Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 12===

“Super over here, Takitsubo-san!!”

“Lead the way.”

Several more explosions erupted behind Kinuhata and Takitsubo as they rushed away. It wasn’t clear if those were due to Frenda’s bombs or the detective’s unidentified power. Cracks ran through the thick ice pillars and chunks of ice heavier than human beings dropped from the ceiling.

Nevertheless, they heard an amused response.

But instead of Battle Freak Mugino, this came from Detective Shiratori Okibi.

“Rozeki, go!”

A deep roar followed. Mugino and Frenda must have had their hands full dealing with Shiratori’s vicious onslaught. The Japanese wolf had breached their defensive line.

She was speeding toward Kinuhata and Takitsubo.

Kinuhata spun around and prepared to intercept.

With a single sharp, whistling breath, she suppressed the instinctual fear of the enormous creature.

“Takitsubo-san, super stay behind me!!”

“No, Kinuhata.”

For some reason, that girl wasn’t obeying her guard’s instructions.

Feeling overwhelmed, Kinuhata nearly snapped at the older girl, but…

“Time is a limited resource. If we waste it dealing with that wolf, Mugino and Frenda will be defeated. We need to figure out that detective’s power as soon as possible.”

Kinuhata heard a wet bursting sound.

It came from the plastic bottle of lemon soda Takitsubo had thrown.

With their extremely sharp sense of smell, wolves disliked the strongly sour scent of citrus. This was an instinctual way of avoiding spoiled food and the chemicals used to keep wild animals away from campsites and mountain cabins made use of this reaction.

“Train them all you want, an animal is still an animal,” expressionlessly stated Takitsubo as she pulled out something else: a bottle of hand cream.

This time it wasn’t the smell. Wild animals also disliked unnaturally sticky surfaces. That may have been an instinct to avoid bogs that would kill them once they were caught.

“That thing was genetically modified into a Japanese wolf, so we need to use that fact against it.”

With a distorted yelp, the wolf fled into the shadows.

“Kinuhata, keep an eye on our surroundings just in case. I doubt it will be after us until it gets that sticky stuff of its paws, but be careful.”

Instead of focusing on the wolf, Takitsubo pulled out a small pair of opera glasses.

She had a good view of Mugino, Frenda, and Detective Shiratori fighting a decent distance away. Which meant it was finally time to do her job.

“Mugino, Frenda. Can you two hear me?” she said into her phone.

“In the end, I’m reading you loud and clear!”

“Just hurry up and get us that data!!”

They were already aware that Shiratori could create a wall of fire, produce a flash flood, hammer a nail with nothing more than air, and cause several other supernatural phenomena. From that alone, she appeared to be a Dual Skill who ignored the rule about one power per person.

However.

Some things came into view now that Takitsubo was a step removed and could remain calm.

“Shiratori Okibi claims she could have brought plenty of assault troops and snipers with her, but she came alone because her power is so strong she couldn’t avoid friendly fire, right?”

“What of it!?” shouted Mugino.

“Then why isn’t that wolf of hers affected by her power?”

That had bothered Takitsubo.

Detective Shiratori had claimed it was best for her to fight alone, so did her wolf assistant not count?

It was obvious she was willing to entrust her life in the wolf in this dark palace. ''And yet'' was she really willing to kill the wolf along with her enemy just because the wolf wasn’t human?

“That means Shiratori Okibi knew from the beginning that her wolf partner would never be harmed by her power no matter how many big, roughly-aimed attacks she launches across this entire area.”

“In the end, are you saying what I think you are?”

“The detective’s power only affects human brains, so it can’t harm a nonhuman wolf.”

“You mean the flame wall, the flood, and the nailing were – in the end – all psychological? Oh, I get it! If her power just shows us illusions, then this all can be explained with a single power!!”

“So is the damage we receive just a negative form of the placebo effect? Dammit!!” cursed Mugino.

Shiratori’s power was ultimately psychological. Had she driven nails into a board at school by hiding a small tool in her palm? There was a weirdly thriving market for miniaturized tools like multi-tool knives and glasses screwdrivers.

This would turn the tides a little.

But it was only the bare minimum.

Takitsubo could not rest until Detective Shiratori had been defeated and all of Item was safe.

“But this should super help us-”

Feeling optimistic, Kinuhata began speaking, but then she stopped.

She heard a solid scraping sound. It was a footstep. But not a human one.

''But also not a Japanese wolf one.

The ice floor was being torn into by short, thick claws resembling tungsten steel can openers. They belonged to a four-legged ground combat drone about the size of the wolf. More scraping sounds joined the first as 5, 10, 15, 20 of the metal beasts emerged. They gathered around the wolf, evidently to serve it.

The detective’s voice spoke from all of their internal speakers.

Even after everything she had done, she still wasn’t done.

The mocking laughter came from an expert in the last thing a criminal would want to happen.

“Ah ha ha. People get this wrong a lot thanks to the term ‘lone wolf’, but wolves are highly social animals that operate in packs. So this ability exists in some corner of Rozeki’s head.”

“…”

“Unfortunately, Rozeki is the only Japanese wolf that’s been created through genetically engineered atavism. A shame, right? Logically speaking, I didn’t want to let that ability go to waste and I’m not that great at operating drones myself.”

Her voice carried a sticky grinning tone.

“So I hooked some wiring up to Rozeki’s brain letting her control a pack of ground combat drones using both ultrasound and the gigahertz band. You’re about to experience firsthand a mechanized version of a wolf pack’s highly organized hunting routine. There is no escape. Just remember that this is going to be a lot worse than being attacked by a simple program.”

“Super get behind me, Takitsubo-san! Hurry!”

“I have a hunch some nitrogen armor won’t be enough to protect your teammate when wolves are attacking from every direction.”

They had no choice but to put some distance between themselves and the pack, even if that meant running. But…

“!”

“Takitsubo-san?”

Kinuhata looked puzzled, but Takitsubo didn’t have time to answer. The track suit girl was not in charge of athletics or direct combat.

Of course, their opponent wasn’t going to honor that kind of line.

A few of the bestial ground combat drones wandered out in front of them and one lunged in. It stretched up from low to the ground, targeting Takitsubo’s throat.

It moved exactly like a Japanese wolf.

Kinuhata prepared to counterattack with an Offense Armor fist, but her small body stiffened.

A brutal “zap!!” came from a high-voltage current.

Offense Armor was made by solidly compressing the nitrogen in the air, but it was only a few millimeters thick. So if, for example, ''electrical breakdown were triggered and a powerful current pierced through that air, she was powerless to stop it.

“Kinuhata!?”

There was no response.

Kinuhata crumpled to the ice floor. Takitsubo propped her up from behind, but couldn’t do any more than that.

She was out of options.

As an expert in battle analysis and targeting support, Takitsubo understood her own situation quite vividly. The nitrogen barrier was gone. And even as small as Kinuhata was, Takitsubo doubted she could carry the limp girl and escape the 20 or so ground combat drones organized by a Japanese wolf’s instincts.

Explosions and tremors were still occurring in the distance, so she knew Mugino and Frenda were in no position to come to their aid right away.

She dragged her teammate with both arms and forcibly lifted her. By placing Kinuhata’s limp body atop a boxy vending machine located inside the ice palace, she hoped the wolves wouldn’t be able to reach her.

But that was the most she could do.

Takitsubo had an uncharacteristic grimace on her face as she slumped down to the floor.

Something felt wrong in her right calf. This was why professional baseball players did not play in the winter. As someone who didn’t get much exercise, she shouldn’t have run so much while chilled by the ice palace.

Her leg had been ''cramping'' for a bit now.

She doubted the wolves would give her time to reach down to stretch her ankle.

The track suit girl quietly thought to herself.

(Is this the end?)

They weren’t coming for her right away.

Were the beasts coordinating to cut off all possible escape routes before delivering the finishing blow, or was this the unique “pause” or “compromise” found in pack hunters?

Her last moments stretched out at a horribly leisurely pace.

She did not shut her eyes.

Kinuhata was the newest member of Item. If Takitsubo let her die and survived, she could never look Mugino in the eye again. But maybe it was also unfair to force Kinuhata to live with the pain of having survived when her older teammate died.

“Oh, but.”

Takitsubo sighed softly.

And she smiled with her cramped right leg still sprawled out uselessly.

“Villains are selfish beings.”

And.

A fearsome beam of light pierced through several of the bestial ground combat drones at once.

“Eh?”

The sound left Takitsubo’s mouth unbidden.

And apparently she wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand.

Mugino hadn’t done that. She couldn’t have.

''Then why?

''Why was that battle freak of a girl, who wielded violent beams of light, standing right there?

Shiratori’s voice came from the drones’ internal speakers.

“What?”

She sounded flustered.

That detective acted like she could read their minds, but that act had slipped here.

“What is Mugino Shizuri doing over there? Ksh. She’s still over- dammit, you’re right here fighting me! Kssssshhhhhh!!!”

A powerful beam shot from a palm and silenced the ground combat drones.

“It’s simple.”

That was one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s.

Meltdowner.

Mugino Shizuri…except it wasn’t?

“You just need another of that monster, right? ''It’s always like this with people like you''.”

A close inspection showed some differences.

Instead of the girl’s outstretched palm, the beam had come from a bit lower, in her sleeve.

And the deadly attack was actually a plasma cutter used to slice through steel panels.

More beams shot out. The giant batteries and capacitors within the unmanned weapons were ruptured, causing internal explosions. Takitsubo didn’t manage to catch what happened to the real wolf. Her specialty was humans, not animals. Although she wasn’t sure what would happen if an animal’s brain was developed to the point it radiated a weak AIM diffusion field.

She was specialized for reading her target’s AIM diffusion field, so she could sense something off without even taking any Body Crystal.

That was not Mugino Shizuri.

And she knew someone who could transform her appearance without relying on an esper power.

“''Ha''-” Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou spoke in a daze. “''Hanano''?”

The color white filled her view.

It came from an explosive flash. More accurately, it came from a stun grenade dropped to the floor.

But just before her senses were taken from her, Takitsubo caught a distinct look of someone removing her wig, throwing out her eyebrows and eyelashes, and exposing a smooth, doll-like face.

The mouth on that face was bent into a small smile.

The dazzling flash produced by aluminum and magnesium didn’t even last for 10 seconds. It wouldn’t even take 180 seconds to be rid of the afterimage burned into Takitsubo’s eyes.

By then, no one was there.

No one except Takitsubo standing in a position to protect limp Kinuhata.