powers go berzerk, destroys turkey, takes over Misaka

She had lost control of herself.

And the power to control the human mind through the manipulation of the body’s moisture went berserk.

“But he remembers me. I don’t care if it’s a miracle or a coincidence. I was never hoping for a logical answer. But… but whatever he looks like and whatever he might do…”

She was crying.

Tears streamed down her face.

She knew what it meant to do this, but she could not correct her mistake.

The mini hat wobbled atop her honey-blonde hair.

That false crown shook.

“But if there are two Kamijou-sans out there… and one remembers me and one doesn’t…”

She controlled all the victors of the war in the dance hall, including the queen regnant.

She took control and made them hers.

Shokuhou Misaki bit her lip to suppress the sobs as she wept like a lost child.

And she raised her voice as if to break through the solid barrier of the one girl she could not control by normal means.

All while squeezing the cheap emergency whistle in her hand.

“That’s the Kamijou-san I shared that summer with!! So I’m sorry, Misaka-saaan!!!!!!”

A dry popping sound followed.

She had lost control of her power to manipulate moisture on the microscopic level to control the human mind. The large turkey on one of the long tables burst like a dustball and the venomously red wine spilled on the floor boiled in the blink of an eye.

If this power happened to hit it, even silver armor would crumble away like it was made of sand.

The destruction tore a loose band across the dance hall like a searchlight sweeping around the honey-blonde girl and finally directed itself toward the skull protecting the #3.

It was as violent as performing brain surgery with a chainsaw.

“…!!”

That pushed Misaka Mikoto over the edge as well.

The obstinate and childish #5 was telling her something.

That girl had been driven to the very edge of the cliff and could only choose the wrong answer as she trembled there.

So.

She was telling Mikoto to do the right thing in her place.

Mikoto felt an intense headache piercing her temple, but it faded away almost immediately. She could not reject it, so it was making its way into her mind.

“Gh-h-h-kh…”

She had no time.

There was not much she could do.

This was not like the past. Mikoto had been spared Mental Out’s effects before thanks to a combination of the unique traits of her Railgun Level 5 power and the solid wall of her powerful distrust of Shokuhou Misaki’s power itself. But now Shokuhou was forcing her way through while prepared to lose control of her power. At this rate, her power really would reach Misaka Mikoto’s brain.

That said, reconstructing those defenses on the fly would be difficult.

Because that would have been the same as looking at the weeping honey-blonde girl and remaking her own mind to think the girl deserved this.

Could she really do that?

She did not know what summer Shokuhou was referring to.

But despite having the power to control minds, that girl had never aimed the remote at her own head. No matter what happened and no matter how painful it was, she had not wanted to lose those memories. Could Mikoto barge in and mock those broken feelings?

This was not even the usual Mental Out.

Taking over all of Windsor Castle with no external support was not normal.

The noise in the back of Mikoto’s mind was growing.

She likely had less than ten seconds left.

So…

(Top priority is making sure that idiot isn’t surrounded. I don’t even know if I can escape Shokuhou’s control. I allowed her in too much while we were working together… I’ll be caught in Mental Out’s web like this!! But what am I supposed to do!?)

She heard some meowing.

The small cat was trying to say something from the floor.

Yes.

Shokuhou Misaki’s Mental Out only worked on humans.

This was not some great power or weapon, but that entirely harmless meow told her how to fight back. At the very least, this would be better than running out of time before doing anything.

(Thanks for the assist!!)

“Ahhhhh!!”

Her target had lost its form as a dangerous weapon to act as a chair to support Shokuhou’s aching hip.

It looked like a many-wheeled streetcar or police van about the size of a small bench.

In other words…

“Do it, A.A.A.!!”

Mental Out could not control a purely mechanical product. Mikoto gave a manual command before control of her own mind was taken. It was an extremely simple one to make sure the other girl could not interfere.

The next sound was like a great bell ringing.

It came from the boy with an arm of a sky-blue and lemon-yellow found nowhere in nature.

No.

It came from Kamijou Touma as he was mercilessly knocked from the floor and thrown out the second-story window.

“This is in… your hands now.”

Mikoto smiled a little as she watched that brightly-colored boy escape all alone outside the ring of controlled people.

He vanished from view.

But that was fine.

He was out of her reach, but some hope remained.

“A girl is crying after being driven to the edge. I know you’re not the lousy kind of guy who can sit idly by after seeing that!!”

That was her limit.

Academy City’s #3, the Railgun, lost consciousness.

Intense noise rushed in from the back of her mind and stole away the view before her, starting from the edges of her vision.

The jaws of Mental Out snapped shut.

The victors of the war were swallowed whole and a new threat made itself known.

This was an absolute rule, but it was so absolute it was twisted into unchanging stagnation.

It was something that could be called a great evil.

- New Testament Toaru Majutsu no Index Volume 22 Reverse Chapter 2 Part 8