On how PhDs become human evil

Without any hesitation, Touma Kamijou stomped on a rock in mid-air and leaped onto the ship, gripping the handrails on the ship's side tightly with both hands.

"Hey! Little nun, grab me!"

Seeing that Touma Kamijou had already boarded the ship, Misaka Mikoto was not to be outdone. She grabbed Index's hand and, using electromagnetic force, swung down onto the ship's deck like a swing.

"Your spiky hair is too reckless! You just jumped over here!"

“Didn’t you jump over here too? Besides, we can’t just leave Orsola here.” Touma Kamijou said matter-of-factly, “Although I wouldn’t want to be on this ship if I could.”

With a helpless sigh, Misaka Mikoto began to observe her surroundings.

It must be said, this ship is truly enormous.

The entire structure is over 100 meters long and more than 20 meters high. From the deck to the mast, it is made entirely of a translucent material, emitting a pale white light like a light bulb.

The four members of Misaka Mikoto's group were located in the center of the ship.

"Are these ships... made of ice?"

Misaka Mikoto touched the ship's railing and asked.

"The temperature is wrong, it's lukewarm."

"Because this ship is a product of magic, and magical things are basically inexplicable by science," Touma Kamijou said. "Wait, there are footsteps!"

A series of extremely hurried footsteps came from the other side of the ship, along with the sound of people talking.

"They must be here! Go find them!"

"Flank from both sides!"

Although I don't understand Italian, I can be sure that the situation is very dangerous.

Orsola lowered her voice and said, "What should we do? It seems like they're looking for us?"

"Jump ship... No, this ship is too high, people will die if they jump off—anyway, let's go into the cabin first, there are plenty of shelters and hiding places inside."

Touma Kamijou's opinion was agreed upon by all three.

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After dodging several waves of magicians' searches, like thieves breaking into a house, Misaka Mikoto and the others finally entered the cabin. They found a room relatively far inside, closed the door, and had Kamijou Touma block the doorway before everyone sat down.

"Damn it, what's going on here?" Touma Kamijou complained. "I finally won the lottery and got to travel to Italy, and now I'm involved in magicians' stuff?"

"I was about to complain! If you hadn't dragged me over to move things, I'd probably be sleeping comfortably in a hotel bed right now," Misaka Mikoto sighed, then looked at Orsola and Index. "You two are experts in magic, right? Could you explain the current situation?"

After thinking for a while with her head down, Index said, "If I'm not mistaken, we should be inside the Queen of the Adriatic right now."

"The Queen of the Adriatic?"

"what is that?"

Kamijou Touma and Misaka Mikoto, both magic novices, were stunned.

Section 553, Chapter 52: The Queen of the Adriatic

"To explain the magic of the Queen of the Adriatic, we must first start with the history."

"Although Venice and the Roman Catholic Church are both located on the Italian peninsula, they have a history of hostility. Venice has always been a city that hates being invaded and dominated by others, and it has maintained a strong sense of independence, completely ignoring the advice of the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire to join their ranks."

"Historically, in 892 AD, merchants brought the remains of St. Mark, one of the twelve apostles, to Venice, expressing their stance of 'protecting the saint's eternal rest.' This may have been in imitation of the Vatican's intention to 'protect the eternal rest of St. Peter.'"

"Afterwards, Venice amassed immense wealth through salt and trade, and successfully defended against several invasions by the Franks and Genoa. It also suppressed the military strength of surrounding city-states one after another, becoming a maritime power that was neither too far from the papacy of the Roman Empire nor too far from being dominated by it."

"The Pope at the time had ordered Venice to be excommunicated several times for its behavior, which was generally tantamount to a death sentence. However, Venice did not care at all and continued to prosper. For a city-state that might turn its claws on them at any time, the Roman Catholic Church created a magic to deal with Venice."

"That is the ship we are on now. To be precise, this ship is part of the entire magic. The complete fleet spell, Queen of the Adriatic, is composed of numerous escort ships and the queen ship."

Upon hearing Index's explanation, Touma Kamijou realized: "This is a fleet specifically designed to deal with Venice?"

“Yes.” Index nodded. “At that time, under the pressure of a sense of crisis, the Roman Catholic Church prepared this ‘Queen of the Adriatic’ in order to bring about a major event that could bury Venice in one fell swoop. Because the large-scale spells used in cities could not be estimated in terms of the fleet’s counterattack, the Queen’s fleet was used to deal with the defensive network of the Venetian navy.”

At this point, Index's meaning is quite clear.

Queen of the Adriatic.

This technique is a large-scale technique capable of destroying a nation in one strike, even if the size of the "nation" is only equivalent to a city-state. However, because magic places great emphasis on the connections between various things, it might actually be able to elevate the ancient concept of the "nation" to the modern concept.

With a sigh, Misaka Mikoto said, "But that was over a thousand years ago, right? In other words, this fleet is an antique from over a thousand years ago. What would the Roman Catholic Church do with such equipment? Is it to destroy some country?"

Index's expression turned serious: "The large-scale spell 'Queen of the Adriatic' can only be used against Venice. The reason is simple: the Roman Catholic Church is worried that if it were captured by the enemy, the cannons might be turned against them."

"So...do they really want to destroy Venice?" Touma Kamijou asked.

This time, Osora frowned deeply: "However, the animosity between the Roman Catholic Church and Venice dates back hundreds of years. Since Venice became a world-renowned tourist destination, the Roman Catholic Church has also benefited greatly. I find it hard to imagine why the Roman Catholic Church would suddenly want to destroy this land."

"...Perhaps there is some significant reason to attack Venice."

After Index finished speaking, the room fell into a long silence.

Finally, Touma Kamijou said, "Well, it's not good to keep thinking about this. Let's think about how to get out of here."

“That’s true. We can’t stay on the ship forever, or we’ll be discovered sooner or later.” Misaka Mikoto nodded. “I have my own way of leaving, but considering all the circumstances, I can only take one more person with me at most. What about the other two?”

The way Misaka Mikoto suggested to leave was naturally by transforming into a Kamen Rider. With her fighting power as a Kamen Rider, breaking through the magician's defenses shouldn't be difficult. However, if she brought too many people with her, there would inevitably be some oversights. Therefore, the ideal situation would be to leave with only one person.

Hearing Misaka Mikoto say that, Kamijou Touma thought for a moment and said, "Then you should take Orsola and leave first. Index and I will stay here."

"You two staying here? Is that alright?"

Waving his right hand, Touma Kamijou said, "Don't worry, this right hand of mine can nullify all supernatural powers. Index can also intervene in the enemy's magic and make their magic ineffective, so there's absolutely no need to worry about our safety."

As Touma Kamijou said, if the opponent is a magician, the two of them have nothing to worry about at all, and even have a very high chance of defeating the opponent. The only thing to consider is the number of opponents, but as long as they make good use of the terrain, the two of them can take them down one by one.

For example, you can hide in a corner and lure the enemy over with a shard of pottery, then wait until they reach the corner and perform a wall-hugging stealth kill (laughs).

"Alright, I'll take Osora and leave first. But I think you'd better be prepared to escape. I'll make a lot of noise when I leave, and you'll be discovered if you stay here."

As she said this, a belt appeared around Misaka Mikoto's waist, and she held the Fullbottle in her hand.

"Railgun Princess! Are You Ready?!"

"Transform!"

"A railgun piercing the sky! Railgun Princess! Ciao!"

Kamijou Touma finally understood why Misaka Mikoto told him to run away first—because her escape method had its own background music!

Amidst the rousing DJ music, Misaka Mikoto donned blue and white armor, casually unleashing a lightning strike that pierced through the nearby wall. She scooped up Osora, and with lightning wings unfurling behind her, Misaka Mikoto flew off, shouting, "You two hold on! I'll get Osora to safety and then go get reinforcements to rescue you!"

"Then hurry back!"

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Dozens of kilometers away from the Queen's fleet, atop a clock tower, Bai Jie sat with a telescope in his hand, watching the Queen's fleet sailing on the sea in the distance.

"Oh my, the Roman Catholic Church has really come up with an interesting spell, a spell solely for the destruction of Venice. It would be quite interesting if it were gone."

"Business, can I ask you for a favor?"

Beside Bai Jie, Enterprise pressed down his military cap: "I haven't really challenged an entire fleet and escort fleet yet, so let me go and have a go. But Commander, what if I wipe them all out? That's fine, isn't it?"

"Yes, go ahead and do it. If the Roman Catholic Church wants to cause trouble, I'll just go visit them in their hometown."

"That's good."

A fighter jet flew up to the company, and the company jumped on, rapidly flying towards the Mediterranean Sea.

Section 554, Chapter 53. Calvin

Since Kamen Riders don't have the ability to fly, Misaka Mikoto chose the most direct method—swimming back.

The boat had just left the shore. After swimming a few dozen meters, the buildings on the shore would come into Misaka Mikoto's range. At that point, she would only need to use electromagnetic force to attract the metal and pull herself over.

As for whether he can swim across... doesn't he know that the water area is an absolute safe zone for Kamen Riders? Shinnosuke was seriously injured and fell into the river, yet he was able to swim to the other side, let alone Misaka Mikoto.

Although carrying one Osora was a bit of a strain.

"Hey!"

Upon landing on the roof of a building, Misaka Mikoto said to Orsora, "That's about enough, Orsora. You can leave now. I'm going back to the ship."

"Back to the ship...Misaka-san, weren't you going to find reinforcements?"

Scratching her hair, Misaka Mikoto said, "That's what I thought at first, but sometimes I want to solve things on my own. I can't always let some delinquent teacher take my place. Now that I've obtained the power of Kamen Rider, I have to do something with it."

“Misaka-san... I understand.”

Osora bowed to Misaka Mikoto.

"However, please be careful. Since the Roman Catholic Church has released the Queen of the Adriatic, it will definitely equip her with excellent magical troops. Even with this suit of armor, you are not guaranteed to be safe."

"Of course I know that. Anyway, leave it to me."

After saying that, Misaka Mikoto jumped back into the sea.

......

"While we can't say we've found a reason to fight, we've at least gotten a semblance of it."

In the distance, Bai Jie, who had spotted Misaka Mikoto and Osora through his telescope, smiled.

"Well, she's only fourteen, so I can't expect too much from her."

"Next up is the Queen of the Adriatic. Besides the entire fleet, there's even a magic spell inside. It's a pity we're too far away to know what its effects are."

After hesitating for a moment, Bai Jie refrained from making a move.

Since Misaka Mikoto intends to handle this matter herself, let her do it. Just as she said, she can't let Bai Jie handle everything; she herself must grow up.

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It took Misaka Mikoto about a minute to get back on the ship.

Misaka Mikoto used the hull as a stepping stone and stepped on it repeatedly, landing on the deck once again.

"Found them! It's the intruder!"

"Here! Everyone, come here!"