Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item2 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 12===

Tachiuo Mary had been defeated.

Takitsubo Rikou stared silently at the result for a while, a slight cloud over her face.

“Mugino?”

No response.

Mugino’s hand fell limply to the wet floor. She didn’t react at all to Takitsubo’s call. Mugino Shizuri was unconscious. Was she fully spent after that final attack, ''or had she passed out before that''?

(What was that just now?)

Takitsubo decided she needed to hide what had had happened, even from the rest of Item. At the same time…

“Cough!! Hack, cough!?”

She didn’t even have time to cover her mouth. She reflexively doubled over and coughed up a lot of blood.

This was the result of all the Body Crystal she had taken.

There had to be a cost. The sound of her lifespan shrinking seemed to ring through her very bones.

Nevertheless, she had overcome it.

She had used her power for the people important to her.

Tachiuo Mary must have been reaching for the same summit. That timid high schooler had fought so hard, yet it still wasn’t clear what was in it for her. What good was realizing Project Angelica for her? That couldn’t be her goal. That monster probably only wanted to spend time with Ainame Caroline.

Just like Takitsubo did not hesitate to consume her own lifespan for no direct benefit of her own.

Tachiuo Mary was the same.

“Gh…”

“Wake up, Mugino. She’s still breathing.”

“Ow… That injury is fatal. She just can’t bleed out and die right away because the gut wound was cauterized. The battle is still over.”

Frenda and Kinuhata were…still out.

Mugino and Takitsubo made sure they were still breathing and had a pulse, but they didn’t react to a light slap on the cheek. They also didn’t even stir with the pouring rain falling on them. They would need more specialized smelling salts to wake them.

“Takitsubo. A lab like this is bound to have ammonium carbonate lying around somewhere. We can split up and-”

“Mugino.”

Takitsubo interrupted to give a warning with her wet hair plastered to her cheeks.

Mugino noticed a moment later.

The rain had been pouring in ever since the roof was torn away, but it had stopped.

That was probably nothing more than the ordinary natural phenomenon of entering the eye of the storm, but it felt more like even that massive natural disaster was holding its breath in fear of a certain girl.

Yes, someone was approaching from down the hallway. It was the 10-year-old genius girl with the toxic outfit that looked wrong on her terribly small body.

It was Ainame Caroline.

“Wait. Tachiuo-chan? Damn, did you really lose? Now that’s what I call boring. I guess even you had a hard time taking on all four of them at once.”

“Ugh,” groaned Tachiuo Mary, still unable to get up from the floor.

But she still managed a somehow weak smile behind her mask.

“Did you find it, Lady Carol?”

“I did.”

“Good. Then maybe this was somewhat worth it…”

Tachiuo Mary smiled despite her missing organs.

She was the kind of person who could smile even now.

The little brown gyaru gave a quick nod. She reached into her exceptionally short skirt’s pocket and pulled out something too old-fashioned for a cutting-edge lab.

She held a cassette tape.

“While you were keeping them busy, I accessed by personal server in the back. At times like this, you should take a lesson from what major corporations do when backing up the personal information they get on tens of millions of people with their point cards: if you want to securely backup your most important data, you’ve gotta go with a cute digital magnetic tape☆ The discount hard disks sold in electronics stores are all just disguised nonvolatile memory, so I realllly wouldn’t trust them if I were you.”

Could Ainame Caroline control her personal server from any computer in the lab?

She twirled the digital cassette full of her research secrets like she was performing a card trick and then she inserted it between the wrapped wire at the center of her bikini’s flat chest.

“Ha ha ha. It cracks me up. Now I have the full plans for the lab’s unique medical equipment. It’s honestly sad that all that effort was over this one tiny digital cassette. But if I combine this with Mugino Shizuri’s DNA map, I can continue my research and complete Angelica without needing this stupid lab. It’s only a matter of time now.”

“And how are you going to find that time? The only time you have is her remaining lifespan. That’s a valuable thing. A part-timer won’t be handing out free samples of it on the street corner,” spat Mugino, ignoring that she was so wet her underwear showed through her clothing. “Even with that big hole in her gut, she still has to weigh twice what you do. Did you think you could escape my Meltdowner while struggling to drag her along with your scrawny arms?”

Ainame Caroline titled her head a little.

She twirled her bunny ears phone in a hand and looked down.

“Tachiuo-chan.”

“Yes?”

“''Thanks for everything.''”

Even at a distance, Mugino clearly heard the awful sound of a brain frying.

The mask’s straps came off Tachiuo Mary’s ears.

But she wasn’t moving anymore.

A line of red blood silently dripped from the corner of her exposed mouth.

Ainame Caroline had a form of Thoughtography. According to the “hospital” Item had brought their delinquent driver to, she used a special iron ink to burn a random pattern into the surface of the brain, obstructing the cranial nerves and thus preventing consciousness.

With her gut burst open and multiple organs gone, there had been no saving Tachiuo Mary regardless.

But Ainame Caroline had shown so little hesitation.

“Ah ha ha☆ And now a girl as little and cute as me can nimbly escape. Problem solved.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“Lame. Remind me who fatally wounded her? That blood dripping from her mouth isn’t my fault, by the way. Stop acting all righteous when you’re the one who killed her. That’s just boring.”

Ainame Caroline twirled her blast-resistant bunny ears phone with an icy expression on her face.

She didn’t stop with just the one.

More sizzling sounds followed. This time from unconscious Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai. Finishing off a downed enemy before they could get up again may have been standard practice on the dark side, but that wasn’t the point.

That eliminated the possibility of withdrawing.

Not even finding ammonium carbonate smelling salts in the lab would help now. Those two would never wake up again unless that piece of shit’s power was removed or she was erased from the face of the Earth.

“Mugino.”

Takitsubo tried to say something, but Mugino didn’t even look her way and held out a hand to stop her.

She directed a slight smile toward the source of all this trouble.

“What choice do I have? Tachiuo-chan broke before I could turn her into a complete Angelica. She lost ''the functions I can trust in'', so I see no reason to keep her around anymore.”

“…”

Mugino considered this while looking at collapsed and unmoving Tachiuo Mary.

Maybe this was wrong since she was the one who had given that girl the fatal wound.

But something about that girl reminded her of Butler Mujinayama who would take her side at any time.

There was nothing in it for Tachiuo Mary.

She probably didn’t really care all that much if Project Angelica was completed or not.

And yet she had fought to the end. Despite the lack of any real personal benefit. It wasn’t clear what connection those two had or what debt Tachiuo Mary might owe Ainame Caroline, but ultimately, there was only one reason Tachiuo Mary had consistently accepted more risk with no personal benefit.

''She had wanted to be with her.

That little researcher had hit a roadblock in Project Angelica, destroyed some promising espers in her impatience to get back on track, been kicked out of the lab, and found herself on the dark side with nowhere to go. That was who Tachiuo Mary had met. But instead of sympathizing with the troubled little girl, Tachiuo Mary had respected her for having what she did not. That was why she had grabbed the offered little hand. She had seen Ainame Caroline as worth looking up to and she had believed helping her would put a smile on that little face. The shy and timid high schooler had mustered so much courage for someone other than herself.

She had decided for herself how to use her life.

She had chosen to throw out her own possibilities, turn her back on the law, and become a villain who had still chosen to act as a diversion for her partner.

That dumbass had made the choice without any hesitation or regret.

“Tachiuo-chan was admittedly a valuable ''specimen'', but I can create a new Angelica with your DNA map and the equipment plans on this cassette tape. And then, like I said, it’s only a matter of time. This only delays the inevitable. Once I investigate the irregularities in DNA, I will eventually find a scientific definition of life and the soul. Hee ha ha. It cracks me up so much it took me this long to get back what I created in the first place☆”

If you didn’t understand the value of people’s lives and minds, it was best to avoid messing with them. But this girl had trampled on them. Whether enemy or ally, she had destroyed the lives and minds of the people who had found their own reasons for risking their lives and fighting on the dark side.

The most dangerous con artists didn’t need a conscious switch to begin lying.

She did not hesitate or regret eliminating one of her own.

Was that insufficient?

Was that still not enough of a reason to begin a fight between dark side groups?

That dirty piece of shit didn’t deserve to exist even in the hellhole that was the dark side.

Even if this wasn’t the ending Tachiuo Mary would have wanted.

“Are humans worthless to you, you shitty researcher?”

“''Humans are just collections of functions. Take my dead sister for example. She was someone who woke up early every day to make a charaben for me. That was one of her functions and it’s why I respected her.''”

That girl earnestly wanted to learn what a human life was.

She still didn’t have an answer there and she smiled here.

''It didn’t matter what kind of tearjerking backstory she had, nothing would change that this monster was a bad person through and through.'' With truly bad people, you didn’t need to consider the possibility of some special event giving them a change of heart.

Not even Mugino would deceive the teammates who watched her back.

She was merciless when it came to traitors, but that was a sign off how much she loathed liars and fakers.

But Ainame Caroline had not prepared to maliciously deceive her enemy, nor did she feel any guilt about betraying her allies. She simply had no morals and had a hair trigger when it came to lying.

She didn’t deserve the title of villain.

She was just a disgrace.

What would happen if someone like her completed Angelica and gained the ability to freely increase or decrease the number of Level 5s?

It was unlikely to signal the arrival of a wicked new world.

And not because the winner gets to write the history. It would only lead to a disgrace toying with and consuming lives for fun.

It would only mean more of that kind of bloody scene.

“You’re actually making me look decent,” said Mugino. “If that’s not a sign to stop, I don’t know what is.”

Ainame Caroline was a researcher.

Without her ''brilliantly broken brain'', Mugino’s Meltdowner never would have been completed. No matter how much they loathed each other, that was undeniable. Mugino needed to thank that girl for letting her reign over the dark side and support her life and livelihood as a rare Level 5.

But this was a separate issue.

No causal link between the Level 5 and the researcher could make up for what had happened here. As a villain of the dark side, this was not something she could ever let go.

Mugino would never forgive someone who made a mockery of the people she had accepted as worthy.

Tachiuo Mary had been ''a respectable'' villain. That made her worthy.

Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai had the skills needed to watch her back. That made them worthy.

So what would she do now?

Was that even a question at this point?

“Takitsubo.”

“Yes?”

“Take care of Frenda and Kinuhata. If ammonium carbonate won’t wake them, then at least keep them safe. Predicting lines of movement and fire are your specialty, right? Don’t stay in once place. Drag the two of them around if you have to.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll wipe that piece of shit off the face of the Earth. I won’t be satisfied if a single speck of dust is left.”

Mugino didn’t even need to think about it.

She cracked her neck before continuing.

“Because eliminating dangerous elements in Academy City is our job as Item.”