Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:RailgunSS3 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 6===

“That’s ridiculous!!” shouted Sakibasu Yuri, completely forgetting she was in a hospital at night. “That’s…that’s like selling wax food samples to starving children!”

“We’re talking about a criminal organization, remember? And they aren’t after money or revenge; they’re a bunch of nutjobs who truly believe in their bloodline nonsense. Did you think 1+1=2 or the rules of story progression would apply here?”

“Gh…”

Uiharu and Saten groaned, but Hanakawa Hinadori continued in an annoyed voice.

“Only they know what the world looks like to them. I’m not convinced they think an apple would fall when they let go.”

If Mikoto gave up because they seemed incomprehensible, she would lose this lead.

Even if they were monsters, she had to forcibly reach for this opportunity.

“Zero-Day Link, huh?”

“It’ll be the corporate server,” stated Hanakawa Hinadori. And then, “If there’s one thing Blue Blood has, it’s money, so that’s he easiest one for them to mess with. A lot of universities outside Academy City are constantly whining about their lack of funding, but the ones inside Academy City are thoroughly supported. Blue Blood will work their way into the corporation with a Zero-Day Link computer and insert their poison there.”

“Have we wandered into a wormhole? This started with my Stativarius Ainsel, so how did we end up here?”

“Hey. That violin is to blame for all this in the first place.”

“?”

“I said their objective was to let off some steam, didn’t I? They had managed to settle down a fair amount using the illusion of specialness given by controlling Academy City’s keys. They felt like they had a monopoly on those wonderful antiques and they were given a lifelong pass to a special social circle just by showing them off. But your Stativarius’s loss shook the very foundation of that system. They realized they could not maintain their delusions just by holding onto those keys. So what happens once paying a small fortune isn’t enough to rid them of their anxieties?” The small girl laughed cruelly before continuing. “They all have bloodline delusions, but some have stronger delusions than others. When the waves of reality crash into them, some of them will come to their senses. Blue Blood is a network tying together many different brands of everything from wristwatches to bags. They provide special services for the chosen few, but just like the coupons in a gourmet guide, ''it only works when enough shops play along.'' So they needed to shift to Plan B before things unraveled further and the entire organization fell apart. They need to cause a major event to keep their existing members with them. Blue Blood’s representative had no choice but to start on the over-the-top plan they had kept as a hypothetical until now.”

“Their representative?” Mikoto frowned. “Do you know who that is? You were that deep in the organization!?”

“I am an outsider tied to them by profit. Why do you think they didn’t use insider soldiers for this? I was meant to quietly handle the dirty work that would snap their members out of their delusions if they found out.”

“…”

“Of course, it turns out I was some worthless pawn they were willing to throw out at any time. Reversible and I were in the same position. If our situations had been reversed and he was captured, I would probably have been tasked with killing him.”

“Who is their representative? They’re the one behind all this, right!?”

“She’s a filthy adult.”

“Do you know her actual name!?”

Hanakawa stopped speaking for just a moment.

She had said she would tell them everything, yet she showed some slight hesitation here.

“Just so you know, the initial job I was given was to attack the four who destroyed the Stativarius Ainsel’s legend.”

“Eh? You weren’t targeting me for losing?”

“No. The representative must have been panicking because she said not to worry about who else I might hit. You just so happened to be in a position where you would have been hit if the attack had worked.”

Why had she made this digression now of all times?

Mikoto looked suspicious, but this was about something else.

“You were the one who asked, so don’t blame me if you regret it.”