Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item2 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

Ainame Caroline’s upper half splatted down onto the filthy, wet floor. Just like with Tachiuo Mary, she couldn’t die right away because the edge of the wound was cauterized. That introduced the risk of a counterattack after the battle should have been over, so that may have been a problem worth fixing. A groan came from the lump of flesh pasted to the floor.

Mugino didn’t escape unscathed either. She stung all over. More than half her body may have suffered minor burns. But for now, she had to focus on Ainame Caroline.

She wouldn’t let this end with an accident or losing control.

She had to personally finish off that sack of shit who couldn’t even become a villain.

Otherwise she couldn’t avenge Tachiuo Mary. And she couldn’t get payback for Frenda and Kinuhata.

She had to end this here and return to her ordinary life.

Ainame Caroline had completed Meltdowner. Mugino had survived on the dark side thanks to her Level 5 power, but her thanks for that weren’t enough to forgive that girl for what she had done.

That insane genius had crossed the final line and violated a taboo that was off limits even for villains.

Punishing people like that was Item’s entire purpose.

She couldn’t let that girl out into the world.

She had to defend this final line and eliminate her.

Soaked Mugino put back on the cardigan she had wrapped around her arm and spoke.

“Did you think you could get away with anything just cause you’re a little kid?”

“Lame… I could say the same to you.”

“What, you think you won’t be charged with a crime because you’re special and talented? That isn’t how it works. You might not have much of a body left, but you’ve still got a heart, so look deep in there. Then you’ll see you brought this on yourself.”

“Right back at you.”

She really was a dark side villain, even if she was a poor example of one.

She only had her upper half left and her death was guaranteed, but Ainame Caroline didn’t make a meaningless plea for mercy. Nor did she apologize to someone who was already gone or ask to be put out of her misery.

She chose to leave behind as many malicious scars as she could.

That was the only thing fueling the little brown gyaru’s wicked smile.

“Are those temporary teammates really that important to you? Lame. Boring too. They’ll all move on eventually. Leaving you behind cause you’re the only real villain among them. You’ll find yourself all alone in that pathetic darkness☆”

“You talk big for someone who can only measure people by their functions and skills.”

“What’s your point?”

“I’m saying you never did understand what your sister was thinking when she made you a charaben each and every day.”

“…”

“Yeah, I can see how you ended up like this,” spat Mugino. “At the very least, ''I know your sister didn’t want you to turn out this way.'' I’ve never met her, but I know that for a fact. That’s why she worked so hard to shower you with love on a daily basis. She saw you becoming a monster of a researcher with no qualms about breaking the rules, so she did everything she could to change the trajectory of your life. But none of it ever got through to you, so here you are. If she spent so much of her life and sacrificed so much and this is the result, it sounds to me like she died in vain. You might as well have spat on your family grave. Your sister was as much one of your victims as anyone else.”

There was no silence.

For the first time, Ainame Carolien’s face crumpled up.

But any salvation for her would be too little, too late.

She had already mercilessly abandoned Tachiuo Mary and she held Frenda and Kinuhata’s lives in her hands.

If she wasn’t willing to release those two from her Thoughtography, the only option was to kill the source of the brain graffiti and hope that got rid of it.

Ainame Caroline had to understand that.

“Go to…hell.”

Her quivering lips produced a curse. Was this the first true human emotion produced by her heart – not just a function or a skill?

If so, that little researcher was barren earth that would bear no fruit no mater how many seeds were sown and watered.

She should have kept quiet.

Why did she insist on further proving that her dead sister’s life had been meaningless? It was the same with Tachiuo Mary. Everyone who had believed in that wasteland of a person and given her their love received nothing in return.

“You can’t survive…even on the dark side.”

Mugino dragged her aching body and looked down at Ainame Caroline.

She held out her palm and gathered deadly light there.

“Level 5s are not cool enough to grow on their own. You can only continue to grow because all the researchers work themselves ragged continuing their research and experiments. Lame. You saw how this lab’s nothing but an empty shell without me. You’re done for. You had plenty more potential for growth, but now that you’ve killed me, that potential will dry up. Doesn’t that crack you up? Now you can only watch as the others surpass you. And you’ll have no chance at all of making a comeback. Lame… Watch out or they’ll swarm you and prey on you, trapped little rich girl.”

A short silence followed.

And then Mugino spoke clearly, without eliminating the light in her palm.

“That’s a small price to pay for killing you.”

She would not let this girl create a second Tachiuo Mary. No one needed another Mugino Shizuri.

No one at all.

She could carry the weight of this deep darkness all on her own.

“Say what you want, it’s all a million times better than letting someone as dangerous as you go free. Even the dark side’s villains understand human emotions. People are supposed to do what’s right, preserve order, respect other people’s rights, support each other, and live together in a society. ''The true dropouts who can’t manage that know how to respect the ordinary people who live in the light.'' But you couldn’t even manage that part. What you’ve done isn’t good and it isn’t even evil. All you’ve done is destroy your own dignity.”

“Oh, really?” said the wicked researcher with a slight smile. “Then laugh. Because you’ve just nipped all your future possibility in the bud by siding with the good guys☆”

That ended it.

But Mugino wasn’t the only one whose lips moved. Ainame Caroline smiled thinly and held her palm out toward the deadly Level 5. Her lower half was already gone and there was no escaping death for her, but she did it anyway.

Both of them said the same thing and used their deadly attacks at the same time.

“You’re – dead – meat.”

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