Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter7 (section)

===Part 1===

It was dark out.

First, they deactivated the electronic security and then they raised the metal shutter and unlocked the analog lock meant as a countermeasure for cyber-attacks. The whole process took less than 3 minutes.

After having a subordinate open the glass door, someone calmly walked in.

“Where is the guard on duty?”

“We acquired the necessary personal information in advance and bribed him into silence. He agreed to smell some knock-out gas around back. Night-duty security is one job where the pay far outweighs the actual work involved. The people who choose the job for that reason tend to have a need for a quick reward.”

“I see.”

The woman stepped into the darkness while glancing over at her face reflected in the glass door.

She looked far too young to be a mother.

She wore a black silk party dress and her long black hair was even silkier than that. It was mostly straight, but there were curls by her ears.

That lady shined from head to toe and she had a curvy figure, yet the light of her skin and eyes was even more youthful than that of an undeveloped girl who had only just started puberty. That would have seemed imbalanced if not for the thorough ''care'' given to her by professionals. Makeup, health foods, aesthetic salons, fitness gyms, aromatherapy, face washing products, sleep products, beauty parlors, detoxing, oxygen therapy, stress reduction, etc. There was an endless list of ways in which she had polished her body inside and out.

It was all the magic of money.

The one flaw was her inability to claim she had earned that money herself.

Sakibasu Ryouu.

She had no esper power or next-generation weapons. Her beauty came from a different sort of power and she now walked down the dark hallway with her sharp heels clacking. The only lights were the reds of the fire alarms and greens of the emergency exits, but there was no hesitation in her step. People could walk to the bathroom in their own home in the dead of night without ever bumping into a wall or the stairs. This was proof of how thoroughly she had investigated this place and memorized its layout.

Sakibasu Ryouu held a silver-shining duralumin case.

It was narrower and longer than the ones a businessman would carry.

The case alone was enough to give people an ominous impression.

And her other hand was softly massaging the base of her finger. Specifically, her left ring finger. She had not been careless enough to wear her ring now, but there was still a mark there.

(You really can’t escape it, can you? I really wish I could hide it while at work.)

“This is the necessary program.”

A figure held out a USB memory stick smaller than lipstick while respectfully following her around.

The label said Blue_Blood.

That was the name of their organization and of the memory device carrying the data that represented their ideals.

That nightmarish virus would spread from Academy City and bring down all the computers in the world simultaneously. The damage would affect everything from personal mobile devices to public dams and power stations.

“The computer used to write and compile the script has already been destroyed. This is the one and only copy. Once it infects the AI server, please destroy the flash memory according to the necessary procedure. Then no one can analyze the source to discover a way to directly eliminate the virus.”

“Very good.”

After that businesslike response, a smile formed around the lady’s eyes.

This was a human side to her beyond the charismatic leader.

“I know creating this and destroying the data was a lot of work, Engineer.”

“Think nothing of it. I will soon fry the necessary portion of my brain cells to physically eliminate the last trace. I will take responsibility and eliminate all possibility of an analysis being done from the developer’s side. If I do not contact you according to schedule, please assume I overdid it and died. I hate to ask this of you, but if that happens, please order one of your people to remove my corpse from my room and dump it somewhere so I do not decompose all alone in there. As a bit player in your grand plan, I am praying for Blue Blood’s success. Now, if you will excuse me.”

The beautiful woman placed the small device in the chest of her dress using fingers given a thorough manicure by a professional. She then brushed back her long black hair and called two other names.

“Acid, Counselor.”

The response came from either side of her.

Twin girls who looked completely identical approached her. They were short girls with their silver hair in ponytails, but that was no reason to let your guard down in Academy City. Just like Riot and Reversible, they were trump cards given codenames.

They were not at home, but they only wore baggy dress shirts and leather boots.

These two were the best bodyguards out of all the trump cards in the organization.

The beautiful leader holding the narrow duralumin case asked a question without even looking toward those silver-haired girls showing off their bright bare legs.

“I will now infect Zero-Day Link. Normal communications will not work once I am on the upper levels of the building. I will not be able to give you further instructions, so use your best judgment to eliminate any threats. Since you are a part of Blue Blood, you want to bring glory to your bloodline, don’t you? I will not ask why, but do know that I will make that dream of yours a reality.”

“Yes, lady.”

The black party dress woman smiled at that immediate response.

“You can call me ma’am. I am not so ''childish'' that I would insist I look that young.”

“Is that an order, lady?”

“Please, Acid. And Counselor too. Do not make a mother feel any more ridiculous than she already does. This is as painful as being dragged out onto the beauty pageant stage and asked to wear a swimsuit among all the young girls.”

For some reason, the silver-haired twins both pouted their lips.

They apparently did not like their beautiful leader’s humility. They really did not like it.

But however they felt on the inside, they were obedient on the outside.

“My apologies. Ma’am, do you expect someone to try and stop us?”

“Counselor, I know you can read my thoughts, so do you really need me to say it out loud? I know my daughter, so I know someone is coming. The boundary between amateur and expert is meaningless to her. She can produce results completely outside the usual social structures and hierarchies. Riot and Reversible were both defeated. We have seen more than one upset that cannot be explained by simply comparing the strength of both sides. Do not let your guard down.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Yes, Sakibasu Yuri always ''had it''. She has the invisible power to make the impossible possible. The power I have now was only made by increasing what I had with the IP rights. It all began with the toy that girl made. So I will never underestimate her. My daughter has something that could destroy the world.”

“Lady, I do not think-…”

“Call me ma’am. If you are going to do it, be thorough.”

“Yes, ma’am. I am aware this is forward of me, but not everyone can do what you do either. The fact that you can do all of that and claim you were simply ‘increasing what you had’ is proof enough of your incredible talent.”

Acid was speaking her heart there.

But the black party dress lady only smiled a little.

“You will know what I mean once you see someone who really does ''have it''. What I have done is no more than some petty tricks in comparison.”

That was extremely reassuring as an ally, but equally as troublesome as an enemy.

If someone found a 1000-yen bill on the side of the road and simply picked it up and pocketed it, that was all they would have. A 1000-yen profit was logically the maximum they could earn there. But the people who ''had it'' were different. If they selflessly took it to the closest police box and received plenty of praise for their good deed, they would create connections to the people around them. If the president of an entertainment production company or a global investor happened to be in that group, they would have created a truly valuable connection. That 1000 yen would produce a result worth far more than that. ''And that was what actually happened with those people.'' It might seem ridiculous, but that was who Sakibasu Yuri was.

After all, who could have ever imagined it?

Who could have imagined a card game made at the age of 5 would continue to produce a vast fortune to this day, like an oil field that never ran dry? In fact, even Sakibasu Yuri would have failed if she had tried to do that. That had been the result of her innocently working at it without trying to cause anything at all.

The more logically people looked at the battles fought by those who ''had it'', the more they were drawn in.

Tokiwadai Middle School’s Level 5s and Judgment were not the threat here. The black-haired lady had heard about the elective exam. Those other students had been her daughter’s enemy to begin with, yet they had eventually ended up as allies. ''Everything had worked out for the better''. Ordinary cause and effect would have said that could not happen, yet it had.

Sakibasu Yuri really was the greatest threat she did not want to run up against.

As long as that girl was acting out of benevolence and not out of self-interest, ''everything on the field'' – both enemy and ally – would work to her benefit.

Trying to do any of it on purpose would cause that miraculous balance to collapse, but if she innocently tried to do good deeds, then all phenomena would work toward giving her strength. Just like a snowball rolling down the hill.

For example.

What had convinced the old man who managed the Chandelier Auction House?

Why had a faithful servant like Riot spilled the beans?

Why had those two girls, who could never get along, joined forces to end this?

None of it had been the flashy Railgun or the Teleportation that left 3D space.

So whose actions had brought about all those results?

…Yes, a lot had happened ''that Sakibasu Ryouu was not even aware of.

However.

Even if she did not know everything about the people pursuing her, she was vaguely aware that they had followed a single solid path that was not going to branch off. Something would arrive along that path. They were only a group of middle school girls and they should have reached a point where the trail went cold several times already. So how had they managed to find a new clue every single time? It had not been about money or esper powers. No, it had been the result of so many good deeds.

It did not matter if someone was an enemy or an ally.

It was different from manipulating or controlling someone’s mind.

As long as it was pure benevolence that drove her and she did not include any self-interest in the equation, then ''everything on the field'' would bring power to Sakibasu Yuri.

Sakibasu Ryouu only had the information available to her to work with, but that was enough.

(They will be coming. The insurance company’s server is not a problem since there was a dummy corporation in between, but either Riot or Reversible must have talked. That means they will know my name and that girl is bound to have her thoughts upon learning what I am doing. Sakibasu Yuri’s benevolence is sure to rear its head and lock onto me.)

That mother had only been able to build herself up on the foundation built by her daughter, so that was the only conclusion she could reach.

She squeezed the duralumin case’s handle a little tighter as she spoke.

“Logic and statistics are worthless. Even experience is of no use here. Act on your immediate senses. That is the only way to stand in the same field as her. This is ''far more than a hackneyed clash between Academy City espers''. Be aware of that.”

“Understood, ma’am.”

“You only need to make it through tonight. Zero-Day Link will overwrite the world. If this works, it will prove that those of us with the proper bloodlines are those who ''have it.'' We can rewrite the world in that way and then we truly will have blue blood.”