Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 20/Chapter 3

Title- Chapter 3: The Stand-Off Against the Wall of Doubt. Great_Complex.

Volume 20

Previous Chapter → 2

Next Chapter → 4

Part 1 (Summary)
The pirates have started their attack on the village, disregarding that a Russian soldier is still there. Shiage is carrying Rikuo and hiding under the clinic inside the basement. deGroux can hear 2 tanks making their way down, and says conventional reasoning on how military people work don’t apply to these people.

Shiage’s angry that there’s nothing he can do to save Rikou, since Pirates care more about the fun that slaughter brings. He thought that deGroux and others are probably even angrier than him in that everything they’ve worked for in this village is being easily destroyed like this.

Suddenly the tank dropped down from the ceiling, apparently the pirates didn’t realise this will happen when they rammed the building. As the pirates are coming out of the hatch Shiage and the others are climbing up, just in time to avoid the building being ripped apart by gunfire. deGroux says at this rate they’ll all be killed, so they need to head to the other underground shelter.

A explosion suddenly appeared in front of them and blasted both Shiage and deGroux off their feet. deGroux then carried Rikou for Shiage thinking Shiage is hurt, not noticing his own damage might be just as bad, telling him to meet up at the shelter later. Shiage cursed, since he don’t know where the shelter is. Shiage then thought he needed a weapon, since his own handgun isn’t going to be enough against tanks. Shiage then saw a machine gun turret behind a sandbag wall 10m away, and run/crawled there to try and take it. Half way through dismantling the base he found the gun is bolted down and can’t be taken out without tools.

Shiage then found one of the tank’s anti-aircraft guns is changing its aim towards a 30yr old mother running away with her 10yr old girl, while holding a baby in her arms. From their clothing it doesn’t look like they are originally from this village and must be one of the people that managed to escape here like deGroux said. Shiage didn’t hesitate in grabbing the machine gun and aimed it at the tank’s turret and fired, with the impact making the tank barely missing the mother and young girl. Shiage then yelled out for them to keep running in a voice that is just as loud as the tank’s gunfire, then ducked as the tank focused it’s attack on him. The machine gun got blown apart and the sandbags around him is bursting around him.

Shiage couldn’t move, being pinned down by the attack, then found the gunfire stopped. He thought maybe they ran out of bullets, then remembered these aren’t normal troops – they fired a anti-air missile at him for fun. Shiage got blown away by the blast wave, and landed 10m away from the turret. Shiage thought the pirates are crazy, coming all the way to a foreign country for slaughter like this. Then he saw deGroux running towards him with Rikou in his arms, telling Shiage not to give him more patients. Shiage asked why isn’t he at the shelter, and deGroux replied he’s only able to evade their sight, and by the time he realised he saw Shiage. The other shelters have pirates around their vicinity, and if they go there they might bring danger to those shelters.

Shiage is angry to the point he wants to start fighting back, and asked deGroux to take care of Rikou for a while. If it’s a battle to the death then Shiage won’t go down that easily. deGroux asked what is Shiage going to do, since they don’t have Rocket-Propelled Guns or AK guns. Shiage replied he’s going to use the landmines the village have dug up.

Part 2 (Summary)
Accelerator is running away, from a terror that’s beyond anything he’s ever felt before.

More than Kihara Amata.

More than Kakine Teitoku.

More than Aiwass.

And more than the teenager that defeated him before.

A 2mm steel nail got fired through his left shoulder and forearm. Reflect couldn’t be used because Accelerator can’t bring himself to hurt another Misaka clone. Accelerator collapsed in pain and Last Order flew out of his arms.

Accelerator thinks that Academy City, now that he got a good look from ‘outside’s perspective’, is crazy. He’s beyond angry that Academy City started a 3rd series of clones just for breaking Accelerator mentally.

After seeing the assailant using electricity to disrupt the signal around her, Accelerator thought of why would Academy City send a clone that would be controlled by Last Order easily, and thinks this one must be a fake. Accelerator then blew the snow from the ground up and use it as cover to charge in and destroy the assailant’s mask. Then Accelerator fell to the ground in horror from seeing one of the SISTER’s face underneath the mask. Misaka Worst laughed, saying if Accelerator don’t destroy her then he’ll be in trouble, or will he just let her beat him up without resisting? Accelerator kept thinking of possible ways this is a fake, from a imposter to some kind of ability that changed the physical appearance, but as soon as Misaka Worst said “Help, save me” in Misaka clones’ voice Accelerator completely lost his ability to move.

Accelerator can’t think of a way to end this without anyone dying. No matter what a Misaka clone will die here, even if he sacrifice himself Misaka Worst will still kill off Last Order. Misaka Worst then continued to laugh and said if Accelerator didn’t take Last Order and run maybe this wouldn’t have happened. She told him to keep playing with her until his mind break.

Part 3 (Summary)
A Russian submarine has finished patrolling around Japan, and found all missiles attacking Academy City have been destroyed, some 5 seconds after launching, with an accuracy of 100% by unknown lights (TN: narrative here hints Mugino’s the one destroying all the missiles).

Russia took a different strategy: block Japan off from sea routes so Academy City have to surrender due to lack of resources, and have sent 20 submarines to achieve this goal. But after all this time there have been no ships going to Japan. The soldiers started chatting among themselves due to the nervousness, thinking Academy City might have supplied themselves through air routes with their supersonic bombers. Though that theory was quickly shot down due to the planes can’t carry enough, and sea routes is still the best option. The submarines have even pretended to be pirates and hijacked several ships to check, but none of them are heading towards Japan.

It turns out Academy City have developed stealth submarines, such that when one of them swam past the Russian subs with only a few metres to spare the Russians still didn’t notice. The Russian subs are about 100m in length but Academy City’s subs are over 5x that length. As long as these subs are below a certain depth they cannot be found. The orders for these subs are to not be found at all costs, and they have no need to attack the Russian subs.

Part 4 (Summary)
Shiage took a landmine and set it up, with the villagers made some sort of device to enable the landmine to be able to detonated like a hand grenade, just pull the pin and wait for something to go over it. Shiage can only carry 2 at once due to how heavy it is, but thankfully there’re only 2 tanks. Shiage waited for one of the tanks to come nearby and threw a landmine at the tank, but since the landmine is set to explode towards one direction it missed the turret and blew upwards, not stopping the turret’s turning. Though it turned out Shiage was aiming for that to begin with as the blast destroyed the stone building the tank is next to and the debris came down and stopped it from turning, and the tank can no longer move.

Then Shiage walked up to the tank, since these are not conventional soldiers they didn’t have weapons to shoot foot soldiers equipped on the tank. He told them “It’s a cold day today” in Japanese, not caring if they understand it or not.

“It’s a nice day for a barbecue” then Shiage chucked a Vodka bottle into the air hole. Then when the pirates came scrambling out of the tank thinking it’s a ‘Molotov Cocktail’ he readied his handgun without hesitation and…

Part 5 (Summary)
Touma’s walking around the clearing where they fought Fiamma. He tried to thank Vent for helping them but Vent says don’t bother, she didn’t do it for the purpose of helping them, she only did it because she’s sick of Fiamma making a mess of the Roman Catholic Church. Even though Vent’s voice is filled with hatred towards him Touma is still relieved, thinking not everyone in the Roman Catholic Church is on Fiamma’s side.

Elizerina asked if Fiamma now have total access of the 103,000 grimoires Index have, and Touma replied even for Index she can’t completely mend God’s Right Seat’s magic, Fiamma’s probably only using her knowledge to get rid of interferences. Touma thought Elizerina should get to a hospital, but apparently she wants to stay at the clearing since magic have been exposed to everyone and she don’t want to retreat leaving a problematic situation.

Elizerina asked where could Fiamma be now and Touma replied probably at that base near the border. Touma thought all Fiamma is doing is preparing for something he started 3rd world war, if he continues he’ll do something even beyond this and so he must be stopped. Touma told Elizerina he’ll think of something and tried to go off to where Fiamma is alone, before Lessar went up and grabbed his arms. Though she didn’t say anything Touma can feel if he doesn’t allow her to come she won’t let go, so he nodded after hesitating a bit.

Lessar told Touma he should ask for vehicles to take them to Fiamma’s base, due to the vehicles used in both Elizerina and Russia are similar. But Touma says he don’t want to get others involved since this is dangerous. Lessar says it’s not up to him, these people have their own lives and their own choices, he can’t take that away from them. If some of them want to volunteer then let them.

Seeing Touma still hesitating, Lessar sighed and said a person’s path in life can only be chosen by that person him/herself, regardless of what Fiamma says. She also told him that no matter what he has hidden he can’t stop here and must continue forward – because of his actions he has saved many people and even help stop a revolution at England, he should feel proud of himself.

Touma thought he didn’t do anything wrong by hiding his memory loss and continue with his life, or have hubris thinking he’s doing this for Index’s smile. Touma by now have solved many incidents and saved many lives, and that is something worthwhile. After he lost his memory he has met many people, and for them regardless whether Touma have his memories it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t change the fact that Touma have fought for them.

[But,

“Even so,”

Touma muttered in a low voice, with a stabbing pain in his heart.

“Even so, the actions that I took for Index up until now, whether it is really for her own good aren’t something I can decide myself.”]

Part 6 (Summary)
At Dover Strait things are starting to tip to UK’s favour, after the Knights charged in with Curtana Original’s blessing.

But humans are creatures that if suppressed would fight back violently. France’s magicians are no less capable than UK’s forces, and due to the suppression they fought back more viciously than before. A few of the Knights of England started to step back, and left a tiny gap in their defences. Carrisa saw this as cowardice and stepped forward, and deliberately left herself in danger and says if they don’t hurry she’ll be attacked by the French, which the manipulated the Knights due to their chivalry cannot allow to happen and attacked. They charged forward with their bodies almost to the limit, and barely blocked the French magicians’ attack. Carrisa held her hands to her waist and said they shouldn’t hold back on the battlefield and should’ve just done that to begin with.

The Knight’s Grandmaster finally activated the artefact to contact Windsor Castle (TN: UK’s main administration for the monarchy) behind Carrisa’s back.

“Yes, connect me to her majesty Queen Elizard immediately! It’s extremely urgent!! I need her approval to give her highness Carissa a good spanking!!”

“Oi, stop that now! If it’s Mother, for that even if it means giving you the full power of Curtana Second she’d do so!!”

And as they fought over the communication artefact (TN: it’s pretty much a magical cellphone…) Carrisa and the Grandmaster looked over the battlefield where groups are fighting groups, with magic and swords clashing everywhere. Carrisa sighed and said in a sense the French lack originality, deciding on modernising the weapons magicians use. Though France have many capable people just by doing that is not enough to defeat UK’s force which include the Knights and a Saint.

After that a lightning strike dropped down from the sky and attacked Carrisa. But instead of hurting her, the Knights around her raised their swords and deflected the strike. Carrisa said it’s disappointing that the Maiden of Versailles can only attack from afar, due to her condition she’s dependant on magical sustenance in her residence and can’t leave her palace. Carrisa told the Maiden to just sit there and watch her troops land on French soil.

Part 7 (Summary)
Misaka Worst, from the ‘3rd production plan’ is shooting railguns at Accelerator using 2mm steel nails. At Level 4 she can only send it just past the speed of sound, unlike Mikoto where it’s past 3x the speed of sound. Accelerator is so shocked and horrified by her existence he can only run/fly away, as he still have trauma about trying to kill another Misaka clone. He cursed, thinking if it was anyone else, even Kakine or Kihara Amata, he can handle them easily. One of the nails hit Accelerator on the thighs and is stuck there. Misaka Worst then took to using psychological tactics.

“Didn’t you kill us over 10,000 of us Misaka’s, over 10,000 times? (…) So you should keep running, and keep praying for forgiveness. I won’t let you die like a normal person. At the very least I have to remove your human rights over 10,000 times, or else it doesn’t add up. Also, that’s only at the very least. I don’t plan to let you go without extracting 3 times as much of suffering as interest.”

Misaka Worst’s face then distorted into a grotesque figure, filled of intense hatred – like a plastic doll being burned and the plastic melts. Accelerator is considering his options, such as denying her existence or activate reflect to avoid hearing her voice. But:

“It’s all the same. (…) Misaka was made to kill you. I didn’t want to be born, and was forced to exist. To block off Last Order’s signal, my flesh was cut open, and a mountain load of ‘parts’ and ‘switches’ was implanted into me. If it wasn’t for you, this would not have happened to me. If you didn’t make the choices you did, Misaka wouldn’t have to be born. Even if I was born, it wouldn’t be as a short-lived existence as this. ‘It hurts, save me’… By the time I know these words, I’m at a state where I can’t even utter them. So this Misaka have the right to blame you, and the reason to kill you. (…) While this Misaka exists as a separate entity from the Misaka Network, I could still link up to the network into the ‘Misaka Overmind’. This thought isn’t just from me, but from every Misaka linked up into the Overmind.”


 * bam* Accelerator was so horrified it took him a few moments to realise he got kicked in the face by Misaka Worst.

“Why do you think until now, including Last Order, none of the Misaka’s blamed you? 10,000 people, having suffered death 10,000 times, and why don’t we show the feeling of hatred? The reason is simple: Misaka’s are not saints, or forgiving princesses… it’s not because of our own will we don’t hate you. It is because, even after understanding this we cannot EXPRESS it using human emotions!”

Even though Accelerator knows this is just her tactics, he still can’t ignore Misaka Worst. He thinks about Last Order’s smiles towards him, and can’t rule out she smiles only because she didn’t have the right emotions programmed into her by the ‘Testament’ machine.

Misaka Worst then proceeded to physically beat the living daylight out of Accelerator, while saying if he ever wants peace then he’ll have to kill every last Misaka clone. Accelerator could have turned on reflect, or dodge the blows, but his will have been broken. Accelerator ended up coughing blood from every single blow.

When Misaka Worst had enough of beating up on Accelerator, she finally decided to attack Last Order and see how Accelerator will break down. Part of the ‘3rd production plan’ was to erase Last Order and create a new ‘command center’, in order to improve performances. Accelerator was forced to choose between his two ideals; ‘protect Last Order’, and ‘never kill another Misaka clone again’.

Accelerator realised no matter what something will be lost, and he snapped. He physically thrown Misaka Worst up into the air, and when Misaka Worst fired a railgun at him he manipulated the AIM field to make it hit him, then reflect it back onto Misaka Worst. After that flew to where she landed, and broke one of her arms when she tried to shoot another railgun. While Misaka Worst screamed in pain and tried to hit him with lightning, he grabbed one of her legs and slammed her into the ground. Then he proceeded to (almost) tear her apart using his bare hands.

Whatever warmth Accelerator had before is now completely gone, he’s turned into a worse monster then he was before the Experiment. He didn’t get ‘reset to zero’, he went even below that. Accelerator lost faith in everything good/pure, and thinks it’s better if he just break down right here and go mad. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed, in such a way it’ll make the Joker from Batman proud. Even when Misaka Worst choked with a small voice “This… is… all your… fault” he kept laughing.

Then Misaka Worst gone into Shock due to the metal parts embedded into her, with her skull starting to split open, and Accelerator finally realised no matter the outcome Misaka Worst was designed to die. He then decided to reprogram her just so that he can tell the B*stards who devised this plan they’ve failed, if Misaka Worst dying is part of the plan. To quote:

“You damn Bastaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaards!! You damn heartless B*stards who think I can only kill!! I’ll show you, like when I saved that brat from Amai’s virus, I definitely have the power to protect everythiiiiiiiiiiinng!!”

Part 8 (Summary)
Misaka Worst, while slowly recovering from her Shock, found Accelerator is laughing with a voice that changes pitch uncontrollably, saying there’s nothing left that can stop him except Last Order’s smile. Misaka Worst finally realised she has pulled a switch that wasn’t meant to be pulled, and trembles with horror involuntarily as she watches: Accelerator’s black wings are slowly building up, like an embodiment of all the despair in the world. The grounds are starting to crack and Accelerator is screeching out, and it is as if the end of the world is coming.

Part 9 (Summary)
The attacks on the village stopped. The pirates came out of the armoured vehicle due to it being stuck and decided to fight on foot, but found if not taking into account proficiency in fighting, the villagers have more guns and people than the pirates. After standing off against each other the pirates gave up after seeing the tanks are taken out and begged for mercy, which showed the villagers these people have no idea the seriousness of what they have done.

deGroux told Shiage the villagers have locked the pirates up in a unused shelter. Normally the pirates deserved having their legs broken and be devoured by the wild dogs, which some villagers are actually advocating to do so. If Shiage, the one that stopped a tank, didn’t beg not to kill them nobody would have stopped. Shiage felt his gun’s weight more keenly after that.

In the end against the hated enemies who was frozen in fear against Shiage after running out of the tank, Shiage didn’t open fire. If his life was at stake Shiage wouldn’t have hesitated, but as he had time to think about it he can’t shoot another human.

Then the villagers raised a alarm, three helicopters each over 30m long are heading their way. These are probably all pirates. deGroux told the villagers to scatter and hide in the forests, since the pirates might have heat and magnetic sensors. That way the pirates will only focus on the village and even if solitary heat sources are found they might think it’s only wild animals - maybe.

Shiage decides to stay and fight, using one of the anti-aircraft gun turrets from the tank he immobilised. After removing the rubble using heavy machinery normally used to remove snow, they found the twin-linked gun have one of its barrel broken. deGroux says that’ll make hitting their opponents even harder, but Shiage says he’ll just have to make do. As Shiage climbed in deGroux smiled mournfully and said that just one person can’t operate that – they’d need at least 3 people; one to move the vehicle, one to shoot, and one to command and look at their surroundings. deGroux planned to ask some of the villagers to come and help, but Shiage don’t want to – it’s one thing to risk himself but it’s another to risk others’ lives.

The soldier they saved earlier decides to help them, with Shiage being suspicious since the pirates are supposed to be on the same side as the Russian military. The soldier (who can somehow speak Japanese) said they’re not allies, not when they tried to kill the people who saved him. He plans to escape to Elizerina after this, but 1st he wants to pay back the debt of them saving his life. The three of them who can no longer stand the pirate’s way of doing things decide to band together.

Shiage decides he absolutely cannot lose, for the girl that he holds more important than his own life, and for the villagers that took care of her. The helicopters the pirates are in are approaching.

Part 10 (Translation)
Something inside Accelerator’s heart shattered.

The black wings that symbolise ‘Evil’ continues to grow and grow.

But, that can’t continue forever. Because his heart that pours out the negative feelings has lost its core, and just like without fuel the flame cannot continue.

But then, he saw a convoy driving past. In the snow, several large vehicles are moving along. It’s not from Academy City, due to the difference in level of technology. But he can’t rule out the possibility it was Academy City’s forces disguising to like Russia’s forces.

If it was the usual astute Accelerator he would observe intently, and consider the possibility it’s from the dark side. But, for Accelerator who lost all drive he no longer care. Even in the worst case scenario if he was shot now it wouldn’t matter.

However, the empty shell that his heart has turned into shook.

The reason being the face of a man that sat in one of the vehicles.

It was the face of the man that defeated Accelerator back in Academy City’s cargo area. The face of the man that stopped that ‘Experiment’, frozen the Level 6 Shift Project permanently, and saved 10,000 SISTERs. No matter what situation he will step up to help those in need. Regardless of how despairing the situation is, he’ll hold his hand out to save those who have nowhere left to go – that’s the kind of man he is.

That guy should still be in Academy City.

Why is he in Russia?

And,

That Hero,

The Hero who is completely different to the half-assed Number One of Academy City, the one who can save people perfectly,

Why does he not see Last Order who’s in pain so close to him, and just passes by like nothing?

Unknowingly, Accelerator roared out with all his might.

At the same time, he manipulated the vectors to throw a large boulder buried under the snow at the convoy. The large vehicle’s back end got popped open like a balloon, and the convoy stopped. Accelerator knew what he’s doing right now is unreasonable, asking that person to do something he himself have given up on.

But,

“… Aren’t you the Hero that saved the SISTERs? The one that saved almost 10,000 people using his own strength, that true Hero?”

From the large vehicle that got blown away, that man jumped down.

That man appeared to have noticed Accelerator who has grown black wings.

“If so, then save that brat’s life!! Why does only that brat, who has done nothing wrong, have to suffer so much?!!!~”

Accompanying that roar the black wings grew even larger.

He knows himself is in the wrong.

Even if he understands, he can no longer hold his own power back.

Last Order, not even her smile that symbolises everything pure and good, can stop him. The Number One of Academy City, due to his colossal anger, the battle against the monster who has surpassed his limits has started.

Intermission 3 (Summary)
Mikoto hacked into Academy City’s top secret files to look up current information on Touma. Mikoto knew about Touma’s ability being called ‘Imagine Breaker’, but still don’t know the details of the ability. She also found Touma is somewhere around Russia and the country Elizerina. The commanders of Academy City’s military force from the dark side considered dealing with Touma like any other espers who might leak information to ‘outside’ organisations – death. But they received orders from Aleister to capture him alive (if possible) as the main goal, since even in Academy City Imagine Breaker is an extremely rare ability.

"[However,

If it’s certain that Imagine Breaker is going to join another organisation and leave Academy City, then swiftly strike at Imagine Breaker and ‘recover’ him and put him into the same kind of container as the Number Two is currently in, in order to minimise the negative effects. This will be the secondary goal.

Currently, it has been confirmed Imagine Breaker is working together with people from ‘outside’ organisations.

If it is only a temporary alliance, then action will be put off until later. But if it is confirmed the target has deeply involved himself then the secondary goal will be triggered.

The General Superintendant has granted permission on this matter.

In the worst case situation, though we do not have clearance to see the details, this could affect the General Superintendant’s ‘Plan’ from continuing.]"

Mikoto was shocked at this, but also felt it was probably true. She also found the paratroopers are already stationed in district 23 and ready to go. Mikoto headed to district 23, thinking Touma had once stepped up against the darkness of Academy City to save her and her SISTERs, probably without knowing just what horrors wait for someone that interfered. But it was also true he managed to save the SISTERs. Mikoto feels she owes Touma a great debt, and it’s time to at least pay him back even a little bit.

End Volume 20 Chapter 3.

Referbacks

 * Part 1: The Mother holding the baby in her arms and the 10yr old child is the same ones that Touma saved on his way to Elizerina Republic.
 * Part 7: Misaka Worst is referring to the events in Volume 3 (SISTERs Arc) and the Level 6 Shift Experiment, and using it as psychological attack against Accelerator.