Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

Three girls were gathered in an Academy City District 7 movie theater.

Mugino Shizuri, Takitsubo Rikou, and Kinuhata Saiai.

Three of Item’s four members were receiving their next job from the big faceless screen.

“Frenda’s left the city?” bitterly asked the #4.,

Why would she do that?

But their higher up didn’t seem to be considering that question. Which made sense when anyone on the dark side would be working sketchy jobs and treating the lives of friends and foes as disposable.

The question wasn’t why she had fled.

In this industry, the question was why she hadn’t fled sooner.

The Voice on the Phone spoke with audio only.

“There will be a reward, but keep in mind that this job is an order, not a request. We have train station surveillance camera footage and multiple witness reports. It isn’t known how she made it across the wall, but since she had been seen in Shinjuku, Frenda is a definite traitor. I’m playing the power games to hold back the others in this business, but that won’t last long. If you don’t make good use of that limited time and settle this yourselves, every member of Item could be seen as traitors. It’s always like that with them. Time is your ticket to survival. Think of it as an RTS game. So if you sit idly by and don’t do anything, you will all be marked for execution. Count on it.”

“Heh, you’re being nice today.”

“Is this the time for laughter? How many 1-second tickets do you think you wasted with that?”

The big screen didn’t tease Mugino for her comment.

She must have seen something even more troubling from her higher position.

That hinted at how pressing the situation was.

“Mugino.”

“I know.”

(Did Frenda run, or did someone set it up to look that way? Whoever’s behind it, I bet I know why they did it. They couldn’t take on Item directly, so they’re using the rules to bring us down from a distance.)

“Frenda is a Level 0,” continued the Voice on the Phone, “but Academy City’s higher ups are afraid the city’s cutting-edge esper development tech will leak or that she’ll give away the dark side’s many dark secrets. They will do whatever it takes to prevent that.”

“Hm? Do they super have a surefire method of finding and stopping Frenda-san?”

“Fremea Seivelun.”

Mugino raised an eyebrow.

The Voice on the Phone continued regardless.



“If capturing Frenda takes too long, they will use her innocent 7-year-old sister as bait to lure out the runaway target. It’s always like that with them.”



The air strained with tension. There was an actual sound. Could a movie theater that put such care into its audio system really creak due to temperature and humidity?

Mugino Shizuri had been taught to follow certain rules from a very young age, so she did not appreciate this turn of events.

A low growling voice came from that girl who could crack the air with only a glare.

“That’s the kind of joke that reduces you to a common thug.”

“Which is why I said I’m playing the power games to hold that off as long as possible. It’s always like this with you. I am using up quite a few of my intangible tickets of influence. By the booklet! If you waste all your time and fail to show results, I’ll have wasted it all for nothing.”

Track suit girl Takitsubo tilted her head.

“Why are you doing this for Frenda?”

“Don’t make me laugh. I don’t give a shit about that dangerous bomber girl. …But her sister is just an innocent person outside the dark side, right? Even I’d rather not think about a 1st grade girl being captured and screaming as they play the acid eye drops game with her. Gives me chills. So I’m telling you to settle this before that happens. I’m betting on the people I know can get the job done. Do you have any intention of living up to my expectations?”

“Yeah, sure. But do you know what it means to toss Item outside the city walls? I don’t want to hear any complaints later on. Especially since my #4 powers aren’t the easiest thing to control.”

“You’re free to do whatever you want to prevent an information leak. But unlike when you’re in Academy City, no one can cover for you technologically or politically. That means nothing’s getting covered up. You should really consider not killing anyone other than your target. If you are caught by the outside police, dark side assassins will be paying your cell a visit before the mass media can catch wind of it and put it on the news.”

“Assassins, huh?”

“Those three sisters aren’t as adaptable as Item and ''really are only able to kill'', so I’d prefer not to rely on them here. Anyway, do you get the rules, guidelines, and regulations? Then have fun executing your teammate☆”