Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 11===

For a brief moment, Mugino Shizuri forgot where she was.

She heard a voice in the back of her mind.



''“As Class Rep, I end up hearing a lot of people’s problems. So if you’re ever in real trouble, you can come to me. I’ll do anything to help you out!”



That was from school.

She really did only need to keep the bare minimum level of attendance. So she hadn’t known the names of the students or teacher. With one exception.

The Class Rep.

From Mugino’s perspective, she was a harmless and uninteresting girl who was walking down a path Mugino could never reach.



''“To give you an example, my dream is to become an even better detective. I don’t want to be a novice or a hobbyist. I want to use my logic as an actual job.”



Or so she had thought.

Then what was this?

What was this she was seeing now?



''“But I’d be able to do so much more if I had a real title. Some things are out of reach when you’re only a hobbyist, but that would change if I was a pro.”



Villains had their own form of pride.

Or so she thought.



''“One day, I will rescue you from the darkness.”



Then.

Could she really attack someone from the sunlit world?

Was that really something she could let herself do?



''“I don’t know what kind of world you’ve gotten yourself involved in! But I can tell you have something going on outside of school and I can guess that it isn’t anything as peaceful as working part-time at a convenience store after school.”



And.

What if this girl was lost?

What if the one tiny thread still connecting her to the ordinary world was gone?



''“Hee hee. So I will bring you back into the light of the sun and make an honest person out of you!”



“Mugino!!”

Frenda slapped her leader on the back and stepped forward with Kinuhata.

It had already begun.

Detective Shiratori Okibi’s cruelly smiling voice reached Mugino’s ears with a delay.

“Rozeki, go!”

The Japanese wolf opened her maw wide, scattering sticky slaver around. She raced out, her feet skipping across the floor like a flat stone on a river, and she leaped for Mugino’s throat.

They didn’t have time to check what Mugino wanted.

“!!”

Kinuhata immediately raised her arms horizontally and shoved herself between Mugino and the wolf.

The fangs chomped down with tremendous force.

A normal human may have had their thick nerves torn through before they were dragged to the ground, but Kinuhata had Offense Armor.

She instead lifted the wolf with her bitten arm.

“Frenda, super use some gun or bomb to get rid of-!!”

She didn’t get to finish.

She had relaxed too soon.

The black-haired detective gave a twirl of her finger. The thing spinning around on a keychain loop looked a lot like a young child’s security buzzer, but it was in fact a mini stun gun.

All hell broke loose.

The thick ice below Mugino’s feet suddenly shattered. Flames and a shockwave exploded out and the Level 5 girl was sent spinning through the air.

“Super Mugi-”

Kinuhata shouted and reached out a hand, but her small body was stopped by a powerful sensation.

Solid cracking sounds rang out.

She had no idea what had happened. But without Offense Armor, she might have shattered like a rose dunked in liquid nitrogen.

“~ ~ ~! You super froze me!?”

“Watch out.”

The track suit girl’s warning came too late.

Or so Frenda thought, but a moment later she regretted taking Takitsubo’s words too lightly.

She had plenty of experience telling her that bad things happened if you didn’t immediately obey Takitsubo’s sixth sense at times like this.

The detective tossed aside her stun gun and grabbed something else instead. She reached into her thin coat and pulled out a giant monkey wrench.

But she did not try to hit Item with it.

Frenda’s feet rose up from the ice floor.

Even though she was a decent distance away.

She slammed back-first into an ice pillar.

“Bh!?”

For just an instant, Frenda thought she had been grabbed and thrown by powerful telekinesis, but that wasn’t it.

“Inertia? In the end, ''did you throw me by sliding the entire ice palace''!?”

“Ah ha ha. A little thing like that is enough to surprise you? ''What do you think my power is''?”

Shiratori Okibi.

She had no trouble taking on all four members of Item at once.

Even though that included Mugino Shizuri, one of only seven Level 5s in the city!?

“Gahh!?” shouted Kinuhata.

Before she had time to investigate the mysterious freezing phenomenon, an invisible pressure hit her from all sides. She had trouble breathing even with Offense Armor active, so this pressure had to be enough to crush a light vehicle.

It was so much she released the wolf she had captured.

Frenda forgot all about getting up from the ice floor and stared wide-eyed.

“In the end, is she using multiple powers at once!? Gah! And these are all AoE attacks that cover this entire event hall!!”

“I can hire support team assault troops and snipers if I want to. So didn’t logic tell you it was odd I had still chosen to meet you while alone?”

Without even glancing over at the wolf rejoining her, Shiratori tossed the monkey wrench to the wolf like it was a toy bone.

And she summed up her point.

“''If I did bring others with me, I’d just end up destroying all of them with my power''.”

“!?”

Level 0 Frenda felt her throat go dry.

So much power. Deadly power.

The detective held her palms together in front of her face and smiled bashfully.

“Ah ha ha. I do claim to be on the side of justice, so it would be a bad look if I destroyed all my allies with friendly fire, right? So this is the best and most optimal number of fighters for me. When I charge in on my own, I can actually wield my full power☆”

Unlike the police or Anti-Skill, detectives generally faced the villain on their own. Organizational power wouldn’t help them and could even get in their way.

Shiratori took that to the extreme.

Attempting a direct confrontation without knowing her power had been a mistake.

The props like the mini stun gun and the monkey wrench were suspicious, but Item knew nothing for certain. Those could just have been red herrings meant to draw their attention.

So Mugino didn’t hesitate to shout.

“Spread out! Follow the plan!!”

“Mugi-”

“Super got it!!”

Takitsubo started to say something, but Kinuhata grabbed her wrist and tugged hard.

They still didn’t know Detective Shiratori’s power, so Mugino and Frenda would move out to front to get her to attack while Takitsubo focused on analysis and Kinuhata guarded Takitsubo. Item had decided on this plan before arriving in the Bulweiser Icicle Theater.

If Takitsubo was only analyzing the enemy and providing targeting support, she didn’t need to be on the front line.

She could stay back where it was safe and contact the others by phone.