Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS: Liberal Arts City/Chapter 1

Synopsis
Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu went on a field trip to Liberal Arts City, a large city made on an artificial island off the coast of California. Liberal Arts City is known as a city that has cutting edge technology (in terms of the standards of the 'Outside' of Academy City, meaning it is still far behind that of Academy City's), and is trying to take over Hollywood as the entertainment capital of the world. Stuntmen and shows occur frequently in this city, and anything out of the ordinary is treated as another show. Due to the climate, apart from sleeping attire, everyone wears their swimsuits all the time.

As Mikoto, Kuroko, Saten and Uiharu go to the beach for some relaxation, they talk about their swimsuits. When Kuroko appeared with her skin-colored swimsuit that covers only the bare necessities the rest of them watch on dumbfounded. Even the bystanders are put off by Kuroko's appearance as her "generous" show of skin is more of a horror show than fan service.

Soon afterwards, they meet Beverly Seethrough, and they talk a bit about how the Liberal Arts City was established, and its rivalry with Academy City. Only after Beverly left did they realize that she's a famous director, and Mikoto is agonizing that she forgot to get an autograph (though the four of them were too busy lamenting the difference in bust size between them to care about that earlier).

Then Mikoto and the others were dragged into a mock-fight between actors dressed as pirates, and Mikoto is annoyed that they were involved without their consent. They then saw two strange planes being chased by modified F-22 planes. The planes being chased were oval shaped and look like flying fish; 5m in length with four wings, and made of wood, cloth and obsidian stones. It looked like two canoes stuck together. As everyone wonders if this is another show, Mikoto finds it strange that something made of wood can travel at Mach 1 without falling apart. The planes are called 'Mixcoatl', meaning 'snakes of the sea of clouds'.

As one of the Mixcoatls is shot down and is about to crash into civilians on the beach, Mikoto steps in to block the crash landing using the iron sand on the beach. Most people treated it as another show. As the crashed Mixcoatl struggles to get back up, tourists approach it without caution, still thinking it's just another attraction. Mikoto tried to blast it back into the ocean after seeing that it fired off a missile at the tourists, moving to grab an arcade token hidden in a secret compartment in her sandals, but it got jammed due to the sand. Mikoto blasted the missile down but the Mixcoatl then crawled over to her and tried to take her down, somehow able to walk on land like a insect. As Mikoto is pinned down by the Mixcoatl she sees that the cockpit is empty, and although she can't read the glyphs, judging from how they are constantly changing and that they look like they're decreasing, she deduces that it's set to self-destruct on her. Mikoto then brings the iron sand around her to form a barricade to prevent bystanders to be caught in the blast, and blasted the Mixcoatl away using it as a bullet for her railgun. With that, the crisis is averted for the time being.

Beverly looked on and only sighed that CGs, VFXs and the such cannot match a real esper. Which proved her point back when talking to Mikoto and others that Liberal Arts City currently only exists because Academy City has no interest in the entertainment sector.

Characters
By order of appearance: