Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item Chapter2 (section)

===Part 11===

Mugino heard something sharply slicing through the air.

“Whoops.”

With the domed ceiling destroyed, the taut wires had lost their support. It was like a blade-sharp bowstring suddenly snapping. She would have felt pretty silly losing a limb or her head to this.

But this also meant she didn’t have to worry about being sliced apart when landing on the broken floor.

She had defeated Hanayama Kamitsu, courier of the enemy Item.

But that wasn’t why Mugino was here.

The silver-haired art club girl with the suitcase was nowhere to be found. She had escaped. This was a job for a more intelligence-oriented member, not a combat specialist like Mugino.

She pulled out her phone while focusing on things outside the crumbling planetarium.

She knew exactly who to call.

(I need the support organization to set up a perimeter around the library. Hopefully they can at least catch a glimpse of her. Then Takitsubo just has to register her AIM Diffusion Field to track her even if she tries to flee the solar system.)

“Hanano! Have you gotten Takitsubo to safety? I want her to use AIM Stalker, so tell her to take some Body-”

“'Oh, hello. I have your mysterious 5th member in my custody.''”

“Kh.”

Mugino scowled.

She recognized that voice, but it wasn’t who she had called. A call to Hanano Choubi’s phone had been answered by Ibotanokikouji Kaede’s voice, which could only mean one thing.

(She has the worst timing!)

“Please do not blame her for this. Hanano-chan did exactly as you asked. She suppressed her fear and fought tooth and nail to let Takitsubo-chan escape. You should really praise her for her admirable – if ineffective – efforts. But if she no longer has a place on your team now that she has failed you, I am more than willing to invite her to join mine. Hee hee. Sinfully cute, isn’t she?”

“Damn you.”

With a dull metal clang, someone tackled down the half-broken planetarium door. A battered-looking Kinuhata emerged. She was supporting Frenda with her shoulder, but was Frenda even conscious?

“Super sorry.”

Mugino didn’t have time to respond before those two collapsed limply forward.

Ibotanokikouji had to know the safest option was to say nothing at all, but that didn’t stop her.

“Just so you know, they scored surprisingly well escaping from that situation at all. Although my own indecisiveness is really to blame there. If I had been focused on them, they wouldn’t have lasted a second.”

Quiet laughter snuck in over the electronic device.

Ordinarily, this alone would have cost her her life.

“''I told you I am the Dark Side’s Bane, didn’t I''? You don’t seem to have the brainpower to understand what that means, so I hope this taught you the same lesson on a more instinctual level. This is my territory for hunting the likes of you. You cannot defeat me as long as you remain in this darkness. No matter what.”

“Shut the hell up, worm. That’s just a legend. Propaganda. Are you saying you would’ve self-destructed if we were heroes or schoolgirls from the sunny world?”

“You already know the answer to that.”

Those words seemed to take hold of the atmosphere.

Strange rules seemed to seep out from the cracks.

“None of you are anything more than prey, so when you gather together, you only end up devouring each other,” said Ibotanokikouji. “I am your bane – your predator – so your puny claws and fangs cannot reach me. There are no three-way deadlocks in the food chain. It is a pure top-to-bottom hierarchy.”

“…”

“We used a different insider at the insurance company for each match anyway, so that man was disposable to begin with. We can replace him at any time. Our only failure here is…well, that you are still alive must mean Hanayama-chan is dead. But we can overcome that too by negotiating with Hanano-chan and making her our new teammate. She’s a cute one, so I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to add her to my collection. Our four-girl structure will not be broken. Hee hee. Violence, starvation, sleep deprivation, itching, disgust, panic – there are any number of ways to remove someone’s will from their body. I can’t wait to see her cute attempts at resistance.”

Ibotanokikouji Kaede kept going. She was not done speaking yet.

“A life for a life. That makes us even, doesn’t it?”