Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 7===

“Oh? And so you decided to visit my ''classroom''?”

That statement was enough to bring a dangerous tension to the air.

It came from a woman in her 20s wearing a kimono. If she were seated in a tearoom making matcha with a tea whisk, she would have looked graceful.

Instead, she stank of death.

Frenda was a battle-loving bomber, but even she straightened her spine.

Mugino looked exasperated.

“You do know she’s a murder virgin, right?”

“I do intellectually, but in the end…”

“She’s just giving off that aura with her mannerisms and breathing. But if she can fool a pro, maybe she deserves to be a manners teacher.”

The “manners classroom” was contained in an old-fashioned house just like tea ceremony and flower arrangement classrooms tended to be. It was about creating an image and that had to be the most convenient image for gathering clients.

They were actually in a high-tech skyscraper in District 3 that stood well above the many wind turbines.

More accurately, an entire old-fashioned house, complete with garden, had been transferred to the roof of the skyscraper.

The beautiful woman in a kimono gave off a dangerous air.

…Although Mugino actually found herself relaxing because it felt so much like home. The Mugino family was a gang with a mixture of Japanese and Western styles, like something out of a romanticized look into the Meiji or Taisho era. It was a strange universe where fancy doll dresses and kimonos could be worn side by side without feeling odd.

“Look here.”

Mugino had handed over the same flash memory she had given the VRTuber video investigator, so the woman indicated a point on her tablet.

“Do you see how she takes a step back and moves her fingertips when she nods? Ordinarily, you focus on someone’s face when they lower their head, but this uses that fact to send a signal to anyone who understands that.”

This manners classroom was in fact a place for revealing the signs used by criminal organizations.

If you paid enough, she would apparently even design signs for you to use. She may have been something like the professionals who designed celebrity signatures.

“There are also times while she talks where she switches from her normal nose breathing to mouth breathing. That is another sign. By using the switching points as a dividing line like with Morse code, she is including a completely different text into her conversation.”

Mugino frowned.

“And who exactly uses that kind of sign?”

“The Human Bike Delivery Service.”

That answer came easily.

“The sign to their office is so bland it’s easy to overlook, but they are actually a go-between for illegal part-time work. They also act as a collection service that brings together multiple loan sharks and handles the cases that are in over their head in debt. They’re experts at dealing with the people who are stuck without any money to pay back. They do this by keeping their distance and ordering those people to go and rob a jewelry or watch store.”

As a fellow dark side worker, Mugino had recognized the name.

“That would mean our detective’s base is in District 16.”