Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

Detective Sobasaka and the gang lord were on the slope a short distance away.

The Italian suit man smiled in through the driver’s side window of the crashed car.

“By the way, how much do the police know about the Mugino Family?”

“Well…”

“Ha ha. Don’t want to say it in front of the family head? It’s your public duty to investigate criminals, so there’s no need to be shy. At the very least, I’m sure you know about the grain production corporation that fills 1.4 billion stomachs worldwide. The Mugino Family is involved in every single field related to food.”

“Yeah, I know that. Which is how you’ve managed to cover the world in airfields and shooting ranges while calling them ‘farms’ on all the paperwork. And how you develop drugs in your food labs. Unfortunately, it’s all rumors even more sketchy than the Kuchisake Onna, so there’s no actual evide-”

“You see, the Mugino Family has used food as a pretext to fake the paperwork for launching a few satellites without the Japanese government knowing. On paper, they are agricultural support weather satellites owned by a front company, but in truth, well, they’re used for communications to help move our troops around more efficiently.”

He admitted to a shocking truth as if it were nothing.

And if that was true, did it mean they really did have an army?

But even that wasn’t the main point.

“One after another, we have been losing control of those super expensive Mugino brand criminal satellites. It doesn’t seem like trouble with the parts or with communications. That means something must have attached itself to the exterior of the satellites themselves. After sneaking up in the silence of space.”

“Wait, are you implying…?”

“They’re OMVs. That is, orbital maneuvering vehicles. Sounds just like an Academy City trick, doesn’t it? These are satellite-mounted lasers, but they haven’t launched any of the big and damn heavy power units of their own. These are the bare minimum. So they send in a probe with a thin arm that looks all the world like a toy so it can grab onto someone else’s satellite, steal its electricity, and then prepare to activate the laser. I’m sure either Hikoboshi or Orihime are packed full of those ‘work probes’. That’ll reduce the launching costs to maybe less than a thousandth of a strategic military satellite. And after using the laser, it’ll slip away and disguise itself as debris until it burns up in the atmosphere, so no matter how much you might suspect, there’s no decisive material evidence leftover.”

It couldn’t be more obvious where on earth Academy City would be targeting.

They wanted to end this entire incident as soon as possible.

So they would pour glowing rain down across the entire mountain region before long. Nothing at all would remain. Only incomplete records of the bizarre and utter destruction, much like the Tunguska event. The remaining fragments would be so far removed from the truth it seemed more like a ghost story than anything real.

“They are taking bold action here. I imagine the destruction of all their Two Wings was the trigger, but I didn’t expect them to give up on their #4. So now it seems my adorable granddaughter is being rejected. And because dead men tell no tales, their brutal laser attack will probably be blamed on her esper power going berserk.”

“I won’t let that happen. This might be an abandoned resort in the mountains, but there are still some occupied homes in the area!”

Sobasaka recalled his childhood friend who had gone to Academy City and never returned.

Hiyamugi.

Until now, Sobasaka had thought he had vanished into the shadows of history as a poor victim.

He had thought he had been crushed before he could cause the city any trouble.

But that wasn’t the only option.

Hiyamugi could also have become an extraordinary monster like that.

What if that were the case?

Would that make him beyond saving?

The answer was no.

“So that…#4, did you say? If she’s an esper, that means she’s a teenager in middle or high school, right!? I’m a police officer. I chose that path for myself! I won’t let her die for some silly adult nonsense!!”

“…Yeah.”

The elderly man grinned.

The smile was as perfect as ever, but there was something subtly different this time.

That must have tickled him just right.

“With that established, I’d like to get to the specifics, but can you use the power of the Japanese police to stop Academy City right this instant?”

“…”

“I thought not. The Mugino Family’s power can’t do that either. We can’t win. So I’d like for us to join forces and overcome this Parasite Laser threat. Are you with me so far?”

“I’m not about to assist a criminal organization, but what were you hoping a police detective like me could do?”

“You just have to hold your head high and do your job.”

He made it sound like nothing.

The Mugino Family had around a hundred thousand troops globally. The head of that international gang spoke.

With a smile.

“''Arrest me.''”