A Valuable Orange

About two hundred meters ahead, a family of four was walking in one section of the packed parking lot. The orange was at the boy’s feet. He must have kicked it again andagain. Part of the skin had torn off. The orange was squirming eerily. It looked a bit like a heart about to die.

It looked like something breathing was about to burst out of it.

There was no time.

Mikoto had no idea how many crimson long-legged army ants were hiding within the orange, but she did not want to think about what kind of damage would be done to the boy that was kicking the orange were it to burst and there were even fifty or a hundred of them inside. And if even a few of the ants that would scatter in every direction were allowed to escape, they would begin breeding after only a short period of time creating a seemingly infinite number of them.

She could fire a lightning spear or her Railgun.

A few options came to mind, but none of them would work.

She may be able to obliterate the orange, but that level of attack would only scatter the tiny ants around making it entirely pointless.

She could not solely rely on her power.

“...!!”

Like she was juggling a soccer ball, Mikoto lightly kicked up a tin bucket lying in the outside area for home garden products.

She manipulated magnetism.

An invisible force caused the tin bucket to swing around like a wrecking ball on a chain.

A heavy sound echoed out like when one swung a bat through the air.

The bucket flew down from diagonally above the boy, flew upside down just past his shoulder at high speed, and struck the ground covering up the orange on the parking lot ground. A metallic clang rang out as orange sparks flew.

“Ee!”

“Out of the way!!” yelled Mikoto, but she clicked her tongue immediately afterwards because Japanese wasn’t going to get through to the boy.

Luckily, the family of four was paralyzed by the sudden occurrence. Their lack of motion made things easier for Mikoto.

Purple electricity flew from her bangs.

With a feeling like the power in her forehead was being released externally, she controlled her power and the charged high voltage current was released all at once.

A loud noise similar to a gunshot rang out.

Mikoto put herself between the boy and the bucket and forced him away. She kept her gaze on the upside down bucket.

(I-is it over...?)

She then heard a slight scraping noise.

It sounded like claws scraping at metal.

Mikoto’s shoulders jumped and the noise continued.

It was coming from the bucket.

From inside it.

From within.

The scratching noise continued and continued and continued.

(You don’t mean...)

“They’re trying to eat through the metal bucket...!?”

One shot had not been enough to annihilate them.

The simple command telling them to frantically survive gave the ants greater leadership.

Mikoto stepped forward and fired two more high voltage currents into the bucket. She stepped on top of the bottom of the upside down bucket with one foot. She then poured a massive amount of electricity into the bucket just to be sure.

The tin bucket conducted electricity.

The inside would have been transformed into an environment more severe than an electric chair.

“...”

After firing over twenty electrical attacks at it, Mikoto finally stopped. The noise and light had been so great that even the onlookers remained silent.

She remained still for thirty long seconds with her foot still on top of the tin bucket.

She could not grasp the situation like that.

Without removing the bucket, she could not check to see what had been inside the orange or if they had been properly exterminated.

When dealing with bombs, checking to make sure it was truly not functioning was as nerve-wracking as deactivating it in the first place. It was a similar feeling to that.

Mikoto slowly took her weight off of the bottom of the upside down bucket.

She gulped.

She brought the bottom of her foot to edge of the bucket and pushed ever so slightly.

The bucket moved a bit from just that. It was not a perfect defensive wall. Just tapping it with her toes had been enough to almost knock it over.

She pushed harder.

The bucket wobbled quite a bit and then flipped over. The contents were now exposed.

The skin and flesh of the fruit had been torn apart by the high voltage currents and now lined the inner edge of the bucket. Most of it was burnt black, but some still retained its original color. A marmalade-like smell reached Mikoto’s nose.

And something like black sesame seeds were scattered about. Gravity sent them pouring down into a small pile. Mikoto recognized them instantly. They were insects. The small six-legged insects had been turned to ash by the massive electric currents.

None of them were moving.

After confirming that, Mikoto manipulated magnetism to cover it all up with the tin bucket again.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS2, Chapter 1, Part 6