Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

“The days of major vs. indies are over! Now it’s all about general artists who bring music and video sites together! The big name there has got to be the Sadistic Dolls. Their new song The Color of the Whip is just so good and they’re having a streaming event on the last day of summer break!! I can’t wait☆ Oh, I know! How about you watch it with me?”

“Eh?”

Mugino couldn’t exactly tell Class Rep Shiratori-chan that the band was already dead.

Not when the girl was speaking so excitedly and peacefully over the phone.

“With phone culture cutting into their business, internet cafes have started renting out home theaters, so it shouldn’t be too expensive to get ourselves a great live viewing environment. Don’t you want to join me in enjoying the Sadistic Dolls’ streaming event on a big screen?”

“Oh, uh, your breaking up. Hello? I can’t hear you? Damn, I’m losing my signal. (click)”

Hanging up like that was pretty rude, but it was exceptional for ''the'' Mugino to feel the need to put on such an obvious act when doing so. Even that deadly beast tried to put on appearances for her public life.

“Mugino.”

Takitsubo waited until the free talk app was closed to speak up.

She was well-behaved for the dark side.

“Are you out here because the convenience store was too cold? Keeping the air conditioning on that strong can’t be ecological.”

“Yeah, and Frenda and Kinuhata have so little fat on them it makes no sense that they’re the ones who can take it.”

“Don’t say that. They can’t help it. And I don’t think chest size has much to do with how well you handle the cold.”

“You’ll make those dumbasses cry tears of blood saying things like that.”

As they chatted, the track suit girl sat down next to Mugino.

Now it was 2 vs. 2.

And the other side was Item, a group that specialized in direct combat.

This had been a safe zone just 5 minutes ago, but now it was a gazebo from hell itself.

Sweat poured down Kagiyama Sasuke’s body.

“(What do we do? Hey, what do we do!? Hey!?)”

He tapped away on the blonde girl’s back to communicate, but then he felt a very dangerous sensation. He must have tapped too hard and unhooked her bra. Yet Saetani didn’t react in the slightest.

Her thoughts must have briefly left her body and begun floating in the ether.

While Mugino pulled her phone back out of her pocket and irritably did something with it, Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.

“Mugino, on the dark side, we’re supposed to retaliate when someone makes a fool of us, right?”

“Butting in on our territory is like declaring war. I don’t know what piece of shit stole our job, but I will make them pay. ...Oh, right. Gather up all the cleanup delinquents! As many as we can get! It’ll take a lot of people to collect all the scattered fragments and clean everything up!!”

Mugino kicked the table with her phone in hand, making the media pair shrink down even more than before.

They began a sweaty strategy meeting only a meter away.

“(Wait, hold on. We can call Anti-Skill over what they’ve said here, right?)”

“(No, she hasn’t said exactly ''what'' they’re cleaning up. She’s just barely talking around it.)”

But Kagiyama wanted help regardless.

Was there no way of reporting this to Anti-Skill or Judgment so they could handle everything instead?

He operated his phone under the table in what felt like a prayer, but it had no signal. No signal? In Academy City, a city of cutting-edge science in the middle of Tokyo?

“Shut up! I said all of them!! Have the outside workers on standby too. Yeah, all of them!! Including that expert called Hanatsuyu Kuchikusa or whatever!!”

Yet Mugino was somehow yelling into her phone just fine.

Her own signal was getting through. Unnaturally so.

Was she jamming the ordinary phone signals!?

“Phew. Calling people is always such a pain.”

“I feel bad for the delinquents when you yell at them like that.”

“Yeah, and we were the ones who screwed up this time. Maybe I should buy them something to eat later. ...I need to direct this anger at the pieces of shit who stole our job.”

“Mugino.”

At this rate, all four members of Item could end up in this gazebo. The Frees were experts at gathering information, but they couldn’t launch a direct attack using a microphone. Especially with someone so terrifying. They preferred to make waves without revealing their own identities.

That meant they needed to leave this gazebo of death and go elsewhere. If they managed that, there was no way-

“Hey, you.”

“!”

Kagiyama’s shoulders jumped.

He was an expert journalist who made sure to always get the devastating photo, so having his target within arm’s reach was never ideal. He sensed trouble – big trouble.

“We’ll pay, so help us out. You do media work, right? And I can tell you’re not some major newspaper employees who get to take part in some fancy press club.”

She’d noticed.

And her instincts were serving her pretty well here!?

“Let me guess – freelancers who use that freedom to take a step into the dark side where you package up people’s misfortune to sell unconfirmed stories to sports papers and weekly photo magazines? Or maybe unethical journalists who prefer making money by threatening company executives and celebrities with photos of the skeletons in their closet?”

“…”

Kagiyama Sasuke and Saetani Melusine couldn’t come up with a response.

Track suit girl Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.

“How can you tell, Mugino?”

“The expensive shotgun mic I could see a video streaming freak carrying around, but you don’t see many amateurs using one of those along with an SLR camera that can only take still photographs. And I doubt they’re birdwatching in this restaurant district with nothing but crows to see.” Mugino looked bored. “I don’t know their exact ages, but even freelance students who’ve signed an exclusive contract with a major newspaper will use equipment lent to them by the paper. And kids especially will rely on borrowed equipment if they can. And those would have waterproof labels with an asset management number on them. A camera lens alone normally costs a fair bit of cash.”

“You mean like the women in suits on the train whose phones and laptops have a weird number on the back?”

“More or less.”

Takitsubo blinked twice.

And then took a look around.

“Is there a celebrity around here? Maybe on a secret date in Chinatown?”

“Frenda seems to know everyone, so maybe she’d know.”

Mugino and Takitsubo discussed it casually before both turning to face the other two.

Sweat poured down Kagiyama’s back, but he did his best to keep it off his face.

He remembered the time he was trying to get a photo of a celebrity’s affair during the middle of the night, but the celebrity discovered him and tried to run him down with a giant four-wheel-drive vehicle. He was reminded of the headlights and overly thick bumpers rushing toward him like death itself.

But this was worse.

He wasn’t going to escape Mugino Shizuri by running into a park with bollards guarding the entrance.

“Ha ha… Um, our photos are more important than our lives, so we can’t comment until they’ve actually been published. We just finished a job and were performing maintenance on our equipment.”

(Damn. We could take them out right now if we could only contact ''Amekawa''!!)

Kagiyama smiled while thinking of their third member and just about clicked his tongue.

Amekawa Souji had played the most important role when it came to finishing off the final member of the Sadistic Dolls. His power was Remote Murder and it was perfect for settling conflicts.

But right now, Kagiyama was too scared to even pull out his phone. If he so much as glanced at the small screen, those two might get suspicious. And that could have devastating consequences.

“Does Frenda know anyone on TV?” asked the track suit girl, her gaze wandering through empty space.

“She muttered something about having no need for a has-been movie star when she was cleaning out her phone. Y’know, when she starts unfriending people on social media like crazy.”

“We probably shouldn’t let Kinuhata know about that. They might get into a fight.”

Saetani’s Electro Reading alone didn’t seem like enough to overpower the combo of Meltdowner and AIM Stalker.

Kagiyama’s power wasn’t any better.

Bind Scoop.

It was a mental power based on “the fear of being found out”. When he took a photo of someone, they were hit with an invisible psychological pressure that let him remotely control them as he wished. However, not just any photo would do. He wasn’t so talented that a single surveillance drone would let him conquer a country in record time.

The photo had to meet a few different conditions.

1. The target must be unaware they were being photographed.

2. The target had to be looking right at him.

3. The target had to be caught in the act of some personal scandal which they believed would be devastating if it got out.

So it was nearly impossible for him to control Mugino or Takitsubo now that they were right here with him. Aiming his enormous SLR camera at them from this close without them noticing but also with them looking at him was asking too much. Plus, he would have to be catching them in some kind of devastating personal scandal.

Saetani and Kagiyama (forcefully) poked at each other’s back with their index fingers.

“(This is why I keep telling you to carry around a pen camera just in case!)”

“(Those take a video after you press the button, so they don’t work with my power!)”

And so.

There was no doubting it.

If they thoughtlessly fled from the gazebo or shouted and attacked those two, they would simply be Meltdownered by a yawning Mugino.

(But it’s not over yet. I can still bind and control Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai in the convenience store. Then Item can tear themselves apart!)

Takitsubo expressionlessly but curiously viewed the camera sitting on the table.

“Wow. You still use a big SLR even though phone cameras have gotten so good?”

“Since everyone uses the same phones, that’s become the new average, so you have to work hard to stand out from the crowd. That means you need specialized equipment for any professional work.”

Mugino gave the camera bag, big battery, and directional shotgun microphone on the table an exasperated look.

“Even if it’s the end of August, it’s still summer. Why bother sitting around waiting for the perfect moment with that huge camera and shotgun mic? You can fake all the photos and voice clips you want nowadays.”

“Yes, it’s true computers can even create fake articles and photographs.”

Kagiyama smiled a little and shook his finger.

He noticed some dark filth under his nail, which depressed him a little.

“Most deductions and opinions can always be buried along with the truth when a terrified politician scatters fake articles around and points to them as proof they’re being targeted by a smear campaign.”

“Yeah, I have heard the authenticity of real videos can be called into question by injecting them with codes and artifacts associated with generative AI.”

“Right. We’re approaching a world where credibility is nothing but a popularity contest.”

That might make it sound like reporters and photographers would no longer be necessary.

That may have been a dying occupation.

But…

“''That'' only makes a real photo all the more powerful.”

“Oh, really?”

“The real deal acquired the old fashioned way carries the unique power to break through all the fakes. The more over-the-top tricks powerful people with skeletons in their closet try, the more powerful a cross counter formed from the truth. That’s what we believe.”

Still seated on the bench, Mugino threw her upper body onto the table, squashing her large chest below herself. She used her own arms as a cushion and grinned.

“Interesting.”

Uh, oh. Making himself sound valuable only made it harder to escape.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed high school girl gave up on Morse code and just plain pinched his back. And too strongly for him to consider it a reward.

Then she again spoke with him by firmly rubbing her index finger against his back.

“(You use your power to help them out. In the meantime, I’m going to feign illness and go home!!)”

“(Are you stupid? If you leave like that, you’ll make those monsters suspicious and then it’s all over! You know my power is no good in direct confrontations!!)”

“Anyway, Takitsubo, I say we get their help if they can be useful.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“It doesn’t matter what photos they get as long as it isn’t being livestreamed or sent to the cloud. We’re safe as long as we check their devices and destroy them if we find they’ve recorded anything we don’t like.”

Bull’s eye.

That would explain the powerful jamming. Which meant it was already far too late!

“Besides, unethical journalists who aren’t sure whether they’ll deal with a magazine or the actual celebrity they photographed are part of the dark side. They’re the same as us.”

“But, Mugino, they’re part of the media, which means you could also say they’re on the side of justice. Doesn’t that scare you?”

“Rumors fade.” Mugino whispered to Takitsubo who was expressionlessly tugging on her coat. “But when a scandal that was all over mass media and personal blogs suddenly vanishes one day, it isn’t because people stopped caring. It’s because someone drew a line and said no one was to cross it.

“And I’m not talking about a press club,” added Mugino with a grin. “The big companies aren’t going to protect them, so the smaller media people can always sniff out when to back off. The ones who can’t are weeded out. By which I mean, they mysteriously drive their car into a dam or somehow wind up inside a giant jet engine at the airport.”

“Does that mean what I think it does, Mugino?”

“You two are supposed to get your photos in secret, but now we know what you look like. I know you know what kind of retaliation you’ll suffer if we were to let that information slip.''”

“Ha ha ha ha ha...ha…”

Saetani laughed stiffly.

Kagiyama had known her for a long time, but he couldn’t tell if she was acting or not.

It didn’t matter how much Mugino threatened them. They could launch a surprise attack as long as they got away from this gazebo safely.

“So how much are you planning to pay them? Use too much money and Frenda will be upset again,” said Takitsubo, exasperated.

“That’s not an issue. We have money – we just don’t have anywhere to spend it,” replied Mugino, sticking her tongue out a bit.

Then Mugino whispered into the phone she had left on the table.

“Hey, voice on the phone.”

“Don’t expect me to answer at all times of day. It’s always like this with you. We! Have! Our! Roles! Here! I am the one who sends you jobs and controls everything from above. Or did you forget?”

Mugino looked annoyed as she spoke into her phone.

“Did you get the security camera footage from that building?”

The Frees had of course planned for that much.

And it would seem unnatural if they didn’t say anything for too long.

They didn’t want to give the impression they were cautiously listening in, so the two of them exchanged a glance and Saetani spoke first.

“Could you start by explaining what kind of case you’re investigating?”

They started off carefully.

Intentional or not, Mugino and Takitsubo hadn’t mentioned any specifics about the case.

If Kagiyama or Saetani carelessly mentioned the Moe Bells, a knife, or a murder, they were dead for sure.

“There are different kinds of crimes. If security cameras were all anyone ever needed, the media would be out of a job.”

“That’s true. You can’t track the criminal from camera to camera to locate their home if they’re cognizant of the cameras’ positions, hide their face, and frequently change coats while hidden behind pillars,” added Kagiyama.

That set up a continuing conversation.

They were putting on a bit of an act, but they could safely mix in some ''accurate but safely revealed information''. In fact, that would seem more natural.

However…

“It’s a murder. ...Anyway, a big entertainment commerce building like that will have more than just the obvious cameras on the ceiling, right? To catch streamers making prank videos. ''Like 2mm cameras hidden in the gaps in the wall''.”

“!”

(''We didn’t know about those cameras''!?)