Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter2

==Chapter 2: Mass Gold Counterfeiting==

===Part 1===

Increasing an amount of pure gold by artificial means.



That might sound like fairy tale magic, but from a scientific perspective, it was a field of research with a history stretching back into BCE times.

You could also call it a type of scam.

The most classic example is melting down the gold and mixing in silver or some other metal. You can find countless examples of this, including the legend of Archimedes.

Moving forward in time a bit, gold mixed with flour or wax became rampant. This was the method used by the dishonest sort of alchemist when they wanted to receive large sums of money from bored aristocrats in the name of “research funding”.

Of course, pure gold remains highly valued to this day, so searching for a cheap material that shines with a similar golden light isn’t a bad thing. In the honest world, there are plenty of harmless and non-malicious examples in the fields of decoration and interior design.

But to be blunt, the 18-karat gold everyone prizes so highly is not pure gold. 25% of it is in fact an impurity mixed in.

So there are countless examples of research to create gold-like metals, both legal and illegal.

But it didn’t sound like this case would be that simple.

===Part 2===

They stopped at the closest movie theater.

“Um, ahem. After speaking with the higher ups, I received a most pleasing result.”

“Good work.”

“Listen up, you fools who dug up some extra work. I was really hoping to get this minor incident squared away so I could enjoy the rest of the Daihaseisai like I was on vacation, but you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you!? Are you that interested in defending the peace of Academy City? Do you see yourselves as heroes now!? It’s always like this! You idiots! You imbeciles!! You’ve got me so mad only day drinking can make me feel better!!!”

Item was being treated like program testers who had been called in for work, found a bug in the program being developed, and were now being berated for forcing the programmers to stay up all night fixing it.

The voice on the phone sounded quite upset.

The middle manager whose plans were in shambles shouted in desperation.

“Pwahh… Nwohh! Yeah, times like this require reel beer, none of that third category or fourth category crap!! Anyway, Item, your job is to search out the counterfeiter behind the super realistic fake gold bars – aka HoloAu79 – which is causing such a stir lately!! You discovered this, so you deal with it!”

They discovered it? If it was already causing a stir, Item could hardly have discovered it. It felt a lot like this was a convenient excuse to shove an annoying job onto them.

Kinuhata sighed and asked a question.

“Super what is Holo whatever you said? Is it someone’s name?”

“Hologram gold. In other words, gold bars that are there but you can’t touch,” explained the blank-eyed track suit girl.

Incidentally, computer viruses were named by the security companies that creating the antivirus software, not the person who wrote the virus. So the name could change between companies. Similarly, vehicle burglars and bank robbers tended to be given names like that when the police or media began discussing the cases. So the HoloAu79 name had likely come from the Academy City authorities. Because writing paperwork was a lot harder without a name for it.

The transmission ended.

Mugino thought a bit as the theater’s lights came on.

“This is probably why those Army Ant people were involved… As dark side debt collectors, they would have found it unforgivable to be hired to transport well-made fake gold bars while watching out for Anti-Skill.”

In the professional world, the reward being the same didn’t necessarily mean nothing was lost.

It was like a locksmith thinking they were creating a spare key for someone’s house and then later learning their client had actually been a stalker. Unwittingly doing such a low-level job could hurt their professional pride.

“But, Mugino, did the Investment Club people really have those gold bars to trick their customers?” asked Takitsubo.

“…”

Their deadly “punishment” for the drug tester had been to eliminate one of their own who had betrayed their clients. If the Investment Club would go that far to regain trust, would they really deceive those clients themselves? It didn’t fit and sounded unlikely.

Meaning…

“The counterfeits were made to be indistinguishable. So isn’t it possible the Investment Club received them without knowing what they were?”

“What a pain. If they only had them ''by coincidence'', then investigating those dead people won’t turn up anything. We’ll have to restart the investigation from the ground up.”

“So it was a false charge…”

The usually zoned-out Takitsubo sounded unusually somber.

That said, being so devastatingly unlucky it got you killed ''by coincidence'' was something that happened on the dark side.

Mugino rapidly summed up the situation.

(Well, if we are restarting from the ground up, should we start from there?)

The talk of gold counterfeiting didn’t have all that much to do with the Daihaseisai. Ultimately, there was no time limit forcing them to solve this case during the festival. So they could avoid packing their schedules too full and keep some time for themselves as they worked on the case.

Frenda stretched and held a hand to her mouth.

“Yawwwn… Then in the end, will we be splitting up and grabbing a nap and some private time?”

“You go and recharge your sister batteries. You look ready to die.”

“Frenda. You should try to get there by lunchtime. She goes to a normal elementary school, right? All the parents will be watching on tarps with bentos ready, so you don’t want your sister to be the only one all alone during the long lunch break.”

“You think I don’t know that!? I got up early this morning and prepared a lunch. In the end, you’d better not be doubting the power of a big sister’s homemade mackerel bento!!”

Now wasn’t the time for being heartwarming.

Kinuhata panicked.

“H-hey, wait! I’d like it if we could work out at least a general plan. If the counterfeit gold bars in the Investment Club base were there by coincidence, then we have super no hints at all. How were you three intending to find the counterfeiter once we do meet back up later!?”

Mugino shrugged and didn’t answer.

So track suit girl Takitsubo answered for her. Why couldn’t this more considerate girl be their leader?

“Kinuhata. Army Ant is upset that money experts like them were hired to transport counterfeit gold bars, right?”

“Hm? Hold on. Why did you super use the present tense there?”

“If they aren’t satisfied with their attack on the Investment Club, they will be gathering information on the counterfeiter behind the HoloAu79. In the way only a large group can.”

===Part 3===

It was the busy time shortly before lunch.

Some of the morning events must have had already ended, so the population density of the streets had shot up.

Sticking to the edge of the sidewalk, Takitsubo spoke in the shadow of a roadside tree.

Takitsubo and Mugino were the only ones present at the moment.

“Mugino, what will you do?”

“About what?”

“About the next step,” clarified the track suit girl. “Even if we can leave the physical attack to you, we still need to think up a way to get Army Ant’s leader – the Queen Ant? – to talk.”

“Huh? I can just-”

“If we rely on your ad libbing there, you’ll probably impulsively use Meltdowner and kill their queen. She’s a queen. You never get along with villains who look down on you. We can’t have you doing that before we get the information we need.”

…Mugino had to admit that was a possibility. A strong one.

So did they have to think up some other way?

“Do you have an idea, Takitsubo?”

“I do.”

No hesitation.

This girl was terrifying for reasons other than physical violence using an esper power or bombs.

“It wouldn’t be a guarantee, but it would help if there was something that Queen Ant valued more than her own life. Let’s go with that if we can’t come up with a better idea ahead of time.”

“So why not just do that?”

“I knew you’d say that. I didn’t want to tell you because you stop thinking as soon as someone says they have an idea. I want to investigate some other viewpoints and angles, so don’t tell Kinuhata and Frenda for now.”

They couldn’t let their guard down since there were light-footed villains who were prepared to flee at anytime, but they were talking about a debt collection boss. They were bound to be motivated by greed.

Then the other two returned from wherever they had been.

“Frenda-san, why are you carrying so super many cups?”

“In the end, I’m comparing different sports drinks. They were handing out samples on that street over there. I wonder which one’s best? Being a big sister isn’t easy. I’m meeting up with my sister at lunchtime, remember? This topic is bound to come up while we’re eating our bento! So I need to be researching as much as I can to have enough trivia for her.”

One area was making even more noise than Frenda and Kinuhata.

The noise came from the ordinary people.

Apparently an area had been set up to let people try out one of the events.

Obstacles made of material as soft as sponge or an artificial leather sofa had been painted bright neon colors. It looked like a large-scale athletic facility bigger than a park playground. A full lap was likely less than 200m, but there were metal poles you had to climb, long slides, and other intense ups and downs. It resembled the endurance testing course seen on New Year’s TV specials. Some people were ignoring the rules of the event and just enjoying falling in the water.

The Daihaseisai included a wide variety of events, but this one appeared to be one where you ran through the obstacle course to hit a button and then answered a quiz button. You had to run back and forth several times to answer all the questions. Although the actual project was apparently meant to show off the specs of Academy City espers by letting ordinary people end up all sweaty and exhausted while the espers could complete it in mere seconds.

While watching that from a distance, Mugino made a comment.

“…Do you still have regrets?”

“Not really.”

“You don’t actually have to give up on it. There are those on the dark side with official identities too. You can get by if you aim to be one of the top level villains.”

“You’re overthinking this. It isn’t something I want that badly anymore.”

The soft sigh came from Mugino.

She knew Takitsubo Rikou’s situation best.

False charges.

She had ultimately avoided being found guilty and remained free, but that didn’t erase the path taken to reach that point and there was no guarantee the psychological scars would fully heal. She could no longer trust the ordinary world and its systems. Most people would force themselves to accept the untrustworthy systems because that was the only way to live in society. But if someone had talent for things that weren’t exactly praiseworthy, that could unfortunately create a reason for them to avoid the “honest” world. As long as they had the talent needed to slip into the cracks of society and walk a darker path while rejecting the things they found untrustworthy.

“I’m fine,” said the track suit girl. Plainly. “This life suits me better, Mugino.”

===Part 4===

Until 7PM, she cheered until she was hoarse. During the flapping penguin dance, she moved to get the best photo spot and ended up grabbing a dad from the same class by the face to fight over the spot. That was a good time. By the end, the two had exchanged a firm handshake and parted ways.

And now Frenda Seivelun was smiling and holding her sister’s hand.

After all, this was her precious family. How many tens of thousands of photos did she take with the continuous shooting mode again? She had also filmed video constantly at the highest quality. What’s that? This joyous occasion would last the entire week? Then I’m gonna fill up the cloud no matter how big it is!

While the elementary schools were gathered in District 13, the two of them were currently in the more miscellaneous District 7. For the Daihaseisai, students would visit other schools and arenas depending on the event.

That part seemed to stick in her 7-year-old sister’s memory more than the event itself.

“Sigh. So I’ve finally set foot in a high school. In the first place, I feel so grown up…”

“What do you want for dinner? Hamburger steak? Sushi? My sister, they have food from all over the world on top of the train station.”

“A-a nighttime restaurant. In the first place, the Daihaseisai is such a grown up event. We even get to walk around when it’s dark out.”

Apparently that excited a first grader more than a meal. An Anti-Skill officer out on patrol smiled at the little sister clinging to Frenda’s side and looking excitedly all around.

“In the first place, I’m thirsty. I want a coconut cider.”

“I see, I see. The night is the best time for those carbonated drinks, my sister. In the end, it’ll be hell for you if you drink one during the day when you still have events to play.”

“?”

Thanks to the Daihaseisai, the streets were full of people even at night.

The little sister was so excited that she was still wearing her athletic bloomers and red headband even though all the day’s events were over. Her skin seemed kind of shiny, but that was from the big sister worrying about the bright sun during the day and applying some sunblock or moisturizer rather than using bug repellent. Dressed like that, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy dinner at the kind of restaurant with a dress code and required reservations.

And then the first grader pointed into the distance and raised her voice.

“Oh, wow. Fireworks!!”

They were hard to see from this distant train station concourse thanks to the tall buildings, but there were some red and green flowers blossoming in the sky. By measuring the time lag between the light and the sound (and using her knowledge as a dark side bomber), Frenda worked out that the fireworks were 2050m away. That would be the riverside area. Large-scale fireworks shows and night parades like that weren’t uncommon during the Daihaseisai.

Frenda smiled bitterly.

“In the end, I bet we’d get stuck in the crowds if we tried to head there now.”

“Then in the first place, we should get a good spot early tomorrow! Promise!?”

The little sister smiled and held out her pinkie finger, so Frenda crouched down and held out hers.

It was absurd for her to protect Academy City’s peace. A dangerous dark side villain who slung bombs around wasn’t one to talk here.

(Still, I don’t want to see the end of times like this. No matter what.)

===Part 5===

At midnight, Item met back up.

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“Frenda’s all shiny.”

“Oh, you can see this joyful aura, can you? Yes, it’s impossible to live a healthy life without soaking up the occasional sun. And I got a generous dose of the bright and shining sun known as my sister!”

Their job was to capture the counterfeiter making the HoloAu79 gold bars, but they had no information on the counterfeiter. So they needed to first contact someone who might have that information.

That meant a visit to the base of Army Ant who they had fought during the day.

“But isn’t that a mystery of its own? You see low-level Army Ant grunts around a fair amount, but does someone know where their headquarters are? Their loan shark base super might not even be in Japan.”

“Kinuhata, you’re looking at it wrong,” said Takitsubo.

“?”

“Army Ant has no fixed base. So investigating real estate to track down a building won’t work.”

As they spoke, Item waited for the crosswalk signal before crossing the street despite the lack of other pedestrians or cars at this late hour.

Apparently image was everything. Not long ago, tall signs displaying missing people posters or warnings about heading out late at night had been attached to the wind turbine poles with wrapped wire, but all of those appeared to have been removed for the Daihaseisai. Quite the merciless choice.

The unnatural cleanliness of not properly alerting people to the danger didn’t seem like it would lead to safety.

“I don’t know how good a counterfeit this HoloAu79 stuff is, but Mugino saw through it on sight, right? Is it really that super good?”

“Only because gold appraisal is almost entirely automated in Academy City. …If you let people do it, you’ll have no end of idiots who scrape a little off the surface and steal it. So in this day and age, fooling mechanical sensors matters more than fooling people. A few people might not be fooled, but most people will trust what the neatly-organized data tells them.”

“In the end, HoloAu79 doesn’t have a sign, right?”

Ordinarily, counterfeit money would include a minuscule sign that only the creator would know to look for. Because once the money was in circulation, there was a risk of it returning to the creator’s own wallet. Nothing would be sadder than being arrested for unwittingly trying to pay at a store with your own counterfeit money.

However, HoloAu79 lacked a sign like that.

If the creator had decided a petty bourgeois like them would never do business in anything as fancy as gold bars, they didn’t need a sign to avoid reacquiring it.

That had made this a lot more difficult for the Academy City higher ups.

“So Army Ant doesn’t have a fixed base, huh?” muttered Mugino.

By then, Takitsubo had already found the answer.

“Those shiny things.”

“Hm? In the end, aren’t those meant to keep crows away? These ones look homemade, though.”

“There’s a pattern, Frenda.”

Takitsubo viewed something like aluminum foil tanzaku hanging near a trash dumping site.

“If they move locations a lot, they need some way of communicating with their people. Without relying on corporate social media that is so easily traced.”

“Takitsubo-san, you’re super good at this kind of thing, huh?” Kinuhata sounded impressed.

“I used to want to make quizzes. Again, used to.”

No one really looked into who made these sorts of things. The four girls followed the signs that were clearly homemade yet wouldn’t rouse suspicion when hung up in the streets.

Between two buildings late at night, they found a tall fence blocking the way. The chain link door was locked with a thick chain and a padlock while a man in baggy pants leaned against it and boredly messed with his phone. He wasn’t keeping an eye on his surroundings, but was he supposed to be a guard?

When Mugino approached in obvious annoyance, Mr. Smartphone finally looked up.

“I have business with Army Ant’s boss.”

“Don’t make me laugh. You think I’m letting an outsider in? I’m sure you worked yourself to tears gathering up all the money, but you can wait until tomorrow to pay back your debt. With the interest for the extra day, idiot.”

He became much more cooperative once she grabbed his face with her entire palm. His bent knees and back had him pressed fairly compactly against the ground, though.

Frenda cackled.

“It’s a miracle he didn’t get his upper half vaporized for that.”

“Mugino really is kind.”

Past the filthy fence door, they found a square space of plain concrete.

White beams of light pierced straight into their heads. Those were headlights.

Quite a few vehicles were gathered here.

Was there a larger entrance somewhere?

Several large trucks were parked at the center. But their boxy storage containers had the sides opened straight upwards. Giant speakers, stage lightning from directly above, electric instruments, and a DJ booth… Those were surprise concert stage trucks meant to throw a party anytime and anywhere.

There were also a few vans modified into food trucks to serve alcohol and snacks to the members. (Even though they had all gathered here in cars and motorcycles!)

More than 100 scantily-clad boys and girls filled the space.

The ant masks were a strange sight when there were this many of them.

That explained the great number of vehicles.

Frenda whispered in partial exasperation, although the “Boom! Boom!! Boom!! Baboom!!” of giant woofers threatened to drown her out.

“Army Ant. …In the end, those ants don’t have a fixed anthill and wander the jungle as a group, right?”

“Every one of these people are illegal debt collectors? What has the world super come to?”

At least it sounded like Army Ant only bared their fangs against dark side people who borrowed money and then failed to pay it back.

They were also known for turning people into small diamonds if they couldn’t pay, so was a device for that running in one of the trucks?

Also…

“Super wait a second. Aren’t we missing someone? Where did the two with huge chests go!?”

“We got separated in the crowd. In the end, we need to get going, Kinuhata.”

Frenda showed no intention of actually trying to search for the other two. She grabbed Kinuhata’s thin arm, parted the crowd, and continued on.

The crowd density was a little better than a packed train and she appeared to have found her target already.

“The area with the most guards and the best escape route is, in the end, over there.”

“Are those two super alright?”

It had probably started out as a long limousine, but it had been modified into a convertible. With the movable walls and roof open, it looked something like a VIP table at a sketchy club.

The sofa was as large as a bed and a light green cocktail sat on the side table. Probably a mint-flavored drink called a grasshopper. Did the queen see that as eating grasshoppers like army ants did?

But…

“No one here?” asked Kinuhata, blinking.

Then she used a single Offense Armor boosted arm to flip over the entire 2 ton limousine.

There was a square metal panel on the ground.

They appeared to be borrowing power from an underground mall, so the surface was connected to the underground space.

After the queen escaped, someone else must have moved the limo to cover it up.

“She got away!? Super when did she notice us and run off!?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Large men began slowly surrounding Kinuhata and Frenda.

Were they trying to buy time?

But Frenda didn’t seem particularly bothered.

“In the end, this is all going according to plan☆ Oh, and one other thing, Kinuhata.”

“Super what do you want!? This isn’t the time!”

“Can you use this wall?”

“…”

Was this why Frenda had stayed with Kinuhata and her Offense Armor?

Kinuhata briefly considered leaving Frenda here, but Item was supposed to be a team. She frowned as she grabbed the back of Frenda’s collar and ran straight up the wall to the roof of the 15 floor building. She had to use the windows as footing in some places, but her ability to concentrate nitrogen in a single location allowed her to remove the air between the sole of her shoe and surface of contact, letting her shoe act something like a suction cup.

“Man, that’s convenient. With a Level 4 around, I don’t even need any reverse bungees or rocket boosters.”

“Is that super all I’m worth to you?”

Were the popping sounds from below gunfire? Kinuhata and Frenda ignored the commotion down there and instead jumped to another building.

“What about the other two? Where are we going after super abandoning them?”

“Well, in the end, we’re doing our jobs.”

===Part 6===

The underground mall was a grid of corridors running lengthwise and widthwise, but not all of it was open. Because tenants were periodically replaced, some corridors had metal shutters down, blocking that way.

But those two-dimensional blockages couldn’t stop vertical motion.

Every surface was freshly painted.

It was all bright and shiny but didn’t seem lived in. Since the area had been blocked off, the wall of powerful scent was like a blow to the head.

Accompanied by two large bodyguards, a beautiful brown-skinned woman stepped into the underground passageway in her heels.

Immediately, a voice came from behind her.

“Hello.”

The voice echoed through the deserted area where even the shops had been removed.

Mugino Shizuri already had a brutal beam concentrated in her right hand.

The brown woman raised her hands without turning around.

At the same time, the large men flanking the Queen Ant did turn around. The only reason Mugino did not immediately fire Meltdowner was due to something blocking her view. Something like a torn-up tarp had been thrown at her, but was it actually the metal shutter that had been nearby? The ant masked bodyguards wore something like knuckle dusters, but each one had a pair of prongs on the end. The prongs weren’t the same as a stun gun’s electrodes. Perhaps they were mechanical weapons that latched on like a vise and tore away flesh upon contact.

Mugino swung just her head aside to dodge the flying piece of metal.

“Army Ant, huh? Interesting! Just try and bite me, you lowly insects!!”

With a belligerent smile, Mugino focused on her palm.

At the same moment, a dull thud rang out.

One of the bodyguards crumpled to the floor, where he curled up and trembled.

Directly behind him, Takitsubo Rikou held a fire extinguisher in both hands. It appeared to be the type that sprayed a foam rather than a powder, but that didn’t really matter. The weight of the metal against the head was the same either way.

Mugino didn’t seem to know what to do with her palm now.

“Huh…”

“If you fought, there would only be ashes left. Don’t kill them before we can talk.”

Not mentioning what would happen after the talking was the Item way.

Bodyguard B finally recovered from his surprise and clenched his fists anew, so Mugino Shizuri really did fire Meltdowner this time.

But only after Takitsubo Rikou threw the fire extinguisher at her palm.

“Dwah!? Dammit, Takitsubo!!”

“You don’t listen,” calmly said the track suit girl without even looking toward Mugino, who was covered head to toe in white foam.

Mugino’s plan had been to fire a warning shot and, while the enemy froze in shock and terror, fire an actual killing shot, but now she had lost her chance to adjust her aim. …So Takitsubo hadn’t just predicted that shot. She knew Mugino well enough to see through her entire strategy.

After that, they shifted their focus from the bodyguards to the woman they had been guarding.

She was still facing away with her hands up.

“You owe us for saving their lives,” plainly stated Takitsubo.

“When you’re the ones who attacked them in the first place?”

The woman seemed confident despite the circumstances.

So she really was a dark side specialist. And the boss of a dark side group at that.

The bodyguards clearly wanted to fight and give her a chance to escape, but her next action changed things.

The brown beauty slowly turned around without lowering her hands.

She was willing to talk.

To reiterate, she was beautiful. However, her eyes alone were hidden behind mechanical goggles with an insect look. And the bewitching brown skin left exposed by her gaudy dress was covered with special tattoos.

“I have a full grasp of the situation, my uninvited guests.”

“Is that why you ran?”

“Emotions are no more than brain chemicals. This means they can reach me as tiny particles I can smell. Grabbing one of my adorable worker ants by the face to get him to submit was uncalled for, don’t you think?”

Before even hearing the sound of something whizzing through the air, Takitsubo opened the door to the fire hose on the wall.

Orange sparks scattered from Japanese-style embroidery scissors or…no, were those nail clippers? The U of steel, well-forged by a craftsman, looked something like an ant’s mandibles.

The thrown blade stopped after piercing through the thin metal door.

Choosing to talk had seemed odd, but apparently she had only been looking for an opening. A very dark side thing to do.

Mugino looked exasperated.

“Why not just kill her now? We can always ask someone else.”

“Wait just a bit longer. …And if you don’t want to anger Mugino any more, I would recommend getting rid of that pepper spray you’re hiding. Animal venom is no use against Mugino. The chemicals will only be roasted and broken down in the air before reaching her.”

The track suit girl showed no emotion on her face.

Not even a twitch of an eyebrow.

The queen ant was apparently rendered speechless.

To her, Takitsubo apparently seemed more off than Mugino. She obediently pulled a bottle smaller than her thumb from her cleavage and tossed aside the formic acid based pepper spray.

“How do you always know when they’re about to do something?”

“Because they do that fortune teller act.”

The “I can see right through you” fortune teller act was a standard tactic for remaining in control of a conversation. Especially for those without as much simple firepower.

She probably had a ''personal security camera'' hidden in the bushes near the chain-ink fence or something.

Information was meant to be kept close to the vest. If someone went out of the way to reveal what they knew, they had to gain something from doing so. Such as surprising the enemy into a freezing for a brief moment they could use to slice through a major artery.

Mugino seemed fed up with it all.

“You won’t get a third chance, Ms. Goggles. Next time, we give up and try elsewhere. You’re who we’re looking for, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes. I am. I’m the Queen Ant who rules the colony.”

On closer inspection the tattoos covering her body were not a pattern or illustrations. It was a series of small written characters. In fact, it was people’s names. She must have noticed where they were looking because the so-called queen slowly spun around to give them a better look. With her hands still raised.

“Every last one of them is a worker ant or soldier ant who died for me. So I engrave them into my skin so I can live on with them. I adore every last member of my colony. Can a lonely mutant like you even understand how a queen feels?”

Mugino snorted with laughter.

She claimed to be mourning her subordinates’ deaths, but she was acting more like she was showing off a fancy accessory. She didn’t seem to be the type to truly regret those deaths and bottle up her feelings.

The Queen Ant smiled with only her lips.

It was only surface level. Deep down, she may have been searching for a chance to attack.

“Why all this setup? You have enough firepower to push back my entire colony if I sent them after you.”

“Yeah. But my power is a little much. We can’t have me overdoing it and killing the stubborn Queen Ant too. But when people make a run for it, they always take along the things that really matter. We could never have located what was truly valuable among all your money and possessions, but you’ve revealed that bargaining chip for us. Now we know what it is you absolutely refuse to have stolen.”

At the very least, they knew it wasn’t the two bodyguards.

The brown woman squeezed a pouch too small to hold a bento. Squeezed it tightly.

Her tone dropped.

“What do you want? You don’t look too worried, so I’m guessing it isn’t that someone isn’t paying you back the money you lent them.”

“If you’re pursuing the counterfeit gold bars case, you must have gathered some information on whoever made them. Give it to us.”

“Why should I? Did you think anyone could approach Army Ant and leave unharmed?”

“Even the most hated creatures have another they can coexist with. For example, the antbird that captures the bugs fleeing from the greedy march of the army ants.”

The two bodyguards swelled out from within. They must have had some strength left and were taking this affront to their boss’s dignity seriously. What kind of weapons did they have hidden away? Mugino guessed it was something worse than a handgun.

But the Queen Ant herself seemed amused.

“Hm. But did you know those antbirds can’t fly very well under their own power? At this point, they can’t acquire food without the army ants. If they don’t follow the march, only death awaits them. So in trying to use the ants, they have become bound to them.”

“Mugino.”

The Queen Ant clicked her tongue. She was probably looking for an opening.

If Mugino let this shake her, she would be devoured and killed in an instant.

But Takitsubo could sense that coming in advance.

The brown woman sighed in exasperation.

“Learn to take the easy way out and you will become trapped. That is the truth. I’ve seen it happen countless times. But if you still want our help, it will mean signing a contract.”

“…”

“Of course, if you screw it up, we will draw on our full power as debt collectors. But if you don’t mind a debt so great the interest alone is debilitating, so be it.”

“Did you think you could threaten Item?”

“You can kill as many of us as you like. We can easily replace with recruitment, brainwashing, deals, and other means. Once the individual with a special power runs out of breath, they can only wait until our gathering of well-trained predators tears them apart little by little, ever widening the wound.”

The Queen Ant grinned, but also tossed over the file in a plastic sleeve one of the bodyguards pulled out. She threw it like a flying disc. Without any real reluctance.

“DIY Garage. That’s what they go by.”

Mugino caught it in her empty hand.

The document covered a single individual.

As confusing as it was, that name referred to an individual, not an organization. It was possible the name was a strategy meant to hide that they were just one person.

Mugino clicked her tongue.

“This is all you have? I was expecting more. This doesn’t even give their real name.”

“Unsatisfied?”

“No. Like I said, one of us is great at searching people out.”

===Part 7===

The four regrouped on a dark street. It was best to leave the document with their analyst Takitsubo.

The track suit girl caught it in a hand.

“I’ll contact you by midday,” she said right away. “This will probably take a lot of work, but I can ask the support group for help. Leave it to me.”

“Eh? What about those of us with super nothing to do?”

“I’m going to get some sleep. In the end, I need to be ready to cheer on my sister in the direct sunlight!!”

With that, they parted ways without waiting for the dawn.

Mugino walked through the empty, late night street all alone and pulled out her phone.

The enemy was a counterfeiting specialist. Someone like that would probably think differently from an ordinary criminal. It would be best to simulate exactly how they thought and what they would do.

She knew someone with a lot of knowledge there. And someone who wouldn’t mind at all if she contacted him at this hour.

“Mujinayama.”

“Yes, Lady Shizuri?”

Mugino Shizuri frowned when a young female voice came from her phone.

“Who’re you?”

“Hanagai. I work as a maid. Butler Mujinayama is currently in the hospital and is still not well enough to answer your requests, so your calls have been redirected to me.”

“Honestly, how long is he planning to stay in the hospital?”

“In Academy City, you all expect wounds to heal much too fast. I can’t imagine what kinds of bizarre cutting-edge medical technology you use in there.”

For once, Mugino fell silent for a moment.

When you lived in Academy City, it was easy to forget how unusual and special the things here looked to the rest of the world.

“General knowledge is good enough. I want some basic information on counterfeiters.”

“Skilled with their hands but lacking in confidence would be the standard character profile. That is why they have the extremely high skills required but do not use their own creations. In a fight, they will not rely on physical strength. On the other hand, they value their own territory – which includes both their special tools and their workshop – so when pursued, they tend to lie in wait and launch a surprise attack rather than running away. So you should be ready for homemade weapons such as a stun gun or pepper spray.”

“Hm.”

Mugino had more or less expected it, but this sounded a lot like Frenda. Although if Frenda knew she was at a disadvantage, she would lay traps to help her escape rather than try and resist.

“However, all of that is only the standard. If you have any clues that could narrow things down further, I believe I could extract more useful information for you, Lady Shizuri.”

“I don’t intend to get that much help from the Family.”

Mugino sighed in exasperation and turned a corner.

A maid was standing there.

And this wasn’t a cafe cosplayer. This was a high-level maid of the Mugino Family who specialized in Molotov cocktails.

“Why are you here?”

“The Daihaseisai is one of the few times when the city is open to the public. Is it that surprising to see outsiders around?”

Mugino hung up the phone and tossed something over with her other hand.

The golden object was HoloAu79.

It was smaller than a brick, but when Hanagai caught it in both hands, she grunted a bit from its weight. Was acting delicate and cute part of her maid training? Then again, it did weigh about as much as a heavier bowling ball.

“This is their homemade gold. There’s your info. So what can you tell me?”

“Hm. No signature to tell it from a real one.”

“That’s all?”

“That means they aren’t the type to seek recognition. Even aside from functionality and practicality, they didn’t bother signing it out of interest or pride. That makes them seem obedient at first glance, but it also means they are irresponsible and feel no guilt about committing such a serious crime. …A craftsman like this will not hesitate to use a powerful homemade weapon. Even in the middle of an innocent crowd.”

“…”

So they were like Frenda…but different at a fundamental level.

That bomber was very picky about where she would set her traps. She handled highly dangerous explosives, but she avoided collateral damage even when making an attack in a crowd. She was the dangerous sort of pro who actually felt pride in her ability to kill just her target in a crowd.

Based on that comparison, a pro without such hangups would be a very troublesome enemy if they were pushed past the limit.

Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai had one more thing to say.

“Their specialty is creating alloys, but that means they will likely misuse the tools used for that. It could be armor or blunt weapons made from their own special alloy, it could be the processing equipment used to produce great heat, or it could be the molten metal itself. If you want to fight them, you should probably start by separating them from any innocent people.”

===Part 8===

Item had a support group working for them.

Frenda Seivelun could befriend anyone, so one might think she was most popular with those tough delinquents…but she wasn’t.

Takitsubo Rikou was.

She entered the dimly-lit bar the delinquents hung out in. Alone. There was generally no one else in the bar during the day and she hadn’t asked why they were able to use it during the day like this.

The track suit girl had one main question.

“Can you gather the information I asked for?”

“There are still two or three difficult ones.”

“Don’t push too hard. It’s good to know when to tap the brakes yourself even though the goal is in sight.”

The support group cleared a path for her. They all looked at her like someone on a different stage from them.

Violence was not a card in Takitsubo Rikou’s deck.

Which meant she had earned the delinquents’ obedience some other way.

She scanned through the paper documents spread out on the billiards table.

“Hm. The missing information would probably be…here. These District 10 exterminators. They specialize in termites, but…yes, they also do repairs to damaged homes.”

“That’s the most dangerous district.”

A delinquent glaring down at the same billiards table breathed a heavy sigh.

Apparently there were parts of the world even delinquents preferred to avoid.

“When you say repairing damaged homes, you actually mean they help people to break open the front doors to mansions and to open safes for a fee, right? A burglary adviser who uses their own termites to create a reason to enter the house. If you need any rough jobs done, just ask. I’m sure the building is well guarded, but if a few of us charged in, it would create enough of an opening for others to sneak in the back and swipe some documents.”

“Don’t,” immediately cautioned Takitsubo. “We’re in the middle of the Daihaseisai, so there are even reporters from outside the city around. Stick to the safe and sure route, okay?”

“But isn’t this information Item needs right away?”

“If it comes to it, you can investigate the victims. Since you mentioned mansions and safes, they must go after fairly valuable targets, right? If any big names are among their victims, you can threaten to tell the victim who was responsible and I’m sure the exterminators will gladly give you the information. Without any bloodshed.”

This here was why she was so popular with her subordinates.

Unlike the other three Item member, Takitsubo Rikou generally avoided direct violence. (This was partially because she didn’t know all that much about violence and combat.) So she did not give commands that would reduce the numbers of the support group. Even if their numbers could easily be replenished. She would reject the shortest route and think up a safe method even if it required a bit of a detour. The trust this engendered had spread to every one of the delinquents.

The support group could not disobey any order, so Takitsubo was like the one empty chamber in a four-shot revolver. That would naturally give her support from those playing Russian roulette.

Unfortunately, Takitsubo had little influence and decision-making power in Item, so she was rarely the one giving instructions like this.

“Takitsubo-saaan.”

A support group delinquent called out to her.

While carrying a thin box bigger than a pizza box?

“A caterer just delivered something. I’ve checked inside and it doesn’t look like there’s any risk of a bomb or gas. What do you want to do with it?”

“Who is it from? A friend?”

“If the name on the ticket is accurate, it’s from Mugino-san.”

“Hm.”

“I think it’s food for you. The handwriting matches, so I don’t think we need to change locations right away. But the decision is yours.”

Takitsubo opened the box and saw a large plate of smoked snacks. A lot of it was salmon. There was also some thin slices of smoked cheese and ham. It may have been a Hokkaido special.

“This is definitely from Mugino.”

Mugino clearly hadn’t given any thought to nutritional value or other practical matters.

This was simply what Mugino liked.

It was full of something other than efficiency and functionality. There wasn’t a message card, but Takitsubo received a message all the same.

Work was work.

Working too hard and harming your health was wrong.

“I see.”

However, Takitsubo had no intention of changing her lifestyle.

She was Item’s searcher.

How much information she could supply in advance would determine how many injuries the ones in the line of fire would receive. That was her job, so she couldn’t hold back.

Was that way of thinking the result of the false charges in her past?

The main reason she acted as the brakes within Item was to protect Mugino who had a tendency to run wild. She protected Mugino not from simple violence but from nastier and more troublesome powers like society and systems. It had been that way ever since Item was just the two of them.

(It isn’t often she sends something like this. Now that Item has more members, is she starting to see herself as a leader?)

Takitsubo smiled a little.

Then she gathered the support team who were helping her with an investigation.

That she didn’t keep all the food to herself was another reason she had so much support from them.

“Time for a break, everyone. This should help you focus a while longer.”

===Part 9===

Shortly before noon, Takitsubo came through on her promise in a Japanese-style pasta restaurant that used chopsticks. With her usual lack of expression.

“I found him. In District 23.”

That was a special district dedicated to aerospace development. It contained things like an international airport, a rocket launch site, and an underground silo mass driver, so it had plenty of large warehouses and maintenance hangars that ordinary people never got near. Buy one of those and it could easily become a dangerous scientist’s secret base.

“In the end, how did you figure that out with only that thin file?”

“Do you want to know?”

In the next seat over, Kinuhata forcefully covered Frenda’s mouth.

That question was guaranteed to lead to a lengthy digression in explanation land. And the extensive explanation from the expressionless yet somehow smug-looking girl might be something that only Takitsubo could understand thanks to her ability to receive all sorts of unseen information. No one else would understand a bit of it.

“The mysterious DIY Garage took some jobs with the dark side in the past, which is why he is fairly well known. By investigating the secret payment methods he used with those people, you can gradually work out what he’s trying to avoid. As long as you provide a clear plan in advance, the support group does good work.”

Takitsubo looked like she had even more to say, but Kinuhata didn’t engage. This wasn’t the sales talk of a clothing store salesman, so she wasn’t letting this go on for long.

As long as they got the information they wanted, it didn’t matter if it came from the day’s horoscope or big data analysis. After picking up on the right search terms from the file, Takitsubo Rikou arrived at the following conclusion.

“He seems to be renting an airport maintenance hangar meant for a private plane. Anyone who can prepare the appropriate paperwork under a fake name can get their own private space the size of a school building. And no one will grow suspicious hearing mechanical sounds from inside. It’s perfect for a lab.”

“Then that’s the place.”

At times like this, Mugino didn’t question Takitsubo’s “oracles”. She knew from past experience that the more she said relating to these answers, the more she would regret it.

And more than that, Mugino was mildly curious about how talkative Takitsubo was being. A lot of people had died from unwittingly using counterfeit gold bars. Did she see that as a form of false charges?

(Why is she getting so worked up when those were all dark side villains who died?)

Frenda was the only one who hadn’t ordered pasta. She had to share a bento with her sister at lunchtime, so they waited until the afternoon events to begin.

Afterwards, the four of them got to work.

“So do we super know this DIY Garage person’s real name?”

“Uikawa Kyusaku. Age: 45. Sex: Male. Divorced. Officially works as at a mobile device repair shop that only accepts jobs online. The official paperwork says he lives in District 8, but that’s probably a decoy. A young woman periodically enters the house because he has hired her part-time to clean up the place and keep it from falling into disrepair. Uikawa himself shows no sign of living there, so he may sleep in his secret lab.”

“In the end, you really did figure out everything, huh?”

“Because the support team is so good. Make sure you take good care of them.”

Frenda made her exasperated comment as she burned a vertical line through the tall fence and entered District 23.

Below the blue sky, they cut across the taxiway next to a runway and walked past a circular metal panel that looked like an enormous hatch. It resembled a missile silo except bigger. It was probably an underground silo mass driver.

They approached one of the giant boxy buildings that each could have contained a gym.

Without any advance information, they couldn’t have told it apart from the rest.

“Any traps?” asked Mugino, annoyed.

“In the end, I’ve already deactivated the alarm and explosives.”

Frenda didn’t hesitate to respond as she messed with the contents of a rectangular panel in the asphalt.

The front door was so massive that sliding it open would be like moving an entire wall measuring a few dozen meters, but they ignored that and used the smaller side door.

They were prepared to respond instantly if anyone was inside, but to their surprise the place was deserted. The lights were still on even though it was daytime. Was it like that year round since the hangar had no windows?

“Did he super run away?”

“With his lab intact? A lot of the machines here cost a hundred million yen each. And if someone who sets explosives traps really intended to run, they would blow away their lab first because it would be a treasure trove of information no matter how thoroughly they cleaned it. In the end, he would try anything that an outsider could think up on the spot.”

Takitsubo pointed to one corner of the large facility.

“Is that for late-night snacks? A toaster, a gas stove, and a steam oven. He has all that, but the card storage and stamp-sized flash memory haven’t been fried. There’s no sign of it being shredded in the blender either. It doesn’t even look like he dumped water on the big computers. I don’t think he’s destroyed anything yet.”

That would mean he just so happened to be out.

…Just so happened. That was another factor that couldn’t be calculated for. Mugino silently scowled, hoping this wouldn’t lead anywhere unpleasant.

“The place is a mess.”

“The air conditioning isn’t anything special… Since this isn’t a biolab, there shouldn’t be any danger from bacteria or microbes, but in the end you should still watch out for chemicals.”

“Is that something being cautious can help with?”

Since gold was counterfeited here, Mugino had been imagining something like a blast furnace, but there was in fact a wide variety of equipment. There was something like a microwave oven larger than a bathtub, there was a press and a lathe like you would find in a downtown workshop, there was a high-tech industrial 3D printer, and there was even a sewing machine and a jeweler’s work desk. Overall, the place felt jumbled. Mugino opened a giant silver refrigerator to find rows of flasks containing colorful chemicals. She wanted to avoid touching those.

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“Looks like he counterfeits more than just gold.”

“Did you know Michelangelo started off as an art forger? If he hadn’t had a change of heart, he probably would have stayed that way.”

This was a topic that came up a lot in labs, both on the dark side and not. And it was a tantalizing story for the adults who wanted to shape born geniuses how they liked.

(So it isn’t just gold… Then what kind of tech will he use as a weapon?)

Takitsubo appeared to be investigating a bookcase by the wall. She pulled out a thick file.

“September 1. Purchased 1 VSOP and 3 VSO?”

“Huh? Aren’t those brandy grades?”

“Hm? What do they mean? Do more letters super mean better?”

Kinuhata looked like she didn’t get it. At her height that wasn’t surprising. The bigger problem was probably that a student like Mugino was so unusually knowledgeable here.

“In the end, do you drink, Mugino?”

“No. But those premium drinks can be used in place of money. Which is great when you want to make a payment without anyone noticing. When I was little, my grandfather and the others made sure I memorized all the brands and grades. This was before I learned my times table, if you can believe it.”

That said, Item committed crimes as casually as visiting the train station or even making an online purchase, so they weren’t a group of well-behaved girls. Those extreme delinquents didn’t touch alcohol because their esper development already put a heavy burden on their brain growth and they couldn’t afford anything that would reduce or hinder their brain function. Because their lives might depend on it.

Anyway, a purchase record of fancy brandies was an odd thing to leave lying around in an airport maintenance hangar. If the thick file was entirely made up of those records, how much alcohol was this guy buying?

And…

“Here we go. …Is this the HoloAu79?” asked a disgusted Mugino.

A few golden bars were lying on the floor. They were about a size smaller than bricks. No matter how well made they were, their creator would know they were fake, so he wouldn’t treat them with much care. DIY Garage clearly wasn’t the type to grow attached to his creations.

Takitsubo’s voice dropped lower than usual.

“It was him trying to get rich with these that caused the Investment Club to be suspected and attacked.”

“It’s not like they were good people. Have you already forgotten about the hanging?” asked Mugino, exasperated.

But if Takitsubo wanted to get all worked up over false charges, that was her business.

“In the end, this looks like the machine.”

Frenda lightly slapped her small palm against a glass cylinder taller than she was. The top was covered by a fairly sturdy metal lid and several thick tubes connected to it. The glass itself probably wasn’t normal and it was as thick as the windows of a presidential vehicle.

It had the look of a tool used for chemistry or physics experiments.

“Looks like a tornado maker,” said Takitsubo.

Was that why a scene from an educational program appeared in the backs of their minds?

The device was essentially a press that applied incredible pressure, but it wasn’t used on metal.

It was used on liquids.

“Ever heard of epithermal gold deposits? …For some reason, lots of gold veins are found in hot spring regions and one theorized explanation says the materials in the volcano or hot springs combine underground to form gold. In the end, a fair amount of research has been done to determine the time, heat, pressure, and distribution of hot spring materials needed to create one gram of gold. That said, I’ve never heard of it being mass-produced that way.”

If you wanted to artificially acquire gold, there were plenty of options, including gathering up accessories from pawn shops and prying open phones. It wasn’t worth spending vast amounts of research funding on. Or so it had seemed.

“Then did this DIY Garage personally work out the exact values needed to make that cocktail and then greatly reduced the necessary time and expenses with this artificial device? I don’t know if he’s processing a bunch of hot spring water brought in from elsewhere or mixing chemicals together, but he must have gotten it working as a business and started selling the product.”

Kinuhata frowned at Takitsubo’s explanation.

“Then is this super real gold?”

“If it was, Mugino wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.”

“Oh,” said Kinuhata, falling silent.

Exactly right.

It was real but fake. Mugino brushed her hair off her shoulder and explained.

“My guess is he could create something a lot like pure gold, but he couldn’t completely remove the hot spring impurities. And this created a subtle difference in the surface luster.”

That was probably enough to fool the mechanical sensors.

After all, it really did contain the components of real gold.

Mugino scoffed.

This was better than an alloy that simply looked golden, but it was still visually recognizable as fake. And more than that, the fact that he introduced it to the market under false pretenses said a lot. Even the counterfeiter knew it couldn’t truly pass as real gold.

“If he had super stuck to this a while longer, I bet he could’ve become one of the great inventors of our time.”

“I’m not so sure. The creation of artificial diamonds didn’t cause the global economy to collapse.”

At any rate, this confirmed that DIY Garage was the gold counterfeiter.

Now they had to either gather information in the lab and track him down wherever he was or wait here for him to return. It was up to Mugino to make that decision, but…

“Oh?”

Someone was there.

A small man stood near the side entrance. He was carrying a paper bag in his arms. The bag was overflowing with food.

DIY Garage.

“I had set things up to kill any intruders, but was there a malfunction? Would you mind giving me your thoughts and opinions so I can investigate how this happened?”

“Hey, Mugino.”

Frenda didn’t see this as a problem.

As long as no unfortunate false charges were involved, this was no more than a shortcut.

There was no need to hold back against another member of the dark side.

“In the end, our job is done once we stop the flow of counterfeit gold, right? And if he struggles, we can kill him?”

“I’d really rather not die.”

He was blunt.

He didn’t sound like his life was on the line. His flippant tone made it sound like they were talking about someone else. You would think he was only saying he preferred not to buy eggs at full price when there was a sale later that day.

Mugino frowned in displeasure.

“Probably not, but what can you do about it at this point? This is what you get for your money-driven misdeeds when you lack the power to back it up.”

“Do you mind if I fight back?”

“Feel free if you’d prefer a painful death.”

“Thank you.”

With a horrible tearing sound, something broke through the wall behind DIY Garage. Like thin sheet metal being torn through. Giant objects burst out on either side of the small man.

Earsplitting scraping sounds continued.

There were several shapes.

Together, they formed a twisted cone measuring more than 2m. Each one was about the size of a roof tile. The countless pointed armor panels were forcibly welded or glued together to create some kind of artwork. Sword-like protrusions jutted out wildly. If this was art, the theme either had to be a toppled pile of junk or countless antennae.

“This is a product of polymer chemistry. My specialty is synthetic polymers, though. With a thermosetting polymer, it isn’t hard to create armor superior to steel. And polymer gels are neat too since they can be used as a microactuator. It’s like the surface of a CD. By moving the gel to create tiny dips and bumps that accurately mark out 0s and 1s, it functions as a signal that can be used to compute fairly complex calculations.”

But if this was a work of art, it probably wouldn’t be equipped with a giant heavy machinegun or a 40mm auto grenade launcher. On the right and left. The weapons were also made of artificial polymer. …Maybe the bullets were too.

A product of polymer chemistry.

The small man spoke calmly with the bizarre weapon protecting him.

“Well, it’s probably simplest to think of it as a strange kind of plastic.”

Kinuhata’s eyes widened as far as they would go.

“Ah, ah…”

The scraping sounds were not coming from the armor.

The armor pieces were completely fixed in place, so they did not collide with each other and make noise.

“You’re super kidding.”

“It’s not really worth calling a tank or a self-propelled gun,” said the small man, sounding unconcerned. As if he were showing off the tree in his garden he took care of daily. “The original idea was to develop an automatic sniping module. Sniping is all about math and physics, so I wanted to throw out the unscientific process of relying on the mental calculations of the kind of genius who is maybe born once every few decades and instead set a world record through simpler and more mechanical means. My initial goal was perfect aim at 5000 meters.”

The current record with absurd anti-materiel rounds (at least as far as the official records went) was less than 3000 meters. Perfect aim at 5000 meant being able to fire ten thousand times at that range and hit every single time. If that ability was mass produced and distributed like baseball bats and tennis rackets, the current security procedures for VIPs and military bases would be entirely useless.

“That said, it is a delicate field, so putting together a product and programming it with all the relevant ballistics and fluid mechanics isn’t enough to hit. Air temperature, humidity, wind direction, the shape of the bullet, the weight, the center of gravity, the rotation rate, gravity, the Coriolis force… You can include all of that and still, for whatever reason, you won’t hit. This issue is already well known, which is why the problem is such a headache. You should be able to use the same program used for the CIWS Gatling gun protecting a warship from aircraft, yet there is some other factor preventing an automatic sniping module from seeing the light of day.”

A Gatling gun that sprayed tens of thousands of bullets from all across a warship or base operated under very different rules from an anti-personnel sniper rifle that had to make a single decisive shot.

It could be seen as a struggle between two people.

“Ultimately, it all seems to come down to a biological adjustment we can only describe as intuition. I guess you could call it the ability to read some kind of unquantifiable current. I was unable to name and classify it. It isn’t as vague as a premonition, but it isn’t as precise as a prediction.”

On the dark side, information was more valuable than bullets. Not knowing critical information could be deadly, so you wanted to greedily absorb as much accurate information as you could get.

Or so they had thought.

Yet Kinuhata’s breathing nearly caught in her throat.

She had seen plenty of dark research in the shadows of this city.

But with DIY Garage’s creation – with the thing protecting him – she didn’t want to know what it really was.

She didn’t want confirmation of what it was.

Meanwhile, Mugino’s voice dropped terribly low. She apparently still had the willpower to stand up to this.

“If you can make all this, surely there was a better way to make use of that ability.”

“There are multiple types of vision: color, depth, kinetic, and so on. When a sniper peers down the scope, those different types of vision combine in a complex way very different from when viewing the scenery with two eyes.”

The small man calmly continued on.

He kept his own pace even in the face of Mugino Shizuri.

“And this isn’t limited to vision. The same goes for the way changes in air pressure can give you a headache or make an old wound ache. Subtle changes in air temperature and humidity are valuable information for a sniper. And your five senses aren’t simply governed by five sensory organs. For that matter, your sense of taste can detect five different types of flavor, so you strictly don’t only have five senses.”

“Th-then super what is this supposed to be!?”

“Well. I was wondering if I could create the perfect sniping module out of nothing other than plastic if I gradually reduced the living parts. I’m making progress little by little. For example, where I leave in living tissue, and how much, greatly changes each sniping module. The sniping scores of each module help me decide what is truly necessary, what I should make out of plastic, and what problems I still have to overcome. And I will eventually be able to create the eyeballs, eardrums, muscles, and organs out of plastic, so it will all work out. It’s something of a mess now, but just like the initial stealth fighters, this is a work in progress. But this is not an errant evolution. It is a necessary process. This is paving the path of evolution to the greatest next generation weapon, so none of it is unnecessary.”

That wasn’t what Kinuhata meant.

None of that mattered.

Yet DIY Garage didn’t understand her priorities at all.

And there were several bombshells mixed into his statements.

Spoken so casually they would slip right past you if you weren’t paying attention.

“Perfect aim at 5000 meters. It will take some cleverness, but I think I should be able to move beyond the horizon and reach 8000 meters. Regardless, I have succeeded at mass producing an automatic sniping module made with polymer chemistry. Now I just have to bring the costs down. This is hardly a purely industrial product, but that problem will eventually be solved as I simplify the process. This will boost efficiency well past the point of praying to god and waiting for a genius to join your army.”

“…”

As she listened, Frenda Seivelun was suddenly reminded of her sister.

She recalled one of the simple summer break project ideas found online. Bagworm caterpillars would create bags to protect themselves by gathering up dried leaves and small sticks, but if you put the caterpillars in a box full of wool and origami paper, they would gather those things and create colorful bags for themselves.

This was similar.

What was?

Everything in front of her.

In other words…



“In the end, are those…p-people!?”



Each individual plastic piece was about the size of a roof tile. The collections of those plastic pieces were more than 2 meters in size and covered in countless protrusions like a sazae or other spiral shell. It wasn’t clear how how heavy they were, but the things digging their nails into the ground and dragging the entire objects forward were the upper halves of human bodies.

“Their explosive strength and focus have been boosted beyond that of the average esper. Thanks to the plastic wiring optimizing the connections in their brains. Now, that more than doubles the weight of their heads, meaning they can’t stand up and walk around under their own power, so they have to crawl around on the ground.”

“Their brains are heavier, huh? And what happened to their minds exactly?”

“They can still think. I value their minds. But I can easily draw out their fighting instinct by heating their brains to specific numbers. And some of the plastics get hot when they react.”

This was the source of the scraping sounds.

They came not from plastic but from human fingernails.

The thin metal wall had likely been broken with the help of gunpowder rather than tackling through it. A blast of the heavy machine guns attached to the sides of the giant “bags” had destroyed the outer wall.

So.

Because camera image analysis, radar scanning, and other ordinary methods hadn’t been sufficient, had he tried to correct the error by forcibly attaching human eyes and ears!?

“The ratio of human body and plastic differs between units. I have created a gradation. I’m sure I will learn something new from seeing which one kills you best.”

Frenda’s eyes widened.

Something glistened stickily on the back of the hand of one of the noisily scraping bagworms. The slight sparkle was a remnant of sunblock.

As a dark side bomber and an expert in all forms of chemistry, she had built a variety of dangerous tools, but this was a forbidden territory not even Frenda Seivelun was willing to touch.

“You call this polymer chemistry? In the end, ''have you been abducting ordinary people and forcibly modifying them into this''!?”

“Were they abducted? Yes, but not by me. All I have done is purchase convenient products and used them to achieve my goal. So if this upsets you, take it up with the people who sold them to me. When you get down to it, human lives are the most expensive thing in this world. These weren’t exactly great specimens, but they still cost a fortune. Not that you can buy them through ordinary channels.”

He sounded like he was chatting while basking in the sun on the porch.

There really was something wrong with Academy City’s dark side. There had to be some unseen distortion of space. Everyone who spent time in that world lost their minds.

VSO meant 10-20 years old.

VSOP meant 20-30 years old.

…But this wasn’t about alcoholic drinks. Had that only been a code for recording human trafficking transactions!?

Mugino clicked her tongue.

Snipers.

She couldn’t help but be reminded of Mujinayama. These snipers took a very different form however.

“Come to think of it, there have been some missing person posters recently… But they were all mercilessly taken down because they would hurt the Daihaseisai’s image.”

“Again, that wasn’t me. Oh, dear. You seem to have the wrong idea. All I’ve done is assemble the parts I bought to create a polymer chemistry product.”

He wasn’t trembling in fear at having his crimes revealed, but he also didn’t seem to be gloating about the results of his messed-up research.

DIY Garage spoke as casually as if he were discussing the weather.

Kinuhata was breathing heavily. She couldn’t stop sweating.

She wasn’t the only victim of the dark side’s inhumane experiments. She had known that intellectually, but seeing it for herself was something else entirely. She was forced to face the fact that she was receiving dirty money to protect the city that did this kind of thing. It might not be an unscientific thought, but she knew she definitely wasn’t going to heaven.

“Tch. Super what are you thinking, you bastard!?”

“Yes, I do have to wonder what my client was thinking when they approached me to build this.”

He made it sound like it wasn’t his problem.

It was like her words couldn’t hit him. Or more like they did hit him but slid right off, leaving an unpleasant sensation behind.

Maybe nothing in the world was his problem. He was the worst kind of scientist. The type who would build whatever idea popped into his head without considering if it would bring about the end of the world.

“Kinuhata.”

She didn’t need to be told.

Arguing with that freak wouldn’t accomplish anything.

The direct threat lay elsewhere.

The automatic sniping modules were armed with heavy machine guns and auto grenade launchers.

Were they communicating with each other? Were they scanning the terrain, the atmosphere, and other aspects of their surroundings? The many long protrusions extending from the “bags” glowed softly.

The threat was those human bagworms.

But…

“Do we seriously have to super fight those things? I mean, the people used to make those modules or bagworms or whatever aren’t even from the dark side!! Is there super some way of saving them!?”

“I really don’t think so.”

The interruption came from DIY Garage as the bizarre monsters guarded him.

The man who knew them better than anyone spoke calmly.

“See, I melted their bodies down bit by bit to completely fuse their muscles, blood vessels, and nerves with the various components. Forcibly tearing them out would kill them from blood loss and shock due to pain. Their nerves are kept in a constant state of excitement to boost the transmission speed, but it’s more effective to directly inject the adrenaline than to have it secreted by their adrenal glands, right? Not to mention that the actual biological parts leftover are fairly light. They don’t provide enough internal pressure, so even if you applied general anesthesia and performed surgery, they wouldn’t be able to maintain their own blood pressure. Ordinarily, the optimal pressure is preserved by shape-memory polymers – that is, tiny bits of gel – that create an incombustible gas to inflate them from within. My point is that they can’t survive with just their biological parts.”

That was awful.

''And had all of that really, truly been necessary!?

“Kinuhata.”

Again, an interrupting voice brought her back to her senses.

DIY Garage.

He really was a professional steeped in the dark side, so he lacked the morality that would allow him to be convinced through conversation. Speaking with him would only let him infect Kinuhata with his ideas.

“Really, it’s you girls who are the cruel ones.”

“…”

“You barged into my lab with deadly tools and powers, ransacked the place, and then lay in wait for me to return. So this isn’t my fault. It was your barbaric actions that forced me to play my own trump card.”

===Part 10===

A product of polymer chemistry.

Those backwards fallen objects – the giant bagworms made from plastic and held together by human bodily fluids – were crawling.

A loud “gashunk!!” indicated a weapon being loaded.

The many long protrusions extending from the “bags” flashed irregularly.

A heavy machine gun aimed Item’s way.

This deadly weapon was made from a lighter material than metal. And there were several of them.

“!!”

Item immediately leaped behind the thick metal cover supplied by the lathe, press, and other machines solidly and heavily fixed to the floor.

The gunfire seemed to tear their eardrums and rattle their skulls.

They couldn’t even move like this.

Mugino was pinned behind the giant lathe.

She filled in any gaps in her knowledge by assuming Mujinayama’s level of skill. An expert anti-personnel sniper would react sharply to any human movement. Simply poking her face or hand out from behind cover would get her accurately shot.

But that likely wasn’t the real reason Mugino and the others couldn’t make their next move.

Were they going to fight?

Could they really destroy those things? Was “destroy” even the right word?

Sniping. Mujinayama had been modest, but Mugino thought of him as a type of genius. But he had also been a top-rate teacher.

“Mugino,” whispered Takitsubo, hiding behind the same lathe. “What should we do? Our top priority is survival. So if we aren’t going to fight, I think we should focus on retreating.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

Takitsubo sounded considerate, but that was a direct path to death and annihilation.

Even now, the heavy machine guns were firing. Mugino and the others were behind cover, but even that wouldn’t last forever. Once the cover was torn through, they would be shot and killed. Heavy machine guns would be powerful enough to destroy a military four-wheel-drive vehicle or a thinly armored truck. Once their shields were gone, this was over and Item would be shredded no matter where they ran. They couldn’t reach the emergency exit door less than 10 meters away. And even if they did manage that, they would end up on an airport runway with no cover in any direction. With perfect aim at 5000 meters, there was no escaping on that open terrain.

But more than that.

They were supposed to run away and ignore this inhumanity?

“…”

Frenda clenched her teeth while pressed against the back of a giant press. She tried to force herself to focus on the job and the numbers, but she just couldn’t. How were they any different from her 7-year-old sister? They had been ordinary people living ordinary lives in the bright world out there. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if they had friends on the dark side or had some special trick up their sleeve? But ordinary people didn’t have those things.

Her instincts were sounding the alarm. Loudly. If she stopped opposing this, she would simply be killed.

(Based on the rest, I’m guessing the grenades use plastic too. In the end, does that mean they’re a high-explosive plastic based on plastic explosives? But why aren’t they launching any? I though they were meant for times like this when thick cover is preventing a frontal attack, so they launch an explosive behind the target and turn them to mincemeat with the blast and fragments.)

If they weren’t using them, there had to be a reason why.

With all the bullets they were spraying, concern for the lab couldn’t be the answer.

“Frenda, what do you think!?”

“In the end, probably the same thing as you, Mugino.”

Frenda didn’t need to think before answering.

Of course she didn’t.

Mugino Shizuri consciously regulated her breathing.

These people had been abducted, sold, and, because their specs were insufficient, sliced open, melted, and permanently fused with some horrific dark side machine.

Could she really tell them to suffer on their own because she found it hard to look at?

There was no rule against it, but she refused to escape to safety just because they couldn’t be saved.

She couldn’t leave this in the hands of justice.

If even evil looked the other way, what in the world did these people have left?

So Mugino Shizuri slowly breathed in and out.

She forced the booming storm of gunfire out of her mind.

She prepared to face the bottomless darkness.

And…



“Sorry… I will retrieve your bones!!”



They hadn’t reached for ill-gotten gains of their own free will and choice. She knew it was wrong to force this onto ordinary people who weren’t even part of the Family.

Still, Mugino raised her voice and aimed her palm.

She would end this.

If she stuck her head out, she would die. So instead she shot Meltdowner through the lathe she was hiding behind, blasting a hole in one of the giant bagworms along with it.

There was no voice.

But in that final moment, Mugino sensed a warmth in the silence that no machine could produce.

Like a sense of relief. Or of thanks.

Then a rumbling.

There was an explosion and red splattered everywhere.

She didn’t know if this was real blood or finely tuned artificial blood.

The rusty smell was faint. The stench of burnt rubber or plastic was much stronger.

It didn’t end with the one explosion.

Had the ammunition contained inside detonated? The other bagworms stiffened in place (likely based on a program) to negate the blast.

Had they avoided using their grenades because they didn’t want to trigger an explosion in the lab equipment?

During a slight lull in the gunfire, Frenda and Kinuhata climbed over their worn-down cover and charged out.

This was likely their first and last chance.

Explosives soared through the air and nitrogen was concentrated around a fist to smash through the plastic armor. It didn’t feel like they were destroying weapons. The feeling Kinuhata felt in her hand was much rawer. Even Mugino grimaced. Death was supposed to hold such great meaning that even a dark side pro would fall on their rear and beg for their life when faced with it. Yet here the brutal Meltdowner beams were a means of saving those people. There really was something deeply wrong with this city.

Just because the burned and crushed weapons themselves smiled as they died did not mean all was forgiven. They knew that, but this was a decision only the dark side could make.

The sounds of destruction continued.

Polymer chemistry, was it?

For Item, that science wasn’t particularly powerful now that the tides had turned.

They only felt anger.

Anger that someone would spend so many people’s lives for such a flimsy strength boost.

“Pant, pant!!”

Once it was all over, Mugino Shizuri was soaked red.

And not with her own blood.

“So they lost. In addition to how the human was used, I set up a gradation between multiple units testing plastic distributions from 70% to 90%, but I didn’t expect them all to be defeated. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions so I can make further improvements.”

Only one person remained.

The cause of it all: DIY Garage.

Covered in the blood of innocents and surrounded by a stench like melted plastic, Mugino Shizuri growled like a wounded beast.

“…Any last words?”

“I can say anything I want?”

Even at this point, DIY Garage did not tremble in fear or beg for his life. Even though she had been planning to Meltdowner him the instant he let any of those emotions leave his filthy mouth.

There was no emotion at all in his voice.

The look in his eyes was entirely unchanged and he simply laid out the words like he was Villager A.

“Do not forget this. You will regret it next time we meet.”

“''Next time''?”

A rusty scent scattered around.

Because Mugino had punched him in the face. With her fist clenched tight.

“Next time!? You’re already out of lives!!”

She didn’t use Meltdowner.

She wasn’t going to end it that quickly.

Instead, she climbed on top of him and used her fists. With each blow, she smashed another feature of that shitty scientist’s face.

“On the dark side! We find our own ways!! To live our lives!! By gathering up the pieces we’ve risked our lives for!! We don’t live cheap lives!! Where we can just open our mouths!! And expect someone to feed us!! And we definitely don’t have anything for a monster like you!! Not for someone who steals away other people’s lives and then wastes them on this garbage!! You think a piece of shit like you!! Gets anything as valuable as a next time!? Are you fucking kidding me!!?”

He wasn’t reacting much, so she grabbed his collar and dragged him to his feet.

A wet sound followed.

Mugino hadn’t done it. A human fist couldn’t make a human head pop like a watermelon smashed by a stick. Something had flown in from the side too fast to be seen by the naked eye and blown away DIY Garage’s head.

A sniper.

Clear interference.

What asshole granted that shithead the salvation of a death free of fear and suffering?

“Huh!? Is everyone trying to piss me off now!?”

With one hand still holding the collar of the corpse with nothing above the lower jaw, Mugino sent her bloodshot eyes darting out and concentrated a beam in the palm of her other hand. She aimed that palm past the outside wall.

And she fired.



A thick beam burst through ''right next to Mugino Shizuri’s head.



The rest of DIY Garage’s body was sliced through and vaporized.

Mugino froze in place for more than a second.

That alone could be fatal on a dark side job.

And even after wasting that much time, she still didn’t understand what had happened.

What was that?

A Meltdowner beam had flown back toward her?

Academy City’s #4 Level 5 power wasn’t something that could be easily mass produced.

She could only think of one other possibility.

But if it was that, this couldn’t get much worse.



“Was that…''Reflection''!?”



If so.

Then only one person could be lurking outside that broken and melted wall.

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