Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item Chapter1 (section)

===Part 8===

Item’s usual luxury limo disguised as a used studio bus had been destroyed, but they had other options.

After calling a tow truck and street cleaner (both belonging to their support organization) and having the destroyed cars and bloodstains dealt with, Item boarded a boxy minivan with a delinquent feel to it. In Mugino’s opinion the rear spoiler on the boxy vehicle gave it the perfect cheap look she wanted in a disguise. Aerodynamically, it actually increased drag, so it was more a hindrance than anything. No one on the planet would pay any attention to someone stupid enough to do that. Although if that was the driver’s legitimate tastes, she would lecture them and immediately scrap the van.

“Hanano! What are you doing!? Hurry up!!”

“Oh, yes! Coming!!”

The new girl scrambled into the back seat. Mugino looked back curiously to see what the girl had been doing, but she had apparently picked a small flower from somewhere and laid it out as an offering. She may have been holding a moment of silent for the ordinary people killed by the downpour of metal arrows. In this shitty city of science, it didn’t matter what offerings you placed on the roadside. Especially when any trace of Item’s presence here would be erased by their support organization.

After loading the van with the stuffed caddy bag that squirmed like a caterpillar, they drove to a familiar abandoned factory in disorderly District 10. Mugino took ''a toolbox'' from their underlings, laid out a tarp on the dusty floor, unzipped the caddy bag, and dragged out their target.

The old man, who had gained a +80% boost to his greasiness, immediately shouted up at her. But he must have been too terrified to move because he made no attempt to escape despite not being handcuffed or tied up.

“Wh-who are you people!? What did I do to deserve this!?”

Kinuhata kicked aside the unneeded caddy bag and approached.

“Is he the super client? We only knew the name of the insurance company and the job title of general manager.”

“He doesn’t have to be the client. As long as he has the same privileges at the same company.”

Mugino Shizuri didn’t seem particularly interested as she applied some hand cream to the back of her hand. She must have scraped the surface of a nail on the latch of the toolbox, so she pulled out a small bottle of nail polish with far more interest than she showed for the fate of the human in front of her.

“But if he is a normal person with no role in any of this, why did he have that gun? And an ordinary person wouldn’t hire a dark side esper as a bodyguard.”

Client, insurance company, general manager. The scraps of information he overheard were enough for the man to figure out what was going on.

His attitude immediately changed.

“Oh, are you those Item thugs the voice on the phone mentioned? I-in that case, I am your client! Have you dealt with the Colosseum yet!? Don’t think you can get away with this. I will tell the voice on the phone what you’ve done! This is going to cost you!!”

“Sigh. I really don’t like having to torture people.”

That comment shut the frantic old man up.

While applying another coat of nail polish, Mugino kicked the toolbox with the toe of her shoe just hard enough to produce a solid metallic clunk.

The violent sound echoed on and on in the silent abandoned factory.

“''I always take things too far and they die on me.'' I don’t have any corpses to show you, but you can still see their scorched outlines on the walls. Like there. Or over there.”

“…!?”

“Unfortunately, those accidents have really driven down the value of the place. But you don’t have to worry about us.”

Mugino blew on her nail.

When she moved the shining finger to point at various spots on the walls, the greasy old man began to tremble.

“So tell us everything you know about the Colosseum. I’m sure you have tons of secrets you didn’t tell the voice on the phone. Come clean and I won’t have to worry about the blood and gore splattering past the tarp. Not that I’d be cleaning it up. That’s a job for our support organization.”

“Mugino,” Takitsubo quietly interrupted.

“Hm? Yeah, I know. If I do it, he’d die before we got anything out of him.”

“So in the end, I have to do it?”

Frenda tilted her head while ''burning open'' a mackerel can as a treat for herself.

“Want me to do the usual? The one where I ''shove a nonlethal amount of explosives up his nose'' and blow open his face just enough that he survives no matter how much he wishes he were dead?”

“No.”

Even Frenda’s seemingly superhuman suggestion was rejected.

Mugino continued as casually as if they were discussing stopping for some sweets afterschool.

“You and you.”

Her brightly polish finger pointed at Kinuhata Saiai and Hanano Choubi.

“Whichever one we end up choosing, you need to get to know your job. Choose whichever tool you like from the toolbox and give this old man a nonlethal beating. ''Just tenderizer him a bit,'' because we need him alive to tell us what we want.”

“Wait, wait, wait, please waiiiiiiit!!”

It was Hanano Choubi, not the man, who shouted in protest. She shook her pale face side to side.

“S-stabbing a villain in self-defense is one thing, but this is something else entirely. T-t-torture? You want us to use these hammers and saws on an unresisting old man who looks old enough to be a school principal!? I can’t, I can’t, I can’t!! I could never do that!!”

“Hmm.”

Despite the blunt refusal, Mugino didn’t seem particularly offended and held her palm out.

Meltdowner pierced right through the thick concrete wall.

“But if you don’t ''I’ll kill him for sure.''”

“…”

“''So if you want to give him any chance at all of surviving, you’ll have to do it yourself.''”

In a small world cut off from the outside world, people’s values were easily replaced.

Especially in a place on the border of death.

Mugino blew on her nail again before continuing.

“How many times do I have to tell you to keep him alive? Maybe using violence to take a life is too difficult for you, but what about using violence to save a life? Even Anti-Skill and Judgment do that when they come running to protect the peace of Academy City.”

Kinuhata Saiai and Hanano Choubi exchanged a glance.

Silence.

Eventually, some metallic clattering sounds echoed through the abandoned factory.

The only one who didn’t keep their silence was the insurance company man.

Timid Hanano seemed especially shocked by her own change of heart. She was supposed to be the representative of benevolence here. For her, it may have felt like having your elevator suddenly and silently stop. The deadly height had always been there, so the greater fear came from the usually unnoticed safety features that had suddenly stopped working.

The old man, whose confidence had clung to him like fat, was now trying to cajole the girls.

“W-wait, what you two doing!? What is that? A-a file? A screwdriver!? What could you possibly plan to do with that? Hey, are you listening!?”

Mugino Shizuri and Frenda Seivelun were accustomed to using violence themselves.

Not even Takitsubo Rikou made any move to stop them.

This was the dark side.

Logic was twisted and reconnected like a Möbius strip to reach obviously distorted conclusions.

“''But if we don’t do this, you’ll super die.''”

“''This is allll for your own good.''”

Even a virtuous person could become a killer under the right circumstances and without the luxury of choice.

It happened so easily as long as the obvious violence had a virtuous reason attached.

This was how people lost all restraint.