Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item Chapter3
Status: Incomplete
4/10 parts completed
Chapter 3: A Certain Display of Courage, A Secret Reward
Part 1
Dun, dun, dun, duuun!! Welcome to the Giant Croc Hell Dungeon, a life-size escape game!!!
Can you solve all the puzzles in the sunken underground mall of terror and escape back to the surface!?
“In – the – first – place!”
The mood was ruined in record time.
Frenda Seivelun was submerged up to her hips while wearing a fairly revealing swimsuit and another blonde girl was floating in a plastic inner tube small enough to be blown up by mouth. The 7-year-old who adored that inner tube was Frenda’s sister. But since almost all Academy City students lived in school dorms, it wasn’t unusual for family members to live apart.
It was July 14 at 2 PM.
The younger sister happily slapped her hands against the water below the cold fluorescent lighting. As her sister, Frenda was glad she had gotten over her summer cold.
The 7-year-old’s classes had ended after 4th period today, so she had gone here for the afternoon. But it was a mystery why her older sister, whose address and occupation were both unknown, could join her to play at this time of day.
“Academy City is such a strange place. How can they turn an entire underground labyrinth into a pool?”
“In the end, it’s a serious thing. Some kind of disaster response training.”
It was a summer urban flooding response program. They were running a largescale stress test in case a flash flood happened to fill an underground mall, but for most of the students, it might as well have been a temporary pool. And from elementary school to college, students could always get excited about playing in the water. Especially during the summer.
The event also provided a variety of business opportunities. The tablet in Frenda’s hand was one example. By viewing the area around them through its camera, it would augment the scene and even provide quiz-style codes and hints to search out and find.
Bikini Frenda waded through the hip-height water.
“Oh, this code is about cutting the right wire. Hey. In the end, what do you get when you mix yellow and blue?”
“Green!”
(Wait? In the end, is this using the primary colors of light or of color?)
It was a super simple question that even the 7-year-old could answer, but Frenda still suspected it was a trick question. Was that a sign of being a little too into the escape game?
One of AR’s best features was how different services could coexist at the same location. A service would use a location but not occupy it. The swimsuit couple that passed by while viewing a single screen appeared to be enjoying a mountain stream trivia quiz game. The four elementary-aged boys who each had a game system had formed an adventure party to explore the depths of an underwater cave.
Frenda rubbed her little sister’s head and operated the tablet with her other hand.
“Let’s see, we can’t get the thick rubber harpoon until we find a way to get past the electric lock on its box, so next we should solve the transformer puzzle and restore the power. No, in the end, that won’t work. It looks like we’d electrocute ourselves and get a game over if we electrified the flooded section while we’re in it. So do we have to put this entire area on hold? Is there some way to drain the water? Or is there a plastic diving suit that would protect us from the electric shock?”
“Frenda Onee-chan,” said the inner tube girl floating next to her.
At her age, she wanted to splash water on people and swim around when she was at a pool, so she wasn’t all that interested in solving some grand puzzle and cautiously advancing through a dungeon.
“In the first place, where did you buy that swimsuit?”
“What, has your mental carbonation run out already, princess? In the end, you were the one who said you wanted to do the limited-time croc escape.”
Frenda was mostly doing this for a practical test of her new summer eyeliner that claimed it didn’t run even when wet. But that had to remain a secret because the 7-year-old would have begged to wear the makeup too if Frenda mentioned it.
Anyway, about her swimsuit.
“Really, I just bought a random swimsuit at a District 15 shop. It’s called Shocking Beach and it’s the latest product from Mystery Beach. In the end, bikinis have replaced one pieces as the in thing this year. Specifically, the kind where you wear a normal bikini over a decorative thong.”
“Mhh.”
Frenda’s lazy answer didn’t receive quite the response she expected.
The younger sister was only 7, so she was wearing a cat one piece. It had been on sale for only a few thousand yen at an ordinary department store, but fashion wasn’t about the price tag. Frenda was confident in saying there was no better selection for that girl.
But the puffed-out cheeks suggested the princess was displeased.
The world’s cutest little sister frowned and explained.
“In the first place, I don’t like that your swimsuit has a brand and a name. It reminds me of those sneakers the boys show off because they’re supposed to make you run faster.”
“Eh? In the end, this is nothing like that. This isn’t a high-speed racing swimsuit, so it’s not going to change how fast I swim. In fact, with all the gaps in this, I couldn’t swim very well in it at all. The water’s current and viscosity would probably pull it right off of me. Being a grownup is such a pain. I envy you.”
“Hmph!! Now you’re looking down me. I want to wear a swimsuit like yours! In the first place, I want to grow up as soon as possible!!”
“Oh, shut up. In the end, you need to understand that I can’t wear a cat swimsuit like that anymore. It’s so childish I’d die.”
“Childish!? Die!! And I thought it was a little bit grownup because it isn’t a school swimsuit… In the first place, why do you get to be the grownup one!?”
“Because that’s how it works. In the end, you have the upper hand because you can wear that cat swimsuit and I can’t.”
“Hm?”
“And since you can wear either one, you should focus on the one only you’re allowed to wear. Kyah! Sister, you’re so dazzlingly beautiful and cute I can’t look right at you!”
“Ehh? You’ll make me blush if you keep singing my praises like that.”
The inner tube girl held her hands to her cheeks and wiggled. The way she smiled and did that reminded Frenda of a toy that did a wiggling dance in response to sound. Takitsubo had a habit of visiting a general store in rundown District 19 and her tastes were predictably unusual.
Complimenting while taking something away was one of Frenda’s standard big sister tactics for controlling little kids. If you complimented them and compromised, they would get a big head and, if you scolded them and confiscated something, they were guaranteed to rebel, so it could be tricky to get right. Those other tactics wouldn’t make her the perfect big sister who could get the girl to eat the green peas she so disliked.
“Hm. In the first place, I’m feeling kind of chilly.”
“In the end, what do you want to do? Head on up to the surface? It should be plenty hot there at 2 in the afternoon in the middle of the summer.”
They were playing an escape game where they moved around on their own, but you could also save your location to pause the game and leave. That way a larger demographic could enjoy the game with ease. The summer urban flooding response program lasted more than the one day.
“But you’re right. In the end, I could go for a drink and some sugar. If we get some hot sweets, would you prefer pancakes or some chocolate fondue?”
“Hmph! I don’t like it when you use grownup words like fondue.”
Frenda was pretty sure that was just French.
Then again, that cute but silly little sister would probably make a fuss about French things as a whole being too grownup.
“In the first place, I don’t like people who say sweets when they mean dessert.”
“Oh, that complaint I didn’t see coming.”
“Onee-chan…am I childish for wanting a hanetsuki taiyaki?”
“In the end, that makes you a classy grownup.”
That this was enough to cheer her up showed just how much of a child she was.
The thick waterproof shutters had been shut before flooding the underground mall, so all the shops there were closed. The vending machines had their power shut off to prevent any short circuiting, so they had to head all the way up to the surface to buy a drink. That may have been the one major flaw.
“Sigh. I can’t wait for summer break, but in the first place, I don’t want to do the homework or go exercise in the park. The one you do with the radio.”
“Fair warning: I won’t be helping you there, my sister. Don’t come crying to me when August 31 rolls around.”
“Mgyahhhhh!?”
After Frenda stuck a pin the map and finished saving their progress, she attached the tablet to the hook on the side of her bikini bottom and grabbed the decorative cord on the outer edge of her sister’s small inner tube. Dragging her back toward the stairs to the surface was enough for the little sister to shriek with delight.
(Hanano Choubi.)
Frenda thought to herself while towing her swimsuit sister in her inner tube.
The chill of the water dropped another level.
(In the end, I don’t even know if she’s still alive, but who knows what she’ll tell the enemy after they beat her up. Given the very real risk of a surprise attack, abandoning our hideout and escaping is worth considering.)
Worth considering
Did that mean there were other options to consider it against?
After the sisters left the water and climbed the stairs while holding hands, the little sister looked up and spoke to Frenda.
“Onee-chan, is something troubling you?”
“Hm? In the end, what makes you think that?”
“We got a rare chance to play in the water, but you don’t seem to be having much fun.”
Frenda thought about that for a bit.
That her wounds had healed was obvious enough in that swimsuit, but Hanano wasn’t so lucky. She was still suffering. Or in the worst case, she was already gone.
Also…
“In the end, here’s a question for you. Going to the pool is fun. I won’t deny that. But what if that means abandoning a friend to her problems?”
“Then you need to solve those problems so you can all go to the pool together!! Because you can’t enjoy the pool to its fullest otherwise!!”
“I see,” said Frenda before falling silent again.
She thought while holding the hand of her sister, who refused to remove the inner tube around her hips even after leaving the water.
“I went as far as buying the latest swimsuit, but I’m still too preoccupied to have fun. In the end, that must mean I already consider that newbie a friend.”
Frenda Seivelun could make friends with anyone, but she knew it was difficult for any one person people to stand out above the rest. In that sense, her emotions were thin and dry.
That meant something else about this was bothering her.
She considered that while approaching the bright exit with her sister.
(For one, her puppyish behavior doesn’t really fit in the dark side. In the end, does she feel more like a little sister than a colleague?)
Part 2
Fifteen Bells, District 15. Lower levels.
“Super good morning.”
“You seem sleepy. It’s already 3 in the afternoon. That’s snack time, Kinuhata.”
Takitsubo Rikou replied while adjusting the shoulder of her pink track jacket which must have slipped out of place as she moved.
“Oh, it’s only 3? I super shouldn’t have left that theater yet. Yawwwn. Ugh, the movies where they were intentionally trying to make a silly C movie are the worst. Real C movies are great because they were trying to make something good but things went wrong.”
If Kinuhata Saiai wasn’t even aware where the sun was in the sky, it was probably best not to ask her how long she had been in that windowless movie theater. Takitsubo had heard the girl liked movies, but this made it sound like she had been in the theater more than her bedroom at the apartment.
But Takitsubo’s thoughts were interrupted by…
“That apartment feels so gloomy right now. I’m staying close enough to super come running once I’m summoned by phone, but it’s honestly super easier to be out of the apartment. I’m not even sure what has Mugino-san so angry.”
“You were staying away on purpose.”
“I’m super ashamed to admit it. They super have showers at the spas and internet cafes and I can get my sleep when a movie turns out to be bad.”
Expressionless Takitsubo blinked twice.
No matter what happened, she always kept to her usual routine from when she woke up in the morning to when she went to bed at night, so the idea of making herself scarce for the time being hadn’t even occurred to her.
“With Hanano gone, aren’t you guaranteed your spot on Item?”
“I super don’t want to win that way. And I wouldn’t mind if I ended up in the support organization. It’s not like being a super elite of the delinquent world gets you anything special. So as long as I’m super guaranteed an ID and the basic necessities, I’m happy.” Kinuhata breathed a disinterested sigh. “But not if the person who holds the team together is super on edge all the time. If this place isn’t safe, I’d prefer to super leave and find the bare minimum elsewhere.”
Kinuhata didn’t need her home to be in Item. That was why she had started an illicit part-time job before all this had happened.
“She can’t help it,” replied Takitsubo, leaning against a fancy pillar in the mall of luxury shops. “Hanano is gone.”
That put a puzzled look on Kinuhata’s face.
She frowned and chose her words carefully.
“I thought Mugino-san super doesn’t value human life? Why would the loss of a single teammate super affect her like this?”
Financially, they had suffered a loss.
The suitcase filled with 80 billion yen worth of money cards had gotten away from them and they hadn’t received payment for the job from the voice on the phone either. And on top of it all, they had lost one of their team.
“I mean, I get that maybe it hurt her pride to be beaten by a group super calling themselves Item.”
“It’s not about that. Mugino is a kind person who cares deeply about her teammates.”
This time, Kinuhata’s thoughts ground to a complete halt.
Her mind refused to function, so her mouth flapped wordlessly. It took several seconds before she finally got some words out.
“Um, super what? Are we talking about the same tyrant queen here? Was there a movie version that was different???”
“I mean the real Mugino,” insisted Takitsubo. “Kinuhata, why do you think I joined the dark side?”
“Well…hm? That is strange now that I think about it. You can super keep to a normal schedule without anyone getting after you about it, can’t you? That’s super rare on the dark side. You don’t strike me as the kind of person who had to make a run for it after super killing a teacher that pissed her off.”
“I was arrested on false charges.”
She opened up so readily.
Everyone in the dark side had a reason for being there.
“My AIM Stalker is an unusual power, so some lab apparently wanted to gain custody over me. It was probably a project related to this dangerous Body Crystal drug and they wanted to keep it all a secret. I think the plan was to frame me for a crime to get me thrown in prison and then make me disappear once interest in me faded.”
“…”
A legal abduction to facilitate an experiment.
That was a strange phenomenon that could happen when the right person viewed a list of names and pointed at the one they wanted.
Kinuhata herself had been imprisoned and experimented on against her will in the Dark May Project.
Academy City really was shit.
“But Mugino saved me. The case against me was dismissed, but the reason why was never revealed. So I don’t actually know what firepower-obsessed Mugino did.”
Takitsubo smiled thinly as she explained this.
It was the smile of a girl revealing a small admiration.
“She said she wanted an esper who could support her since Meltdowner is too powerful and I don’t think she was lying about that. But if that was really all she wanted, she only needed to put me in a tiny cage in the corner of the room and give me food and water. Or if looking after a human was too burdensome and risky, there are specialized ‘pet sitters’ you can pay to do it for you. This is a city where people really will do things like that if they feel it’s necessary. But Mugino let me choose what clothes I wanted to wear, fed me whatever food I wanted to eat, gave me a room to sleep in, and – most importantly – gave me freedom and safety. I don’t care what anyone says – even Mugino herself – I think that came from a kindness in her that sets aside things like logic or efficiency.”
“So you think she’s super on edge because Hanano-san disappeared? That super doesn’t sound like the Mugino-san I’ve seen.”
“Aren’t you much the same? You don’t feel awkward in the apartment because of Mugino. When you’re there, you feel Hanano’s absence more starkly. Isn’t that what you wanted to avoid? Otherwise, you would never badmouth movies. Or fall asleep during them. I bet that was because you couldn’t focus on what you were watching.”
“…”
Strangely, Takitsubo’s words hit her right where it hurt.
What signals had she picked up coming from Kinuhata? She may have known more about Kinuhata than Kinuhata herself.
It was true. If Kinuhata had dealt with the two enemies in the library, then they couldn’t have gone after Hanano.
“Hanano is a part of Item now,” said Takitsubo. “And so are you for being so bothered by her absence. People who can care about others think everyone feels that way, but the dark side is where the people without those ordinary feelings end up. So the way you and Mugino are feeling shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
“Is that super so?” said Kinuhata as she changed direction.
She approached the elevator hall.
“Hanano-san was captured to super help you escape the Colosseum, right?”
“Yes.” Takitsubo nodded. “That gives me a reason to save her.”
“If I had been the one who didn’t fall from the library ceiling, I would super be in Hanano-san’s position now. I would have played my bodyguard role like normal and got super captured in the same way.”
Kinuhata clicked her tongue.
At times, the dark side had a way of highlighting the irony of fate.
“Damn, that super gives me a reason to fight too.”
“We all have one. No, we don’t even need one. When you get down to it, the question is whether or not you want to risk your own life to save her. I do. I can’t leave Hanano there.”
They boarded the elevator.
A palm scan and the press of a button brought them straight to their top floor hideout.
Kinuhata felt the ascent of the elevator as she watched the LCD floor number display and asked the other girl a question.
“I’ll super give you what you want here, Takitsubo-san. L-let’s just say I’m willing to let you talk me into it just this once. But super what if Mugino-san is against a rescue attempt?”
“Item generally acts on Mugino’s decisions, so I don’t think there is a way of dissenting outside of explaining how I feel.”
Takitsubo stopped there for a moment.
Until…
“But I don’t think that will be an issue.”
The elevator doors opened.
They opened the apartment entrance beyond and walked in.
“I see.”
Kinuhata put a hand on her hip and spoke with exasperation in her voice.
And a hint of amusement.
“She’s super serious about this, huh?”
The living room wall was entirely covered.
Documents and notes concerning the Enemy Item were pasted all across it.
The library that had been used as a Colosseum stage.
The people capable of secretly renting out the public facility, any suspicious payments they received, or any blackmail material.
Possible people who could have acquired and supplied that material.
Their personal information.
Especially anything that could be used to threaten them.
Which targets had a checkered past?
Etc., etc., etc.
The living room was large enough for an indoor game of tennis, but the entire wall was covered like a walking path covered by autumn leaves. It included the special camera equipment, the DJ who was clearly no amateur, the dark web setup, and the audience gathered at the library. Including the important and unimportant, there had to be at least a few thousand notes there in all.
But that must not have felt like enough because the lonely work was still underway.
All as a means of tracking down the enemy.
“…”
Mugino Shizuri did not even look their way. She showed no interest in the freedom and liberation of the midsummer shopping district outside and she continued her work while staring at the wall with the irritation written plain on her face. Mugino was known for being self-centered – for caring more about her nail polish than the foolish enemy’s cries for mercy – but now she had deep bags under her eyes. That was a sign of just how serious she was taking this. How long had it been since she slept? Kinuhata couldn’t say since she had been avoiding the apartment, but Mugino may have been doing this ever since their failure on July 7. That would mean a full week with no real sleep or rest.
Colored yarn extended in all directions from the known information – the library – creating something like a spider web. People, groups, money, buildings, information, equipment, fighting forces – any online information the slightest bit related had been printed out, cut out, and pasted up on the wall. The colored yarn visualized the relationships of interest, friends, enemies, superiors, subordinates, and group affiliations. It was all meant to build a giant web capable of snaring the unseen targets. The suitcase and the 80 billion were technically up there, but they were mostly buried by other notes.
That must not have been her priority any longer.
A few photographs of familiar faces were pasted at the edge of the spiderweb.
Mugino may have found the photos online, but they were the four members of the Enemy Item. The photos were fairly grainy, so she had probably found photos of other people where those four happened to appear in a corner or something.
They were pasted up there like it was nothing, but it was a miracle the spiderweb had managed to capture them at all. Tracking down those elusive girls had to have taken an unhealthy amount of effort and persistence. Mugino was known for vaporizing anything that pissed her off, but she had managed to restrain the part of her that always responded with thoughtless rage.
And.
There was also a photograph of missing Hanano Choubi’s face.
It came from the group selfie Frenda had taken as camouflage while tailing the Colosseum contestant.
Since that was pasted on the wall too, Mugino couldn’t be taking it lightly. In fact, she may have been the real center of the spiderweb, not the library.
Mugino would not let that girl become an unreachable memory.
She was the one who had ordered the girl to take Takitsubo and escape.
It would be one thing if Hanano had screwed up or run off without doing her job, but this was the result of carrying out Mugino’s order.
Mugino had to have her thoughts about Hanano for remaining faithful to the end despite being on the dark side.
She had kept her promise.
So it was only natural to risk your own life to repay the favor.
Takitsubo elbowed Kinuhata in the side and winked.
“See? I told you.”
“Yeah, yeah. You super win this one.”
Then they heard the front door open without the doorbell ringing.
Someone entered the apartment.
“Sorry. In the end, I know I’m way late. It took forever to buy up all the mackerel cans at the store.”
“You’re last, Frenda? Then you’re buying everyone dinner.”
It had been so long since Mugino spoke.
She may have forgotten how to do so over the past few days, so it came out as a low growl as she glared at the wall. Frenda complained through a cheerful smile.
“Eh? You aren’t even going to ask why I’m late? I had my own preparations to complete.”
That was true.
Frenda Seivelun was carrying so many bags you would think she had run away from home. First, she had a large suitcase in each hand. Then she wore a long mountain climber’s backpack on her back. But that must not have been enough because she had a sling bag worn diagonally across her front. It was July, shortly before summer break, so it was a miracle she hadn’t been taken in for questioning by Anti-Skill or Judgment while wandering around Academy City’s largest shopping district with all that luggage.
And she would have been in serious trouble if she had been taken in for questioning.
She lay down one of the suitcases and inserted a small key. It opened up like a pop-up book, revealing explosives in a variety of shapes and colors. Kinuhata didn’t know what they were all called and she doubted she would understand if Frenda explained what they all were. Since she had gone out of her way to bring them in from outside the hideout, they probably weren’t something that could be safely stored here.
She had gone around collecting them all for this.
Frenda winked.
“In the end, we need to pull out all the stops, right? If I’m going to save a friend, I’m going to give it my all.”
They wanted money, but what for?
As long as they didn’t lose sight of that, those girls would not lose their way.
What was a mere 80 billion worth?
If they couldn’t smile together with everyone they had accepted as a teammate, it wasn’t worth a damn thing.
Part 3
Tokiwadai Middle School was a conspicuous location even for the School Garden, a special area in District 7.
A curvy girl with a decorative braid in her fluffy blonde hair held her hands together in a polite greeting.
“How do you do?”
“Hello, Ibotanokikouji-senpai. Aren’t you running late? I thought your last class today was swimming.”
They exchanged greetings like it was nothing, but the short-haired girl in front of her was in fact one of the seven Level 5s. People like that walking the halls on a daily basis was one reason Tokiwadai was a den of monsters.
Ibotanokikouji Kaede, leader of a brutal dark side team, suppressed a soft sigh.
(Really, the weird thing is for elites like the Level 5s to be lurking in filthy back alleys during the day. As far as Academy City’s hierarchy is concerned, anyway.)
“I will be fine. Changing quickly is one of my talents, so don’t worry.”
“Everything moves at such a carefree pace in Tokiwadai, so I’m not sure I trust your idea of ‘quickly’. You should still probably hurry.”
Ibotanokikouji agreed with that assessment.
Tokiwadai Middle School was like a breathable aquarium.
The teachers and students all moved so maddeningly slowly as they walked down the hall or ate their lunch.
And she had to move just as slowly or everyone would see her as an aberration from the norm.
Like they did the Level 5 girl in front of her who chose to live true to herself.
“I assure you I will be fine. By the way, Misaka-sama, have you ever met the #6 Level 5?”
“I haven’t.” The girl shrugged. “It’s not like the Level 5s have some special community where we all get along. My arguments with the little one are famous, aren’t they? Or not, I don’t really know.”
The other Level 5, Mental Out, could reproduce just about any psychological power, so for better or for worse, this girl was the only one in Tokiwadai who could call her “the little one”. Which did make it seem like those two had some kind of special bond.
She casually shrugged again.
“There are only seven of us, but that doesn’t mean much. We haven’t all become friends and exchanged email addresses or anything. I don’t even know all their names and powers.”
“What if I told you I was the #6?”
“Oh, really?”
After that exchange, they parted with a smile.
Ibotanokikouji turned a corner in the hallway, and…
“Phew.”
Even the bright midsummer sun felt somehow cool inside Tokiwadai. It was a carefree world free of crime where the little birds someone had fed were relaxing on the windowsill.
Ibotanokikouji knew it was careless to attend a swimming class when an enemy dark side team wanted her dead.
Tokiwadai was a safe zone in every possible way. It was physically isolated, no information could leak out, and it was involved in Academy City politics.
But it took away everything except for safety, so staying there too long was stifling.
She felt staying here was like locking yourself up in prison for safety.
“Everything moves at such a carefree pace” was a good way of putting it.
Since she was attending Tokiwadai, Ibotanokikouji obviously was not short on money. She was soaking neck deep in the dark side anyway because she feared she would become cut off from the world at large like Urashima Tarou if she did not leave on occasion. Or to put it another way, she always wanted to be at the leading edge of the world. No matter how rotten the truth was, it helped her adjust the hands of her old watch that fell out of sync so easily.
(The dark side has a bad habit of drawing a solid line between themselves and the rest of the city.)
She raised both arms to stretch her back.
The girls in the hallway were moving carefully but somehow hurriedly just before the break ended, but all of a sudden they parted to the sides of the hallway.
Her power was best suited for killing, but with a bit of creativity, it could also do things like this.
She walked right down the center of the hallway.
(The two worlds are geographically connected and function like two sides of the same coin. This sunlit field is within reach. I haven’t been reborn in another world or anything.)
Mugino’s team would have seen the Tokiwadai uniform in the library and they had to be working feverishly to track her down and rescue the hostage, but they must have assumed their enemy would not be attending school at the predetermined time each day.
She had sacrificed her freedom and bound herself here, so she needed it to cut off all pursuit, both physically and psychologically.
She glanced through a classroom door to check the clock on the wall, but she did not make her way to the locker room. She preferred a deserted location, so she set her sights on the landing of the stairs leading up to the roof. That some cleaning supplies had been left out but no one had reported it meant people barely ever came this way.
Ibotanokikouji nodded.
A sharp sound of splitting air scattered from her feet. Since barely anyone went up to the roof, a “closed for cleaning” sign had been left lying on the landing instead of being put away properly, but it hopped up like she had kicked it. She easily caught it in one hand when it arrived at eye level.
She set it up on the stairs below, transforming the landing up to the roof into her own private territory.
(Of course, if I have to, I can always have them subconsciously avoid the stairs.)
“Now, then.”
She didn’t have much time, so she removed her uniform while operating her phone.
This was why she couldn’t use the locker room in the busy time before swimming class.
She attached an eraser-sized signal spoofing device to the phone’s bottom connector and manually input a number not recorded in the address book. She had to be clever since Tokiwadai had that electrical esper, that psychological esper, and so many more.
“Yes, I can talk now. But I need time to store my uniform, underwear, and valuables in the locker room, lock the locker, and reach the pool on time, so you have 5 minutes for your report.”
“Do they really allow private phones at that fancy school?”
“It won’t be a problem as long as none of you call me in the middle of class.”
She had called the art club girl named Inoue Laspezia.
Her plain, whispered voice was even harder to make out coming from the device.
“And a lot of the girls here don’t have one. Have you heard of love letters? They still write them on paper here. With a spritz of perfume on the stationery, of course.”
“At a girl’s school?”
“The rules in the student handbook never say a word about banning relationships with other students. Although it’s possible the teachers just didn’t think that one through.”
“Whatever. I don’t have anything to do but wait, so I was trying to figure out what to cook today.”
“Do forgive me. The school provides our lunches, so I won’t be able to eat your bento.”
“Don’t worry about it. I found some good eel, so I’m planning to make some jellied eel broth.”
“Eh? But today isn’t even your day to cook.”
“I’m doing it.”
“Jellied eel broth… Just a second. You aren’t planning to serve just that one dish for dinner, are you? Whenever you try to make a Kyoto dish, you always boil it down well past being a stew. Remember when you suddenly said you wanted to make Kyoto-style ramen the other day and ended up toiling over that huge pot for 8 hours? You always insist Waniguchi-chan doesn’t go to the convenience store to tide herself over, so she was so hungry she started rolling on the floor and begging you to let us eat even if it wasn’t perfect.”
“I will always wait as long as it takes. I will wait and wait even if it boils down beyond recognition.”
Ibotanokikouji stared into the distance, thinking she had better get home early today.
But anyway. She unzipped her skirt, leaving her in only her underwear and mentally listed out the things she wanted to check with her dark side teammate.
(We can wear whatever underwear we want, but here I am with matching white for the top and bottom. I’m so like the other girls here it makes me want to die.)
“How are things with the rest of you?” she asked.
“No real issues yet, but Waniguchi is on the verge of losing control, just as you feared. She says she wants to get back at them for what they did to our teammate, but that’s only an excuse. She really just can’t bear having to restrain herself from destroying someone who is at her mercy. …Then again, there are a number of legitimate reasons, like revenge and getting that girl to tell us where all the enemy’s hideouts are.”
Ibotanokikouji went on to remove her underwear on a stairway landing with no walls separating it from the rest of the school.
She held her phone between shoulder and cheek, grabbed the racing-style Tokiwadai swimsuit, and spread it out between her hands.
“You haven’t started without me, have you?”
“Not really. I don’t need you getting after me again, Kaede.”
“That’s a good girl. I will reward you later. I know this is an unusual situation, but we don’t gain anything by letting that get to us. Bear with it. We can all ‘welcome’ our cute newcomer together.”
“…”
Did that silence come from jealousy? But it was cute how Inoue still obeyed.
Ibotanokikouji continued the conversation with her phone held between shoulder and cheek and one leg lifted to put on the swimsuit. The angle of her head messed with her vision, so she had trouble staying balanced.
Hanano Choubi, was it?
“I still think we should have killed her then and there,” said Inoue.
“What’s this? Jealous? I chose to take her in because she’s cute.”
“That’s a bad habit of yours. And ultimately, you either don’t get along or they can’t keep the dark side’s secrets, so we have to kill them and clean up afterwards.”
Inoue sounded legitimately exasperated.
“You really need to understand that we are the only ones who can get along with someone as tricky as you. Because with both people and things, you prefer the ones with the presence of death about them, don’t you?”
“Hee hee. If you’re going to react this cutely, I’m going to do it even more.”
There were two teams and the winner could officially call themselves Item.
That much was true, but there was no real reason to take the risk of searching out the enemy team’s personal information or hideouts. If all they wanted to do was lay the pressure on Mugino Shizuri’s team, they only needed to throw some of their Colosseum money at the adult world. It wouldn’t be immediate, but the damage would slowly but surely accumulate. The frozen bank account was one example. By the time the bubbles were visible on the surface, the bottom of the pot was already boiling away.
So they needed to preserve this situation.
It was crucial they kept themselves in a position where they could make unilateral attacks. If they got greedy and made a mistake, they might lose everything.
“I miss you,” said Inoue.
“Yes, yes. Just wait a while longer. I plan to head straight home today.”
“Thank you. I will have a sea bream hotpot ready for you. First, I slice it thinner than sashimi, then quickly heat it with some turnip…”
“Kyoto seasoning scares me.”
Generally, when a curvier girl attempted to put on a one piece swimsuit, pulling up the shoulder straps alone wasn’t enough to get the chest up. Ibotanokikouji pushed her large chest inside the swimsuit to fix that and finally took the phone from between her shoulder and cheek.
“The system will be back to normal either today or tomorrow. We will wait until then before working together to win over Hanano-chan. If she joins us, we have a new teammate.”
“And if she doesn’t, we kill her and dispose of her body?”
“Oh, you. You aren’t hoping for that outcome, are you?”
No response.
Ibotanokikouji seriously hoped she wouldn’t try the “she was resisting so I had no choice but to kill her” trick.
“I will do whatever you want of me, Kaede. Even if I am bored out of my mind.”
“If you’re bored, why not finally handwash your 2D body pillow covers and hang them up to dry?”
“Bff!?”
Inoue must not have been able to ignore that one because she gave a highly unusual response over the phone.
“And how can you be bored out there where your options are endless?”
Ibotanokikouji tugged on the shoulder strap with her thumb and let it snap back into place.
And she winked.
“You have it so much better than me, suffocating in this luxurious fish tank.”
Part 4
Mugino started with their primary assumption.
The living room wall behind her was covered by the “spiderweb” that only she could make sense of.
The enemy wasn’t here, but the battle had already begun.
“Hanano Choubi is almost certainly still alive.”
“What are you basing that on? I would super like to believe it, but I feel like optimism and wishful thinking are clouding your judgment.”
“Let me rephrase that: most likely, they want to kill her, but can’t.”
“?”
“It’s a simple issue of job allocation.”
Mugino made it sound obvious, but then she noticed the confusion on the other three’s faces.
She changed tack.
“Frenda, you arrived at the apartment with a big pile of explosives earlier, didn’t you?”
“What about it? I don’t want to hear a single word about it only being chemical fertilizer. I pulled out all the stops and even dug out the potassium perchlorate and pentaerythrite this time. Napalm, white phosphorous, thermobaric – I’ve got it all. In the end, I’m a one-girl chemical fireworks show of blood and death!!”
“Why did you bring it yourself instead of asking the support organization?”
Time froze for Frenda Seivelun.
She knew the answer now.
Mugino sighed.
“I’m sure you had other reasons, like not trusting them with those delicate explosives and not wanting to tell them about your hiding spots. But aside from that, you couldn’t even contact them, could you?”
Takitsubo glanced at the colorful spiderweb on the wall behind Mugino.
Mugino nodded before continuing.
“I would much prefer to leave all this research to them. Numbers are the fastest way of gathering intelligence. But that wasn’t an option, so I’m doing it myself.”
It wasn’t that they had run out of money or been abandoned. Mugino’s terrifying reputation was too powerful for that. Anyone who took the rules too lightly was guaranteed to die. Everyone who dealt with her understood that down to the marrow.
So…
“You super said it was about job allocation, didn’t you? In other words, something big is super going on, so none of the teams can gather the personnel needed to support them?”
“Kouzaku Mitori.”
Mugino pointed back over her shoulder to a photo on the wall.
It was the black-haired girl with the Liquid Shadow power who had guarded the insurance company general manager.
“She said she was preparing to attack the Windowless Building and it turns out she wasn’t bluffing. And I honestly respect that,” noted Mugino.
But that was a side issue.
“So all the villains have had their support organizations gathered up for investigation and defense related to that. No one on the dark side can easily dispose of a body right now.”
“Yeah. In the end, covering up the smell is really tricky once it starts to decompose.” Frenda shrugged in annoyance. “Those thugs on the support organizations wouldn’t have much to do otherwise. In Academy City, there’s legal precedent for the particles that cause the scent of human death being used as evidence of a crime, so no one wants to let the decomposition begin in their own hideout.”
The city did have decomposition experts who could cause even those particles to break down and excellent cleaners who could thoroughly remove the particles from the floor and wallpaper, but there weren’t many of them, which made them conspicuous.
That was bad for anyone who wanted to stay hidden.
And since the dark side’s standard(?) corpse disposal infrastructure had ceased to function, the few experts out there would be getting a rush of requests to deal with the already existing corpses. It was best to assume they were too overwhelmed to get in touch with.
“Which means I’m not very worried about Hanano Choubi being killed right now.”
If the problem was that serious, it might seem like they would want to call in a Level 5 like Mugino or a Level 4 like Kinuhata instead of the support organizations, but no one bothered to ask why that hadn’t happened.
Needless to say, if word got out that the situation was that bad, the standard(?) dark side member would use the emergency to demand excessive payment or even plot a coup of their own.
In other words, the people at the top were too concerned to open up the possibility of their pet dog biting them too.
“Mugino. Do you think she really can destroy the Windowless Building?”
“If anyone could destroy that thing, I’d have already done it,” replied Mugino like it was nothing.
She respected the attempt, but she never said it was realistic. Academy City was a shitty place that loved to shatter those kinds of hopes. All while pretending they were the good guys.
Since Kouzaku Mitori’s photo was on the wall and Mugino had an accurate idea of how likely her attack on the Windowless Building was, Mugino must have known their higher ups would be attacked but hadn’t bothered saying anything to them. She had also known Kouzaku’s plan was sure to end in failure, but she hadn’t bothered to warn her.
That was because the sooner this attack on the Board of Directors was solved, the sooner the dark side could return to normal, the sooner the corpse disposal infrastructure could recover, and the sooner Hanano’s life would be at risk.
Item was fighting the bad guys and risking their lives to save a friend.
But even with all that, they still weren’t heroes.
Nor did they want to be known as heroes.
This was evil cannibalizing itself.
“By my prediction, the anti-Kouzaku focus will end tonight at the latest. Then, with the incident over, the dark side will return to normal. So we need to attack that fake Enemy Item’s hideout and kill them all before then.”
It was just like Mugino to not mention saving Hanano there.
They had the enemy’s tail in their grasp, but they did not strike quite yet. If they screwed this up, the enemy would notice, go further into hiding with their hostage, and never return to the surface. So Mugino wanted to focus on gathering as much information as possible for as long as possible to increase the odds of success for their one and only chance.
Takitsubo smiled a little.
“What do we know about those four?”
“Only three really matter because I killed one back on the 7th.”
Mugino next pointed at the four photos she had tracked down and were pasted on the outer edge of the spiderweb.
When two groups clashed, it was important to know how many people and how much funding the enemy had. And in Academy City’s case, it also helped to know as much as you could about the esper powers and next-generation weapons they had available.
Mugino had of course spent a lot of time on this part.
“Ibotanokikouji Kaede.
“Age: 14. Sex: Female. The center of Enemy Item. A legit member of the upper class who attends Tokiwadai Middle School, but the veracity of her claim to being the #6 remains unknown. All that information is locked down too much to get at, but the rumors I’ve heard say Tokiwadai only has two Level 5s. Her power seemed to use wind or shockwaves, but it’s too soon to say for sure. She might have been holding back on her power while we were watching.
“She is a latent sadist who decided to experience the city’s night to distract herself from her oppressive upper class life. The obsession with earning a fortune without her parents’ help is probably a stereotypical rebellious phase. The way she shows no restraint with such a strong power suggests she is not a murder virgin.
“Like I said, details on her self-proclaimed #6 position are unknown.
“Still, the Dark Side’s Bane title may mean her job is to punish other villains.
“This goes without saying, but she’s the most dangerous one.
“Redirect her toward me if it all possible, but if you can’t, then don’t hesitate to run away. For now, we’ll assume she is the #6. You have my authorization to run away during this mission. You should assume contacting her on your own will cost you your life.”
“Hanayama Kamitsu.
“Age: 18. Sex: Female. She was a Level 0, but she called herself the courier and plowed through any pursuers using her Dragon Motor, a kick scooter modified to use a linear engine or jet engine. On the surface, she was a faithful courier, but she was definitely a peeping tom who loved to watch from a distance as the recipient was ruined by whatever she delivered to them. The quick-dried mummy accident in that one District 7 apartment was apparently her doing.
“I’m using the past tense because I killed her on the 7th. She won’t play a role here except for any friends or acquaintances who might hold a grudge, so you can forget the information about her personally.
“The Dragon Motor is mostly a mystery. Has it been mass-produced? If so, can anyone other than her operate it? Who knows. But we can’t deny the possibility, so we need to assume her ghost will return to haunt us in that way.”
“Inoue Laspezia.
“Age: 15. Sex: Female. Known as the modeler. On the art club and makes money counterfeiting various kinds of evidence. Like a hacker, she seems like a support specialist who uses tricks more than direct combat. In addition to creating counterfeit evidence, she also accepts jobs to destroy existing evidence. That’s a good way to earn people’s trust aside from killing.
“I can barely find a bad word about the girl either in the official Anti-Skill records or on the dark side. Almost no one has any complaints with her counterfeit evidence and the vast majority say they saved her. She might be the type who ended up here because she was a little too good at lying.”
“Waniguchi Nokoba.
“Age: 12. Sex: Female. That apparently isn’t her real name, but I couldn’t track down what her name really is. She’s small, but she’s an expert at MMA and has already killed a few people in unofficial matches at her age. Which earned her cheers from the audience, of course. In the Colosseum, she was apparently the executioner who punished anyone who broke the rules. Simply put, she’s just a combat-obsessed freak. It looked like she sought out the dark side herself because she found all the rules and regulations of the official matches too restrictive.
“She goes by a number of titles: the Executioner, the Steel Crusher, the Human Scrapper, the Death Game Queen – you get the picture.
“Since she doesn’t use any next-generation weapons, her ability to break her opponent’s spine and crush them into a giant meatball must come from her esper power.
“Leverage Struggle.
“It apparently lets her increase the force of leverage. It’s probably Level 3 or 4. She focuses on grappling since she’s a meathead, but she could make more creative use of it with some advice from the other members.”
Mugino let out a long breath after getting through all that.
Frenda shrugged.
Mugino had learned a lot, but they still only had the general outlines. Too much remained unknown: was Ibotanokikouji the #6 or not? Would Hanayama’s technology reappear after she had been retired to the graveyard? They didn’t even know Waniguchi’s real name.
And in cases like this, they couldn’t just suspect every little bit of information they had to be on the safe side. A detective who focused on all the details and prepared for the worst even without any definitive evidence would be crushed under the pressure of all the suspicion on the dark side where everything was a muddled mixture of truth and lies.
“In the end, should we find a vulnerable Judgment member and come up with something to threaten them with? Hiring a hacker and making an attack from outside would be even better. Why go to all this trouble when we could just get the data directly from the Bank?”
“In the past, Meltdowner was enough no matter who attacked us.”
Hadn’t Ibotanokikouji said their superiors had given Mugino’s team jobs they could win to give them a taste of victory? And once they had sunk beyond the point of no return, the higher ups could make use of them however they liked.
She had a point, thought Mugino with a slight smile.
And…
“If this goes well, the biggest problem is Ibotanokikouji Kaede at the top. The next biggest would be Waniguchi Nokoba with her deadly martial arts. But we can’t ignore Inoue Laspezia and her ability to frame anyone for just about anything. She could end up being a dark horse. …After all, we don’t even know what her Level is. Is she a Level 0, or has she just not used her power since her job is to counterfeit evidence? They might be saving her as a last resort.”
“If they didn’t have a hostage, you could blow up their hideout from outside, Mugino.”
Takitsubo normally stared blankly into the distance, but now she gave a shocking idea. She may have been pissed too – it just didn’t show on the surface. Partially from the talk of framing people and counterfeiting evidence, but mostly about Hanano who had been captured in order to protect Takitsubo.
Kinuhata cracked her neck.
“Then let’s super think about how we’ll rescue the hostage. That’s our top priority and running away super isn’t going to help. Mugino-san, do you super know where Enemy Item’s base is?”
‘Technically speaking, they have five bases. But four are definitely abandoned, so we can ignore them. The cleaning maids have been in and out, but there was no response. Those bitches must have taken Hanano here – District 11’s abandoned railway tunnel.”
“What? In the end, are you saying those villains are a bunch of slugs who chose to live in filthy concrete ruins covered in graffiti!? When they have a suitcase filled with 80 billion yen!?”
“They did buy a retired luxury train, secretly stick it in the tunnel, and convert it into a hideout. I’m sure it was meant for technical research, but it wasn’t much use given the limited land in Academy City. Anyway, they’re living comfortably there. Any of the city’s train nerds would kill to be in their position. The Nightjar’s restaurant had three Bichelin stars, which means they have the nicest industrial kitchen you could ask for. It should also have a cocktail lounge and a pool car. The track was removed from the abandoned section, but the tunnel itself has power since laying out new power lines would have been too expensive.”
Mugino shrugged.
“But I imagine the real draw for them was the thick tunnel walls and the high-voltage train lines. They have a smart shelter where they don’t have to worry about being discovered from their phone signals, satellite images, or anything in between. Also, a nap room in a luxury beauty salon or a really nice private room in a university hospital aren’t great choices for hiding with a noisy hostage. They could apply violence to keep her silent, but the fear that produces is a double-edged sword. She might just get desperate. And remember that the corpse disposal infrastructure is down, so they can’t kill her even if they want to. As long as they have to hold onto her, they’ll stay to the tunnel.”
It meant a lot to know the location.
But a tunnel was a troublesome location. It had limited entrances and exits, so the enemy was bound to lay out tons of dangerous traps. And while they could blast a hole in the wall of an ordinary building with Meltdowner and make a surprise attack through there, it wasn’t so easy with a thick tunnel.
“You super can’t shoot through that?”
“I can, but the blast would be powerful enough to bring the entire tunnel down.”
Just like with a large arching dam, a tunnel not made with the shield method was not as sturdy as all the thick concrete made it look. Given the total amount of dirt bearing down on the ceiling, the columns were unbelievably skinny and unreliable, so it took some almost artistically creative load balancing to make it work. If that was thrown off, it could all collapse like a house of cards. And that wasn’t an option when you wanted to rescue a hostage, not kill everyone.
“If all the super traps are in the way, I could charge right on in with my Offense Armor. That would clear out all the stationary traps and give you a path.”
“That sounds great, but in the end, could the walls survive all those explosives going off?” Frenda breathed an exasperated sigh. “In the end, I want a map of the tunnel. If that line has been abandoned, the security level for that data should have dropped, right? Do you have that, Mugino?”
“Of course.”
Mugino unfurled two pieces of paper larger than picnic blankets. One was a map of the abandoned railway tunnel. The other was a diagram of the Nightjar train.
“But these are the official plans. This won’t include any of the modifications the Enemy Item made, so be careful.”
“In the end, it’s better than nothing.”
“Hee hee.”
Takitsubo held a hand over her mouth as she laughed.
Mugino gave her a funny look.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. I just didn’t expect you to tell us to ‘be careful’.”
If most people said something like that, they might end up reduced to charcoal.
But not so with Takitsubo.
She could rely on her own instincts to safely cross the minefield that was Mugino Shizuri.
“Tch.”
That was Mugino’s only real response.
She even looked away awkwardly.
Meanwhile, Frenda was busy analyzing. She crawled along the floor like a dog, sticking her butt up despite her short skirt, and even licking her lips.
“In the end, any modifications they made will be built on top of the original structure. No matter how much they change it, the foundation doesn’t lie.”
“You can super tell?”
“All those notes Mugino has on the wall give us enough to know the personalities and habits of each Enemy Item member. And they can’t pull traps out of thin air. Unlike guns and knives, the finished product isn’t packaged up and sold by the arms industry. Mugino, you’ve been tracking down their past actions, right? In the end, how much of your pride did you sacrifice for that?”
“I only went as far as collecting their receipts from the communal trash dump near their hideout.”
“You sure do you love your friends, huh? So in the end, I’ll look into what kinds of traps they could build with that list of materials.”
