Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item Chapter1 (section)

===Part 3===

“Wehh,” moaned a tearful voice.

Hanano Choubi was a girl who looked to be around 15. Her long black hair was split into three with only the very ends tied. She was still a young girl. Her general vibe was more doglike than catlike. And she was trembling like a wet chihuahua.

She wore a short-sleeved sailor uniform, but she wouldn’t be questioned by Anti-Skill for walking through District 15, Academy City’s largest shopping district, at midday.

Everyone judged Hanano Choubi to be a girl with abysmal timing. Nothing she did or said was ever wrong, but the timing of those things was always off to a miraculous extent. So due to no real fault of her own, she earned everyone’s disapproval and found herself all alone.

''Kyah! This man is a molester☆

For how many people would that accusation lead to a counteraccusation of being a scammer making false accusations, getting called a slut, and having your entire life derailed?

“Ugh, what kind of public reputation is ‘enemy of train-commuting salarymen everywhere’?”

Her tendency to monologue to herself despite her lack of friends may have come from her time in the drama club.

At any rate, her life had continued after hitting rock bottom.

Today was the start of her new and exciting life on the dark side. The person instructing her over the phone had told her to go to the top floor of the Fifteen Bells complex in District 15, meet her new teammates there, and work as a four-person team.

But when she boarded the elevator and pressed the top floor button, nothing happened. She noticed an inconspicuous palmprint reader next to the rows of buttons.

“Hmm.”

''Hanano Choubi sprayed her palm with a special powder'' to easily get past the lockout and made her way to the top floor.

That was her specialty since she had no real esper power.

The elevator doors slid open and she found just one door in the space ahead. She hesitantly pressed the intercom doorbell, but there was no response. She had been told to be punctual, so she looked straight up, ''put a color contact in her right eye'', and had the eye-scanner door opened only a second later.

“E-excuse me…”

Despite the techniques she used, Hanano Choubi only opened the door a crack and stuck her head in like the nervous small animal type she was. Her voice was quiet but carried well, another sign of her drama club background.

There was no response, but she still entered.

(Wow, that’s a lot of clothing brushes. How many clothes do you have to own to end up with so many different kinds of brushes? I’m kind of jealous.)

She touched the small intercom screen on the interior wall to check the status of the security system. It looked like there were people here. Based on the guard function that worked with the cutting-edge AI air conditioner, there were four people gathered in the large living room.

That had to be her destination.

“Umm, my name is Hanano Choubi and the voice on the phone told me to join a team called Item…”

She must not have been aware of her own biggest problem.

(Wait, four people?)

The things she said and did were always correct, but her ''timing'' was bad.

So the instant she touched the living room doorknob from the hallway…

“We did the goddamn job you asked us to, so why the hell haven’t we been paid!? Braglhlbhlakdfghsfjhnbhfahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

She fell right to the floor.

[[Image:Item_BW2.jpg|thumb]]

Hanano Choubi’s hips gave out, leaving her in a cute w-sitting position. Even she could tell she had tears in her eyes. She had to gather all her strength in her crotch to keep her bladder from giving way.

There was a demon lord living in modern Japan.

Or rather, a girl with a demon lord aura was shouting incomprehensibly into a small phone with her hair standing angrily on end.

The pink track jacket and shorts girl standing blankly in a corner of the living room noticed Hanano Choubi and turned her way.

“Mugino, there’s someone here.”

“Blaghblkhaydfgblakhndflwehrnakldsfhababhahafh!? …Huh?”

The death metal shout was cut off by a note of confusion.

The girl even tilted her head quite cutely.

“I-I’m Hanano…Hanano Choubi.”

That was all Hanano Choubi could get out while trembling in her attempt to avoid wetting herself.

“Who’s she? A friend of yours, Kinuhata?”

“Super nope.”

Meanwhile, a voice spoke from the phone at the demon lord’s ear.

“Like I’ve been trying to tell you, I transferred your payment like always. If you can’t access it, it must mean your account has been frozen for some reason. Go bitch at the stupid bank operator, not me.”

''Oh, I know that voice,'' thought Hanano Choubi, her face brightening a bit.

That was the usual voice on the phone.

The traditional demon lord, meaning she was more frightening than sexy, frowned.

“Why would it be frozen?”

“Do I look like the tutorial goddess who’ll answer every question you pray at me? The money’s gone from my wallet, so the rest is on you. I’m not transferring any more money for that job. But if your account was frozen without any kind of notification to you, it probably means you screwed up on the data front and triggered a criminal account alert with the bank.”

“You think we’d make such an amateur mistake?”

“Then someone set you up. Maybe a hacker and maybe a snitch, but someone from the dark side.”

The demon lord glared over at Hanano Choubi with the phone still in hand.

“Also, someone I don’t recognize has shown up in our apartment.”

“That would be Hanano Choubi. You were saying you wanted more variety since Item only has three members, remember? You should thank me. She’s a real prize. She specializes in disguise and infiltration, so she opens up a lot of new options for you☆”

An awkward air set in.

The voice on the phone had said they only had three members, but there were four other people here. With that one called Kinuhata and tearful, trembling Hanano Choubi, they made for a five-person Sentai team.

Every face there (expect for the trembling one) had “could her timing possibly be worse?” written on it.

“It’s up to you if you use her or not, but make your decision within 30 days. Oh, and you can’t return her if she dies or loses a limb or something. She might be Level 0, but like I said, she’s a real prize. If Item doesn’t want her, I have other places I can send her. So treat her with care even if this is only a trial period.”

“Hey, do you think we’re in any position to hire someone new? We can’t access our money with our account frozen! If we don’t do something soon, we’ll have to leave this apartment hideout!!”

“As cashless as our lives are these days, I’m sure you have some physical money lying around. If not, go crawling on the floors and check under your beds. All you need is a single yen to open a new bank account. Use whatever name you want as long as it can’t be traced back to us. By the way, Hanano Choubi’s disguises would be perfect for that. And don’t forget the most basic fact of life: if you want money, you need to work for it.”

“Do you have a job for us?”

“A big one. And if your frozen account was a targeted attack on Item, then I bet it was about this. They somehow learned what job I was bringing to you and made a ''preemptive'' strike. They’re so scared of you they were hoping to keep you away before the fighting even started. No one’s going to work if they can’t get paid for it, right?”

“…”

“I don’t care if you’re after the money or the revenge, but I have a feeling you’re very interested in hearing about this job.”