Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item2 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 11===

Even from here, it was obvious Mugino Shizuri was just standing there, unmoving.

“In the end, this isn’t good!” hissed Frenda Seivelun, ducking low.

She was hiding in a VIP booth covered by thick tempered glass. This isolated space was on the third level above the media-only located behind the backstop. The small booth contained leather sofas occupied by baseball managers and pro team sponsors. Frenda was a bomber, but in addition to the stationary types, she also used rockets and missiles. That meant she had a chance to attack if she was hidden at an elevated location, but that advantage wasn’t very reassuring at the moment.

This was still better than her being brainwashed into the enemy’s pawn.

But having the Level 5 Meltdowner effectively switch sides was still about as bad as it got. A single beam attack could easily destroy the VIP booth’s tempered glass and Frenda right along with it.

“Frenda.” Takitsubo’s voice came from her phone. “''Do you know what the enemy is doing''?”

“''More or less''.”

In an attempt to forcibly relieve her tension, Frenda pulled out her virtual drink bottle and enjoyed the flavor of a sweet Starzucks iced café mocha without any of the calories.

It didn’t do much good.

“Pwah. But in the end, we’re screwed if Mugino falls into her grasp. And that open field is about the worst location for this. If I poke my head out from cover to attack Shokuhou, I’ll just get shot by Mugino. And not even Kinuhata’s Offense Armor can stop Meltdowner!”

No objection was raised on the group chat.

Which meant none of them wanted to battle Mugino Shizuri. And that did nothing to eliminate the threat presented by Meltdowner.

They were being attacked by two Level 5s, one physical and the other psychological.

Little Shokuhou Misaki shouted excitedly into the MVP interview mic in her left hand.

“Now, then! It’s time for the rest of you to come on out!! If you don’t do so, I’ll order this girl here to start blasting everywhere she thinks you might be hiding☆ So if you don’t want to die in a mess of melted metal, I’d say the smart thing to do is come on out!!”

“Frenda.”

“I know. If we do as she says, we’ll be trapped. In the end, we’ll have nowhere to run once we’re lined up out on the open field. All we’ll be able to do is wait while she kills us one by one.”

Little Shokuhou Misaki looked all around from atop the mound until her eyes stopped on a single point among the 50 thousand spectators in the stands.

Was she focused on Takitsubo Rikou?

“Hm. You don’t show any emotion ability on your face, but those big boobs bother you, don’t they? Do you keep your hair short and only ever wear a track suit because – hee hee – the male gaze scares you?”

“''What is your name''?”

“What, you don’t recognize me?”

This meant the Takitsubo card had been flipped over too.

Once their hiding place was revealed, they were sitting ducks for Mental Out. And the enemy was already starting to dig into Takitsubo’s mind.

(In the end, I can’t imagine many nightmare scenario worse than having her hijack both Meltdowner and AIM Stalker! Even hiding behind cover would be meaningless!!)

What options were left?

What could they do now?

(In the worst case, I might be able to knock out everyone in the dome with carbon monoxide or with a nonlethal dose of poison gas. In the end, a psychological esper can’t stop a physical gas and even the people she’s controlling will suffocate. That would work, right!?)

“Don’t worry, Frenda.”

Takitsubo sounded calm.

Like she was looking at something on another dimension altogether.

“I don’t think you need such drastic measures.”

A fearsome beam shot from Mugino Shizuri’s palm.

But it was not aimed at the VIP booth overlooking the field or the stands holding 50 thousand spectators.

Mugino Shizuri turned around and immediately directed her palm toward Shokuhou Misaki.

“Wha-?”

It was a close one.

In fact, if Mugino’s aim wasn’t being affected, she would have shot right through the center of the girl’s body.

The burning pain in her cheek caused Shokuhou to drop the mic and grimace.

“How!? What do you think you’re doing!? I used all my command ability to order you to fire on Item’s likely hiding spots!!”

“That’s what I did.”

Mugino was definitely under that psychological power’s control.

And yet…

“''Frenda’s devious, so she’d probably hide behind the weakest-looking person. So her most likely hiding spot is behind you.''”

“Th-then your top priority is protecting me. And your second priority is revealing Item’s location!!”

“''Fine. The fastest way to do that is to beat you into a pulp and toss you out there as bait. Frenda, Kinuhata, and Takitsubo are all very cautious. I don’t want them disappearing and making this a long-term effort, so I need to bait the hook with the best bait available.''”

“~ ~ ~!?”

Her mind was being controlled.

But whether she was told to attack Item or protect Shokuhou, she attacked Shokuhou. And if any one of those attacks hit, Shokuhou was dead. Leaving Mugino out of it altogether would be better than any of this.

“Shouldn’t you super give up and leave before you get burned?” Kinuhata Saiai emerged from the corridor for players. “You claim to have brainwashed everyone in this stadium – including the 50 thousand spectators – and taken control of them, but I doubt even a psychological Level 5 can do that. Which means it’s a trick. For example, ''maybe the game’s already over and those 50 thousand people aren’t here anymore.''”

That would mean Shokuhou was only controlling the two teams and the TV crews, which was only a few dozen.

The rest were all faked.

“Oh? And how can you be so sure?”

“The air felt chilly when I reached the field. If there were 50 thousand people in super one place, it should have been unpleasantly warm from their body heat. The stadium’s A/C super can’t keep up with that.”

The game had entered extra innings, which could have ended at any time. It was entirely possible a team had scored a point and ended the game after Item left their car. Or Shokuhou could have influenced the players or umpire to manipulate the outcome.

Then she had started playing all alone on the empty field.

“And it wasn’t your power making Mugino’s Meltdowner miss. If you could use your Mental Out on her, you wouldn’t have just thrown off her aim a bit – you would’ve fully brainwashed her into your pawn. So how exactly did you mess with her aim?”

People’s senses could be fooled.

Just like the virtual drinks Frenda had tried out for a diet.

As another example, it wasn’t uncommon for people to buy yakisoba or popcorn at a festival or ballgame only to find they didn’t get as much as they expected. The same for a sashimi pack or salmon bento using the package design to disguise how little was inside. A single plastic container no one gave much thought to before throwing away was packed full of techniques to make the product look more impressive than it really was.

Only believing your own eyes was too weak a defense to get by on the dark side.

“Simple, right? By super moving 50 thousand fake people at once, it creates the illusion of the entire background changing. For example, you could stretch the crowd silhouettes vertically to throw off someone’s sense of up and down. Or you could expand or contract the silhouettes to throw off their sense of depth. Mugino was shooting down on the mound from the tiered stands, so that would have been enough to throw off her aim. And you can super do that without any kind of psychological power.”

Something reflected off the VIP booth on the third level behind the backstop.

That wasn’t a mistake – it was an intentional signal. Frenda had cut an opening in the tempered glass and now had a rocket launcher resting on her shoulder.

“For Takitsubo-san, it was even super simpler. You used the kind of cold reading that fortune tellers use to determine someone’s financial situation and complexes based on their appearance and clothing. That’s just a skill. What matters is, whether Takitsubo-san said yes or no, you created a sense for everyone else that she was rattled by you getting it right. You weren’t trying to scare her – you were trying to scare Frenda-san and me into acting without thinking and giving away our positions. Takitsubo-san didn’t give you a response because she realized what you were up to. When you super don’t know the answer, it’s better to change the subject than give a yes or no answer, right?”

“She still should have smiled, though☆”

“And it’s not like a Level 5 to rely on silly tricks like that. I know that all too well after seeing our Mugino. A real one would use brute force instead. Also, you prepared 50 thousand fake people to fill the stands. Which means it wouldn’t be that hard to prepare one more. There’s only one reason you would use those tricks to neutralize Mugino before trying to control her with your power: you were worried your power wasn’t strong enough in a one-on-one confrontation. …Are you even the real Shokuhou Misaki? I super bet you’re someone else entirely pretending to be her.”

Shokuhou Misaki took a deep breath.

And with a tearing sound, she reached up her hands and ripped away her own face.

Her true identity was thinner even than a mask.

“Ha ha ha ha HA HA ha ha ha HA ha HA HA HA ha ha ha ha HA HA ha ha ha ha HA HA HA ha ha ha HA!”

“…”

“I had a feeling some cheap tech like the Silhouette Screen wouldn’t be enough. But, but. This first battle with the dark side has taught me a lot☆ If I want to face a Level 5 for real, what I need is connections. I need to start by brainwashing all those naughty adults and get my hands on even better next-gen weapons.”

Was it moving paint?

No, were the many spectators and her face created using some kind of extremely thin sheet?

“But whatever the case, I proved I can ''deceive and manipulate a real level 5''. Which means I might have had a chance if I had isolated you from each other first.”

Someone else altogether emerged below the false face. This person had fluffy chestnut hair.

They had no idea who she was.

“''By the way, super who are you''?”

“''Mitsuari Ayu''☆”



(I’m really starting to hate people who use special makeup. Is this a super dark side jinx or something?)

Kinuhata Saiai sighed as she remembered ''something else that had happened quite recently''.

“Oh, right. I would just leave Mugino like that, if I were you.”

“Um? I’ve been doing my best not to look that way, but she’s still shooting those thick murder beams my way!”

“Those attacks only pierce a single point, so as long as her aim is off, you can just let her keep shooting. If you do remove her brainwashing, she’ll realize you were controlling her ''and get super pissed about it.'' Once that happens, Academy City is screwed.”

“~ ~ ~. On the count of three, start chasing your own tail!!”

Mugino Shizuri began spinning on the spot. Like she was running in a meter-wide circle.

It made sense. If Mugino wouldn’t do what that psychological esper wanted her to do, it was safer to have her do something harmless. The girl had given this some thought.

“Pant, pant. How does your handler – are they called a Voice on the Phone? – control her?”

“What super happened to the 50 thousand spectators?”

“Do you really think I would dump them out into the typhoon to walk all the way to the nearest station when the trains might not even be running anymore? I brainwashed some of the staff to take them to the dome’s underground delivery entrance where busses can take them away. I don’t need to control all 50 thousand when I can brainwash the staff into telling the entire group what to do☆”

“Just like it’s super faster to control the headmaster than to control each and every student?”

It wouldn’t be possible to send them all right away with a limited number of busses. Did that mean this girl had left most of the spectators below the Stadium Dome when she knew something like would be happening on the surface?

Good thing they hadn’t let Mugino go nuts with Meltdowner.

“What assurance did you super have none of them would be hurt? The brainwashed staff are just robotically guiding them, right? What if a panicked spectator tripped and got hurt, or what if a bus set out without ensuring everyone was in a safe position and hit someone? That harm is on another level entirely from a deadly battle between villains.”

“I’m confident it’s safe, but I have no objective proof. I’ve brainwashed people so often I don’t need proof anymore. Besides, so what if someone gets hurt?”

“If they do, I’ll super beat you up until you can’t stand anymore and leave you in a park bathroom. ''And I mean it.''”

That response came to mind unbidden. At times like this, it somewhat bothered Kinuhata that she wasn’t sure if her own thoughts came from ''the piece of the #1'' implanted in her or from herself.

“Don’t worry. I too am the kind of villain who knows where to draw the line☆”

“…”

The Mitsuari girl giggled and tapped her gym shorts pocket.

The phone in that pocket stuck out just enough to reveal its 2mm camera lens.

Did she use that to aim her power, rather than the TV remote?

“I do still have the power to control minds. Even if it isn’t as powerful as Mental Out.”

“That super doesn’t matter.”

“''And as long as I damage that loathsome ultra elite’s reputation, then I win in the end.''”

A muddy darkness lurked deep inside the eyes she widened like dinner plates.

Was that her objective here?

Kinuhata didn’t know what kind of bad blood there was between Shokuhou Misaki and Mitsuari Ayu, but that didn’t matter here.

“I’m just super glad we could stop you before you joined Honey Queen,” she said with a sigh.

The girl called Mitsuari looked surprised by this, so Kinuhata gave her a questioning look.

“What? Are you super still planning to resist and join Honey Queen? That sounds like suicide to me.”

“Of course not☆” Mitsuari Ayu gave a muddy smile. “I don’t know where you got the information, but if you knew about my deal to join Honey Queen, then I know exactly what this is all about. It’s too bad really. If they had asked, I would have given them some real help.”

“?”

“It sounds like I was nothing more than bait to begin with. I imagine they had you chasing after a phony deal to buy enough time advance whatever their real plan is.”

Kinuhata felt a chill down her spine.

They had learned about Honey Queen’s deal with Shokuhou Misaki(?) by risking their lives sneaking into the illegal casino run by Honey Queen’s support organization, but if this was something truly important, where failure wasn’t an option, it wouldn’t have been sitting on a support organization computer. While it wasn’t a defense against real psychological espers like the one in front of Kinuhata now, the safest place for that kind of information was in your own head.

“In that case…”

They hadn’t won. They were still in the palm of the enemy’s hand.

How far did they have to go to get a step ahead of those villains!?

“I wonder where those villains are right now?” whispered Mitsuari Ayu while sweetly giggling. She spoke about villainy like it was a good friend of hers. “Because unlike the heroes who will wait for their enemy with head held high, villains prefer to stay hidden and cover their tracks.”