Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 9===

Mugino was freed from the ear cleaning.

Takitsubo Rikou got the conversation started in the makeshift office they were using as a hideout.

“Between Frenda and Sakuya, Sakuya should be easier to find. And the two of them will clash without our help. So we can find them both by pursuing just one.”

“But super how are we supposed to track her down? Even if she has an advantage, she’s still in the middle of a coup. Seems to me that puts her in a delicate position.”

Takitsubo had an answer for Kinuhata’s question.

The track suit girl had said she would come up with a method.

“Sakuya isn’t a trusting person. Not because she’s clever, but because people who profit by betraying others assume everyone else is doing the same thing. That keeps them from opening up to anyone. It’s like a curse binding them.”

“And?” irritably asked Mugino.

“Sakuya will be monitoring her allies even more than her enemies.”

The track suit girl flicked something with her finger.

An eraser-sized machine slid atop the glass table.

“A bug,” said Kinuhata, exasperated.

“It was on the inside of the maid’s collar. I of course made sure it isn’t functioning anymore,” said Takitsubo. “Inside Academy City, it would be less conspicuous to bug their phones. That way the targets would recharge it on their own. But they must use independent devices out here.”

A bug was a device that picked up surrounding noises with a microphone and then transmitted that data. As long as you knew the frequency, you could track down the source of the signal with a cheap walkie-talkie or radio.

Kinuhata looked uncertain.

“Do the Sakuya faction butlers and maids super not know about this?”

“Of course they know. One or two would be one thing, but hiding it from all of her troops just isn’t possible. If those bugs are listening around the clock, how many hours would the batteries last? And what if they wash their clothes with the bug still attached? It’s like the body cams used to catch crooked Anti-Skill officers. They know they’re being spied on.”

Item would use whatever they could.

The bug signal wasn’t all that powerful, but they could pick up the weak signal if they increased the size of the antenna.

“What’s the biggest antenna in the Yokohama area? That big antenna tower on top of a phone company? Or are we going to attack and take over that landmark skyscraper?”

“We don’t need to go that far. There’s a small electronics district near Yokohama Station, right? The frequency isn’t much different from an AM broadcast, so we can wrap some copper wire and make our own flat 5m-diameter antenna.”