Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 1===

It was 6:30 PM.

According to the schedule, the fireworks should have already been launched by now, but silence remained. Fireworks shows were mostly program controlled these days, but apparently Academy City still had some fireworks technicians with pride in their work.

The color of the sky was about halfway between orange and purple.

The coloration would look right at home on a can of convenience store sweet coffee, but the actual time of sunset was a little later than what the public weather forecast apps said. …Of course, this was nothing on the scale of the planet’s rotation or revolution having slowed. After the sun sank below the horizon, the sunlight was still bent and scattered by the air temperature, humidity, and other factors, so even at the same time of year, meteorological conditions created slight variations in the strict sunset time.

That meant it wasn’t fully dark yet and the fireworks technicians weren’t satisfied.

Hundreds of thousands of lives were now reliant on a stubborn perfectionism that didn’t physically exist.

Still, this was only a margin of error of ten to twenty minutes.

The technicians would eventually reach for the switch of doom and then the blast and the shockwave would trigger a panic among the hundreds of thousands here. Once that happened, the Anti-Skill and Judgment presence in this area would be too busy dealing with that to focus on anything else.

“Oh, dear.”

A-ko whispered into the truck radio while leaning forward and squishing her chest against the large steering wheel of the semi-trailer truck she had parked in a parking lot a short distance away since the large vehicle would be unwieldy on such a crowded day.

“We have a problem. They’ve wandered into a rather troublesome place. The fireworks show is only supposed to trigger the diversion, so I would really rather not get close to the coming panic. Oh, I get it. Item figured out our diversion plan and is trying to stop it.”

“I do not want to be crushed to death in a panic I set up myself,” said B-ko over the radio. “Do you think we made a mistake when we didn’t start the main hunt as soon as they split up and ran?”

“…But I would hate to waste the trap we set up in the fireworks show…” said C-ko, also over the radio.

“We always wait until the authorities are distracted to start the hunt,” said A-ko. “Let’s stick to the plan and kill them.”

“Yes, let’s do that.” “Yes, let’s do that.”

The stolen truck was filled with spare explosives (disguised as fireworks) just in case they were needed, but it didn’t look like that would be necessary. The spares couldn’t be tracked back to A-ko and the others, so she didn’t think twice about abandoning the truck here.

As she wandered around the area, B-ko and C-ko soon approached.

B-ko was a busty girl with a long blonde ponytail. C-ko was a downer of a girl with short chestnut hair. And a flat chest.

Similarly, A-ko was a high school girl with wavy black hair. Her chest was larger than C-ko’s but smaller than B-ko’s, which for whatever reason led the other two to tease her for being too “normal” and “boring”.

They all wore matching tennis clothes with frilly skirts plus track pants. The sportswear wouldn’t look out of place on the schoolyard of any school, but it was actually slightly off from what the students of any actual school wore. It wasn’t exactly fashionable, but outfits just like it flooded the streets during the Daihaseisai.

“Who’s got who?”

B-ko’s question began the usual discussion.

If it was inappropriate, they would ask you to take it up with the researchers who altered their brains this way.

A-ko said something no ordinary person would ever say.

“I’ll take Mugino Shizuri, I guess. Given the nature of her power.”

“…I’ll do Frenda…”

“Tch. That means Kinuhata Saiai for me. Damn leftovers.”

The three girls were hunting Item, but Takitsubo was not one of their targets.

They would strip away all of the excess fat, leaving only the pitiful bones behind. And once she was all alone, they would grab her hair and show her the others’ corpses. And ask her if she was satisfied.

In that sense, the fireworks show was no different.

To truly enjoy a main dish, you needed more than just that one dish. You had to whet your appetite with an appetizer and create a mood allowing for real enjoyment.

“After all, she abandoned us. Takitsubo Rikou refused to become D-ko and ran off on her own, so we need to make sure she understands our anger and sorrow☆”

They continued their chat as they walked along. Keeping it casual.

“I’m Suzunaka.”

“I’ll be Yamakawa.”

“…B-ko, you used that one before…”

“Did I? I can’t remember each and every one. Fine, I’ll change it up a bit and go with Moritana.”

“…Then I’ll be Okano…”

The three girls held their phones together and input their temporary personal information. Being able to take on a new identity without any plastic surgery or fleeing your residence in the middle of the night was both a pro and a con of such a high-tech city.

B-ko looked uncertain about her name. Even though she had chosen it.

“I forget the rules. Does the stroke count of this name give me good luck, or not?”

“…The luck changes depending on if the given name is pronounced Aibi or Manami. According to lucky goldfish fortunetelling anyway…”

“Wow, that turns into a real pain in the ass once you get into the details!!”