“Damn, Shokuhou got Wannai-san from the swim team!?”
After jumping out at the last second, Mikoto clicked her tongue and resumed her flight.
The #5 agreed that Wannai Kinuho would be a regular pain as an enemy. Which was why she had actively sought her out.
Next to Shokuhou, the (also brainwashed) black-haired swimmer Awatsuki Maaya smoothly explained.
“That booth has a communication cable leading outside. It appears to be an emergency hotline to Anti-Skill.”
“Hm.”’
There were some things you didn’t pick up on even while living in the School Garden. Or maybe the Queen simply wasn’t interested in what the janitors and guards were ordinarily up to.
For example, in the world outside the city, police boxes could be set up in train stations, amusement parks, stadiums, and other facilities commonly used by the public, even if they were privately owned. It was hardly surprising for Anti-Skill to have similar infrastructure set up inside the School Garden. Of course, it would only be staffed by female teachers.
(I bet it took a lot of connections ability to get that set up, though.)
“So was she trying to call Anti-Skill for help. Heh heh. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Oh, Misaka-san, did you really think such a sloppy countermeasure would be enough to escape Mental Out’s clutches!?”
<Saying “clutches” that way really makes you sound like a villain.>
“Kobayashi-san☆”
Hokaze’s prized strength would let her grab a large motorcycle between her hands and crush it smaller than a soccer ball, but she couldn’t provide that destructive force unless she got within grappling range of the target.
“But Hokaze-san isn’t the only card in my deck. Watch out, Misaka-saaan, you have a swarm of high-level esper girls coming for you!!”
“Argh, what is this, a riot disaster movie!?”
Part 4[edit]
Misaka Mikoto bristled and shouted.
The #5 was close enough to hear her voice.
(God, I really don’t like her power or how she uses it!!)
Mikoto jumped onto a truck’s roof, hijacked the vehicle’s electronics, and had it drive forward to block the entrance to an alley. She hopped onto the ground before multiple esper powers could grab the truck and flip it over and she used those few extra seconds to run away. She magnetically planted her feet on the wall and escaped up onto a building rooftop. She repeated that kind of minor action to just barely avoid being swallowed up by the swarm of espers.
A mocking voice reached her from behind.
“Do you think you can escape me if you keep running? Everyone wears out eventually. You don’t have a perpetual motion machine ability inside you!”
“Not everyone wears out in a matter of seconds like you, slowpoke!”
“How dare you trample on my dignity ability as casually as downloading a free app!!”
While running out ahead, Mikoto made a magnetically-propelled leap.
She cleared the School Garden’s gate.
“Tch! She escaped outside. I really wanted to end this inside the Garden if I could.”
Shokuhou had brainwashed Hokaze to switch from over-the-shoulder to a princess carry while they passed through the gate.
Just then, she heard the roar of helicopter rotors. As Mikoto left below, several hunks of metal flew sharply in from above.
That was an entire group of Six Wings unmanned attack helicopters.
(She wasn’t using the emergency hotline to call Anti-Skill for help? Dammit, Misaka-san. You just had to hack the most troublesome thing, didn’t you!?)
Shokuhou reflexively aimed her remote toward the approaching threat, but she realized that was useless against machines.
She had the strongest mental power.
But it was entirely ineffectual against machines and animals other than humans.
“Oh, no!!”
Despite being princess carried, Shokuhou flailed wildly in an attempt to escape behind cover, causing Hokaze to trip. The brainwashed ringlets girl then escaped behind a vending machine with the Queen under her arm. As soon as the helicopter’s six arms spread out, machinegun fire tore a straight line through a multi-tenant building’s wall and converted the vending machine shield to scrap. Shokuhou and Hokaze somehow avoided harm, but that shield was not going to protect them a second time. And if those arms fired their explosives, only a smoking crater would remain. They had only a few seconds until the helicopter could take aim again. Shokuhou used that time to aim her remote at the ordinary people in the area. Several espers responded by holding their palms up toward the sky.
She just had to shoot it down before it could shoot her.
“?”
Then she frowned.
“I’ll gladly die fighting on the command of a cute girl. Ha ha☆”
“Hey, why are you escaping into a fantasy world in this emergen- gah!?”
Shokuhou had brainwashed Aogami Pierce, Fukiyose Seiri, and around 10 other espers, but they did not fight back with fire and ice. She could see them holding up their palms and wrinkling their brows in concentration, but they didn’t produce so much as a light breeze.
Tokiwadai’s Queen clicked her tongue when she figured it out.
She ordered Hokaze to hide behind a nearby truck as she spoke.
“A Level 0, a Level 0, and another Level 0? Is everyone here a useless esper or a non-esper adult!? Argh, where did my luck go!? These are all common or normal pulls!!”
“You do tend to overlook these things. But maybe it’s not your fault since you’re the Queen of the largest clique and you’re surrounded by high-level espers all the time. Simply put, you’re a freak.”
She was no longer in Tokiwadai or the School Garden where you could find high-spec girls wherever you looked. While 80% of the city’s 2.3 million people were espers, 60% of those were Level 0s. The odds of pulling a legendary had fundamentally changed.
(In that case, I want a list of espers along with photos. Would it be fastest to brainwash some Anti-Skill or Judgment people who can legitimately access the Bank?)
“I bet I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t need that list. In fact, it’s only a risk to me, so why would I leave it there for you to use!?”
Sparks flew from Mikoto’s bangs.
It wasn’t visible from here, but she had just done something via the wireless network. Wherever the Bank was physically located, it was probably no longer usable.
Part 5[edit]
Rotors roaring, the Six Wings unmanned attack helicopters once more targeted Shokuhou.
Shokuhou was the Queen who could force any human to serve her, but Mikoto had the obedience of the citywide network and all the machines connected to it.
“Did you think a flesh-and-blood body could win in a war between humans and AI, you caveman!?”
“Do you know how absurd that sounds in a city of espers, Misaka-saaan!?”
Shoe soles repeatedly scraped against the asphalt.
As bad as the pull rates were, this was Academy City, the city of espers. If she took control of people by the dozen, she would find a high-level esper or two among them. She only needed an esper with control over telekinesis, air, fire, gravity, or anything else that could alter the course of a shell or missile and bring down the attack helicopters taking sharp paths through the sky.
The blonde girl found her answer: stop fearing failure and whale her way to a legendary pull. She would make this happen!!
“Where do you even think you can go? This is a city. I have an endless supply of ‘weapons’ here☆ You might as well have stuck your head in the hornet’s nest in your attempt to fight the hornets. Did you really think you would find any survival ability there!?”
Shokuhou grinned.
A professor-looking old man (walking a silver mechanical dog) suddenly grabbed her blonde hair as he walked by.
“What!?”
She frantically swung her remote around to brainwash the ultra-aggressive geezer into motionlessness. A closer look showed her he was a dark side monster and the dog was controlled by a gloomy shut-in. But it didn’t end there. Men, women, boys, and girls were charging toward her from all sides, even if it meant climbing over guardrails or hopping down from pedestrian bridges. She couldn’t aim her remote at all of them, so she had to give a vocal command to the “pawns” around her.
“Stop those charging people!! What is going on here!?”
A drum-shaped security robot gave her the answer.
“89.8% match for Shokuhou Misaki, wanted in all districts. Please stop here and wait for Anti-Skill to arrive. Leaving without permission will be deemed interfering with Anti-Skill business.”
“Wait, do I have a price on my head!?”
“Did you think you were the only one who could control people?”
Mikoto grinned with sparks flying form her fingertips.
The demon had more to say.
“You’re worth 6 million yen☆ Human greed is a scary thing. By altering an Anti-Skill station’s security map using the security robots around here, I can create as many new hunting quests as I want. And I can provide the necessary security camera evidence with AI-made deepfakes. Or would you prefer I faked a video of you doing a lewd dance in the nude!?”
“Misaka-san, you are literally the worst sometimes.”
Quietly pissed, Shokuhou Misaki used her phone instead of her remote.
After the distorted sound of something slicing through the air, a Six Wings helicopter turned to target Mikoto instead.
“Hey!?”
“This is what happens when I brainwashed the crucial commanders and air traffic controllers in advance☆ Heh heh heh. Did you think you were the only one who could control machines?”
“Are you saying this had nothing to do with our fight!? You’ve been brainwashing innocent people just in case!?”
With a roar of machinegun fire, Mikoto rushed into the alley between two buildings to escape the destructive downpour.
Machine and human.
The #3 and #5 had now taken over each other’s advantage. If they lost the fight to control each other’s specialties, they would be attacked from all sides.
Alone in the alley, battle freak Mikoto gave a belligerent smile.
“I see. Now this battle’s gotten more unpredictable, Shokuhou.”
“Hi, Uiharu-saaan. I’m so glad to see you here. I need you to lend me your hacking ability☆”
“Now she’s going after my friends again!? With a big smile on her face too!!!”
…If only she wasn’t a curvy temptress who was drawn to other people’s possessions.
Mikoto used a Railgun to shoot down the Six Wings targeting her and moved further into the alley. She wasn’t sure what would happen in a direct hacker battle against Uiharu. She doubted she would lose when it came to pure strength, but if Uiharu used contacts and loopholes Mikoto wasn’t aware of to hijack machines without Mikoto noticing, a supposedly friendly machine could end up backstabbing her.
Which meant…
“Either I give up on using machines, or – as much as I hate the idea – I put Uiharu-san to sleep for now.”
This didn’t just apply to Uiharu.
Brainwashing ten thousand Level 0s wouldn’t accomplish much for Shokuhou. She needed the individuals with irregular power or skills. Capturing a single Level 4 or Level 5 would have real strategic value. Because the seven Level 5s were each a formidable fighting force on their own. And when brainwashed, they wouldn’t consider the consequences, so the safeties put in place by the adults might not work.
So that was what Mikoto had to ensure didn’t happen. In the worst case, Shokuhou could brainwash the other 5 and send them all after Mikoto.
But only if she sat around and let Shokuhou brainwash them.
“Where are the other Level 5s? If I can get to them first and explain the situation, they might join my side. And if they refuse, maybe I should just kill them for being so stupid.”
“You really turn into a bloodthirsty elite warrior when you’re backed into a corner. Is it because your thought ability turns inwards?”
The voice came from above.
Mikoto shot a Railgun through a nearby concrete wall and rolled indoors right as Hokaze dropped down with the force of a lightning bolt.
That girl was limited to close quarters combat, but even Mikoto would be in trouble if she got close and grabbed her.
Shokuhou gloated while being princess carried.
“Your magnetic jumps won’t get you very far inside this cramped building. Which means we’ll catch you before you can get away☆ I assume I don’t need to explain what happens to you once you’re grappling with my Hokaze. She can bench press more than a ton, FYI.”
“…”
“Now, Hokaze-san, grab Misaka-san, tear her limb from limb, and throw away the piec- ow ow ow ow ow!? Hoka- wait, Hokaze-san? Stop, stop, why are you trying to fold up my spine!? I don’t remember installing you with anything as advanced as treachery ability!!!”
She had ordered Hokaze to “grab” Mikoto while being princess carried by Hokaze, but apparently she had failed to predict how that would turn out. It was a lot like shouting for a crane to destroy a building while she was holding onto the wrecking ball. And it was 100% her own fault because she had brainwashed Hokaze to never question her orders.
(She really is stupid, but she did pass Tokiwadai’s entrance exam, didn’t she? Don’t tell me she brainwashed the examiner and grader and then turned in a blank answer sheet.)
Mikoto ran off and quickly vacated the multi-tenant building.
Part 6[edit]
With the wicked Queen controlling Hokaze, Mikoto’s top priority was staying out of sight more than keeping distance between them. She wanted to avoid an extended chase in an open area.
That was the #3’s intention, but…
“?”
She came to a stop.
Puzzled, she looked back.
“She…isn’t following me?”
If physically weak Shokuhou were alone, it would have been no surprise for her to lose sight of Mikoto and start wandering, but she had already brainwashed many high-level espers. It was possible her pawns could even predict the future or use thoughtography. Hokaze and the others would not let Mikoto escape so easily.
It seemed too good to be true.
Which could only mean…
(She’s focused on some other target?)
But what other target? Was another powerful Level 5 nearby, so Shokuhou was focused on brainwashing and controlling them? Or had she spotted one of Mikoto’s personal acquaintances and was brainwashing them as a hostage?
After some thought, Mikoto noticed a lot of murmuring voices.
Not all the crowds were under Shokuhou’s control. Mikoto had messed with Anti-Skill’s security map to register Shokuhou as a wanted criminal with a reward for her capture, so one group was on Mikoto’s(?) side.
That group was confused.
Watching from a distance, it looked like their phones were the source of their confusion.
Mikoto pulled out her own phone and saw something unbelievable for being in the middle of Tokyo: No Signal.
“Tch. Is she taking out the power and communication centers!?”
Part 7[edit]
Honk, honk, hooooonk!!
Car horns blared endlessly. A large road was packed full of cars. People were free to impatiently abandon their vehicle and continue on foot if they wanted, but their abandoned cars only made the traffic jam worse.
“Ehh? Why is the road so congested!? I’d really like to live to teach another day.”
“Hey, Hamazura, are you sure the gate’s going to open? We aren’t trapped inside Academy City, are we?”
“Eek! That’s a Six Wings. If that attack helicopter is headed for the gate, they might be attacking anyone who tries to climb over the wall. Hanzou, Kuruwa, get out now. We need to vamoose!!”
When Mikoto launched a Railgun from the ground to shoot down the helicopter, everyone in the traffic jam scrambled out of their cars and fled.
“Eek! It’s a kaiju! There’s a kaiju here!!”
Was that any way to talk about the person who saved you?
Apparently they knew very well that a Level 5 should scare them more than some hunk-of-junk weapon.
“But why are all these cars traveling in the wrong direction?”
Mikoto glanced at her phone.
(The civilian frequencies are down all across Academy City, so their GPS map apps and compasses must not be working. Dammit Shokuhou, you really do know how to be a nuisance to everyone.)
Apparently people had a hard time noticing their own flaws.
The ordinary people were beginning to realize they were caught up in a direct clash between the Railgun, who could singlehandedly blast a hole through and conquer a vast fortress, and the Mental Out, who could brainwash countless people and use them as her pawns. But knowing that didn’t give them any way of stopping it.
Finally, the traffic lights went dark too.
Cars and motorcycles were no longer usable.
Not wanting Mikoto to make use of the citywide security camera network or the unmanned weapons, Shokuhou had cut off the internet lines. This was likely a consequence of that.
But it wasn’t perfect.
“This should do for now.”
The drum-shaped security and cleaning robots were made to operate as normal even when communications were down. Much like security cameras could operate independently when the building’s power cable or switchboard was destroyed by robbers, the robots constructed their own independent wireless communication network. You could say each individual drum acted as a small wireless LAN antenna base.
That could be abused to transmit your own data.
(That independent line is an emergency line for Anti-Skill and Judgment. This one is for fire trucks and ambulances, I think. Oh, this one is suspiciously heavily encrypted. That just makes it stand out more, but I bet it’s the military line for the unmanned weapons. They’re mine now!!)
She only needed to take control of the Six Wings and the rest of the unmanned weapons.
Once done, Mikoto frowned at the commotion occurring nearby.
(Hm? What’s going on at the supermarket? Are people buying up food and water bottles?)
If so, they were wasting their time, but it was better than having them affecting anything important. If they worked as a group to stop the source of the trouble – that is, the #3 and the #5 – Mikoto would have to directly deal with them.
But some students had snuck into the alley behind the supermarket to do something.
“The soy sauce! Drink the soy sauce, kid! Or eat a pile of salt!!”
“Ugh, why did I have to become a Level 3? Now that sparkly-eyed Queen will be after me. But can I really avoid being conscripted by ruining my health?”
“Shut up. The #5 can read minds, remember? The trick might not work if she can read all those unnecessary thoughts. Ah, forget it. Once you finish that 2L bottle, I’ll shoot you in the head with this tranquilizer gun to erase your short-term memory!! So hurry up and fill your stomach!!”
(Well, that’s just tragic.)
Was that the reason for the strange rush on the supermarket?
Mikoto could at least agree with them that attempting a life-risking trick was preferable to becoming one of Shokuhou’s pawns.
She had guessed Shokuhou’s general plan from the moment Shokuhou failed to pursue her.
Academy City was generally powered by wind. The three-blade wind turbines were spread out across the entire city, so a small number of malfunctions and minor damage would not be enough to cause a major outage. However, if the network of power cables was not properly managed and controlled, too much power generated by the turbines would gather in a single line, the current would grow too powerful for that line, and the buried cables would burn out, so there were specialized load balancing control stations to ensure the power was distributed evenly.
Ordinary power or emergency power? Public generation or private generation? Industrial power or general power?
The few switching stations found around the city could be seen as the power centers.
If you destroyed or hijacked one of those, you could cause a major power outage. And Shokuhou was going to do exactly that if she was given the chance. For no other reason than to give herself an edge by robbing electric Mikoto of the advantage the unmanned weapons and network gave her.
If Mikoto could no longer get help from the machines, she would have to fight on her own. Meanwhile, Shokuhou could brainwash any of the 2.3 million she wanted, so she could crush Mikoto with pure numbers without ever showing her face.
Mikoto understood all that, but…
“You have to be kidding me. Did that idiot not bother to check the details? A major power outage will release all the dangerous bacteria and chimera creatures frozen in the labs.”
Shokuhou was apparently willing to do whatever it took to defeat Mikoto.
The scariest thing about that villainous boobs girl was how her real anger happened quietly below the surface.
“Now, then.”
If Shokuhou was going to attack Academy City infrastructure to prevent Mikoto from using the security cameras and unmanned weapons, what would be her best target?
Mikoto hated that she knew the answer offhand.
(Probably the General District 7 Parallel Distribution Emergency Gas Turbine Generator.)
Mikoto arrived at the answer right away.
There were largescale emergency power storage stations located underground, but the city didn’t fully rely on that since they were so expensive. So Academy City had emergency power generators to ensure the labs and hospitals would have power. But if the parallel distribution adjustments weren’t handled in advance, there was a risk of a mistake during the switchover causing an outage. Mikoto knew all of this well because it as one of the options she had considered for destroying the military clone creation facilities when she was trying to attack that experiment. They had been built to meet the standards demanded by the higher ups, but no one seriously thought the entire wind power network could be taken down, so they were just generic black buildings.
“But where did Shokuhou learn about those tough generators? Hm, maybe she studied all the power infrastructure to hide the existence of the massive lab that held Exterior.”
That aside, if she did cause a major outage by abusing a competition bug between the ordinary and emergency power, it really would affect the city’s labs.
Then the brutal viruses and chimera creatures frozen inside would be free. Welcome to Resident You-Know-What. If only the scientists wouldn’t create things for fun that could destroy the entire city if there was any trouble.
Mikoto didn’t want to act impulsively because it would make her easier to predict, but she couldn’t ignore this problem either.
She walked to a thick concrete facility larger than the average school.
An adult of course stopped her at the power facility’s front gate.
“Hey, you! This building is off limits!! I don’t know if factory tours are the latest fad or what, but I will call Anti-Skill if you enter without perm-”
Kaboom!!!
A single Railgun blast – a warning shot – put a stop to that.
Mikoto clapped her hands twice.
“Okay, time to leave everyone! Thousands of mindless zombies are about to attack here, so you need to evacuate now!! Your dedication to your jobs is admirable, but wouldn’t you prefer to get away alive and actually see your families again? If you hesitated for even a moment, then get on back home. You have five minutes!!”
“…”
“What do you think is more deadly: being crushed by a crowd of thousands, or taking a direct hit from a Railgun flying at three times the speed of sound?”
“E-eek!!”
The adults fled in a panic.
It was wonderful they had homes and families to go back to.
(Hm, maybe I should have covered my face with a bandanna. No, I’m wearing a Tokiwadai uniform and shooting Railguns – anyone would know it’s me.)
She heard more loud footsteps and confused voices, but it sounded like the workers had chosen to evacuate.
The emergency siren blaring fruitlessly through the building was soon the only sound there.
“Now, then.”
Mikoto made a magnetically-boosted jump 15m straight up and grabbed the work ladder on the side of the long smokestack for the gas turbine generator’s exhaust.
From that height, she could already see them.
She could sense the biological wave filling the main street from the other side.
Those thousands of people had been brainwashed by Shokuhou.
Shokuhou had apparently already cut off internet access, so Mikoto could not deploy the Six Wings or any other unmanned weapon.
Mikoto had no way of knowing if she could defeat all of the approaching people if she fought on her own. And if even one of them made it deep inside the building, the gas turbine generator was done for.
“Tch!!”
Her iron sand sword and lightning spear wouldn’t help much here. Individual attacks targeting single points could not eliminate this crowd flooding the scene. While she was attacking them one by one, more people would push in and she would be swallowed up.
Which meant…
(This probably violates some treaty banning chemical weapons, but whatever!!)
Electricity crackled from Mikoto’s bangs, but not because she was directly attacking a target.
An odd scent filled the air.
Humans needed oxygen to survive and those oxygen molecules were made from two oxygen atoms bound together. But if powerful electricity broke that bond, three oxygen atoms could bind together to form ozone.
And of course, humans could not breathe ozone.
Which was strange when it was all the same oxygen atoms.
“I can win by knocking them all out from lack of oxygen!!!”
Mikoto defended the generator by erecting an invisible fainting wall.
The boys and girls on the front line collapsed.
But it wasn’t over yet.
With an odd “fwoosh!!” sound, flames and wind spiraled out. A powerful explosion pushed the gas away, tearing apart the ozone-rich oxygen-deficient air.
Mikoto was an esper, but so were they.
The most troublesome aspect of the Shokuhou Army was how they could still use their powers when brainwashed.
And once they were safe, the group of thousands flooded over the fence.
“Uh, oh!!”
Mikoto made up her mind before she was swallowed up.
The large facility’s central control room was protected by thick concrete walls and a metal door. She decided to lock herself in there, but then a dull tremor shook the entire building vertically.
Even with so many, could human bodies really cause that much destruction?
(Oh, no, no, no!! Their numbers can break through the 5cm-thick metal door even if I magnetically hold it in place!!)
She heard a dull thud on the other side of the door.
People were scattered throughout the facility.
This was just one of them.
But they must have found it odd when they turned the knob and the door didn’t open. They persistently rattled the knob for a bit before shouting out loud and kicking hard on the other side of the door.
That wasn’t enough to break through the door, but…
(I’m in trouble if they call the others here!!)
Time was running out.
What could Mikoto do here while Shokuhou worked to bring down power across Academy City!?
Not enough.
She had to admit she could not reach Shokuhou in her current state.
She couldn’t stop that girl.
At this rate, a largescale power outage would release all the dangerous viruses and chimera creatures frozen inside the labs. That would transform this into an urban survival battle.
(I really didn’t want to use this except as an absolute last resort, but I guess I’ve reached that point.)
“Hello?”
<?> <?> <?>
She wasn’t using a phone, but she heard multiple gasps in her mind.
Their brains were structured the same at the genetic level, but Mikoto and the mass-produced military clones known as the Sisters were not normally connected by the brainwave network. But if Mikoto fine-tuned her own brainwaves, she could force a connection. …She just really didn’t like contacting it because it blurred the line between them – that is, their memories and personalities as individuals.
This was an exception.
Anything was on the table here, as long as it was physically possible.
Big Sis Mikoto made a suggestion.
“Academy City is in serious trouble, so I want your help. The Misaka Network is made by linking your brains in parallel, right? I use the same brainwaves, so if I can borrow that processing power, it should expand my possibilities.”
<Why should the Misakas involve ourselves in this? asks Misaka while maintaining a calm viewpoint and sighing at her short-tempered big sist->
“What, you don’t want to see that lump of excess fat cry?”
<…> <…> <…>
The Sisters had been made based on Misaka Mikoto’s genetic information, so (with the exception of Misaka Worst) they were all flat.
And they didn’t need to know the exact measurement for Shokuhou Misaki.
The first of her measurements – the one abbreviated as “B” – could be adequately described with a sound effect: boing.
Everyone on the Misaka Network responded at once.
<Yes. Let’s hit her with everything we have, replies Misaka.> <Yes. Let’s hit her with everything we have, replies Misaka.> <Yes. Let’s hit her with everything we have, replies Misaka.>
Part 8[edit]
Lightning flashed across Academy City.
Misaka Mikoto’s human form vanished and she once more became the lightning goddess who had come so close to reaching Level 6.
Part 9[edit]
Shokuhou could predict where this was going while she watched from a distance.
She saw light flash out and the crowd attacking the facility was swept away.
“Geh!? M-Misaka-san didn’t even hesitate to play that self-destructive trump card, even after all the trouble ability it caused during the Daihaseisai…”
Kihara Gensei’s experiment had already proven Mikoto’s Railgun could be forced up to the next stage by boosting her processing power with the Misaka Network. But as time passed, she lost her human form and she couldn’t shut it down on her own, making it a very risky move.
But that hadn’t stopped her.
This form briefly but definitely gave a glimpse of the stage beyond Level 5. It was the point between. In that sense, the stable brand name of the #5 Level 5 wasn’t enough to feel comfortable facing it.
(But doesn’t that thing come with the dangerous trait of gathering up a group desire to destroy Academy City?)
“Ohhhhhhh!! Begone, world! We refuse to accept the existence of anyone with boobs bigger than softballllllllllllllllllllllllls!!!”
“So the hatred of those blessed with big boobs ability is endlessly supporting Misaka-san here? Does that mean Academy City is full of unfortunate below-average chests? That’s a little disappointing.”
But there wasn’t time to just observe.
If that monster captured Shokuhou, it might just use a massive amount of electric energy to obliterate her breasts one at a time. By grabbing them and releasing the electricity.
Now.
It was time to face reality.
“Hokaze-saaan, can your brute strength defeat that?”
“If you order me to, Queen.”
Hokaze didn’t even hesitate.
But Shokuhou softly sighed. Complete brainwashing had its downsides. That response was all about determination, not a rational assessment of the actual specs.
After all, that thing was a mass of electrical energy so powerful it slightly distorted the scenery around it. It looked powerful enough for the neighborhood’s eccentric inventor to make a time machine out of it.
If Hokaze charged in without a plan, she would probably just get vaporized.
Even at this distance, Shokuhou could sense its intensity as a tingling in her skin.
The process that had created that monster was absurd, but if it reached the limits of its stability and exploded from within, it might just wipe Academy City off the map.
The #3 had taken her specialty in physical strength to the extreme.
(So what am I going to do about it?)
Shokuhou reviewed what secret weapons she had on hand.
Exterior was a portion of her cerebral cortex cut away and cultivated so it grew endlessly. By using Mental Out on herself, she could open the link, borrow its massive power, and significantly boost her processing power.
Simply put, it was a toy letting the #5 Level 5 forcibly increase her specs.
That said, even at max efficiency, it would not let her abandon her humanity like Mikoto’s lightning goddess form. It only let her simultaneously brainwash thousands of people within several kilometers of herself.
Misaka was immune to Mental Out, so even with Exterior, Shokuhou could not defeat that lightning goddess in a direct confrontation.
So with that established, what could Shokuhou realistically accomplish?
“Oh, I just had a great idea☆”
She no longer needed the emergency power center. She gave up on it and went elsewhere with brainwashed Hokaze.
She had an extremely rough idea of a plan she could use with Exterior.
“What will you do, Queen?”
“Well, what if we try a geometric progression plan?”
“?”
(Brainwashed) Hokaze tilted her head as Tokiwadai’s Queen got to work.
Exterior only let her brainwash a few thousand. That wasn’t much compared to Academy City’s population of 2.3 million.
“So I need to start by carefully choosing who I control. My capacity is a few thousand, but what if I were to brainwash only mental espers similar to myself?”
“Oh, I get it.”
“Those few thousand subordinates can then brainwash ordinary people to increase my capacity. Let’s say each of those espers can control 10-100 people. If I have a few thousand mental espers in my control, I should be able to directly brainwash tens of thousands. Right, Kobayashi-saaan?”
<Yes. And with that many under your control, mass psychology will take effect. You may be able to indirectly control the non-brainwashed people in the same way people tend to follow the crowd’s lead.>
“So let’s get the party started☆”
“Gyahhhhh, Shokuhou Misakiiii!!”
Mitsuari Ayu, a lower-level mental esper (who loathed Shokuhou) shouted in rage, but Shokuhou’s specs were higher and she was being boosted by a large facility. The most that side character could manage was play with some dangerous dark side toys, so she had no way to resist. Shokuhou took that shogi piece right away.
And she didn’t need to brainwash all 2.3 million.
As long as she had half of them – around a million – directly or indirectly under her influence, she could probably get what she wanted.
She wanted a deep secret hidden in Academy City, which would be enough to resist Lightning Goddess Mikoto.
Namely…
“The AIM diffusion field aggregation. Kazakiri-san, the science side’s shining golden angel, will be mine☆”
Fearsome light erupted in Academy City for a second time.
“No…you mustn’t force me out from the Imaginary Number District…kyahhhh!?”
During the process, Shokuhou thought she heard the voice of a shy (and a lot more rational than Mikoto or Shokuhou at the moment) girl, but she chose to ignore it.
The tremendous energy was helplessly controlled and stored within her. The air vibrated as Shokuhou’s silhouette greatly changed. She looked a lot like a golden glowing beauty goddess. She had shining angel wings growing from her back. No, were those were giant, sharp flower petals?
“Hwa ha☆”
The Queen laughed.
There was no wind, but her long blonde hair spread out to the sides as a brutal smile formed on her lips.
With a solid “clink!!”, a golden halo appeared above her head. It was in fact a wreath of flowers.
“Hwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Long golden hair, big boobs, and the uniform to a prestigious school! I always knew I had an affinity for this mystical ability!!”
The busty blonde pushed out her chest which had grown even larger from the power overflowing within her.
She was faintly glowing and had bright flower wings on her back, but a fist-sized black hole floated at the center of her halo, which seemed appropriate for her.
The superhuman lightning goddess tilted her head and spoke.
“lmao, you really do have a black heart.”
“Hey!? Don’t regain your speech ability just to make fun of me!!”
She couldn’t get distracted.
The golden glowing goddess cleared her throat in an extremely human way.
“Ahem. Okay, Misaka-saaan. Now you aren’t he only scientific god. I’ve caught up and I won’t hesitate to surpass you!! Am I beauty goddess? A harvest goddess? Hee hee. Or maybe a victory goddess? You might be a violent macho lightning goddess who flashes with the most annoying light, but what kind of goddess will Academy City’s people worship me as!?”
<A war god? A destruction god? Or maybe just a death god?>
“Kobayashi-san? Staying out of sight won’t keep you safe any longer.”
The giant flowers blossoming from her hair and clothing shook to scatter a sweet aroma. Glowing pollen blew in the wind, looking a lot like fine gold dust. That was it. She did nothing more, but everyone within a 5km radius was brainwashed.
Flowers remained motionless and used the bugs and small animals lured in by their scent and color to carry their pollen and seeds for reproduction. And sometimes they even lured in the predators of any pests to indirectly attack them.
At this point, Shokuhou didn’t need to aim her remote and consciously focus on her target.
She was like a great mental hurricane that controlled everyone around her with no effort on her part.
“This is the Queen’s realm – my own personal holy ground. And now, Misaka-san, it is time to trample you underfoot and end this once and for all!!”
The thin-lined and curvy girl took a single step and the world quaked around her.
A second kaiju had appeared within Academy City where the city walls kept anyone from escaping.
Part 10[edit]
“You and your jiggling sacks of faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!”
“You’re just jealous because you’re so scrawny groping them would only be a disappointmeeeeeeeeeent!!!”
Kaiju clashed with kaiju.
The electric energy was so great skyscrapers weighting tens of thousands of tons were ripped from their foundations and floated in midair. The giant glowing winds created from a million espers’ AIM diffusion fields tore through the air to attack. The asphalt ground was easily blown away and a metal bridge twisted from the intense heat before being blown away too. Mikoto swung a broadcast tower with magnetism, but the massive glowing flower petals coming from Shokuhou’s back easily sliced it in two.
No one could stop them now.
The Six Wings and the latest powered suits might as well have been flies buzzing around Tokiwadai’s Ace and Queen.
“O-oh, dear. Creating a route to access the Imaginary Number District and Kazakiri Hyouka without using Last Order, a virus program, or even touching the Misaka Network is entirely unprecedented. Maybe it’s a researcher’s nature to regret not having my observation equipment ready more than I fear for my safety.”
“Nyah… What am I even supposed to do about that? For now, I’m grabbing my maid sister and hiding underground!!”
Even Yoshikawa Kikyou, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, and others with one foot into the dark side were too intimidated by it to even think about fighting back.
Academy City might just end this day.
The sight was enough to give premonitions of apocalypse.
Those goddess forms or special modes or whatever were supposed to cause their physical bodies to collapse in a few minutes, but neither Mikoto nor Shokuhou showed any sign of that happening.
They were only focused on punching the girl in front of them.
Only that.
They were supposed to be extremely classy Tokiwadai girls with the genius brains of Level 5s, but they seemed to have forgotten those facts.
Maybe it was wrong to use power and an official hierarchy to determine the pecking order at a classy girl’s school.
Part 11[edit]
An enormous mass of electric energy was slowly approaching at a speed of 5km/h. A thick collection of lightning weaved between the buildings, the surrounding skyscrapers bending and warping around it.
It took a humanoid shape.
A bipedal lightning goddess walked the earth.
Yomikawa Aiho of Anti-Skill faced it with a cheerful smile.
“Is that all? Everyone was shouting about a kaiju, but it’s just another pachinko ad.”
“It is not, Senpai!! Please face reality!!!”
Yomikawa stared into the middle distance while Tessou tearfully grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
They didn’t have time to not believe this flashy performance was real. The very real threat was slowly but surely approaching.
A low tremor ran through the asphalt.
Thoom!! The distant skyscrapers shook side to side so violently they looked ready to surpass the limits of their earthquake countermeasures. Below those buildings, something none of them wanted to see was slowly approaching.
Misaka Mikoto had become a lightning goddess.
And there was another one. A goddess adorned in flowers had appeared and started clashing with the first goddess.
The catastrophe was slowly but surely approaching.
They probably weren’t even looking at the panicked people along the way. The two kaiju destroyed everything in their path as they collided and tangled together in a very lily-ish way.
Yomikawa Aiho returned to reality.
She gave her first command to her subordinates.
“Have all the Judgment members fall back!! Esper or not, they’re students and we need to protect them!”
“B-but…”
“Shut up and hand me that rocket launcher, Tessou. I’d rather fight on my own than survive by putting those kids in danger.”
“I’m trying to tell you we haven’t been given permission to attack, Senpai!!”
Rakuoka Houfu, a short Anti-Skill officer with glasses and a combover, could only stand there in a daze while those two were arguing.
The trained Anti-Skill officers equipped with advanced weaponry understood one thing much better than the ordinary people wasting their efforts stockpiling food or creating makeshift weapons by cutting metal pipes diagonally.
There was no defeating those two.
“What do we do? Really, what do we do?”
“Hey, build a barricade. Tessou, laying down your weapon won’t improve the situation!!”
There were voices berating the younger Anti-Skill officers who couldn’t bear the quaking pressure and huddled together like they were being shelled, but the chain of command was in tatters. Two massive and overwhelming individuals kept them from acting as a group.
“Anyway, what do you mean we don’t have permission to attack!? We can’t do proper recon with the security cameras and robots on the fritz and we’re not even allowed to deactivate the safeties on our equipment without permission from the higher ups!!”
“About that. None of those higher ups are responding.”
“This is why I hate those principals and vice principals who never do any field work. So how are we supposed to fight!? It’s like we have two giant typhoons charging toward us!!”
“Eek, don’t ask me.”
…The actual explanation for the lack of permission was that Mikoto had hacked the network and messed with the electronic signatures and encryption keys so any attempt would return an error and Shokuhou had brainwashed everyone with that authority in advance so they wouldn’t do anything.
Several gray clouds of dust joined together at the bottom of the skyscraper district.
They looked small from here, but each cloud had to be well over 20m. It was like an attack from a rapid-fire gun launching explosive shells or an automatic grenade launcher. Each blast had to be enough to blow a convenience store to smithereens. A series of those would be enough to flatten the entire area.
Most likely, another unit of Anti-Skill officers had opened fire on the goddesses without waiting for permission and been hit by a counterattack. The concrete wall, vehicles, or whatever else they were using for cover had likely been obliterated.
A coordinated counterattack from land and air required the ability to send everyone their orders and a strategy that made the best use of their personnel. Waiting for attack authorization was only the starting point there.
But if they did nothing, those things would reach them.
The kaiju looked like they had completely lost their ability to think rationally. If they determined any armed person was hostile, then Anti-Skill’s lives would be snuffed out like a candle’s flame.
Among them, Rakuoka Houfu spotted a solid silver sparkle.
Four of his colleagues were carrying a heavy-looking case made of duralumin.
“What’s that!? A next-gen anti-ship weapon!?”
The short and balding middle-aged man snatched away the sturdy locked duralumin case and found a bunch of strictly sealed letters inside.
The box contained all of the officers’ wills.
“I’ve had enough!! Raise the white flag!! I want to go home!!!”
Part 12[edit]
Now, then.
Ultra-destructive Misaka Mikoto had abandoned her humanity to become a lightning goddess with a glimpse of outer space showing through her body, but her thoughts were actually quite calm.
She had experienced this before, but her mind had a tendency to turn inwards while in lighting goddess mode.
And a question had occurred to her.
First of all, it was strange she had such free control of the lightning goddess. It hadn’t been so simple last time.
And furthermore…
(When is this happening timeline-wise?)
The most obvious thing out of place was Shokuhou Misaki’s Exterior. After it was nearly discovered during the Daihaseisai incident, the #5 had decided it would be too much of a pain to continue hiding it and managing it, so she had personally destroyed and abandoned it.
So was this before that?
But that didn’t work either. This included things that clearly happened after the Daihaseisai. For example, Kazakiri Hyouka may have fit in that part of the timeline, but the uncontrollable Fuse Kazakiri and the golden angel Kazakiri had come later – the latter during World War Three. At the very least, Tokiwadai hadn’t still been wearing their summer uniforms when those things happened.
This led to a simple conclusion: this Academy City couldn’t be real.
(Would the safest bet be a virtual reality? Academy City’s tech is supposed to be 20 or 30 years ahead of the outside world, so I could see that tech existing here. That would explain why Shokuhou has no qualms about destroying everything in her rampage. Even she wouldn’t take it this far otherwise.)
Mikoto also wouldn’t have chosen so many options liable to kill someone. She had even blown away Shirai Kuroko with a Railgun after Shokuhou brainwashed her.
And if this world was recreated with electronic technology, Mikoto could easily break through.
She could send out an error-inducing electric signal.
No matter how detailed a virtual reality was, it was ultimately a collection of 1s and 0s. That meant she could write her own code. If she emitted electric noise that perfectly recreated the array of 1s and 0s forming a computer virus, the supercomputer constructing the virtual world would run a self-defense subroutine to prevent the noise from appearing. Whether it was in a drawing or in music, any data array that indicated the numbers of a virus code could destroy the program from within, so it was an obvious defense measure.
So the conditions were simple.
If Mikoto attempted to produce the noise and nothing happened, this was virtual reality.
If it worked, this was actual reality.
“Okay, I was getting tired of messing with Shokuhou anyway. It’s time to log out of this virtual reality!!”
The deified #3 sent sparks crackling from her forehead.
And crackle they did.
Which meant the error-inducing electric signal…had occurred like normal?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Um, but that would mean…?”
Part 13[edit]
Mikoto was confused.
She had already destroyed so much, but this would mean it had all happened in the actual Academy City!?
