Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 15===

Justice smiled as she drew her last breath. She was the opposite of the villains. When someone trusted the path they walked and always looked to the future, was their true value only revealed upon their death?

Item could not die like that.

The four left behind all knew it.

“…”

This was a first.

Mugino had killed pure justice with her own hands.

That girl had been a detective.

As well as the nonthreatening Class Rep from Mugino’s ordinary school.

Mugino had already thought she was going to hell.

But this had to be a crossroads. She had gone past the depths of hell. She hadn’t ever imagined there were further depths to reach, but she felt like she had found them.

“Number 000.”

The far too heavy silence was broken by track suit girl Takitsubo.

Only she could do this because she had known Mugino for just as long as the dead girl.

“I think Shiratori Okibi had planned to tell us no matter how this turned out. And as a detective, I don’t think she cared if she died in the process.”

“You mean this came from a spirit of self-sacrifice? How can you be so sure after how hard she fought?”

“Because if all she cared about was surviving, she had no reason to reveal her presence to you at all. She prioritized investigating the truth of this case over her own survival. Because she wanted to inform you of the danger so you could be prepared.”

Mugino fell silent for a moment.

August was ending soon. On September 1, school would start back up whether she liked it or not.

But ultimately, only the villains had been taking the fight seriously. Hadn’t Shiratori said that detectives held good and evil in their grasp and could decide who died? That meant they could also decide who lived.



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



Was this her answer?

She couldn’t bring herself to survive at the cost of a friend’s life, but she had forced someone else to experience that instead.

(You good guys can be real pieces of shit.)

“Mugino, let’s check that flash memory. I doubt we’ll like what we find, but not looking would mean betraying that detective’s expectations.”

“…You’re right. Dammit,” spat Mugino as she switched gears.

While deeply disgusted with her own wickedness for letting her do that so easily.

She flagged down a support team delinquent when they arrived to clean up the body and took a thin laptop from him.

The lipstick-size flash memory was filled with a large quantity of files.

The files were linked together by a text the detective had written.

“Number 000: One of many codes used over the radio by Anti-Skill and Judgment.”

Digital signals tended to rely on complex and advanced encryption, but emergency radio still used special abbreviations and codes to prevent the content of the message from being intercepted.

However, Anti-Skill and Judgment felt like such distant groups to Item.

Insignificant even.

And they would be if that was all it was.

“To understand the importance of Number 000, you must first understand how Academy City’s law enforcement groups work.

“There are two groups: the adults in Anti-Skill and the children in Judgment.

“Everyone knows that much. Judgment resolves problems within the school and Anti-Skill deals with crimes across the city. From that, it might seem like Anti-Skill has more power and is more closely protected.

“But that is not the case.”

That final statement overturned all the assumptions.

The text continued.

“As its name suggests, Academy City is a city of students.

“In fact, students make up 80% of the population. The Board of Directors takes people’s children into their care and uses them for esper development research while also keeping the city economy running.

“This is kept secret to keep the students from getting big heads, but Judgment is actually given higher priority than Anti-Skill.

“If both groups are present at the scene of a violent crime, Anti-Skill will risk their lives to protect Judgment.

“But the opposite will never happen.

“That is how the justice side works.”

“?”

Takitsubo tilted her head while reading the text.

It may have been hard to believe for someone who had false charges forced upon her to make an experimental guinea pig out of her. Kinuhata seemed equally skeptical.

“So is that how it super works on the justice side? It super doesn’t among the villains.”

“The above must be kept in mind when considering the meaning of Number 000.

“Number 000 is the code for ''the confirmed death of a Judgment member.

“It is used to convey that and that alone.

“It means that something that must not happen in this city has in fact happened. So Anti-Skill and Judgment will both operate under emergency response shifts to capture the culprit at all costs. The case is not allowed to go unsolved. That is the general understanding of the code.

“But that isn’t actually accurate.

“Most likely, the rest of this isn’t known to the Anti-Skill or Judgment members calling in the code over the radio.

“The code’s true meaning is ''send in Judgment’s elite execution squad.'' All laws and regulations may be ignored as every single person involved in the incident leading to a Judgment death – on either side of the conflict – has been killed, or a majority of the Board have given their authorization to cancel the Number 000.

“The attackers, the witnesses, and even anyone who tried to rescue the killed Judgment member are to be treated as suspects. No one involved must be left alive, even if if their connection was hidden behind the scenes. Thus, they must all be killed to swiftly and surely restore order.

“Those are the rules on which justice operates.”

“In the end...an execution squad?”

Frenda frowned at the overly direct phrasing.

As they were, Judgment was insignificant. But the enemy must have seen it the same way too. Just like Item lurked in the city’s shadows, this new enemy was a powerful force that had remained hidden within that benevolent organization.

This wasn’t an assassin, the media, or a detective.

Shiratori Okibi had said the “very top” of the world of justice was coming. Was this what she had meant?

“Whether she lived or died, that detective wanted to show us that Item was a part of this.”

“A Number 000 has been issued.” This part of the text carried great meaning. “The unethical journalists known as the Frees were only hired by the Judgment execution squad to gather information on those marked for death. Their job should have only been to gather information, but the Frees caused it all start to unravel when they directly executed one of the Sadistic Dolls.”

“The Sadistic Dolls,” muttered Takitsubo.

Item had directly fought with the five members of that girls band.

If they had been a target of the Number 000, then had a hapless member of Judgment been caught in the crossfire somewhere? Was that how Item had been dragged into this mess? But they didn’t recall anyone else being hurt back at the Moe Bells in District 9.

In that case…

Could it be?

“It all began in District 4’s Clone Complex.”

It had happened at the very beginning.

All the way back in that science cult’s headquarters.

But had Item really been completely unaware? The information had always been there in their peripheral vision.

A few scenes replayed in Mugino’s mind.



''“Huh? Weren’t we suppose to meet on the upper deck for our patrol?”

''Item heard an odd voice from overhead. The speaker was descending the long escalator while Item ascended it. Three girls were wearing their school uniforms even during the break.



''Three Judgment girls were gathered together in that district of anime-style primary colors. They were attaching fliers to the wind turbine supports. Was that part of their official duties? Frenda glanced over and, to her surprise, discovered they were missing person posters.



''In this entertainment district where there were plenty of drunks out even during the day, Yamagami Erina of Judgment was handing out fliers on the snowy street corner. They had seen her earlier, so she must have been moving around a lot.

''“Excuse me. This girl’s name is Minamioki Sarusa-chan. Has anyone seen her?”

''“For now, we need to get her information out there. That means getting the posters up in all 23 districts by the end of the day.”

''“People’s routines will change once the break ends, so we need to get some useful witness information before then.”



So what had happened to this girl who still hadn’t been found?

Mugino could make a pretty good guess.

Item had mentioned it themselves.

What had they so casually said within the headquarters of the Ark of the Electronic Sea science cult?



''“Live sacrifices, huh?”

''“Ugh… Super how do they go about scientifically justifying that?”

''“Kinuhata, there are people out there who call little grays and ancestral memory ‘scientific’. ‘Science’ is just a word, so people can define it however they want.”



“I don’t believe it.” Frenda was dumbfounded. “So in the end, someone else was in that agricultural building?”

“…”

There were parts of the Clone Complex Item hadn’t investigated thanks to the interruption by the Sadistic Dolls.

For example, through the metal door leading further back from the area where the cult leader had died.

Item hadn’t set foot in there, but what if that room had been littered with pieces of a girl’s corpse?

They had the answer.

This had been over from the beginning.

The text continued: “I discovered that the leader of that immoral science cult would prove her special status by carrying out a live sacrifice ritual she invented herself.

“The Sadistic Dolls and Item broke into the Clone Complex at about the same time, but the sacrifice had already been made.

“Minamioki Sarusa of Judgment was killed.

“And ‘everyone involved in the incident’ was defined to include the cult itself as well as the two groups who hadn’t arrived in time to stop the cult or save the girl.

“Both groups had already been officially registered as targets of Number 000.”

Unfair didn’t even begin to describe it.

This was probably why Detective Shiratori Okibi had investigated the case.

And even though they both knew each other’s lies now, she still let Mugino keep her ordinary school life. Even if it cost her her life.

The truth was revealed.

These were the rules of justice.

“Number 000 demands that anyone involved in a Judgment death be executed in retaliation with no exception.

“Whether or not these people meant any harm is considered irrelevant.”