Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 20/Chapter 3

Synopsis
The privateers begin their indiscriminate attack on the town. Digurv brings the injured Russian soldier, Shiage and Rikou to the basement of the clinic while they try to weather down the demolishing work by the privateers using their tanks on the wooden shelters. Shiage feels helpless amidst the destruction outside, and this worsens as an armored vehicle breaks through the wooden ceiling of the basement. The ensuing chaos separates Digurv and Rikou from Shiage, and it forces him to look for something to fight back with. As he runs towards a nearby machine gun post, he suddenly finds a mother and child on the crosshairs of another armored vehicle, and he barely managed to fend off the armored vehicle enough to divert the attention to him.

After surviving a blast from a privateer's surface-to-air missile, Shiage reunites with Digurv and Rikou, and seeing her condition, as well as the realization of the privateers' indiscriminate destruction, has forced Shiage to deal with the privateer threat.

Accelerator is forced to run as the newest enemy threatens to shatter the values that he had been trying to maintain since meeting Last Order. Because of this, he is unable to defend himself against the incoming attacks, in fear of killing someone with his ability. Accelerator is forced to convince himself that the "Misaka" in front of him is wearing an elaborate disguise, but even this is useless as the Third Season Misaka reminds him that the Third Season is a testament to how replaceable Last Order and the earlier Sisters and that she is there to kill Last Order. At that moment, Accelerator is faced with a dilemma: to kill the Misaka attacking him and destroy his values, or to try to protect Last Order, the latter option exposing Last Order to an almost inescapable chance of dying in the hands of the Third Season Misaka.

In waters near Indonesia, a stand-off between a Russian submarine that managed to break off from the exchange between Academy City and Russian forces in the Sea of Japan and nearby Academy City submarines is taking place. While the Russian sub tries to discern the form of the Academy City force, the nearby Academy City sub is analyzing the situation and continues to maintain a zero-casualty approach in the war.

Shiage decides to salvage the land mines that were used by Digurv to exchange for food and supplies for the town in a plan to shut down the armored vehicles. After carrying two of the heavy anti-tank mines from a storage shack, Shiage braces himself as he prepares to use one of the land mines as a grenade to destroy the anti-aircraft gun attached to one of the active armored vehicles. Although the land mine detonated without a problem, it was not enough to destroy the anti-aircraft gun. Instead, it caused the collapse of the nearby stone church whose steeple crashed down on the armored vehicle. Shiage then took the chance to rush the immobile armored vehicle and shoot down the privateers inside before they could fight back.

In Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations, Touma and the others are trying to recover from the loss against Fiamma of the Right. Although Vento clarifies that her actions were coincidentally aligned with Touma's, she assures Elizalina that Fiamma's usage of Index's 103,000 grimoires were simply for efficiency's sake and wouldn't be enough to replace the power gap left by the three other members of God's Right Seat. Touma, despite being hurt from the fight against Fiamma, decides to head off once again to pursue Fiamma, However, the thought of asking for assistance from strangers makes Touma worry for the safety of those who will help him. Lessar points out that it is something that Touma can do nothing about, but although Touma accepts that fact, he soon finds himself unsure whether the actions that have been doing were actually for Index's sake.

The Dover Strait clash continues with Carissa making sure that the Knights and the other people from the English forces continue their fight against the French, all while delivering taunting words against the Maiden of Versailles, whom she describes as someone who "can only work from a distance". In fact, the Maiden of Versailles can only remain within the confines of her palace because of the magical environment inside it, and she can only resort to striking from a large distance away using "stereotypical" magic that loses its power over distance. Regardless, the additional protection of the Curtana Second allows Carissa to shrug off the Maiden's attacks while the former prepares an advance into French territory.

The Third Season Misaka, calling herself Misaka Worst, continues to shoot down Accelerator, who remains unsure about using his power and dealing with the enemy who calls herself Misaka. Meanwhile, Misaka Worst keeps on talking about punishment that he deserves for the 10,000 Sisters he killed in the past, as well as revenge for being forced into existing simply to kill him and being mutilated for that purpose. The psychological warfare put Misaka Worst to an advantage as Accelerator is forced to think about the truth behind Last Order's happiness. Last Order herself, still weakened and barely conscious from being used to manifest Aiwass, tries to stop Worst, but it only gave the Third Season Misaka another option to break Accelerator even further.

As Misaka Worst approaches to kill Last Order, Accelerator determined what he had to do and finally used his power once again, reflecting a nail Worst fired towards Accelerator after feinting an attack against Last Order. Soon after, the tables are turned and Accelerator beats down Misaka Worst, breaking her limbs and leaving her a swollen mess in the process.

Soon, Accelerator realizes that he had stained his hands red again, and Academy City would only create more clones and expose more of his cherished ones in danger. Then, Misaka Worst's body convulsed as the selectors embedded in her body rupture, bringing Accelerator to a greater sense of despair. As he tries to save the bleeding Misaka Worst, he vows that he will destroy the plans of Academy City, just like how he destroyed Amai Ao's virus, to prove that he has the power to protect someone.

Despite her injuries, Misaka Worst survives Accelerator's onslaught. However, she trembles at the sight of black wings emanating from Accelerator's body, as if inadvertently pulling the trigger for such a display of despair.

The destruction of the last working armored vehicle triggered the end of the privateer attacks in the town where Digurv and the others are. The privateers, relatively inept in fighting and confronted by armed villagers, are forced into a stalemate and were quickly detained. In the end, Shiage decided to spare the privateers despite the crimes they did to the people and focused more on the fact that the danger has ended. However, Digurv soon finds out that there are more privateers arriving on attack helicopters, and it is nothing that their weapons can fend off. Shiage decides to use the armored vehicle with the anti-aircraft gun to fight back, and he is joined by Digurv and the Russian soldier who decides to defect to the ones who saved his life.

Accelerator remains in an unstable condition after the encounter with Misaka Worst had caused him to sprout black wings on his back. Meanwhile, he sees a convoy that resembles Russian forces but may suspiciously be someone from Academy City disguised as a Russian convoy. Then, he sees a familiar boy in the convoy, and the urge to question him for not saving Last Order triggers a more violent response to him. Eventually, as the convoy laid destroyed by a boulder thrown by Accelerator out of rage, the boy confronts Accelerator.

Between the Lines
Seeing Touma in the news urges Mikoto to look deeper into the secret data of Academy City. Here, she finds an article entitled "Concerning Imagine Breaker being spotted in Russia and in the Elizalina Alliance of Independent Nations", as well as Touma's possible locations and the actions to be taken by the Director of the Board of Directors. Mikoto thought that the deviation from the "normal method" would mean that Touma would be spared from a similar approach as someone who would leak intelligence to an outside faction. However, the truth is that Touma is allowed to be "retrieved" at all costs.

After seeing detailed plans on how to capture Touma, Mikoto decides to head to District 23 and repay Touma's actions by trying to intercept Academy City's plans to bring him back.

Characters
By order of appearance
 * Hamazura Shiage
 * Digurv
 * Glickin
 * Takitsubo Rikou
 * Accelerator
 * Last Order
 * Misaka Worst
 * Kamijou Touma
 * Vento of the Front
 * Elizalina
 * Lessar
 * Carissa
 * Knight Leader
 * Misaka Mikoto

Locations

 * Russia
 * Academy City

Abilities

 * Electromaster - Misaka Worst
 * Accelerator (ability) - Accelerator

Referbacks

 * The mother holding the baby in her arms and the 10-year-old child is the same ones that Touma saved on his way to Elizarina Alliance of Independent Nations.
 * 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.

Quotes

 * Accelerator: "(The Third Season? They created more of them just to create this situation!? They did it just to stimulate my trauma and break my mind!? Academy City is fucking insane. Now that I can see those bastards from the outside, it’s even more obvious. There is something fundamentally fucked up about that city!!)"
 * Glickin: "You all saved me when no one would have blamed you for abandoning me and they tried to kill you like you were worms. …I’ve had enough. Fuck being a soldier. I don’t care if they come after me for this. I can just defect to the Elizalina Alliance if I have to. Repaying my debt is more important. I’ll use these skills of mine to help those who saved my life."