Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 9===

“Really?” said Kinuhata Saiai sounding exasperated.

The late-August entertainment district was blanketed with white snow.

A bunch of snow machines resembling giant fans had been set up to make sure everything was covered. It was apparently a vast conspiracy by a major beer brand. They had remade District 16 as a whole into a giant beer garden and were running a sales promotion event. Scantily-clad young women they were calling “Bul Girls” were handing out cans of their new beer on the street. It was apparently the 3rd or 4th event, but Kinuhata wasn’t paying enough attention to get the exact number.

“Ugh. In the end, it’s freezing.”

Frenda was shivering and had closed her special mist shower parasol.

The small snowflakes scattering in the wind had stolen away all the heat, so it was a little chilly even in the direct midday sunlight.

“That’s just dangerous. They have people drinking beer and walking around in artificial snow. You don’t need banana peels lying around to get people slipping and falling here.”

“Mugino, the security robots probably can’t get through this snow either.”

“This district is all about alcohol and the nightlife, right? If it’s this bad during the day, super what do they do at night?”

District 16 was full of mysteriously high-paying part-time work, so it’s true nature did not come out until all the neon and LCD signs were lit up.

It was chaotic in a different way from the source of trends that was District 15.

No attempt was made to hide the gaudy signs of desire here.

In this entertainment district where there were plenty of drunks out even during the day, Yamagami Erina of Judgment was handing out fliers on the snowy street corner. They had seen her earlier, so she must have been moving around a lot.

“Excuse me. This girl’s name is Minamioki Sarusa-chan. Has anyone seen her?”

“For now, we need to get her information out there. That means getting the posters up in all 23 districts by the end of the day.”

“People’s routines will change once the break ends, so we need to get some useful witness information before then.”

A fair number of people were using skis on the flat sidewalk like they were alpine skiing or walking around with modern snowshoes. In fact, there were even snowmobiles and snowcats driving back and forth on the street. Apparently they were being used like sightseeing carts.

“That all looks really expensive,” commented Takitsubo as she blankly watched it all.

“It’s super scary how excited people get about events.”

“Kinuhata, this is the same as movie theater popcorn. Just like fan merch at major soccer matches, you never know how much the value will drop as soon as the moment passes.”

“It’s a super bad idea to use movies as your negative example, Takitsubo-san. You don’t want to make a habit of it!”

While Item walked as a group, Frenda was much more steady on her feet than the other three. She had more experience walking on snow. The trick was apparently to firmly step directly on top of it.

“In the end, I might have worked with that detective before somewhere.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve told you I do forensics work separate from Item, right? We work separately and never directly meet, but I might have occasionally sent her forensic data over the internet while hunting down traitors on the dark side.”

It didn’t sound like Frenda had any intention of going easy on her because of this.

To Frenda, the detective was just another person she had passed by on the dark side.

In fact, it was more unusual for Mugino, the battle freak who would kill anyone, to seem so uncertain.

When they were waiting for the light at an intersection, some smiling Bul Girls approached and Mugino shooed them away with a hand as she spoke.

“It was the Human Bike Delivery Service, right?”

“In the end, I say we go after the thug in a gaudy suit at the information desk. He could probably introduce us to a number of shady businesses other than the sex stuff.”

Item continued toward their destination while passing by a giant palace and a kaiju made by carving stacks of ice blocks.

They arrived at a filthy multi-tenant building.

“Mugino.”

“I know. The whole building isn’t a dark side toy.”

With some (technically) innocent people (who were really just drunks walking through the entertainment district) passing by, Mugino couldn’t just blast the building from the outside.

So instead, they entered through the main 1st floor entrance and forced their way into the manager’s office.

“Okay, okay. In the end, we need to check their security cameras and air conditioning AI. Okay, lining up footage from all the floors and…these look like the lines that are clear of people.”

Frenda connected the computer to her phone and nodded. Takitsubo peered in from the side and pointed out a few corrections. Simple intuition won out over precise data.

“Yikes. I feel like super Takitsubo-san is the one I actually least want as an enemy.”

“What, only figuring that out now?”

They chose to ignore the track suit girl’s offended look.

Mugino aimed her palm straight up.

She launched several Meltdowner beams in quick succession.

The thick beams pierced ''vertically'' through the building, but it didn’t seem anyone had died.

While the Human whatever-they-were-called panicked, Kinuhata climbed the outside of the building with arms buffed by Offense Armor and slipped into the office (which was already full of holes) through the window.

A kick to sweep him off his feet brought down the threatening-looking guy in charge.

Kinuhata placed her foot on the man’s chest over his heart as he lay on his back.

If she placed her weight on that foot with Offense Armor active, it would smash right through to the floor.

“I’ve got a super message for you to deliver. Get it to the detective and I’ll let you live.”

“The young lady? Wh-what’s the message?”

“A time and place for us to meet. Tell her we know where she lives, so we’re super in control here.”