Part 8[edit]
(November 10th – Hawaii – Volcanoes National Park – From a bird watching camera)
Hamazura and the others who had split from Kamijou’s group had landed on the Island of Hawaii and abandoned the high class yacht they had stolen. The volcano at the center of the issue, Kilauea, was one of Hawaii’s greatest tourist attractions. The mountain itself and the nearby volcanic craters were all part of a national park.
The largest crater was at the summit, but dozens of smaller craters existed on the mountainside and near the base of the mountain. They could smell a sulfurous gas smell similar to at a hot spring.
Hamazura and the others were supposed to use stolen vehicles to get to Kilauea before Gremlin and to stop them if they tried to bring in the Trigger.
It seemed Kamijou and the others had a real chance of succeeding, so there was a possibility that Hamazura’s group would not have to actually do anything.
However…
“What is that…?”
Hamazura slowly lay down on the edge of a large caldera that was over 10 km across.
Several men were there.
They were much too close to the crater for tourists who were simply looking around. The crater was not as large as Kilauea’s famous Halemaumau Crater, but it still had a very dangerous-looking crack a few dozen meters long that glowed orange. And the men appeared to be setting up some kind of large device. It looked like a giant drum with four legs. The four legs were spread out like a cross and the men were affixing them with special stakes that were driven in using either electric power or compressed gas.
“…I have a bad feeling about this. It reminds me of Russia.”
To make matters worse, that one device was not the only one.
A few dozen of the drum-like devices surrounded the large crater.
He had no real proof, but a single term naturally floated up in the back of Hamazura’s mind.
“Is that…the Trigger?”
“Looks like it.”
“But how? Why!? I thought it hadn’t been brought to this island yet!”
“Misaka can only think of one possibility,” said Misaka Worst as she lifted her index finger. “The Gremlin…magician, was it? Anyway, that dangerous element the others are after was not aware of the real plan. The Trigger was always going to be brought in via a different route, and that dangerous element did not know that. That is why the others were unable to find where the Trigger was stored by chasing her.”
“This is bad. This is very, very bad,” Hamazura groaned. “If that thing activates, Kilauea will erupt. This isn’t just our problem. If the lava comes flowing out, 500,000 residents and tourists will become victims. And if this acts as a trigger that rapidly destroys America’s relations with other countries…”
“The situation is unstable enough due to World War III. A lot of countries and regions are dissatisfied with the lack of financial support for the restoration work Academy City is leading. While they may not declare war on America, some politicians will likely get into arguments and start some kind of ‘money-making war’.”
“…So are we gonna do this or not?” asked Kuroyoru who was still upset. She may have received some kind of emotional wound from having them see her cry.
However, Hamazura shook his head and said, “Fighting them head on would be a bad idea. Apparently this Trigger applies stimuli to the magma by detonating various types of explosives in stages, but we have no idea what the specifics are. If it’s a delicate process, we don’t want to start a battle around it. Also, we don’t know how powerful the enemy is. I doubt they’ll want to get burned by the eruption they’re causing, so there should be some time between when they leave and when they detonate the device. We have no choice but to remove the Trigger and neutralize it in that time.”
Part 9[edit]