salome vs misaka

Don’t touch me, stranger. Do you want me to vivisect you?

“...”

That thought reached her via pressure rather than via a voice.

A chill seemed to flash freeze her entire spine.

She was honestly glad she was not facing her opponent at the moment.

Before her body tensed up, she simply manipulated magnetism. She gathered iron sand from her surroundings and vibrated it at high speed to create an Iron Sand Sword that could instantly slice through a wind turbine. She then launched it directly behind her.

While it was essentially a sword, the blade’s length and shape could change like a whip.

Its incredible cutting power could slice through anything in a single blow. She saw no way this cruel attack could be successfully blocked or avoided if her opponent was seeing it for the first time.

And yet, a dry bursting sound rang out as Misaka Mikoto’s Iron Sand Sword was mercilessly destroyed.

It vanished.

The reliable sensation of that weapon…no, that lifeline had vanished.

“Wha-…?”

The #3’s thoughts were briefly swallowed up by a void.

This was different from the #1’s reflection. The Iron Sand Sword had shattered. It was destroyed. It was negated.

She only knew one person who could do this.

Or so she had thought.

“Ah?”

There were no more strategies or tactics. Mikoto’s mind remained blank as she turned around to find an answer to her question. She found Salome’s evilly smiling eyes at extreme close range.

Yes.

The raincoat-wearing mass murderer was smiling.

The bottom of her double raincoat spread out like a dancer’s veil.

“External Offering.”

She spoke the words as if rolling a piece of candy around in her mouth.

A moment later, violent attacks crossed paths between them.

One was a Lightning Spear fired from Misaka Mikoto’s bangs.

The other was Salome’s casually swung right hand. It swung diagonally upwards with the fingers gently bent. It should have not quite reached Mikoto’s body, but the chilly night air split apart, the asphalt was torn into at her feet, and the railing was sliced in two with a burst of orange sparks. Mikoto had quickly leaned her upper body backwards, but all of the buttons burst from her coat and a few strands of her bangs were cut away.

Tension scorched her nerves.

But not because this was a mysterious invisible attack. She had recognized it.

She knew the answer.

“An Iron Sand…Sword!?”

“Correct.”

Mikoto manipulated magnetism as she moved back to put some distance between them. A bicycle floated up from the cold river, a wind turbine was pulled out at the base, and a second Iron Sand Sword gathered around her right hand.

She launched them all at once.

But…

“External Offering.”

As soon as she detected the invisible attack that produced familiar results, the rusty bicycle was annihilated in midair.

“External Offering.”

Next it was the supporting column of the wind turbine.

“External Offering.”

Finally, the pure Iron Sand Sword was destroyed again.

Each time Salome swung her arm and the slash with a mysterious reach rushed out, the attack was different. Its weight changed, is sharpness increased, and it evolved into an even more violent storm.

“Your attack isn’t just destruction or negation.”

Mikoto doubted this was simply an esper power.

But then what was it?

“Do you absorb it and then gain its traits and destructive power!?”

“Is it really that shocking?”

Salome clenched and unclenched her right hand while tilting her head.

“I’m using a Celtic system, but you can find things like this all over the world. By destroying a specific weapon, jewel, or animal’s flesh and abandoning it at a designated place, it acts as a sacrifice and prayer for victory. The idea of a living sacrifice stands out a lot and can seem to exist in a vacuum, but that’s only the extreme version after it all escalated. The original and proper form of a sacrifice is to use an object, a dance, or some other kind of offering that doesn’t require taking a life.”

“…Eh…?”

Her mind gave up on parsing that as language.

No, she could not let herself be trapped by her own thoughts.

She could not stop here. She had to keep going.

This was scorching her mind, but it had to be some kind of starting point.

This would help her change the angle at which she viewed the trick art that was the world.

“So I can absorb anything I can destroy with my own hands.”

An explosion stabbed across the bridge.

The raincoat girl with the tan lines of a school swimsuit on her bare skin took only a half step to the side.

She smiled.

“But if it’s too powerful for me to destroy or it doesn’t function as a weapon, then I can’t absorb it as a means of attack.”

A high-pitched sound filled the air.

Misaka Mikoto had flicked an arcade coin up with her thumb.

Salome’s evil expression remained intact.

It was not that she did not know what was coming. She knew and she was waiting for it.

At three times the speed of sound, an orange beam roasted the air as it shot forward.

The air was whipped up.

A violent shockwave surrounded them.

The asphalt was ripped from the road.

“Hee hee.”

She laughed.

Unscathed, Mass Murderer Salome laughed with her lightly clenched right hand swept out horizontally.

It had severed the orange trail.

Misaka Mikoto’s signature Railgun was nowhere to be seen.

“Something I can’t destroy barehanded doesn’t normally apply for my External Offering, but now that I’ve built up this much of a ‘chain’, pretty much anything goes, don’tcha think?”

“…”

“And now I’ve consumed the #3’s Railgun and offered it up. Its destructive power is now mine. Now. A question. Iron Sand Sword, bicycle, telephone pole, rubble, and a Railgun to finish it off. Now that it’s snowballed up so much, just how flashy an attack will this be? The answer is coming up after these messages.”

“…Heh.”

“Why the hell are you laughing?”

“Well…”

What look did she have on her face right now?

This was even more incredible than that boy. But at the very least, she did not feel despair. Her signature Railgun had not reached her opponent. She should have been panicking, but the shock was surprisingly small. The Magic God known as the High Priest had done the same thing, but that was not enough to explain the lack of shock.

Then what was it?

Mikoto asked herself that, but she did not want to find the answer.

She was pretty sure she would hate herself if she did.

“So it really is out there. I was having trouble finding the stimulus I needed to gain a different view of the trick art known as the world, but here it is just waltzing up to me.”

Were her eyes filled with the shadows of a hopelessly dark new moon?

Or were her eyes filled with the light of a hopelessly bright full moon?

She did not want to know.

She did not want to know.

She did not want to know.

“I hate dealing with stuff like this. You’ve gotta be completely insane.”

“More. Give me more. This has to be taking me in the right direction. I can’t understand you at all as I am, so if I can overcome you, I can find the next stage I’m looking for!!”

“But I guess I was right to start this here. I’m crazy enough that people call me a mass murderer behind my back, but you’re gonna take it even further than me if you keep going in this direction.”

Mikoto ignored her.

She greedily licked her lips and pulled out another arcade coin. Taking a direct hit would mean instant death and she could even absorb and accumulate the full power of Academy City’s #3, so Mikoto was no match for Mass Murderer Salome. After all, Mikoto could only use “up to” her full power whereas Salome could add more on top of that. The difference was simply insurmountable.

It was kill or be killed.

Those two extremes were the only options and odds were good Mikoto would be the one to die.

But she would do it.

No matter how biased toward her personal viewpoint it was, Mikoto had a reason to defeat Salome.

She would defeat her and ask her how to properly view the trick art that was the world.

She would ask her for the foothold she needed to climb onto the same stage as that boy.

She would make those things hers!!
- To Aru Majutsu No Index New Testament Vol 15 Chapter 2 Part 6