Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 5===

Their investigation revealed a simple answer.

A large number of cardboard boxes had been thrown out onto the street near a refrigerated truck parked on the curb to refill vending machines. And instead of the worker, it was a pedestrian passing nearby who ran into the stack of boxes and sent them tumbling into the street.

That had stopped the flow of traffic and rubberneckers had created a wall blocking the sidewalk, greatly changing the flow of people.

Takitsubo gave a quiet snort with no change of expression.

“See, I told you.”

Kinuhata looked puzzled by this.

“You seem…uncharacteristically motivated today, Takitsubo-san. You’re usually more super zoned out and act like nothing that’s happening matters to you.”

“That’s cause this is about a disguised killing and doping. With dangerous chemical research that can get you destroyed by false accusations, the reaction is understandable.”

“?”

Mugino and Frenda didn’t seem to need anything more than that, but Kinuhata felt like that wasn’t enough of an explanation.

It was convenient the products knocked into the street were vending machine drinks. If they had been convenience store bentos, they would all have had to be thrown out, possibly turning it into a major incident, but plastic bottles inside cushioned cardboard boxes wouldn’t be damaged by a fall to the ground. And unlike metal cans, there wouldn’t be any permanent dents either.

This had been designed to just barely avoid leaving a record as a public incident.

However, this just meant they had to find the culprit’s face in the video recorded by the refrigerated truck’s drive recorder.



And once they did…



“Yamazaki Urika. Age: 17. Sex: Female. In the end, that’s her.”

“She’s asleep.”

Frenda and Takitsubo were alone.

And the track suit girl was correct. A high school girl wearing an absurdly bright neon cheerleader outfit made of a tank top and miniskirt was fast asleep with her head down on a table in the outdoor space of a cafe in District 13. Even though the cafe was receiving a lot of business at this morning hour. Was that really a coffee on the same table as the blonde twintails girl?

Of course, catching the blond twintails girl wouldn’t end this. A disguised suicide using a pain stimulant was clearly too much for someone acting alone. Yamazaki whatever-her-name-was was only a low-level lookout or something similar, so the job wasn’t over until they used her to track down the mastermind behind the killing.

So even if their target was peacefully sleeping, moving in and capturing her wasn’t necessarily the right move. The voice on the phone would not be happy with them if they brought her a lizard’s tail. And so they were continuing this the Item way.

“Take this before we get started.”

Behind cover, Frenda gave Takitsubo fake glasses with special lenses that obstructed security camera facial recognition and a mask with something like a QR code printed on it that accomplished the same thing.

Since this would require vigorous movement, the glasses had a sports strap.

The track suit girl seemed to like them since she began adjusting the glasses with her right hand on the earpiece.

“Hee hee. Glasses make me look smarter.”

“In the end, take this too.”

Frenda shoved something into the track suit girl’s hands. It was a sporty bag too small to even fit a bento or water bottle.

It contained a 9mm automatic handgun. And a few magazines.

“?”

Takitsubo only tilted her head at it. The unnaturally bright color of the military plastic had signs of being filed down, so it was probably a handmade firearm Frenda had assembled from parts made from a thermosetting material poured into a mold like she was making taiyaki.

Takitsubo flipped it over a few times and stared at the object like she didn’t know quite what to do with it. Frenda sighed at the girl’s lack of tension.

Mugino and Kinuhata were not here.

…Times like this were a problem for Kinuhata who could boost her athletic ability with Offense Armor. Because she could easily catch a fleeing target in mere seconds. And needless to say, Mugino would one-shot the target with Meltdowner before she had any chance to run away, which was useless here.

Item was a team, so they knew who was suited for what roles.

There were times when they needed ''the team members who wouldn’t overdo things.

(But in the end, this isn’t a job we can trust the delinquents of the support team to handle. Their appearance makes them stand out too much.)

“How do you use this?”

“Please, Takitsubo, do not look own the barrel. Anyway, you don’t need to think too hard about how to use it. In the end, just aim it forward with your right hand, aim at the fleeing enemy’s back, and pull the trigger whenever.”

Frenda wasn’t saying pulling the trigger whenever would hit or that she didn’t care where any stray shots might fly.

There was a more fundamental issue here.

“It’s loaded with blanks. We need to scare that idiot half to death so she’ll run to her hideout and tell us where the criminal group is, but we lose if she actually dies. So don’t fire too much and focus on conserving ammo.”

“I see. You’re so nice, Frenda.”

(Am I? In the end, her mistake will give away the entire group’s hideout, so she’ll probably just end up with her accomplices trying to kill her.)

Not that Frenda would be shedding any tears for the enemy.

“In the end, let’s get to it.”

They had equipped their special glasses and masks, so they didn’t have to worry about staying out of view of the security cameras inside the cafe which was covered in windows. Frenda and Takitsubo approached the outdoor table.

Since their target was asleep, they first had to wake her.

And then make her run.

Frenda and Takitsubo aimed their handguns toward her ears.

“In the end, on your mark.”

“Get set.”



''Bang, ba-bang!!



Far away, Azumi and Fremea were leaning forward in their gym clothes.

They were at the starting line of the 50-meter dash.

“Whoa, what?”

“In the first place, what was that? What happened?”

They made a false start thanks to a loud sound at an odd time. A stir ran through the 1st graders whose serious race had been interrupted, so their female teacher formed a megaphone with her hands and addressed them.

“Okay, everyone, calm down. Return to your starting positions. That was probably just a prank someone pulled since this is such a big festival. Anyway, we’ll be redoing that from the start, so don’t relax just yet!”