Part 1
(November 10 – Kauai – From a tide level monitoring camera)
Kamijou Touma, Accelerator, Hamazura Shiage, Misaka Mikoto, Misaka Worst, Kuroyoru Umidori, Leivinia Birdway, and Roberto Katze reached Kauai on the hovercraft Hamazura had supplied.
"It looks like the marines aren't here yet."
"Unlike with us, Olay has no reason to let them get here. They must be trying to find a way past the anti-ship missiles deployed across the islands."
"But Saronia will have already started to move. In all likelihood, a PMC unit was sent to Kauai when this began. They would have been only a single radio call away from taking action," said Accelerator.
"Trident and Saronia do not know the exact location of Olay's daughter. They would likely find her eventually if they performed a thorough search, but they probably want any hints they can get. They probably only just now got the order now that we have actually made it here."
"That means it's just us and them for now," said Mikoto as she brought her hand to her chin. "I'd rather we found this Lindy girl before the marines arrive and make this more complicated. You know where she is, right? Where is she exactly?"
Birdway put her index finger up to her lips and said, "As I said before, Olay and Saronia do not know where Lindy is. Seeing how they are legitimately trying to crush the marine force, they are likely planning to find her by monitoring our movements. …Of course, with that many soldiers, they could always just resort to a search. In the end, this means that our movements will act as the trigger that sends them to Lindy."
"…"
"Prepare yourself before heading on. To save her, we must first bring danger to her. Act only once you have accepted that cruelty. Understand?"
Birdway looked everyone in the eye in turn, not just Mikoto.
After no one voiced any objections, she turned toward the president.
Holding the Imperial Package, Roberto responded while knowing full well that the unseen enemy was listening in.
"Lindy Blueshake is at Sunny Watcher 44-19. …The trigger has been pulled. It's time to start the firefight with that occult-supplemented PMC."
The heroes began to move.
They were moving to save Lindy Blueshake. They were moving to lure out Saronia A. Irivika.
The plan to theocratize America had begun in Hawaii and would spread to the entire United States as well as the science side as a whole if left unchecked. The final battle to decide its fate was beginning.
(Unknown Time – Unknown Location – Unknown Camera ID – From footage with altered video and audio)
Olay Blueshake wore a gaudy suit that fit her figure so well it clearly could not have been sold just anywhere and it had actually cost about the same as a midsized passenger jet. She also wore a ten-gallon hat and spurred boots that did not match the suit in the slightest. She did not wear them out of her own tastes or for any practical reason. They were purely to give a certain image to the public. The United States had always been fond of the frontier spirit. That image was a defensive measure against the common criticism those in the internet business received of being "too radical".
She was in a high class hotel room…or so it looked. It could have been somewhere completely different and merely designed to look that way. It could have been deep underground, in a military facility, on a luxurious ocean liner, or in a large airplane. The available information was so scarce that the breadth of speculation spread out infinitely.
A young male secretary poured whisky into a glass and asked her, "Is there really any need to film yourself?"
"It is important to view everything objectively. Putting myself in the finder helps remind me that I am a piece on the game board as well." Olay grabbed the glass proffered to her. "Being in a safe area makes one forget fundamental facts. It makes a mere piece think she is the player. …I mustn't be so conceited. The game board that is the world is fully connected, so someone can reach any other part of it eventually if they put their mind to it. Safety is much less fuel efficient than you would think."
Despite what she said, her calm words declared that she was confident in her own safety. Someone in a truly dangerous situation would force themselves to hold an optimistic view to help keep a stable heart.
The secretary was well aware of that, but he did not point it out.
"I see you managed to fix the compatibility between the FCE and Trident's electronic camouflage."
"That camouflage is so disliked because it is so ineffective."
"What will you do with Miss Lindy?"
"I will have her brought back to me." Olay's tone stiffened there and there alone. "The Blueshake media network began as a collection of information on gold veins during the old gold rush. The network was made public during my grandfather's generation, but no matter how far the types of businesses it encompasses have expanded, it must be passed down through the Blueshake bloodline."
"I doubt Saronia A. Irivika and the Trident PMC will carry this out as you asked them to."
"There is a reason they are able to think those unnecessary things and take those unnecessary actions for unnecessary gain. …That reason is leeway. Because the conquest of the Hawaiian Islands is going so well, they are able to think about more complicated and troublesome things like taking detours that open up more opportunities for them."
"And what will you do about this?"
"I will of course make sure they cannot think about those more complicated and troublesome things. I will corner them, rob them of their leeway, and make sure they can only think of the simple things. What is the most fundamental thing for a soldier to do? Isn't it to work at their job to the point that they can no longer think?" As Olay spoke, she typed on her thin, supple fingers raced across her computer's keyboard. "And so I must have Miss Roseline and her marine volunteers drive Saronia and Trident into a corner."
"Will they really act based on information received from us?"
"I will not be simply giving an order. I will merely leave them with a hint. If they think they came up with the idea on their own, they will jump at the chance to carry it out."
Part 2
(November 10 – Kauai – Mountainous Area in Anahola – From an in-vehicle camera)
Hamazura Shiage, Leivinia Birdway, and Roberto Katze were driving through a mountainous area on the eastern side of Kauai. They were of course using a stolen vehicle.
Apparently, Lindy Blueshake was in an area in northern Kauai known as Napali Coast. Kamijou and the others had landed on the southeastern side of the island and the center of the island was too mountainous, so they had to circle around the island to reach Lindy. This required them to follow the coastline where Trident had their anti-ship missiles set up.
Due to that difficulty the terrain presented, Hamazura and the others had split into a few groups that were heading for Napali Coast using different routes. Hamazura's group was taking the route that headed counterclockwise around the island's circumference.
The president stared out the window and at the coast spreading out behind the mountain surface. He narrowed his eyes at the sight of mercenaries setting up various pieces of equipment.
"Even if they are overlooking us to a certain extent to find Lindy, that's only for the convenience of those at the top. If they actually spot us, a firefight will be unavoidable."
"The one piece of luck is that your aide and the marine volunteers were slowed down," muttered Birdway in the backseat.
While driving, Hamazura frowned and said, "Don't you have that backwards? They'd clearly end up fighting Gremlin and Trident, too. If the other two sides are fighting each other, wouldn't that make things easier for us?"
"You're the one that has it backwards. They're only overlooking us because Olay and Saronia have control. If the marines made it to Kauai and chaos broke out, those bosses might lose control of their troops. Without a power working to give us uninterrupted use of the roads like this, we would be stuck in the middle of an unthinkable melee."
"Not good," muttered Roberto. He was still staring out the window. "Roseline has made her move. Boy! Stop this car now! We're about to get pushed to the side!!"
"Ahn?"
With a confused expression, Hamazura looked over in the same direction as the president…and then frantically slammed on the brakes.
The tires screeched as they scraped against the asphalt and an instant later even that noise was wiped away.
This was due to a few dozen air-to-surface missiles fired from out in the ocean.
Twenty cutting edge stealth fighters came soaring only a few dozen centimeters off the ocean surface at over 400 kph. They had likely come from Oahu. The eruption of Kilauea had supposedly made aircraft unusable, but that restriction was being circumvented by flying at extremely low altitudes.
However, it was not entirely accurate to call what they were doing "flying".
In the spot where wheels normally were, the fighters had ski-like floats forcibly attached. By sacrificing aerodynamic and stealth functionality, they could now "grasp" the ocean surface. The fighters were not merely flying just off the surface. It was more like they were being pushed forward as they floated on the surface.
Trident had built their defenses out of anti-ship missiles, so they could not deal with invaders that could move so quickly.
The fighters flew past the few anti-ship missiles that were fired and then fired deadly missiles of their own at the coast.
An orange wall appeared for about twelve kilometers across the white beach.
The wall was created from explosive flames and shockwaves.
Despite being more than five kilometers away from it, Hamazura's car skidded disconcertingly to the side.
His seatbelt must have constricted his lungs along with his ribs because Roberto Katze let out a gasp from the passenger seat.
"…Dammit Roseline!! Do you not realize I'm here!? Or do you know but you're firing anyway!?"
"This isn't over. Now that the anti-missile network has been sealed off, something else will be coming to finish this!" warned Birdway.
And that was precisely what happened.
With their initial bombing over, the stealth fighters circled around without landing. From behind them, landing ships plowed onto the beach. The ships were equipped with hydrofoils and they could move at 100 kph. The steel ships slid up onto land all at once like beached whales.
Doors on the back opened and soldiers poured out.
The soldiers were equipped differently than Trident. They used the proper equipment of that nation. A group of over 150 such soldiers invaded Kauai.
"This is finally coming to a head," muttered Hamazura as he turned the key once more to restart the stalled car. "In an uncontrollable battlefield, a three-way battle is beginning over Lindy Blueshake."
Part 3
(November 10 – Kauai – Blue Energy Gas Station – From a rearview camera in an abandoned sedan)
He had failed to escape.
Weck Lunasand was hiding at an abandoned gas station. He was breathing heavily while crouching behind one of the vending machines on one side of the building.
Only seventy centimeters away but on the other side of the vending machine, he could hear countless people passing by. He could only hear the sound of feet on white sand. If he was found, he was done for. His hand was not on his chest, but that thought made him overly conscious of his heartbeat.
The company ID hanging from his neck said he was a children's surfing instructor.
He had stuck with his professional ethics too much and had failed.
He had failed at life.
Immediately after the commotion had originally broken out, Weck had piled the children in his class into his SUV and headed for an abandoned building in Chinatown. The building held nothing more than dust and roaches, but he knew it had a civilian nuclear shelter. The room was only a few meters across, but it was enough to hide in. A highly polished resort hotel filled with expensive things was one thing, but he doubted anyone would force their way into an old, run-down building like that. All they had to do then was close the thick door and wait it out.
But then one of the children had told him one of them was missing.
"I should've just abandoned him. Dammit. Two thousand dollars a month isn't worth this."
Despite having left that safe area, he had not found the missing child.
Soldiers that glittered like CDs were all over the place with the kind of assault rifles often seen in movies that were shaped a bit like hacksaws. That had made it difficult to go anywhere. Their equipment was different from the American soldiers he saw in bars or undergoing public training. And if they were not American soldiers, who were they? About all he could figure out was that it would be bad if they spotted him. They had not found him yet, but it was only a matter of time. Every route was already blocked.
"…"
He recalled the weight in his right hand.
It was a .38 revolver that had been in the dashboard of the sedan he had deserted in front of the gas station. However, he doubted he could accomplish anything with it. A gunshot would be like telling a pack of wild dogs where some meat was. Also, he was unsure he could hit with the first shot and he was at a gas station. He could not deny the possibility that there was enough evaporated gasoline floating around that gunfire would cause a giant explosion.
The gun was more a good luck charm than anything.
He needed it to ensure he did not panic and do something stupid.
"At any rate, I have to survive this somehow. I need to get out of here. Wait, there's gasoline here. If I put it in some kind of container and set that off, I can draw their attention elsewhere. There's nothing wrong with it if it's to save my life."
He may have been speaking out loud in order to forcibly get himself to accept what he was saying. In other words, even then, Weck Lunasand's softheartedness remained.
And a further trial remained for that softhearted man.
He heard the cry of a small boy.
Weck frowned, leaned back against the vending machine, and covered his face with his hands.
"Shit…Is that Steve…!?"
Steve was the last student that had gotten separated from the group.
Weck crawled forward along the oil-smelling concrete in order to peer out from behind the corner of the vending machine. He spotted a dozen or so men and women walking across the white beach. They were being led by four or five silver soldiers with rifles.
Amid that group was a single ten-year-old boy.
The difficulty level had just shot up.
The same question crept up in the back of his mind as back in the shelter: should I abandon him or not?
"What can I even do…?"
His breathing grew even more erratic. He felt a great pressure in his gut. However, that pressure was not simply fear for his life. It was caused by his decision to leave another human being to die.
"That's it. I've done enough. For only $2,000 a month, saving seven of them is commendable. I don't need to get greedy, right?"
After realizing he was saying it out loud, Weck stopped breathing for an instant.
Saying it aloud was his ritual for forcibly getting himself to accept what he was saying.
That meant he did not actually accept it.
"…I'd just get myself killed…"
After saying that one last thing that he could not accept, Weck Lunasand looked around the area.
He was at a gas station. There was tons of gasoline there. He could divide it up into small containers. The wind would carry the evaporated gasoline that was scattered about the beach. Depending on how he used it, he might be able to temporarily toy with the silver soldiers.
Just as methods started entering his mind, he heard a slight metallic noise.
One of the silver soldiers had approached without Weck noticing and he held the barrel of his rifle against the back of Weck's head.
It had been a mistake to peer out.
The situation had been worsened by the fact that he held that handgun. The soldier had no way of knowing he was only using it as a good luck charm.
"Dammit. I don't want to die…!!"
He spoke out loud, but he was not about to convince the soldier of anything.
Just as Weck Lunasand squeezed his eyes shut, he heard a loud crash.
The man holding the assault rifle had suddenly flown a few meters to the side.
For an instant, Weck thought the man had been hit by a dump truck.
Even after turning around and seeing it with his own eyes, he could not believe that the man had actually been struck by a careless kick of a slender leg.
The great crash of the silver soldier's body destroying a vending machine brought all attention on that spot. However, the one who had thrown the kick did not seem to care.
He had white hair and red eyes.
The impression he gave was more that of a beast than of a human.
"…What a fucking pain."
Two girls accompanied him. They both had the same face, but the look in their eyes was different. The middle school aged one had a proper look, but the older one had the look of a criminal on a wanted poster.
Speaking to the white figure, the middle school aged girl said, "We can start here. Once we hack into Trident's command cloud, we can destroy their defensive network of anti-ship missiles. Then naval reinforcements can be called in. I have a lot I want to say to you, so I'd rather not get bogged down here."
"I intend to repay my debt to the clones, but I have no intention of apologizing to you. You aren't conveniently forgetting that you too were one of the ones responsible for that experiment, are you?"
"I of course intend to make up for that, but it pisses me off to hear it from the poster boy of the experiment."
While creating an extremely threatening atmosphere, the two of them slowly headed for the beach. They were of course headed there to rescue the tourists being held at gunpoint.
Weck was completely taken aback and the girl with the mischievous look in her eyes winked and said, "Basically, those two tsunderes are saying everything is going to be okay."
With countless explosions, two monsters ruled the battlefield.
They were the #1 and the #3.
Those two Level 5s had singlehandedly traversed the battlefields of World War III and now a tornado of destruction surrounded them.
Part 4
(November 10 – Kauai – From a helmet camera for the command cloud)
Saronia A. Irivika was aboard a hovercraft. Lindy was conjectured to be in Napali Coast and its more inaccessible areas were difficult to reach with a normal vehicle. It was much faster to approach by sea.
Trident had been instructed by their client to put together a team to recover Lindy, but Saronia's inclusion in that team was not in line with the client's wishes.
The Trident member in charge of piloting the hovercraft spoke to Saronia.
"We will focus on stopping the other forces. Can we leave apprehending the target to you?"
"That would be for the best. With professional killers like you, a threat could end up leading to quite a bit of bloodshed."
"…Our client would kill us. Do you know who hired us?"
"Olay Blueshake. But that really does not matter," said Saronia readily in the sea breeze. And she did not stop with just that one outrageous statement. "Gremlin does not matter either. Of course, Trident does not matter. Nor does the theocratization of the United States or the collapse of the balance between the magic side and the science side. None of it matters."
"O-our conversation is being monitored by the FCE…"
"Yes, I'm sure she's listening in. But it's the same for you, isn't it? Trident has its own objective and you have your own objective. In the end, everyone decides what to give precedence based on what benefits us personally."
As she spoke, Saronia pulled a rectangular plastic pill case out of her pocket.
In the many partitioned spaces were seeds of trees.
"My country was torn apart by World War III."
"…"
"And yet there were a few countries and areas that benefitted from that war. The primary examples are Academy City and the United States. On top of that, they are remaking my country as they see fit by controlling the flow of money being sent in the name of war restorations."
"I-I had heard it was mostly construction of infrastructure…"
"Winter is coming. They have requisitioned the natural gas pipelines, claiming it is so they can repair them, but they are delaying that work for the sake of clearly unnecessary construction. They know full well that heating is a lifeline there in the winter, but they are having people swear their loyalty." A thin smile appeared on Saronia's face. "We can't let them do that, now can we?"
Her tone held no thorns and it even had the kind of sweetness one used to entice the opposite sex, but the veteran Trident soldier realized he was trembling.
"That is why I will return things back to the way they should be."
She took one of the seeds from the pill case and placed it on her palm. She then rolled it around, smelled it, and bit into it with her back teeth.
With a look in her eye like she had remembered something, Saronia continued speaking.
"It is only natural for Academy City and the United States to pay up. It is only natural for that money to truly act in Russia's favor. Since they refuse to make the initial preparations, I will force them to. After all, they made so much money during that war. Having to give a little back to those they used as a stepping stone seems like an appropriate punishment to me."
Normally, Trident might have tried to stop Saronia with military force in order to protect their client's interests.
But they could not.
Despite being accustomed to creating corpses, the mercenaries were frozen in place out of fear of the strange occult and that girl who could freely wield it.
"Oh, and Olay Blueshake. I seem to recall your name being on a list of people who made all sorts of money during that war."
She had never intended to simply obey.
Magicians tended to give the one precedence over the all. That nature suddenly showed itself.
As she continued on in search of Lindy Blueshake, ferocious intent was displayed on Saronia's face.