Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item Chapter3 (section)

===Part 4===

Mugino started with their primary assumption.

The living room wall behind her was covered by the “spiderweb” that only she could make sense of.

The enemy wasn’t here, but the battle had already begun.

“Hanano Choubi is almost certainly still alive.”

“What are you basing that on? I would super like to believe it, but I feel like optimism and wishful thinking are clouding your judgment.”

“Let me rephrase that: most likely, they want to kill her, but can’t.”

“?”

“It’s a simple issue of job allocation.”

Mugino made it sound obvious, but then she noticed the confusion on the other three’s faces.

She changed tack.

“Frenda, you arrived at the apartment with a big pile of explosives earlier, didn’t you?”

“What about it? I don’t want to hear a single word about it only being chemical fertilizer. I pulled out all the stops and even dug out the potassium perchlorate and pentaerythrite this time. Napalm, white phosphorous, thermobaric – I’ve got it all. In the end, I’m a one-girl chemical fireworks show of blood and death!!”

“''Why did you bring it yourself instead of asking the support organization?''”

Time froze for Frenda Seivelun.

She knew the answer now.

Mugino sighed.

“I’m sure you had other reasons, like not trusting them with those delicate explosives and not wanting to tell them about your hiding spots. But aside from that, you couldn’t even contact them, could you?”

Takitsubo glanced at the colorful spiderweb on the wall behind Mugino.

Mugino nodded before continuing.

“I would much prefer to leave all this research to them. Numbers are the fastest way of gathering intelligence. But that wasn’t an option, so I’m doing it myself.”

It wasn’t that they had run out of money or been abandoned. Mugino’s terrifying reputation was too powerful for that. Anyone who took the rules too lightly was guaranteed to die. Everyone who dealt with her understood that down to the marrow.

So…

“You super said it was about job allocation, didn’t you? In other words, something big is super going on, so none of the teams can gather the personnel needed to support them?”

“Kouzaku Mitori.”

Mugino pointed back over her shoulder to a photo on the wall.

It was the black-haired girl with the Liquid Shadow power who had guarded the insurance company general manager.

“She said she was preparing to attack the Windowless Building and it turns out she wasn’t bluffing. And I honestly respect that,” noted Mugino.

But that was a side issue.

“So all the villains have had their support organizations gathered up for investigation and defense related to that. No one on the dark side can easily dispose of a body right now.”

“Yeah. In the end, covering up the smell is really tricky once it starts to decompose.” Frenda shrugged in annoyance. “Those thugs on the support organizations wouldn’t have much to do otherwise. In Academy City, there’s legal precedent for the particles that cause the scent of human death being used as evidence of a crime, so no one wants to let the decomposition begin in their own hideout.”

The city did have decomposition experts who could cause even those particles to break down and excellent cleaners who could thoroughly remove the particles from the floor and wallpaper, but there weren’t many of them, which made them conspicuous.

That was bad for anyone who wanted to stay hidden.

And since the dark side’s standard(?) corpse disposal infrastructure had ceased to function, the few experts out there would be getting a rush of requests to deal with the ''already existing'' corpses. It was best to assume they were too overwhelmed to get in touch with.

“Which means I’m not very worried about Hanano Choubi being killed right now.”

If the problem was that serious, it might seem like they would want to call in a Level 5 like Mugino or a Level 4 like Kinuhata instead of the support organizations, but no one bothered to ask why that hadn’t happened.

Needless to say, if word got out that the situation was that bad, the standard(?) dark side member would use the emergency to demand excessive payment or even plot a coup of their own.

In other words, the people at the top were too concerned to open up the possibility of their pet dog biting them too.

“Mugino. Do you think she really can destroy the Windowless Building?”

“If anyone could destroy that thing, I’d have already done it,” replied Mugino like it was nothing.

She respected the attempt, but she never said it was realistic. Academy City was a shitty place that loved to shatter those kinds of hopes. All while pretending they were the good guys.

Since Kouzaku Mitori’s photo was on the wall and Mugino had an accurate idea of how likely her attack on the Windowless Building was, Mugino must have known their higher ups would be attacked but hadn’t bothered saying anything to them. She had also known Kouzaku’s plan was sure to end in failure, but she hadn’t bothered to warn her.

That was because the sooner this attack on the Board of Directors was solved, the sooner the dark side could return to normal, the sooner the corpse disposal infrastructure could recover, and the sooner Hanano’s life would be at risk.

Item was fighting the bad guys and risking their lives to save a friend.

But even with all that, they still weren’t heroes.

Nor did they want to be known as heroes.

This was evil cannibalizing itself.

“By my prediction, the anti-Kouzaku focus will end tonight at the latest. Then, with the incident over, the dark side will return to normal. So we need to attack that fake Enemy Item’s hideout and kill them all before then.”

It was just like Mugino to not mention saving Hanano there.

They had the enemy’s tail in their grasp, but they did not strike quite yet. If they screwed this up, the enemy would notice, go further into hiding with their hostage, and never return to the surface. So Mugino wanted to focus on gathering as much information as possible for as long as possible to increase the odds of success for their one and only chance.

Takitsubo smiled a little.

“What do we know about those four?”

“Only three really matter because I killed one back on the 7th.”

Mugino next pointed at the four photos she had tracked down and were pasted on the outer edge of the spiderweb.

When two groups clashed, it was important to know how many people and how much funding the enemy had. And in Academy City’s case, it also helped to know as much as you could about the esper powers and next-generation weapons they had available.

Mugino had of course spent a lot of time on this part.



“Ibotanokikouji Kaede.

“Age: 14. Sex: Female. The center of Enemy Item. A legit member of the upper class who attends Tokiwadai Middle School, but the veracity of her claim to being the #6 remains unknown. All that information is locked down too much to get at, but the rumors I’ve heard say Tokiwadai only has two Level 5s. Her power seemed to use wind or shockwaves, but it’s too soon to say for sure. She might have been holding back on her power while we were watching.

“She is a latent sadist who decided to experience the city’s night to distract herself from her oppressive upper class life. The obsession with earning a fortune without her parents’ help is probably a stereotypical rebellious phase. The way she shows no restraint with such a strong power suggests she is not a murder virgin.

“Like I said, details on her self-proclaimed #6 position are unknown.

“Still, the Dark Side’s Bane title may mean her job is to punish other villains.

“This goes without saying, but she’s the most dangerous one.

“Redirect her toward me if it all possible, but if you can’t, then don’t hesitate to run away. For now, we’ll assume she is the #6. You have my authorization to run away during this mission. You should assume contacting her on your own will cost you your life.”



“Hanayama Kamitsu.

“Age: 18. Sex: Female. She was a Level 0, but she called herself the courier and plowed through any pursuers using her Dragon Motor, a kick scooter modified to use a linear engine or jet engine. On the surface, she was a faithful courier, but she was definitely a peeping tom who loved to watch from a distance as the recipient was ruined by whatever she delivered to them. The quick-dried mummy accident in that one District 7 apartment was apparently her doing.

“I’m using the past tense because I killed her on the 7th. She won’t play a role here except for any friends or acquaintances who might hold a grudge, so you can forget the information about her personally.

“The Dragon Motor is mostly a mystery. Has it been mass-produced? If so, can anyone other than her operate it? Who knows. But we can’t deny the possibility, so we need to assume her ghost will return to haunt us in that way.”



“Inoue Laspezia.

“Age: 15. Sex: Female. Known as the modeler. On the art club and makes money counterfeiting various kinds of evidence. Like a hacker, she seems like a support specialist who uses tricks more than direct combat. In addition to creating counterfeit evidence, she also accepts jobs to destroy existing evidence. That’s a good way to earn people’s trust aside from killing.

“I can barely find a bad word about the girl either in the official Anti-Skill records or on the dark side. Almost no one has any complaints with her counterfeit evidence and the vast majority say they saved her. She might be the type who ended up here because she was a little too good at lying.”



“Waniguchi Nokoba.

“Age: 12. Sex: Female. That apparently isn’t her real name, but I couldn’t track down what her name really is. She’s small, but she’s an expert at MMA and has already killed a few people in unofficial matches at her age. Which earned her cheers from the audience, of course. In the Colosseum, she was apparently the executioner who punished anyone who broke the rules. Simply put, she’s just a combat-obsessed freak. It looked like she sought out the dark side herself because she found all the rules and regulations of the official matches too restrictive.

“She goes by a number of titles: the Executioner, the Steel Crusher, the Human Scrapper, the Death Game Queen – you get the picture.

“Since she doesn’t use any next-generation weapons, her ability to break her opponent’s spine and crush them into a giant meatball must come from her esper power.

“Leverage Struggle.

“It apparently lets her increase the force of leverage. It’s probably Level 3 or 4. She focuses on grappling since she’s a meathead, but she could make more creative use of it with some advice from the other members.”



Mugino let out a long breath after getting through all that.

Frenda shrugged.

Mugino had learned a lot, but they still only had the general outlines. Too much remained unknown: was Ibotanokikouji the #6 or not? Would Hanayama’s technology reappear after she had been retired to the graveyard? They didn’t even know Waniguchi’s real name.

And in cases like this, they couldn’t just suspect every little bit of information they had to be on the safe side. A detective who focused on all the details and prepared for the worst even without any definitive evidence would be crushed under the pressure of all the suspicion on the dark side where everything was a muddled mixture of truth and lies.

“In the end, should we find a vulnerable Judgment member and come up with something to threaten them with? Hiring a hacker and making an attack from outside would be even better. Why go to all this trouble when we could just get the data directly from the Bank?”

“In the past, Meltdowner was enough no matter who attacked us.”

Hadn’t Ibotanokikouji said their superiors had given Mugino’s team jobs they could win to give them a taste of victory? And once they had sunk beyond the point of no return, the higher ups could make use of them however they liked.

''She had a point,'' thought Mugino with a slight smile.

And…

“If this goes well, the biggest problem is Ibotanokikouji Kaede at the top. The next biggest would be Waniguchi Nokoba with her deadly martial arts. But we can’t ignore Inoue Laspezia and her ability to frame anyone for just about anything. She could end up being a dark horse. …After all, we don’t even know what her Level is. Is she a Level 0, or has she just not used her power since her job is to counterfeit evidence? They might be saving her as a last resort.”

“If they didn’t have a hostage, you could blow up their hideout from outside, Mugino.”

Takitsubo normally stared blankly into the distance, but now she gave a shocking idea. She may have been pissed too – it just didn’t show on the surface. Partially from the talk of framing people and counterfeiting evidence, but mostly about Hanano who had been captured in order to protect Takitsubo.

Kinuhata cracked her neck.

“Then let’s super think about how we’ll rescue the hostage. That’s our top priority and running away super isn’t going to help. Mugino-san, do you super know where Enemy Item’s base is?”

‘Technically speaking, they have five bases. But four are definitely abandoned, so we can ignore them. The cleaning maids have been in and out, but there was no response. Those bitches must have taken Hanano here – District 11’s abandoned railway tunnel.”

“What? In the end, are you saying those villains are a bunch of slugs who chose to live in filthy concrete ruins covered in graffiti!? When they have a suitcase filled with 80 billion yen!?”

“They did buy a retired luxury train, secretly stick it in the tunnel, and convert it into a hideout. I’m sure it was meant for technical research, but it wasn’t much use given the limited land in Academy City. Anyway, they’re living comfortably there. Any of the city’s train nerds would kill to be in their position. The Nightjar’s restaurant had three Bichelin stars, which means they have the nicest industrial kitchen you could ask for. It should also have a cocktail lounge and a pool car. The track was removed from the abandoned section, but the tunnel itself has power since laying out new power lines would have been too expensive.”

Mugino shrugged.

“But I imagine the real draw for them was the thick tunnel walls and the high-voltage train lines. They have a smart shelter where they don’t have to worry about being discovered from their phone signals, satellite images, or anything in between. Also, a nap room in a luxury beauty salon or a really nice private room in a university hospital aren’t great choices for hiding with a noisy hostage. They could apply violence to keep her silent, but the fear that produces is a double-edged sword. She might just get desperate. And remember that the corpse disposal infrastructure is down, so they can’t kill her even if they want to. As long as they have to hold onto her, they’ll stay to the tunnel.”

It meant a lot to know the location.

But a tunnel was a troublesome location. It had limited entrances and exits, so the enemy was bound to lay out tons of dangerous traps. And while they could blast a hole in the wall of an ordinary building with Meltdowner and make a surprise attack through there, it wasn’t so easy with a thick tunnel.

“You super can’t shoot through that?”

“I can, but the blast would be powerful enough to bring the entire tunnel down.”

Just like with a large arching dam, a tunnel not made with the shield method was not as sturdy as all the thick concrete made it look. Given the total amount of dirt bearing down on the ceiling, the columns were unbelievably skinny and unreliable, so it took some almost artistically creative load balancing to make it work. If that was thrown off, it could all collapse like a house of cards. And that wasn’t an option when you wanted to rescue a hostage, not kill everyone.

“If all the super traps are in the way, I could charge right on in with my Offense Armor. That would clear out all the stationary traps and give you a path.”

“That sounds great, but in the end, could the walls survive all those explosives going off?” Frenda breathed an exasperated sigh. “In the end, I want a map of the tunnel. If that line has been abandoned, the security level for that data should have dropped, right? Do you have that, Mugino?”

“Of course.”

Mugino unfurled two pieces of paper larger than picnic blankets. One was a map of the abandoned railway tunnel. The other was a diagram of the Nightjar train.

“But these are the official plans. This won’t include any of the modifications the Enemy Item made, so be careful.”

“In the end, it’s better than nothing.”

“Hee hee.”

Takitsubo held a hand over her mouth as she laughed.

Mugino gave her a funny look.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. I just didn’t expect you to tell us to ‘be careful’.”

If most people said something like that, they might end up reduced to charcoal.

But not so with Takitsubo.

She could rely on her own instincts to safely cross the minefield that was Mugino Shizuri.

“Tch.”

That was Mugino’s only real response.

She even looked away awkwardly.

Meanwhile, Frenda was busy analyzing. She crawled along the floor like a dog, sticking her butt up despite her short skirt, and even licking her lips.

“In the end, any modifications they made will be built on top of the original structure. No matter how much they change it, the foundation doesn’t lie.”

“You can super tell?”

“All those notes Mugino has on the wall give us enough to know the personalities and habits of each Enemy Item member. And they can’t pull traps out of thin air. Unlike guns and knives, the finished product isn’t packaged up and sold by the arms industry. Mugino, you’ve been tracking down their past actions, right? In the end, how much of your pride did you sacrifice for that?”

“I only went as far as collecting their receipts from the communal trash dump near their hideout.”

“You sure do you love your friends, huh? So in the end, I’ll look into what kinds of traps they could build with that list of materials.”