Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 13===

Of course.

Mugino Shizuri and Mugino Sakuya had not enjoyed a friendly journey deep into the mountains together.

Their battle had begun on the way.

“As expected, you fell for it hook, line, and sinker. You’re as stupid as Eika. Everyone, land this fish before she breaks the line.”

The woman wore a gorgeous storybook dress.

Mugino Sakuya sneered thinly.

This wasn’t the time to be picky. Shizuri raised her voice.

“Kinuhata!! You focus on the ones with blades who move in such a pain-in-the-ass way!! I can fry all the second-rates who keep their distance and rely on projectile weapons!!”

“Super on it.”

With a dull “thud!!”, Kinuhata’s head jerked upwards.

The motion was a lot like receiving an uppercut, but her entire body was guarded by a thick nitrogen barrier.

A swooshing sound came later.

“You’re a tough one, little lady. A 12-gauge from that range isn’t enough to knock you down? I guess our assumptions out here don’t apply to you Academy City kids.”

“I’m super flattered.”

“But a slug’ll break through. Sure, you’ve got a special power, but your specialty is martial arts, isn’t it? I’ve fought someone like you before. I just have to remember that time I had to fight a tiger and brown bear covered in bulletproof armor.”

The man wielded a nunchaku shotgun made by linking two shotguns with a short chain. Wasn’t he called Ougigumo?

The shotguns so loved by the American military caused the most damage when pressed directly against the opponent’s gut and fired. And the nunchaku was less about the destructive force of the physical impacts and more about creating strange, ever-changing trajectories that defied the enemy’s ability to accurately predict them and slipped past their defenses through sheer unexpectedness. It might seem silly at first, but the combination of a close-quarters shotgun and ancient martial arts may have been surprisingly effective.

“Let me enjoy this a bit, okay? Your great Academy City power isn’t flimsier than a bulletproof car’s door, is it!?”

The shotgun was the ultimate close-quarters weapon and he could cover all 360 degrees.

All Ougigumo had to do was get close to his enemy and he was unstoppable.

Except…

“By the way, this super isn’t a completely deserted ghost town, is it?”

“?”

“That means the power, gas, and water lines should still be active. And this deep in the mountains, they won’t use city gas carried in through pipes. They’ll use giant propane tanks brought in by truck, don’t you think?”

“Gwoh!?”

When Kinuhata used Offense Armor to lightly kick up like she would a soccer ball, the American shotgun moved on reflex. The idiot accidentally triggered a powerful explosion.

A large motorcycle engine roared through the mountains.

Holding his heavy machinegun like an old knight would a lance, Bakyaku spoke up in exasperation.

“Don’t get yourself killed before I can even try to work with you, Ougigumo. I’m docking you points for that.”

“12.7mm… I’m super taking him out first!!”

“Kinuhata, what should I do?” asked Takitsubo.

“Get in some building or another and stand by! If I have something for you to do, I’ll super call your phone!!”

Kinuhata shouted that, kicked off the nearly vertical retaining wall nearby and climbed up to the next tier.

Unless it was a specialized off-road motorcycle, motorcycles were generally not a good choice for rough mountain terrain. Driving through the weed-filled gardens and across the overgrown grass would get foliage tangled in the wheels and chains. He couldn’t drive up the concrete retaining walls to prevent landslides, so he had to use the winding mountain road to move between tiers.

Thus, anyone who could move directly between tiers could run circles around him.

Kinuhata had the advantage.

Keep this up and he was bound to make a fatal mistake.

(That heavy machinegun is more of a threat than a 2000x damage boost, but I can super attack him whenever I want since his movements are so restricted. I can focus on staying behind cover while moving along the roofs to reach a good attack posi-)

It came from the side.

Without warning, the large motorcycle’s front wheel charged sharply toward Kinuhata.

That was way too soon for him to have gone up the winding mountain road!

“Wha-?”

She didn’t have time for surprise.

With a dull thud, Kinuhata’s small body was thrown to the asphalt. The big motorcycle had slammed into her. She rolled back, hopped up, and finally took intentional evasive action. Bakyaku’s heavy machinegun roared and easily plowed the pavement in pursuit of Kinuhata.

She let Offense Armor protect her as she broke through the window of a nearby inn and fled deep inside the abandoned building.

She spied out from a 2nd floor window and thought.

(Tch!! I see. So that’s super it.)

The mountain road zigzagged back and forth, but the concrete retaining walls had steep stairs and the tall hotel rose higher than the next tier up. There were plenty of alternate routes a large motorcycle could use as a shortcut.

Kinuhata heard the roar of the engine.

It was close.

Bakyaku was probably already inside the same old inn. Still on the large motorcycle.

With Offense Armor, a close-range shotgun blast would only make Kinuhata bend back some, but a heavy machinegun was another story. She might be able to use her full strength to stop a single shot, but she might not manage that if several hit her in quick succession. And of course, once her power slipped. Her flesh and bone body would be obliterated.

(Should I break the windows to spread glass shards around? No, I don’t know enough about him. If those tires were injected with plastic instead of air, like the ones bulletproof cars use, then I can’t super puncture them!!)

A thumping sound came from the stairs.

Kinuhata turned that way with a very bad feeling and the bright beams of headlights shined out at her.

Bakyaku.

A Mugino Family Manager.

The young butler spoke, still straddling the large motorcycle.

“I have nothing against you, but you sided with Shizuri-sama, which makes you Sakuya-sama’s enemy. I do thank you, though. By serving Shizuri-sama, you have contributed to the Mugino Family. I have no intention of taking that from you.”

“You have some guts saying that while super taking the side trying to kill Mugino, you rebel.”

“I need no excuse. This is my way of expressing my love for the Family.”

The motorcycle engine howled. The two-wheeled hunk of metal shot forward. With the heavy machinegun aimed at little Kinuhata.

Not even Offense Armor could stop that destructive power.

“Prepare yourself.”

“And…done,” said a sluggish voice.

It was Takitsubo Rikou.

She had horizontally extended a wire made from winding together several thin steel wires. At about face height.

Bakyaku’s body swung around with his head as the center point. The motorcycle continued on ahead as the body stayed in place before falling to the floor. The biker-killing wire trap had caught him right in the neck. Of course, she hadn’t been holding the wire by hand. It was wrapped around something like a large reel.

“Wh-where did you super find that?”

“There are a bunch of them over there. The inn’s banquet hall has a small stage, so I think the wires are used to raise and lower the curtain.”

Several lights flashed outside the window.

Those would be Mugino’s Meltdowner.

She didn’t even need to actually destroy the butlers and maids. By melting the mountain road’s asphalt or the concrete retaining wall, the rank and file troops pursued by the orange rivers would be forced to flee. Instead of a situation where risking their lives could end up with both sides dead, challenging her was like sticking your head into a blast furnace. Apparently not even the Mugino Family troops were that reckless.

Kinuhata stared out of the inn’s window.

“Sigh. We super can’t rejoin Mugino with all that going on.”

“If we reach the goal first and wait, she’ll catch up with us.”

And so Kinuhata and Takitsubo decided to climb the mountain ahead of Mugino.

On the track suit girl’s instructions, Kinuhata silently eliminated the snipers and marksmen hidden in the bushes along the way.

“But what is Sakuya’s faction doing way out in the mountains like this?”

“Who knows. Maybe they have a hideout here?”

Item had made it this far following the signals from the bugs Sakuya used to keep her people loyal. When all they needed were the coordinates, they didn’t need to decrypt or decipher the signal. So they had made it this far without knowing what the plan was.

“And super Frenda-san is supposed to be here too, but what would she be doing here?”

“Again, maybe this is their hideout.”

They climbed the winding mountain road all the way to the top.

The track suit girl really was good at these tests of endurance. She remained expressionless even though she wasn’t physically boosted in any way like Kinuhata was.

They arrived at what looked like a group of luxury villas…or what was left of them. If Frenda wasn’t here, either Mugino or Sakuya would probably find her while climbing the slope. What that meant regarding Frenda’s safety was less certain.

“(Where is super Frenda-san?)”

“(Sakuya is here, so Frenda should be here somewhere.)”

She wouldn’t be anywhere obvious. That bomber girl’s life was on the line. Although it seemed safer to these two if Frenda made her appearance now while none of the Mugino Family Bloodline – neither Shizuri nor Sakuya – were here.

“If there’s any chance of this working out, we need to super find Frenda-san before it starts raining blood. Takitsubo-san, where do you think we should start looking?”

“Wait, Kinuhata.”

They heard something slicing through the air.

That was an Academy City Two Wings attack helicopter.

An entire group of them.

“Damn!!”

As soon as Kinuhata pushed blankly-staring Takitsubo behind a nearby boulder, a series of powerful explosions erupted.

The Academy City unmanned weapons were bombing something. Something nearby.

The noise was so bad it seemed like that alone would kill them, but it did appear that they weren’t the target.

“Are they after Frenda?”

“How should I super know!?”

And the catastrophe did not end there.

A beam of light lanced out.

And a second and third.

Something was approaching. Clear human killer intent spread across the nearly deserted abandoned buildings.

“That’s Mugino.”

“Takitsubo-san, you hide somewhere. Always keep an escape route in mind and be super ready to move at any time. You have 60 seconds.”

“Wait, Kinuhata.”

“She keeps firing those stupid powerful beams, but things still haven’t settled down. That means Mugino is being pushed back! I’ll gather as much attention as I can, but that means I can’t focus on protecting you while I fight!!”