Part 9[edit]
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 pa.s.sageway’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 b.u.t.ton 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 a.n.a.lyze 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 l.u.s.t 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 pa.s.sageways 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 ma.s.s 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.