Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter1 (section)

===Between the Lines 1===

Their headquarters were in Yokohama.

Alongside Kobe, Yokosuka, and Hakodate, that city had acted as a crucial point of contact during the Bunmei Kaika.



Criminal organizations are ordinarily(?) created as a reaction after social stability is shaken. For example, if the national economy crashes, loan sharks will become widespread. And if food supplies become unstable, black markets will grow more active. In that sense, this too was a major enough event to wind up in the history books.

In other words, the Bunmei Kaika.

The end of isolationism in Japan.

The process wasn’t all bright and cheerful. Westernization alone was praised and Japanese traditions were sold off for a pittance. While Western culture was welcomed on the technological front, it was also a time of confusion when people mentally armed themselves with the ideas of traditional Japanese masculinity and femininity. And so an organization inevitably arose to accept the people’s frustrations and complaints.

For this reason, the Mugino Family isn’t a purely criminal organization.

They simply used the Bunmei Kaika as an opportunity to greedily absorb every last part of Western culture. And it just so happened that included a system of violence that crossed the sea to reach Japan.

So they do not place a sign out front. No matter how much power they accumulate, they keep themselves hidden below the surface. The Mugino Family is a grain production corporation that controls the stomachs of 1.4 billion people worldwide, but their name will not be found on any list of corporate executives.

Loath to fight anyone directly, they prefer to camouflage themselves among the people.

They are a corporation.

Violence is just one of their many negotiation tools and they make an appearance in many other territories and classes. Do not forget that, no matter what anyone says about them, the Mugino Family protects the livelihoods and smiles of 1.4 billion people.

The Mugino Family does not go out of their way to break the law. It is more accurate to say they do not even consider the law. If the law falls within the bounds of their inviolable rules, they will obey it. But if it conflicts with those rules, they will break it without a second thought. That is why the Mugino Family is willing to kill, but also sends vast quantities of food overseas to feed starving children.

Thus, if you focus only on the violent parts, you will fail to grasp the full picture of the Mugino Family.

Two terms must not be forgotten when discussing that large scale system of violence: the Bloodline and the Management.



The Bloodline were those who directly inherited the Mugino name. They generally played no part in the criminal activity.

Loan sharks, the sex industry, gambling, threats, violence, kidnappings, and killing.

These activities were handled by the Management…that is, the butlers and maids who were not blood relatives.

The influence of a particular member of the Bloodline within the Mugino Family was determined by how many of the powerful and profitable Management they had in their service. This superseded the usual family hierarchy that placed the eldest daughter or son at the top.

It was a lot like a game of shogi. They all gathered together and tried to take the game pieces from each other. And in rare cases, a foolish Bloodline member would get so fixated on that game they allowed themselves to be killed in their sleep.



The Bloodline who directly carried the Mugino blood in their veins numbered only a few dozen.

The Management’s numbers were estimated to be in the hundreds or even thousands.

Including those overseas, their total number of soldiers easily surpassed 100 thousand.



So the seemingly simple concept of the Mugino Family in fact contained countless plans and interests, and even different moral viewpoints, so they could not be seen as a monolith. The Bloodline members who had the legitimate right to inherit the family were always struggling over the trump cards that were the Management and that often manifested itself as physical violence.

The Mugino Family was suspect, but it wasn’t clear if the attack on Frenda was the will of the entire family or if some individual member of the Bloodline or Management had gone rogue or even betrayed the family.



“In the end, the Mugino Family has bared its fangs against me.”



She had to investigate this.

Obtaining an accurate view of your enemy was the most basic step for anyone who fought on the dark side.



“But who in the family is actually calling the shots here?”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item4_Prologue|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:Item4_Chapter2}}
</noinclude>