Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

Unlike the police, there was nothing to stop villains. So Item used some bits and pieces of witness information to make their way to Yokohama.

Classical music drifted gently around them.

And this was a live performance, not a recording.

The city of Yokohama had many different faces: the harbor, the Chinatown, the small electronics district full of computer shops, and more.

Mugino, Takitsubo, and Kinuhata were holding a strategy meeting on the top floor of a luxury hotel on the waterfront. That top floor was a five-star French restaurant with reservations booked out two years in advance. Their power inside Academy City didn’t apply out here, but that didn’t matter to them.

This time, they were using a different sort of power.

Mugino didn’t like how conspicuous the fancy restaurant was, but…

“This always happens when I let Mujinayama arrange things… A harbor warehouse or the back of a small general store is good enough for a villain’s hideout if you ask me.”

“Super unlike normal, we can’t kill anyone out here. Well, anyone other than Frenda-san, since she’s our target.”

“And?”

“I think that Mujinayama-san person was being considerate. This way we super won’t get into any trouble with any fellow guests at a cheap hotel where the rooms are only separated by plywood.”

“Mh,” groaned Mugino, falling silent.

Of course, the old butler wasn’t worried about the possibility of Mugino getting hurt. He was worried about her carelessly murdering the reckless fool.

The rich tended to get around in a chauffeured car instead of using the train and would eat in fancy restaurants with dress codes instead of cheap restaurants. This was so they could avoid any trouble with who they considered “undesirables”, such as false molestation claims from the kind of woman they wouldn’t have touched if someone paid them or drunks who they really wished would hurry up and find a police holding cell where they could get something to eat. …Although Mugino personally thought of the truly deviant perverts as being part of the upper classes.

When Kinuhata saw the plate placed in front of her, she recoiled and frowned as she viewed the food from multiple angles. It was three-dimensional. The plate was covered by something more delicate than a coral reef.

“Super how are you supposed to eat this?”

“What, have you never eaten a sandwich before?”

Mugino grabbed hers in a hand and began eating like it was normal.

The crunching sounds suggested the delicate thing was made of fried pasta. All the dishes made with plenty of seafood and autumn truffles had to be weeping.

“The Earl of Sandwich was British, so super what is this doing at a French restaurant? It’s so confusing.”

“Kinuhata, they have pasta and curry rice in France, you know? That isn’t want matters. It just has to taste good.”

It was midday.

Several checkpoints had been set up in Shinjuku, Tokyo, due to the runaway and the bombing, but everything was peaceful once they crossed the prefectural border. However, that wouldn’t last if the police established a joint investigation headquarters.

They didn’t have much time.

What would Frenda Seivelun do next?

Takitsubo, who was still wearing her track suit in the fancy French restaurant, got the discussion started.

“I’m curious why Frenda came to Yokohama.”

“If she wanted to flee the country, Narita or Haneda would be too obvious and she’d get caught right away. So maybe she chose Yokohama so she could board a cargo ship and take a leisurely sea voyage.”

“If she is doing that, then she’ll have to rely on them.”

Takitsubo poked at the sandwich on her plate and licked a lobster-like orange sauce off her finger before clarifying who she meant.

“The Mugino Family.”

“…”

Mugino Shizuri fell silent again.

It was their power that let Item use this five-star restaurant on the top floor of a luxury hotel without a reservation. If Mugino hadn’t used the sommelier to relay a message preventing it, the chef would likely have come to greet them with his tall hat in his hands. They didn’t need that while discussing an illegal job.

Kinuhata hesitantly picked up her sandwich with both hands and spoke up.

“The Mugino Family, huh? They’re a system of violence in the outside world, right? And are they super really your family, Mugino?”

“Well, I will probably end up inheriting the whole damn thing eventually. Even if some of the Bloodline will be upset that grandfather skipped my parent’s generation and chose me.”

“That’s how strong a connection Mugino has to the Family,” said expressionless Takitsubo. “I doubt Frenda would flee to Yokohama when she knows Item is after her. Even if she built up funds and made her preparations in secret, Mugino would know about it all. Even if she is planning to escape by sea, there are plenty of other port towns.”

And if that wasn’t what she planned, Yokohama was a very inconvenient city for escaping from Mugino Shizuri. It was like Frenda had gone out of her way to stick her head into the center of her pursuer’s information network.

In fact…

“This talk of the Mugino Family seems super important to me. It’s like she can’t be friends with them, but she still has business with them. And if that’s the case, this smells really bad to me.”

“…”