Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item2 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 5===

No one who would be killed by a simple anti-personnel bomb would last long working in the dark side.

The instant it detonated, all four girls jumped over the concrete railing.

They all produced popping sounds that were a lot like a car’s airbag activating.

They had deployed the jetpacks Frenda had made.

They had successfully escaped, still in their pajamas.

The hot summer rain soaked their hair and clothing. Takitsubo seemed bothered by her wet track suit sticking to her.

“Oh, I forgot my Body Crystal.”

“Ehh? In the end, you can’t do that, Takitsubo. A girl’s gotta keep her special weapons hidden on her person at all times. Want a few pointers from the Academy City Bomber?”

“Could 200 grams really blow up such a large room? I think it only triggered Frenda’s bombs, which did most of the damage.”

“Oops.”

“Is it punishment time?”

“Ahhhh!?”

Frenda screamed as they accurately flew through the rain.

“These jetpacks have really come in handy, Frenda.”

“You can’t be serious, Mugino. In the end, they discovered our new hideout before we even had time to get it fully furnished. If they did their homework that well, they must know about our scuffle with Mutual Acquaintance yesterday. Which means they’ll have a plan for these homemade gadgets. And there it is, right on schedule: short-range SAMs!!”

Several trails of smoke blasted off from different building rooftops at the same moment. They were likely autonomous surface-to-air missile units. Trying to escape high into the sky would only get them shot down in the open air with nowhere to hide, so the four girls had no choice but to dive down into the valley between the buildings. At high speed.

“Vwahhhhhhhh!? M-my super home theater!! And I had only just started putting it together!!”

Film buff Kinuhata let out a scream of legitimate distress, but her actions remained precise. By flying below a roadside tree with large branches, the surface-to-air missiles pursuing them hit those branches and exploded.

The instant they landed, Mugino heard an odd sound.

From behind her.

“Mugino, your back is on fire.”

“You can’t muster any more urgency than that!? Argh, I can’t get this damn thing off!”

“Oh, no. The jet engine’s fuel injection control valve is busted!” shouted Frenda. “Umm, that thing is full of jet fuel, so if you don’t get the harness off, it’ll explode and set you ablaze!”

“Go to hell!!!”

Mugino reached a hand behind her and used Meltdowner to forcibly blast the jetpack (and the fuel explosion) away from her.

“Are you telling me we were running around the battlefield with giant bombs strapped to our backs? I’m never wearing one of those things again!!”

“Ehh? In the end, even a 100V household power supply can explode.”

They had been lured this way by an unseen enemy.

They always had their support organization waiting nearby in a big 4-wheel-drive truck, so it rushed to them after hearing the commotion. They all climbed aboard, but Mugino couldn’t shake the leaden feeling in her gut.

She shouted at the driver with her skin showing through her rain-soaked negligee.

“Go! Hurry!!”

The tires loudly tore at the asphalt.

Headlights pierced them from behind. Multiple vehicles’ worth. The enemy must have predicted this as well, so Item’s usual methods weren’t going to break free of the rails laid out by the enemy.

A bad feeling settled stickily over Mugino’s mind.

This wasn’t just any enemy.

She sensed someone who had put together a carefully-crafted plan like it was a jigsaw puzzle.

“Takitsubo.”

“I still don’t sense anything. Either they have an enemy that can search us out like I can, or they have an expert at psychologically guiding people.”

(I don’t know how it would happen, but it’s best to assume a direct attack would get us killed. Any nearby intersection leading to a major road is bound to have an ambush set up. So if we try the opposite plan…)

“Turn left into that construction site!! Hurry!!”

The 4-wheel-drive truck roared over a large pile of dirt that was wet with rain. The pursuing cars were racing coupes that sat low to the ground, so they couldn’t handle the dirt pile and abandoned the pursuit.

Item had to set aside a direct attack for now.

They were villains who lived on the dark side. They knew all too well they were never going to get by if they only chose the safe-looking routes. That would mean only ever eliminating the risk of failure and flattening out all the bumps in the course of their life, but it wouldn’t be doing anything to build toward success. If they really wanted to claim the top spot, they had to do something no one else would even consider and claim every opportunity that presented itself.

But leaving the safe path and taking the rougher way would not eliminate their pursuers. The sports cars were one thing, but a pickup truck with thick offroad tires was still after them.

Item had no need to hold back once they were inside an empty construction site.

“Today’s my lucky day. Because I can fire my Meltdowner without worrying about any ''demerits''.”

“Mugino is so nice to worry about her stray shots hitting someone.”

Their 4-wheel-drive truck broke through a chain link fence and raced through a forest of steel beams. Despite the rain, Mugino stuck her upper body out from the sunroof, held her palm out behind them, and released a brutal beam of light.

The building under construction broke apart, the jungle gym of steel beams collapsing and pouring down toward the ground. The pursuing offroad truck swerved a few times to avoid them, but one of the steel beams pierced right through its hood, pinning it to the ground. It exploded shortly thereafter.

Kinuhata, her skin showing through her soaked pajamas in places, was drying Takitsubo’s hair with a towel when Takitsubo raised her voice uncharacteristically loud.

“Mugino!!”

“?”

Mugino ducked down through the sunroof just in time for a simple crane arm to pass by directly overhead. If she had taken the time to grin back at the result of her attack, it would have decapitated her.

(Did they predict that attack? Then they must know about this escape route too!!)

They couldn’t escape the enemy’s grasp.

Every time they thought they had slipped away, they found new trouble awaiting them.

“Wait, wait, wait!! Stop!! In the end, hit the brakes! Yikes!”

Kitty pajamas Frenda banged her palm on the back of the driver’s headrest, but it was too late.

No, it was worse than that.

Track suit girl Takitsubo’s emotionless eyes wandered aimlessly.

“I’m not picking up a signal. ''The driver must be unconscious.'' Is something affecting his brain?”

“!!!???”

If the driver had passed out, he couldn’t apply the brakes. The 4-wheel-drive truck crashed into a pile of cement bags. The entire pile was blown away like a wall of sandbags.

Their vision grew too muddy to see.

They heard the loud sound of breaking glass and bending metal.

Mugino groaned and blinked, discovering their crushed truck was flipped upside-down. She heard the quiet sound of the broken windshield’s grainy pieces falling to the ground. She wanted to believe the gasoline scent was only the placebo effect. She was pretty sure this truck ran on diesel fuel.

“Damn, I’m through spending money on our rides. If they’re going to get destroyed sooner or later anyway, we need to view our vehicles as disposable tools .”

“C-can you all super move?”

“Don’t worry about me. You can count me out of the fight. In the end, I just want to lie here and sulk.”

“Mugino, something’s wrong with the driver. I spoke to him and slapped his cheek, but he isn’t waking up. He didn’t cry out in pain before passing out, so I don’t think he had a stroke or aneurysm while driving.”

Mugino groaned quietly in her negligee before kicking the bent door to force it open.

(How largescale is their plan? How far out did they predict our actions?)

Probably to the very end.

She shoved aside the unpleasant sensation of the lukewarm summer rain until she didn’t even notice it anymore.

And as Item slowly crawled out from the truck, they heard soft footsteps.

Approaching footsteps.