Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

July 1, 10 AM.

Fifteen Bells, the largest complex in District 15.


As the largest shopping district in Academy City, District 15 was the envy of all 2.3 million residents.

The ultra-luxury apartments found in that primest of prime locations were sold more as investments than as actual residences. The very top floor and the roof garden of one such apartment building acted as Item’s base. Since the apartments were investments, the owners did not want to reduce the value by getting stains on the walls and floors or otherwise making the place feel “lived in”. That meant very few people actually lived there, so it was the perfect place to find a quiet life without actually escaping to nature and thus sacrificing the modern conveniences of the city.

“Academy City develops special powers based on quantum theory, so the city is home to scientific espers. Using the fact that observation alters the movement and nature of particles, methods such as hypnotism, drugs, and electric shocks have been used to help students develop a Personal Reality which allows them to produce ordinarily impossible phenomena.”

With nothing to do after completing their job, Mugino Shizuri was crossing a living room larger than a tennis court to reach her bedroom. The 100+ inch TV switched on by itself. Automatically searching out a recommended program upon detecting someone’s face didn’t seem like the best idea. It didn’t seem very ecological. And its recommendation algorithm had failed for her because she had no interest in the morning news program it had chosen.

But just this once, maybe it had done a good job after all.

This had delayed her just long enough to notice something flashing in a corner of the room.

“Huh?” she grumbled with a bottle of carbonated water in one hand.

She was only wearing a thin negligee since she had just taken a bath, but she had no real issues with standing by the window. She threw herself into one of the recliners lined up by the glass and grabbed the phone receiver. She leaned back and the chair collapsed back into something like a bed.

This was an ecological city of skyscrapers and three-blade wind turbines.

The large screen on the side of a blimp provided a UV forecast for the pedestrians walking below the summer sky.

The city sprawling out beyond the window was a shitty place. It could only shine so bright thanks to the dark side’s support, but no one there so much as glanced toward that dark side.

The call was from exactly who Mugino expected.

“Mujinayama, why do you always insist on calling the home phone? I don’t check this thing’s answering machine. You could reach me directly on my cellphone, so I’d never miss your calls.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, milady. I am but a lowly servant, so I would never be so rude as to directly contact you without prior arrangement. I really should not be calling your home either, but I can just barely preserve my honor by relaying it through your apartment landlord.”

Mujinayama was the ''butler'' who served at her family home outside of Academy City and he was like this about everything. She could never quite tell if the old man was treating her with care or trying to avoid interacting with her as much as possible.

“You may be living away from home in Academy City, but you must always be aware that you are a member of the glorious Mugino family and maintain the appropriate resolve.”

“You try to act humble, but did you call me up first thing in the morning to lecture me?”

“Milady.”

It was currently 10 AM. That was much too late for a student or a worker to be relaxing at home, but the gray-haired butler did not take issue with her not following the same schedule as ordinary people.

“Many things found their way to this country during the Westernization at the beginning of the Meiji period.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Science, art, meats, medicines, steamships, and – most importantly – wheat. The Mugino family is now one of the wealthiest in the world because they saw how the country was changing, actively accepted the Westernization, and spread its wings wider than anyone else. That family name is a sign of wisdom and glory that only a chosen few are privileged with, milady.”

“(Westernization, my ass. Udon and manju are made with wheat too. That pure white rice you see in samurai movies is a lie. In those days, I doubt much of anyone really ate just rice.)”

“Milady.”

Mujinayama still insisted on calling her that.

Mugino sighed in exasperation while lying back in the window-side recliner with the cordless receiver in hand. And she took a sip of carbonated water from the plastic bottle.

It was true a wide variety of new things had entered the country after it opened up from its isolationist period: new clothing, new cuisine, Western medicine, Shakespeare’s plays, etc. The Mugino family had indeed greedily absorbed those things and rapidly expanded just like Mujinayama so proudly stated (even more proudly than the girl who actually belonged to that family).

“''Don’t forget Western-style organized crime.''”

“''Now, now.''” The butler spoke like he was chiding a small child. “Violence is merely another form of negotiation, no different from conversation and money. But a Mugino must use violence as a tool, not be controlled by it. The honorable Mugino family is in fact one of the 5 wealthiest in the world and runs the grain production company which fills the bellies of 1.4 billion people worldwide.”

That put the Mugino family in a different position from the Japanese-style yakuza. They never did anything too noticeable and none of their criminal bases or criminal members every came to light. They did not wear obvious sunglasses and gold necklaces. On the surface, they were a global grain production company and, even there, the Mugino name was never found in the company name or the personnel list. But after the vast fortune earned there was laundered through specific banks and casinos, it was used to raise an army of a hundred thousand around the world. More than handguns of dubious origin, they even possessed tanks and attack helicopters. And the investment fund run by the group would buy up any company that gave them an opening – whether it was an old, established one or a new startup – to spread the corporation across the world like an amoeba.

It became an inextricable gear of society, all while hiding its presence.

Even the graffiti on the walls and the way they shook hands were used as signs to identify insiders and outsiders and any outsiders nosing around too much were eliminated. That was the Western way of using violence as a tool.

“If they’ve got so much wheat, they should just make illegal booze like a proper gang.”

“Unfortunately, there is no reason to make it illegally in the modern day.”

In other words, Mugino Shizuri had a dark lineage. Unlike most in the dark side, she hadn’t wound up there after making some kind of mistake. She was a monster born and raised in the darkness.

But in Academy City, she was simply a student.

That may have been what worried Mujinayama so much. He himself came from a more modern lineage that had thrown out their rusted bandit swords when the Westernization led to a prohibition on swords and were reborn as mountain-based snipers. He wished to personally assist when it came to combat rather than leaving that in the hands of Item’s other members, who were only with her by happenstance.

“Is there anything new with you, milady?”

“Hm, not really.”

She had diligently stayed up late last night killing. ''Same old, same old.

“I’m one of only seven Level 5s. I’m not going to find myself in serious trouble all that easily. There are those in the dark side who ''protect themselves by giving an invented story of their past,'' but I haven’t reached that point yet.”

(As long as the #6 – that Level 5 known as the Dark Side’s Bane – doesn’t show up anyway.)

Mugino lazily yawned and rolled over in the recliner. The old butler’s adorably jealous voice came over the phone.

“What are your ''schoolmates'' doing?”

“They’re downstairs flirting.”