Toaru Kagaku no Choudenjihou SS - Volume 2.5 - Chapter 2

Part 5
Mikoto and Aizono hid within a manhole.

“For a sewer, it doesn’t smell too bad in here. And the water looks nice and clear.”

“In the third generation sewer system, microbe purification plants are being tested out. They’re fairly large so the microbes have air to breathe. I’d say the water quality is better than the public pools full of chlorine.”

“With such a clean environment, this looks like it would be heaven for bugs.”

“It’s actually too clean for them. With no foundation for the food chain, bugs can get in but they can’t live here. The difference between the general idea of a sewer and what this actually is made it an excellent place for us to hide or move around in.”

“Us?”

“The gators of White Alligator. I doubt I have to tell you what story the name comes from.”

With the talk of microbes and purification, Mikoto was a bit worried their feet would be eaten into, but Aizono started walking through the water, so there must not have been any issues of that sort. In fact, the mere idea of some kind of killer amoeba was a bit farfetched.

“So does anyone else use White Alligator’s sewer routes?”

“Yes, according to the driver’s smartphone,” said Aizono as she waved around the small device that was doubling as an information source and a light source.

Mikoto frowned and said, “If that facility was a decoy, then the real thing must be elsewhere.”

“Assuming this smartphone isn’t a part of some further trap in case the driver was defeated, Saitou-sensei being transported is true. The refrigerated storage facility was just a diversion to buy them enough time to cut off any pursuit.”

“So they’re moving him at this very moment?”

“In this clean sewer, yes. But,” added Aizono cautiously, “I still can’t see what they’re after.”

“?”

“Saitou-sensei only has value as something to keep me in line. Saitou-sensei himself is a completely normal person with no connection to the dark side of the city. I don’t see why they would merely change his location rather than use him as a hostage or eliminate him now that he is no more use.”

“Come to think of it, when you were targeting Academy City with the Magnetic Debris Cannon, I didn’t see anyone come forward trying to use him as a shield.”

“I had complete control of the cannon, so they may have been unwilling to show themselves for fear that I would alter its aim and specifically target them. But now it seems we need to consider a different possibility.”

“You mean that there is some value in having Saitou-sensei apart from using him against you?”

“Yes, but I have no idea what that could be. As I said, he has nothing to do with the darkness. In fact, him being a completely normal person is what made him such an effective hostage.”

“It doesn’t really matter. Let’s just stop them and rescue him.”

“…It doesn’t matter?”

“I mean that it doesn’t matter what their reason is. We just have to save him, right? I wasn’t saying anything about Saitou-sensei himself.”

“I see. Yes, yes. You’re right. Ha ha. Sorry about that.”

Aizono quickly put on a forced smile, but something like a black blade was wrapped around her right hand. She had tried to play it off as a pure maiden, but something more than that could be seen.

The blade wrapped around her right hand then returned to being a portion of her uniform.

“I suppose now we just need to provoke those behind this to get them worked up. We can send out an email to them all. Let’s see, something like ‘an informer told us where you are, so we’ll be right there’. What wording would be best to get the boss mad and suspecting his subordinates? This would be best if it spreads. What phrase would seem to fit anyone on a cold reading?”

“…You’re terrible,” muttered Mikoto.

Part 6
Academy City’s infrastructure networks were designed on the theme of decentralization. The wind turbines throughout the city were a well-known example, and the third generation sewer system was another example. Instead of centralized treatment plants, microbe storage and cultivation facilities were scattered throughout the sewers. If the number of microbes increased too much like in a red tide, ultraviolet sterilization lights placed in important points of the sewers would activate to regulate their numbers.

Even if those decentralized infrastructure networks were targeted in a terrorist attack or the like, Academy City could continue functioning. The system had enough redundancy built in that the rest of the system could easily deal with the excess burden left if a single location was destroyed. That allowed them to avoid the worst possible situation.

This was within one of those microbe storage and cultivation facilities.

The area was about as large as a school gym and it had multiple metal pipes lined up within it. Each pipe was as wide as a school classroom and about three stories high. With stairways built next to the pipes and midair passageways crisscrossing above, the area seemed cramped despite how large it was. The area was said to have once been used by White Alligator as an indoor shooting practice range. However the “practice” in question involved espers firing at each other with real bullets.

On one of those strangely clean midair passageways that had absorbed plenty of blood which had subsequently been broken down by the microbes, a girl wearing pants under a short dress leaned her back against the metal railing.

The cell phone in her hand had no static over the connection even in that underground space.

“…Yes. A job’s a job, so we’ll finish this. There is no need to worry about Saitou Souta, but is he really that valuable?” she said into the phone.

“It is not your job to determine anything’s value, Hyoudou-kun.”

“True. Well, I’ll play my part as the soldier and do the physical work. I wasn’t given a life with anything to live for besides the reward for a completed job.”

With that simple reply, the girl called Hyoudou ended the connection and called out to a colleague down below. The colleague was a girl wearing a brightly colored sports brand track suit.

“Kohina, how are things with the ‘cargo’?”

“A real pain in the ass! In fact, you help too, Maki!! Just the person would be fine because I could stuff him in a body bag and carry him like that. But he needs this life support device with him, so we need this inflatable boat. I have to crouch down, grab it with both hands, and push. As I said, it’s a real pain in the ass! I’m going to have back pain at my age!!”

“Sorry, my job is to go ahead and make sure everything is all clear. What about Sayori and Yuri? Are they complaining again?”

“You’re the same as them, you wage thief! I’m the only one doing any work around here! Sayori said she was the rear guard and has just been lazing around behind and Yuri keeps saying it’s too dark or too scary or that there aren’t any guys around here and walks off!! I can tell she’s lying! That’s not how you’re supposed to use fake tears!!”

“The mission will be over soon enough, so stick with it until then. I’ll give you these potato sticks. They’re cheese flavored.”

“You’re not going to win me over with potato sticks!! And don’t bring out strong smelling things like that in the middle of a mission!!”

“Then I’ll just have to throw them away. And there are so many left.”

Kohina fell silent for a bit before saying, “Th-the potato sticks did nothing wrong.”

“Negotiation complete.”

Hyoudou threw the box of snacks over the railing where Kohina caught it with a sulky expression and started munching on the contents.

“Really, our job is already done. Just wrap up Saitou Souta, boat and all, and stuff him in the storage and cultivation tank. Then we just have to leave some obvious signs for our pursuers and leave with the dummy boat. Once no one is after Saitou Souta, a different unit disguised as cleaners will come recover him.”

“Heh.” A twisted smile appeared on Kohina’s face. “I’m not really one to talk, but you’re pretty twisted. That produces nothing. Do you like the taste of other people’s misfortune that much?”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone rampaging right along with me.”

“What did you think I meant by ‘I’m not really one to talk’? Anyway, if you want revenge, why don’t you carry it out with your own hands? That’s much more healthy. And then it might actually be worth helping you.”

“That would be too boring.”

“You really are twisted. You’re on the same level as someone who can only get turned on by seeing their lover assaulted by some stranger.”

Silence fell.

Silence only interrupted by the crunching of snacks being consumed.

And then the two sensed it at the same instant.

Most likely, Sayori and Yuri had sensed it too, wherever they were.

“…This smell.”

“Napalm!?”

Just as she cried out, Aizono Mio’s Military Oil exploded without restraint.

Part 7
And Misaka Mikoto cried out.

“Have you never heard of the concept of restraint!? This time, every person there must have been roasted black. And even if they escaped the explosion itself, the leftover toxic gases like carbon monoxide filling the area will take them out!! And what about Saitou-sensei!?”

They were at the entrance of the facility, but they could not peer inside. A roasting wind and gases were bursting out through the entrance. Oddly enough, the flames themselves could not be seen, but that may have been because all the oxygen in the area had been consumed.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. I gathered all the information I needed. I can hear voices from quite a distance by spreading out a thin rubber membrane. Saitou-sensei is inside a metal tank.”

“…You can do that?”

“It also works well for contraception☆ But maybe you’re a bit young for that.”

“From some of the things you’ve said, I’d say you’re a virgin, too”

“Oh, are you hoping for a catfight? I’ll have you know I’m undefeated when it comes to oil wrestling!!”

“Things like that are exactly what I was-…”

Mikoto trailed off and took a step back.

At the same moment, countless beams of light ran through concrete wall separating the facility from the sewer. With the wall sliced to pieces, a great amount of oxygen was sucked into the facility.

The flames that had been forced out flared back to life, but the flow of fresh oxygen also diluted the toxic gases such as carbon monoxide.

Of course, Mikoto and Aizono had not done it.

It was those inside the facility who had wanted the fresh oxygen.

“What?” said Mikoto with a displeased frown.

She was not surprised at the mere fact that someone inside was still moving around after that explosion. After all, she could name a person or two who could withstand a direct hit from a napalm attack.

Aizono Mio could do the same.

In fact, with her Military Oil power, she likely knew even better how many people could survive it.

“…Seriously? Ahh, I should have realized this. It makes sense. I may know how the dark side works as a former member of White Alligator, but I should have been more cautious given how perfectly I was able to predict the enemy’s actions.”

Black figures appeared amid the orange flames on one of the midair passageways.

A total of four enemies appeared.

It was not just the flames lighting them from behind that made their coloration seem black.

They wore the same composite armor dress made of oil that Aizono Mio wore.

“We’re up against other former White Alligator members. That is why I was able to so accurately predict their actions.”

Part 8
All of the currently confirmed members of White Alligator have the power to directly control oil and other petroleum products as well as freely change their properties. Technically speaking, it is possible they should all be given different esper names, but those controlling them simply refer to them all as Military Oil.

However, this is odd when you think about it rationally.

Even if you ignore the fact that their ultimate strength and utility only reaches Level 4, if White Alligator is a project meant to mass produce Level 4s as a stable source of strength, then the individual types of powers should vary from person to person. For example, there could easily be a Level 4 that controls fire or a Level 4 that controls wind in the unit.

However, the reality of the situation is that every member of White Alligator has the Military Oil power.

Why?

In the beginning, there must have been Level 4s with powers other than Military Oil. But those in control put them through anti-Level 5 training that went beyond harsh. Not all of the children had powers that could break through those tests. Almost as if those in control had put them through a sieve aligned to their own tastes, only the Military Oil espers survived.

That alone is astounding enough.

It does not sound like something that could occur in the country of Japan.

The Military Oil girls felt nothing but pure fear for those in control who had thrown them into that hell, but they also managed to retain a stable mentality by realizing they had special value for surviving. They had special powers. That had been why they had survived no matter what circumstances they had been put in. In Academy City, the strength of one’s powers determines everything, so they did not feel they had been wrong to abandon their other comrades. Those in control felt no need to correct this thought process because it was actually quite convenient for them.

At that stage, those in control began calling the Military Oil espers “beasts”.

This term was a simple way of expressing what their characteristics had become. A ferocious power had awoken inside them, yet they never thought of turning that power on those in control who were “raising” them. Their powers only had value in being beneficial for those in control and attacking those in control for the sake of freedom was taboo. In that way, the girls drove themselves into a corner without even having to be taught these things.

If they had rebelled, it is unlikely those in control would have fared well, but for the above reasons those likely powerless people in control never underwent any damage from that group of espers.

Apparently, a few of the discovered Military Oil espers had lost all ability to speak human language. However, in that twisted community, those were the best students who were held up as role models for the rest of the group.

Part 9
They stepped forward into the orange light. Into the facility colored by flames. The four figures showed no surprise at Mikoto and Aizono’s entry. They may not have known the exact method, but they seemed to have been expecting some kind of attack.

“There are other survivors of White Alligator besides you?”

“Originally it was a platoon of 40 or 50. The ideal situation was to wear down a single Level 5 as a group. We really might have been piranhas more than gators. By the time those in control collapsed, about half of that number was left, but I have no idea what the others have been doing since. …And it looks like I’m being reunited with a few of them in the worst possible way.”

Mikoto felt a chill run down her back at those smoothly spoken words.

Aizono Mio had done so much on her own.

Mikoto could imagine how bad the situation would be if she was undergoing a coordinated attack from 40 or 50 of them.

In response, Aizono Mio’s “brethren” smiled thinly.

They had the same power and wore the same dress.

And yet they had the smile of those who stood in a decidedly different place.

“Since you so readily tried to roast this entire area, I take it you already know about our diversionary tactic.”

“Maki, from how loudly you were talking about it, I thought you wanted me to hear. If you flee now while leaving obvious hints, I’m not going to follow you.”

“This plan to hide Saitou Souta in an immovable tank inside an old White Alligator shooting practice range was actually given to us. It’s almost like we were given a reason to have to fight to the death like this.”

“…Well, as long as I can bring an end to this, I don’t care. Destroying everything with the Magnetic Debris Cannon would have been fun, but having everything finished in one big happy ending would make me want to redo things.”

The way they spoke, no dissatisfaction or discontent with the current situation could be seen.

Was that the true face of White Alligator?

No.

Most likely, it was just the tip of the iceberg of a darkness that went much deeper.

“Why?” muttered Mikoto. “If it hadn’t been for the incident with Saitou-sensei, Aizono Mio would have continued her normal high school life. She had cut herself off from this dark past. You all aren’t like Aizono. I don’t understand why she had to go back to the darkness. Why?”

Despite being the one with a connection to them, Aizono herself showed no sympathy for her “brethren”.

In fact, only scorn could be seen on her face.

“Perhaps I just couldn’t forget the taste of blood. Up until I changed ‘masters’, my environment only gave me any value when I was on the side doing the killing. I may have given that environment priority. There were no principles or ideologies behind it. I just rampaged as much as I wanted and let others justify it for me. …Honestly, it’s like I was trying to be the best gator student.”

“Do you feel more sophisticated now that you’ve woken from that dream?”

“More than you idiots who are still tripping out in a nightmare.”

The girl called Maki shrugged.

Mikoto frowned and said, “So Saitou-sensei himself isn’t your objective?”

“That’s a tricky question to answer. The one thing I can say is that our objective is clearly different from that of the higher ups. The higher ups seem to want Saitou Souta in order to obtain a control manual.”

“A control manual?”

“For you, Aizono Mio.” Maki placed a hand on the midair passageway’s railing and grinned. “The goal of White Alligator was to gain stable control of great power by lowering a human mind down to the level of a beast. It had a certain level of success, but it wore down the people’s mentalities too quickly. In other words, after all the cost spent on their soldiers, those soldiers were short lived and control could not be regained after a certain point.”

Despite having been one of those soldiers, Maki showed no sign of hesitation while speaking of them in that way. Mikoto sensed a hint of bitterness in her tone. She was reminded of the military clones she had seen somewhere.

“And then came Saitou Souta. He brought humanity back to Aizono Mio and succeeded in accurately controlling her. He both lowered the rate her mentality was worn down and also prevented any betrayal or rebellion. …This goes beyond White Alligator. All of those who want to control high level espers as soldiers would see this as a dream come true. That is why there is nothing unnatural about them wanting this control manual he built up as a school counselor.”

That was why any trace of Saitou Souta had disappeared so thoroughly. Nagatenjouki Academy had been desperate to cover up the accident, so they must have asked someone else for help. Maki and the others’ higher ups had not wanted to make Saitou Souta disappear. In the process, they had naturally taken his personal possessions and searched for any data that could lead them to this “control manual”.

It was only because they had not found anything that they wanted the man himself.

They might wake him up and question him. They might be developing some kind of technology to suck the information out of his brain while still comatose. Or they might have even been getting the help of a Psychometer.

“…Those idiots,” muttered Aizono Mio without thinking.

They had pressed a dangerous button by bringing those old memories back to her.

“They never learn. There’s no conspiracy behind what happened to me. What saved my human side was something much simpler yet much more difficult to pull off.”

“We know that. But the higher ups who want to bring back White Alligator and restart the development of the unit do not have the humanity needed to properly analyze the miracle that Saitou Souta caused. The way they see it, if he was able to change you in the way he wanted, there must be some kind of manual or flowchart with which it can be reproduced.”

“So you all are risking your lives on a project you know has no hope of succeeding because you know the higher ups’ thinking is skewed? That’s wrong in and of itself. It isn’t normal.”

“Whether the higher ups are right or wrong, we just need something that allows us to accomplish our own objective. In fact, an organization like that isn’t going to last long. I’d say they will be devoured by another portion of the darkness before long. We’re just using them while they are still there.”

“…Your own objective?”

“Yes. Those idiots’ methods are quite convenient for us.”

Maki smiled.

Her smile was evil and yet somehow childish. The smile had an obvious sense of intimidation on the surface, but a lust for battle could be sensed hidden below. Mikoto felt a great difference between it and the smile she had seen on Aizono Mio’s face when she had chosen to abandon all and fight for Saitou Souta, even if her methods had been wrong.

“Really, we just didn’t like it. We didn’t like how you and Saitou Souta ended everything without getting anyone’s permission.”

“What…?”

That was the first time Aizono had shown any kind of confusion during that conversation.

Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed and dissolved directly above Mikoto’s head. She frantically tried to jump back, but the floor beneath her feet had become soft as mud. She sank knee deep into the floor and the liquefied ceiling covered her like an avalanche.

“This is what happens when you gather so many espers that can freely alter petroleum products. Did you not think we might have altered the terrain itself? …Well, we did put metal and concrete around it to make it harder to notice, but that issue was pointed out back when we were in White Alligator.”

With the noise of a viscous liquid being sucked down a drain, the thick black liquid sank down while covering a number of the midair passageways and tanks. Still enveloped in the stuff, Mikoto was quickly sucked down. Most likely, a pitfall a few dozen meters deep had been created. It was too deep for Aizono to see the bottom.

Maki glanced down into the darkness from the edge of the hole.

“Down below is a multipurpose drain meant to help prevent floods. Yuri, head down to make sure the bonds don’t break.”

“Roger that.”

One of the girls unhesitatingly jumped down into the giant hole. She was likely planning to use some kind of rubber power. Maki did not even send a glance her way.

“How long do you think she can hold her breath? 5 minutes? 7 minutes? Lasting 10 minutes would be close to a miracle. But what do you think the odds are of you getting away from us and rescuing Misaka Mikoto in that time?”

“Would 100% be too high?”

“A bit.” Maki’s expression did not change at Aizono’s cheap provocation. “After all, White Alligator was meant to mass produce stable Level 4s to use against the irregular Level 5s.”

“…”

“From that look on your face, I guess you aren’t an idiot. Yes. Our strengths as individuals are kept equal. Doesn’t that mean the victor will be decided simply by who has the greater numbers?”

Eliminating Misaka Mikoto from the battlefield had been the turning point for them.

Now that it was done, the rest was easy.

One against three.

Their strength was simple and therefore lacking in openings, and they now mercilessly wielded it against Aizono Mio.