Toaru Majutsu no Index:MvM Chapter6
Chapter 6: Who Stands in the Way?[edit]
Part 1[edit]
World domination complete!!
“Sigh, this is basically perfect. Why don’t we just stay in this world forever?” said Mikoto.
“Have you forgotten we’re both having an out of body experience while close to death? It’s been a month since that propane tank explosion, so who knows what’s happening to our bodies back on Earth,” said Shokuhou.
Yes, they couldn’t just lie around in bed inside the superpower’s enormous castle.
Mikoto shook off the temptation to go back to sleep and got out of the truly king-sized bed. The castle’s butlers and maids would pamper her more if she let them, so she had to reboot herself.
Which meant…
“We’ve defeated the three Demon Lords and gathered the three treasures, so now we need to research the big ceremony necessary to send us home.”
Demon Lords. Ceremony.
The words left her mouth so easily but hearing herself say them felt so strange. She had to tell herself that was just the kind of world this was. She managed to accept the reality before her eyes by telling herself this world had some kind of technology called magic and that it might be based on familiar science if she pursued it far enough. She had a feeling it would end badly if she didn’t leave that barrier in place.
This world’s largest superpower had existed on the Tir na nOg Continent.
The castle’s library was also the largest in the world. If they were doing research, this would be the best place.
Since Patissiet would climb on top of the bookcases (in her short skirt) if left to her own devices, Mikoto grabbed the elf by the scruff of the neck to keep her on the floor.
“Three treasures ceremony. Does anything here talk about the three treasures ceremony?”
They appreciated all the knowledge gathered in the library, but too much knowledge could be a problem of its own. Without anything like a search engine to quickly find what they wanted, it could end up taking a full day to find a relevant passage.
They found some familiar faces there: the young slaver who Patissiet had originally served, as well as the guild receptionist and mayor who had been planning to kill the elves in that village.
Mikoto gave them a “what are you doing here?” look and received an answer from the flashy young woman who used wind magic.
“With the abolitionist movement picking up speed, the elves are learning to enjoy the finer things in life. Which means an increased demand for goods. This might just be a great business opportunity.”
“True, and no one will stop you from making money if you do it in a way that establishes a beneficial cycle. I hope this has been a good lesson ability for you☆”
“By the way, you brainwashing goddess, you had better not be lying about restoring my talent for business if I help you search through all these books!”
That Dancer Mikoto stuck out her tongue with her back turned suggested that probably wasn’t happening.
In the end, it came down to people wanting to side with the winners. Mikoto and Shokuhou’s defeat of the Tir na nOg superpower had greatly changed things.
Shokuhou could run some form of a search by reading the residual thoughts in the books and bookcases, but it would still take her some time.
And Patissiet was the best at this kind of slow-going work.
Mikoto could only get a general idea of what the text said like she was decoding Morse code or braille, but the elf could fluently read this world’s language, which made her a lot faster.
Patissiet did not actually read each of the thick books cover to cover. She would get a general idea of what the author was trying to say from the title, the table of contents, the opening pages, and the final pages. It was a lot like figuring out the topic and contents by filling in the blanks, but it was honestly impressive. Mikoto wanted to learn this skill for the book reports she was forced to write for school during summer break.
“Oh, this could be it.”
The elf’s face lit up.
She found it so quickly it sort of frustrated Shokuhou who could essentially cheat by reading the residual thoughts with the remote she pulled from her handbag.
“The three treasures ceremony is done at the Strange Underpass Cathedral. Each of the treasures is very important, so I don’t know where else you would hold a magic ceremony using all three of them.”
“Strange Underpass?”
“?”
With a name like that, it might refer to a secret passage between worlds. If so, this was another example of very on-the-nose naming.
But there was no point in complaining about this world’s names at this point.
“Where is that cathedral?” asked Shokuhou.
“At the very top. The only floating land at Layer 11 is the Strange Underpass Cathedral. I have never been there of course, but I would expect every single person in Celesaqphere has heard of it.”
Part 2[edit]
They had already achieved world domination.
From Layer 1 to Layer 10, Mikoto and Shokuhou could use all equipment from from all facilities from all kingdoms from all floating lands.
Now that they had the three treasures and could perform a search with everything this world had to offer, nothing prevented them from preparing for the three treasures ceremony at the Strange Underpass Cathedral.
It helped a lot that they had freed the elves, succubi, sirens, and other races.
That meant they could gather the knowledge and materials scattered beyond human-controlled territories.
Yes, with the appropriate knowledge and techniques, it was possible nonhuman races could also steal or buy books and treasures.
(I’m so glad they aren’t all arguing with each other.)
Mikoto had boosted Patissiet and the others to the level cap of 9999, so the humans could no longer capture the elves and other monsters and then treat them poorly. And while all the attention was on the long-lived Level 9999 group, the younger generations of monster girls could level up without anyone exploiting them, allowing the nonhumans to maintain their superior position indefinitely.
Once Mikoto and Shokuhou left, what happened during the next era would be up to the Celesaqphere natives. But while Patissiet and the others had a concerning lack of condemnation of the slavery system itself, it didn’t look like the elves would actively retaliate against the humans. They were a peaceful race as long as they were left alone.
The elves had had accepted the harpies, tengu, and many other races without issue, so it seemed likely they could get along with humans too.
Their integrated army itself was proof that racial differences were no reason to eliminate each other.
“By the way, Shokuhou, is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“That the elves speak with their long ears as much as their mouths.”
Even now, Elder Bakerian and little Patissiet were conversing a short distance away. Were they working out the details of the three treasures ceremony?
Shokuhou pointed at them.
“It is. But it isn’t anything too complex. It’s more like Morse code ability. The number of times their ears move up and down signifies a letter and a twirl of their ears signifies the end of a letter.”
“I see, I see.”
“So right now Patissiet is smiling and saying, ‘Who does that violent electric girl think she is talking down to us when she’s so flat?’”
“Huh!!!?”
“See, Bakerian just looked our way. ‘Get too close and she will absorb your boobs. To be safe, don’t even look her in the eye.’”
“It’s not a curse, so I can’t just take your size away from you! As much as I’d want to if I could!!”
“Pff. These elves are mean when they know we can’t hear them. But I do see where they’re coming from given your you-know-whats are so you-know-what. Oh, look now. That ear movements means, ‘I do feel sorry for her. They’re just so small.’ Ah ha ha! Misaka-san, your measurements ability is so bad even a little girl like Patissiet pities you!”
“…”
“ ‘Don’t worry. Unlike her, yours will grow with time.’ ‘I hope you’re right. I don’t want to end up like her.’ ‘An adult woman with a chest that flat is actually quite a rare thing, so just ignore her as an extreme outlier.’ ‘If you say so.’ Are these elves brutal, or what!? ...What’s wrong, Misaka-san? Wh-why do you look so angry? At me, I mean?”
“Did you really expect me to buy that? I’ll ask them and if I find out you were lying, I’m grabbing those boobs and tearing them right off of you.”
Shokuhou Misaki wildly crossed her hands to try and gesture for the elves to back up her story (while Mikoto dragged her over by the collar), but the elves only tilted their heads cluelessly. Her attempt at communication had failed miserably.
Part 3[edit]
They had the three treasures and they knew the specific cathedral needed for the ceremony.
That only left the preparations.
The night before the ceremony, they needed to cleanse themselves.
That meant today.
And so they had bathed in a warm spring where no tentacles or slimes would attack them.
It was in fact, a spacious, stone bath. It was circular and luxurious, with the bathwater pouring out of a statue of a woman holding a jar. It was the perfect bath other than the need to strongly insist that the castle’s maids did not come in and help wash them.
“I wonder what would happen to this world if we told them how to make 24-hour baths,” said Shokuhou.
“They might love it, but I don’t want to see a new war start over monopolizing the baths. It sounds silly, but I wouldn’t put it past this world.”
They zoned out in the bath for a while.
Instead of plain bathwater, it was scented with a substance extracted from the oil of a flower petal or something. Apparently this fantasy world had more to offer than walking endlessly through muddy fields.
“Hey, Shokuhou?”
“What?”
“Why are your boobs so big?”
“If that’s the only thing on your mind after all this adventuring, you must have it even worse than I thought.”
“Hmph. I know we’ve been eating the same things here in Celesaqphere, so it makes no sense it hasn’t influenced my size like it has yours.”
“If you think diet is the only factor, you are sorely mistaken, poor ignorant Misaka-san.”
“Huh? Are you saying exercise matters too? Was it because I did all the fighting while you sat around the entire time!? Is that why these things got so big!?”
“Hey, don’t just grab my chest!!!”
Mikoto and Shokuhou just barely managed to calm down before the maids rushed in after hearing the commotion.
“Huh?”
There was no dinner for them after they left the bath.
Was fasting part of the cleansing?
And they were sent to the same bedroom.
“I can’t sleep…”
“…”
After extinguishing the lights, Mikoto and Shokuhou climbed into their respective beds.
They were supposed to sleep while closed inside this special room.
That was apparently meant to help cleanse them, but they had spent all their time in Celesaqphere in truly deadly battles, leaving them no time for an orderly life. Now that they could actually sleep in a bed like normal, the sleep refused to come. Their idleness in the superpower had affected their daily rhythm in a separate way.
They had nothing to do.
But Mikoto didn’t feel like killing time playing cards with Shokuhou. She found it kind of odd that this world had playing cards, though. Was that something any civilization would invent when pursuing certain functionality far enough, like how every country’s stealth aircraft ended up looking so similar?
“We’re just nothing alike, are we?”
“It took you this long to figure that out?”
“Well, no.”
While they were chatting without even bothering to sit up in bed, a knock came at the door.
“?”
Since they were supposed to stay in this room to cleanse themselves, they had assumed there would be no contact from outside.
Was this really allowed?
But they weren’t going to get any sleep tossing and turning in the dark anyway. Assuming this wasn’t an assassin, Mikoto welcomed this new stimulus.
She opened the door to find a small figure standing in the hallway.
“Patissiet?”
“Eh heh heh.”
The elf grinned a little.
Once inside, she took a curious look around the dark room.
“Oh, keep the lights out. They will come to scold me if they see a light in the window.”
“Oh? So you came knowing they’d be made at you?” asked Mikoto, smiling mischievously.
Patissiet’s eyes widened in mild surprise.
Then she smiled again.
It looked like a natural smile to Mikoto.
“Yes. Eh heh heh. This is the first time I’ve chosen to break someone’s rules!”
“Then how about we eat snacks together? All night long!!”
That definitely felt like it strayed from the idea of cleansing themselves, but no one, not even Shokuhou, protested.
And Mikoto had a thought.
This little elf had saved them so much during this adventure. It was easy enough to say Mikoto and Shokuhou didn’t get along. But the truth was, if the two of them had really been traveling Celesaqphere on their own, they wouldn’t have lasted three days. It was only with Patissiet there needing their protection and creating an air of cooperation that the #3 and #5 had managed to temporarily work together and face their common problem.
Namely, returning to Earth.
By completing the three treasures ceremony.
“W-we’ll be eating cookies this late at night!?”
“Oh, dear. Don’t let that surprise you. Because I have some chocolate here too☆”
“What!? How can something so sinful be allowed!?”
Patissiet really sprang to her feet.
This was apparently beyond anything she could have imagined.
This had been the most luxurious castle in the world, so it had a plentiful supply of snacks like these. You could open a random drawer and find bottles of meringue or candies. It was hard to believe they had once been eating sliced kraken tentacle on a lakeside.
Eventually, Mikoto broached the subject.
“We have the three treasures now. We have a way to return to Earth.”
“Yes.”
“It’s hard to believe it’s happening tomorrow,” said Shokuhou. “Part of me still feels like we’re going to continue trekking across Celesaqphere forever.”
“Yes, it ends tomorrow,” said Patissiet before falling silent.
She also stopped eating the snacks.
“…”
Patissiet had said this was her first time breaking the rules.
What had motivated that change?
What subconscious desire was she acting on?
What had made her intrude when they were supposed to be cleansing themselves in this room?
“Hey, Patissiet.”
Mikoto knew this might be cruel.
But she had to ask.
“You helped us out from the very beginning. Maybe you were only doing it to help the other enslaved elves, but you didn’t need to stay with us after that was done. Retrieving the three treasures and identifying the Strange Underpass Cathedral only help the two of us in our goal of returning to Earth. So we’re truly thankful you continued to help us out.”
Shokuhou did not reach for her remote.
Even though she could find the answer right away with her #5 Level 5 power.
So Mikoto asked the question.
“Patissiet. Do you regret doing that?”
Silence followed.
No, there was a sniffling sound.
Patissiet hung her head in the darkness.
“I...I…”
The words spilled out of her trembling lips.
“I don’t want to say goodbye.”
That was the elf’s selfish desire.
That was the personal truth she had been willing to break the rules to express.
“I kept telling myself I could stop helping you. That I could be with you forever then! I wouldn’t be breaking anything or lying. I just had to say nothing – not give you the next hint – and we could stay together without anyone getting hurt!!”
She would have had plenty of opportunities to keep those two for herself.
But she hadn’t done it.
As a slave, she had been taught to always do what she was told.
“But I knew that wasn’t what you would want!! So I did my best to give you what you wanted. I helped create the ending you most wanted. I thought that was best...I thought that would make you smile!! So!!!”
But she had continued doing as she was told until now.
Something had cracked.
She had stopped being the ever-obedient slave and discovered a new, tiny feeling inside her.
A feeling coming straight from her heart.
“I don’t want to say goodbye…”
The tears spilled, she bit her lip, and she repeatedly sniffled her nose.
It was an ugly display.
But that did not mean it was a bad thing.
“Ugh, sob! I don’t want to. I want to stay with you forever… Wahhhh! I don’t want to say goodbyyyye!!!”
Mikoto and Shokuhou both smiled as they watched the weeping elf.
This world had finally won the courage to speak its mind.
They couldn’t stay here forever and Celesaqphere would have to learn to operate on its own eventually, but now they knew this world would be alright without them. They knew Patissiet and the others could live strong as independent people. They wouldn’t just calmly accept death when their number was called. They would take a different path than the one those clones had once taken.
This girl had the kind of heart that led her to take up a longbow out of concern for someone other than herself and to weep at the thought of saying goodbye, so she would surely protest the system of slavery that imposed such an extreme burden on others.
“Don’t worry.” Misaka Mikoto hugged those small shoulders and rubbed her back. “You’ll live a long life. Even longer than ours. So remove the collar from your neck and the chains from your ankles and walk free across Celesaqphere. Do that and I just know you’ll make so many wonderful friends you’ll forget all about this one little goodbye.”
Part 4[edit]
The next day, bikini armor Misaka Mikoto and dancer Shokuhou Misaki made their way to the Strange Underpass Cathedral.
Some elves accompanied them.
So did some succubi, muspells, dryads, scyllas, pixies, mermaids, echidnas, arachnes, and even the occasional human.
But that wasn’t all.
There were even some of the enemies they had fought, like the lord who no longer had his ultimate equipment, the two witches, the king who had relied so heavily on those alluring sisters, and the superpower’s king.
“Carry my bag, Lavender! Brain, be a proper butler and teach this knight how to behave!”
“Oh, is that how you treat women, even if she is a knight?”
“Eh? Oh, um, of course not, my king!!”
The lord was strict with the knight who worked for him, but he immediately bowed to his king. It sounded like he still had a lot of learning to do.
A woman with long blonde hair and a tight red dress hid her smile behind a fan.
“Ho ho ho. I hope you are thankful that I am lending you my ultimate fire magic to assist with this selfish cause of yours.”
“...Who’s she again?”
“I am the Queen of Explosions who leads the Mjolnir Hegemony!! You couldn’t possibly have forgotten the onslaught of flamethrower magic and my specialty firebombs – made by filling a bottle with solid fuel and cotton!!”
So she was one of the ones they defeated without even trying. She had honestly left less of an impression on Mikoto than the initial slaver woman.
Not that there was any need to distinguish between them.
The conflicts and friction would not disappear overnight, but Mikoto an Shokuhou could tell those things would gradually shrink until they were entirely gone.
The (former?) slaver woman was slumped over and muttering to herself.
“W-will I really receive my business talent back? Or would I be happier giving up on business and living a slow life deep in the forest?”
A giant structure of smooth stone stood on the only floating land on Layer 11. It had the sparkling wine coloration of a luxury smartphone.
“Wait…” said Mikoto as she took the first step inside.
Sparkling wine.
Hard stone.
It had a clean but cold feel.
And it was entirely deserted.
But Mikoto and Shokuhou both frowned.
They had been right to sense something was off.
They walked to the very back, opened the large door there, and found a space even larger than a stadium.
“I know this place.”
“So do I.”
Rectangular spiral staircases ran along the walls like trick art and pure water flowed down from them.
Wasn’t this the Something-or-Other Sanctuary? It looked so much like the place where they had met Reincarnation Goddess Salinagaritina after being forced into an out-of-body experience by an accident.
Enough that it felt the two places had to be linked.
“Could this be the world’s exit?”
Patissiet nervously followed Mikoto and Shokuhou into the large room.
An upside-down U structure sat in the very center of the stadium-sized space. It was a stone double door with the same sparkling wine color as everything else. But when they opened the heavy doors, there wasn’t anything there. Only the rest of the room on the other side.
“If you perform the three treasures ceremony, will this truly become an exit?” speculated the elf, looking thoughtful.
Part 5[edit]
The three treasures ceremony had finally begun.
It made use of the entire stadium-sized great hall. The succubi, dark elves, and others were busy placing herbs and jewels in the appropriate locations. All magic in this world was apparently based on incantations, but magic circles, incense, colorful cards, and more gathered tens of thousands of words together in this one place.
The two witches who had supported the king provided instructions.
“You need to flip that card upside down! The way you have it, it ands the symbols together, but we want to or them!!”
“Hee hee. Place the censer on the magic circle at 150 degrees clockwise to indicate a period. That alone can greatly change the meaning of the incantation.”
Everyone’s efforts were working toward a single result.
Everything came together to elevate it all.
The village mayor looked like he couldn’t believe what he was doing.
Or maybe it made him deeply emotional.
“To think the day would come I would be working side by side with elves.”
They were breaking the barrier between worlds and surpassing the rules of the reincarnation goddess to create a path back from Celesaqphere to Earth.
It was all for that.
Patissiet and Elder Bakerian joined their voices together.
“The red treasure is a sign of the Celesaqphere sky. Its light symbolizes the ever-expanding dusk and the gap that invites demons.”
“The blue treasure is a sign of the Celesaqphere sea. Its light symbolizes the changes and currents that rain down from the heavens and fill the space below the land.”
“The green treasures is a sign of the Celesaqphere land. Its light symbolizes a place that splits and breaks but has still been gifted to all that live.”
“Where is the unseen territory found? The three colors shall dye our world and outline the territory with no sign of its own. The formless path shall appear before us in the very end!!”
There was no obvious change.
Only a shift in the density or hardness of the air.
Something was changing at an accelerating rate.
And it would likely continue until it reached the point that everyone could see it.
“The five continents and all their life wish you well.
“The four kingdoms bless you.
“The three Demon Lords have provided the guiding treasures.
“The two goddesses have granted us the love and support needed to seek it out.
“The one portal’s lock need no longer function.
“Strange Underpass Cathedral, resonate with us and open the portal between worlds!!!”
Meanwhile, Shokuhou and Mikoto were whispering to each other.
They had noticed something.
“(This is something we were only supposed to get after convincing everyone in this world to get along and work together, wasn’t it?)”
“(Kind of awkward that we forced them to come together and help us, isn’t it?)”
But it would be weird to stop here and redo things the right way, so they decided to stick with it.
Oblivious to this, the elf girl continued her very serious incantation.
Once her part was complete, she made a worried comment with the thick grimoire in hand.
“With the portal connected, th-the gatekeeper will emerge. Be careful!”
“Don’t worry. We’ve never been in any real danger since we arrived in this world.”
“Heh heh. I’m sure this’ll be a letdown too.”
The two girls made somewhat rude comments.
The ceremony had reached its climax. Most likely, the mermaids and scyllas’ part of the song had left the human audible range.
That was when they heard a cracking sound.
But not from anything specific. If anything, it sounded more like space itself was cracking.
Mikoto, who didn’t know much about magic ceremonies, jumped.
“Is something wrong!?”
“No! Lady Misaka, Lady Shokuhou, stay where you are!!”
That didn’t make them feel much better.
Patissiet elaborated with grimoire in hand.
“This threat was expected!! The gatekeeper is coming!!”
The air shook.
Even Mikoto took a step back.
The portal itself seemed to be rejecting their attempt to approach and pass through it.
Something was coming.
“What is this gatekeeper supposed to be!?”
“Um, according to the grimoire, if you travel against the current, the gatekeeper appears borrowing the form of the strongest person in the destination world. It won’t have their memories or personality, but the greatest enemy for whoever is attempting to return will be created to stop them!!”
Mikoto wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but she wasn’t going to back down no matter what came through.
She pulled an arcade coin from one of the (extremely limited) pockets in her bikini armor.
The #5 girl twirled her TV remote.
The depths of the portal writhed and the air burst.
Part 6[edit]
The threat had arrived.
Part 7[edit]
In that moment, fear covered Mikoto’s face and Tokiwadai’s Queen fell flat on her ass. Shokuhou tearfully lifted the corners of her lips into an uncertain half-smile, but Mikoto couldn’t yell at her. This was asking too much. Their titles as Tokiwadai’s Ace and Queen meant nothing here. In fact, those titles were a large part of the problem with this enemy.
The ultimate adversary was a woman.
The ultimate adversary had black hair.
The ultimate adversary wore a tight skirt suit.
The ultimate adversary wore glasses.
It was the dorm manager.
They could not return to Earth unless they defeated her!!!
“I-is that the legendary gatekeeper – the Deadly Headwind, aka the Strange World Keeper!?”
“No, that would be our school’s dorm manager.” “No, that would be our school’s dorm manager.”
Then again, she was the most powerful monster when it came to guarding the exit and preventing unauthorized outings.
They had fled from her once already.
When they ran into her in the false Academy City, they had decided fighting her would mean death.
But now they had to settle things.
The dorm manager really was the perfect fit for the final gatekeeper standing in Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki’s way!!
Part 8[edit]
Their eyes met.
She was coming this way.
Fear of the dorm manager eliminated all other concerns from Mikoto’s mind.
What little courage she could scrounge up wouldn’t be enough.
(That lazybones would be a lot easier to attack than me, so why wouldn’t you go for her first! Then I could use that opening to blast you in the side with an arcade coin!!)
Mikoto may have taken too detached a view. She should have considered the possibility of death coming for her right away.
“Ahhhhhhh!!”
Driven by terror, Mikoto launched a Railgun right away. Against a normal human, she might have widened her eyes at her own excessive self-defense, but she received no complaints here.
If anything, it wasn’t enough.
An attack like that could never harm the dorm manager from hell.
Mikoto sensed that odd form of trust within her.
And that trust was warranted.
The sparkling wine dust cloud burst open to reveal the dorm manager already rushing sharply toward Mikoto.
The accuracy of Mikoto’s EM reflection radar dropped when a dense cloud of particles was floating in the air.
Mikoto seriously thought she was about to die.
“Rahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
Someone roared.
Dancer Shokuhou aimed her TV remote this way.
And at Mikoto, not the dorm manager.
Zap!!
“Ow!!”
Mikoto’s head jerked to the side as if deflected by an invisible barrier.
Mental Out did not work on Mikoto.
A wind roared past.
Her ear was nearly taken off.
Without the jerk of her head, the dorm manager’s punch would have slammed into the center of her face.
“Tch!!”
Staying within reach of the dorm manager’s arms and legs would only get her beaten to death.
Mikoto used magnetism to draw herself to the side of a nearby decorative pillar. There was no rebar in this fantasy world, so she was annoyingly limited to artwork made of metal.
Against an expert at deadly close-quarters combat, it was best to put a height difference between them.
That was also the key to a group battle, but…
“Um!?”
She tore it away.
This wasn’t something as simple as grabbing a floor tile and throwing it or grabbing another pillar and wielding it as a weapon.
The dorm manager broke the sparkling wine pillar down with a single low kick. The exact same pillar Mikoto was attached to. Which was thicker than her torso!!
This created a gap.
The dorm manager grabbed the thick pillar in her hands and swung it right as Mikoto cut her magnetic connection so she dropped straight down.
With a roar like a meteor strike, the entire stadium-sized cathedral shook.
After gathering centrifugal force, the dorm manager had thrown the thick pillar so it pierced the wall.
If Mikoto had been a single second slower with her decision, she would have been right there with it.
“Is she seriously not using Academy City esper powers or this world’s magic!?”
Part 9[edit]
It was like a bad joke.
She was Academy City’s #5 Level 5, Mental Out. She could brainwash any human by sticking her hand in her bag, aiming her TV remote, and pressing the button, but that assumption had collapsed all at once.
She couldn’t hit her.
Her TV remote wasn’t fast enough.
All she had to do was point the end at the woman and press a single button, but not even her eyes could keep up with the dorm manager who kept rapidly vanishing to the left or right.
“Rahhh!!” shouted dancer Shokuhou.
It was meaningless.
But even if it was effectively useless, the dorm manager could briefly pause if she were caught off guard. If something she failed to understand froze her in place for even half a second, Shokuhou’s remote could catch up.
That was long enough for her thumb to press a button. And that would settle it.
(This time it’ll work!!)
Bam!!
As soon as the dorm manager stomped her foot against the floor, the solid sparkling wine stone cracked and split. A thick cloud of dust rushed into the air and the makeshift smokescreen obscured Shokuhou’s view.
She saw the glint of glasses.
Driven by fear, the #5 aimed her remote that way, but it was no use.
It didn’t work.
She knew she must have pressed the button countless times. It had to have been pointed the dorm manager’s way at least once. But it didn’t do any good. Did the aim not even matter? Was that dorm manager from hell immune to mental powers!?
(I-I-I-I can’t see her very well in the thicker parts of that smokescreen. Wait, does it not count as targeting my power if I can only see a vague silhouette!?)
“E-eeeeek!?”
Tears welled in her eyes and she tried to back away, but she stepped on the frills of her dancer’s outfit and tripped. She ended up shamefully backing away on her rear. But she still tried to deter her enemy from approaching.
With a light “slap!”, the hand holding the remote pointed in the wrong direction.
Her body had moved against her will.
Or so she thought at first.
In truth, the dorm manager’s fist had tapped Shokuhou’s wrist, diverting her aim to the side.
It was a simple parry.
The dorm manager didn’t need Academy City esper powers or this world’s magic. She had neutralized the #5’s Mental Out that easily!?
The sound of something tearing through the air was horrifyingly heavy.
The dorm manager’s right leg seemed to disappear before the kick caught Shokuhou square in the gut, launching her several meters backwards.
She had tearfully grabbed her handbag in her other hand to cushion the blow at the last second, but how much had that actually helped?
The dorm manager from hell did not hesitate to land this solid blow even though it put distance between her and her opponent.
As if to say she was willing to give the girl that much of a handicap.
Part 10[edit]
The palely glowing glasses turned Mikoto’s way.
She distinctly felt the paralysis of fear.
“…”
No esper powers were necessary.
Neither was the strongest magic of some other world.
In the end, the most terrifying thing was an ordinary, grounded human!?
“Cough. Don’t just stand there, Misaka-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!”
“!?
That broke the spell.
Mikoto immediately jumped to the side, dodging the dorm manager’s fist.
She could do this.
While Shokuhou had taken a direct hit, Mikoto could still move nimbly. She didn’t have time to launch an attack of her own, but she could still just barely keep up with the dorm manager’s speed!!
“Kh.”
“Gh.”
Nowhere in this vast space was safe.
But for a brief moment, she felt warmth on her back.
Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki.
They hadn’t agreed on a strategy, but they still pressed their backs together, let the other watch their back, and shouted hatefully at each other.
“Don’t you die yet!”
“I’m more worried about you!”
The glasses dorm manager slowly approached from up ahead.
But someone stood in her way.
It was the small elf named Patissiet.
“I won’t let you…”
She had tears in her eyes.
She had thrown away her longbow and simply spread her arms wide.
“I don’t want Lady Misaka to leave and I want to stay with Lady Shokuhou forever. But I have to smile and say goodbye… I decided I would do whatever I could to make that happen!! Maybe you’re the gatekeeper and maybe you’re something else, but don’t get in the way after I worked so hard to prepare myself for this moment!!!”
She wasn’t alone.
The harpies, sirens, succubi, dark elves, scyllas, sylphs, muspells, tengu, empusas, and the elves had their psychological bonds broken by that one voice and they all rushed in.
“It’s time I demonstrated what Silver Defender Sigynette can do.”
“Indeed. How about I show you the cutting edge of Silver Striker Antoinaisse!!”
“Ho ho. Are you ready for the famous fiery cocktail of the Mjolnir Hegemony’s Queen of Explosions!?”
These people gained nothing by opening the gate back to Earth.
But they still charged onto the battlefield, possibly throwing their lives away, to grant the wish of those two girls.
“Lady Lavender, this is not a battle we can win.”
“I-I know that, Brain! No, no, no. But it’s still a battle I want to win!!”
It wasn’t an issue of debts or gratitude.
There was no reason.
This was a gathering of the kind of people who could go this far just to save a friend.
Even the dorm manager from hell seemed to flinch slightly.
Come to think of it, hadn’t she briefly hesitated to attack when she was engulfed by a crowd of rioters in that fake Academy City?
That was how time had caught up with her.
Either way, it all came down to this instant. Shokuhou had already taken a solid hit, so this fearsome battle could not last long.
If they didn’t end it here, they likely had no chance of winning even if they tried for another 100 years.
They had to avoid being gradually worn down and ultimately killed.
They had to create a different path here!!
Clean water flowed down the rectangular spiral staircases.
But the dust from the smashed sparkling wine stone had changed certain aspects of that water. For example, its acidity and its conductivity.
Yes.
If the Railgun used to electrically launch an arcade coin at three times the speed of sound were used to guide that water, it would have greater destructive force than the water jets used to slice sheets of metal in factories.
“Shokuhouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!”
Bikini armor Mikoto called out and received a response.
Shokuhou consciously pressed her back hard against Mikoto’s.
Against the #3’s back while electricity crackled from her electrified body.
“Gahhhhh!!?”
The shock to her heart made the #5 gasp.
But that intentionally shifted her control over Mental Out.
That power had provided such a wide variety of applications that she needed to use different remotes to partition the different uses. A shock powerful enough to knock her unconscious could sometimes push the #5 Level 5’s power beyond her control.
Water surged out like a serpent.
This wasn’t just Mikoto’s power.
Shokuhou Misaki’s Mental Out controlled the minute moisture in people’s brains and on objects’ surfaces to read or manipulate mental information.
The #3 and #5 were linked together.
They achieved a single attack.
They produced hundreds of thousands of atmospheres of pressure.
The edge of the cut was white.
No matter how powerful she was, the dorm manager was still human. She was not protected by a special power or a next-gen weapon. So they only had to prevent her from dodging or deflecting their attack.
Which meant launching a powerful attack that covered a wide enough range that she couldn’t dodge it even if she predicted it.
Not even the dorm manager from hell could avoid something like that!!
Silence fell.
For a few seconds, it seemed like the world had come to an end.
Eventually, Mikoto opened her mouth.
“I call it the Long-Range Electric High-Power Compressed Liquid Sword. Thoughts?”
“Well done, worthy students of Tokiwadai.”
“Would the real her actually sound so subdued if we defeated her?”
Still in her follow-through pose, Mikoto decided she wanted to hear that back on Earth.
Really wanted to.
