Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter1
Chapter 1: Public and Private
Part 1
“Room 407 – coming in☆”
After a knock, a young woman employee entered.
She carried a large plate.
“Here is your additional order of cold pork shabu-shabu pasta. Thanks for participating in our summer sesame sauce fair.”
It was early morning on August 29 inside a karaoke box in university-heavy District 5.
The karaoke box was one of the places Item had been using to sleep in since the Criminal Real Estate refused to do business with them. Their poor reputation had spread to the lodging industry, so they couldn’t even use a hotel, meaning they had been moving between establishments with 24-hour service: internet cafes, sports gym nap rooms, family restaurants, etc.
However, the wireless microphone and giant LCD remote were still in their charging stands.
The four girls clearly had no intention of singing and some large bags were sitting unnaturally in the corner of the room.
Plus, they all looked like they had just woken up.
…Anyone would have seen them as girls who had run away from home during the summer and needed somewhere to crash for the night, but apparently the part-time worker wasn’t sympathetic enough to question it. The female employee, who likely had a story of her own since she was working into the early morning, did only what her job demanded and then left the room.
Frenda’s face lit up.
“Oh, yeah, here it is. Check it out, everyone, it’s breakfast. Time to split up and share this cold pasta☆”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Pork shabu-shabu and carbs first thing in the morning? That seems super greasy and heavy.”
Kinuhata looked disgusted.
Bu while a karaoke box would deliver drinks and snacks to your room if you called, their menu was designed for parties. Excepting a light and healthy breakfast here was a mistake.
Without even enough energy to get up from the short sofa, Mugino pulled a wet tissue from the cylindrical bottle she had brought in with her and wiped herself around the neck.
“Ugh, my skin is all sticky… The spa near here doesn’t open until 10, right? Dammit!!”
None of them were time-control espers, so Kinuhata didn’t respond to that.
But she was curious about one thing.
“Takitsubo-san, super when does our laundromat stuff get done?”
“In another 50 minutes, so we don’t need to rush. I had them dry it too, so it’ll take time.”
On the other hand, if they took too long after the laundry was done, the employee would unlock the door and their laundry would be stolen. It was a necessary penalty to keep the limited number of industrial washing machines running efficiently.
Everything came with a time cost with this temporary lifestyle.
It was a common issue for runaways, but…
“Damn, and we wouldn’t have to deal with any of this if we could just get a new apartment… We have the money! Bathing and laundry aren’t supposed to be this much trouble. Go to hell, Criminal Real Estaaaaaaaate!!”
“In the end, I’m more worried about managing my explosives. I just shoved them in that bag over there and now they’re all rolling around together. The sunlight reflecting of the asphalt might melt the plastic explosives.”
But none of their complaining was going to change anything.
Their top priority was regaining trust within their industry, but then their job had been stolen from them.
A change came over the large screen on the wall.
“Yawwn. Another screw up on the job? It’s always like this with you. I do so wish I could pay you for a successful job, but it is what it is. Bitching about it isn’t going to help. You said it was the Sadistic Dolls that got there ahead of you? I’ll look into these competitors.”
The screen displayed pure black, but a young female woman’s voice played from it.
This was “the voice on the phone” who gave Item their jobs.
Mugino slowly sat up on the sofa and spoke in a low, unsteady voice that had more to do with annoyance than lack of sleep.
“You didn’t set up this double booking yourself, did you?”
“Why would I? Just sending Item in would have been enough to take out that cult leader. Just so you know, my superiors have already chewed me out over this. It’s always like this with them.”
The voice on the phone claimed she had been “chewed out”, but it didn’t sound like she was preparing to skip town.
Her shield wouldn’t be so thin that a mistake or two was enough to get her killed …Of course, that shield of hers wouldn’t necessary protect Item as well.
“Anyway, at least that cult leader did end up dead. That’s better than having her escape while you were fighting her troops. Far, far better.”
The four girls’ silence made it very clear they didn’t see what was so good about it, but the voice on the phone wasn’t going to let that faze her.
“Also, this should be a major setback for the AI development race. We might even see the age of smartphones revert to the old feature phones, so if there are any accessories you like, I recommend stocking up now.”
“So the city’s higher ups were super competing over all that?”
The cult had used AI and Item had used a criminal AI to rewrite their security cameras, sensors, surveillance drones, etc. in real time. Looking back, both sides of that conflict would have left a bad impression. Of course, this was all about convincing the VIPs at the top of the city, not about changing public opinion.
(Super based on this, I wonder if the lipstick-sized antenna used to connect to the criminal AI was left behind instead of being collected by our support organization.)
It might come back eventually, but it sounded like they would have to live without AI for a while.
Instead of being fully stopped, this had created a gap where development came to a standstill. Maybe you had to be in the position of the higher ups to understand who benefited from that.
“Anyway, I’ll find another job for you to make up for your mistakes. To us and to the Criminal Real Estate.”
“And you want us to sit around until then? Not happening.”
“It’s always like this with you. From what I’ve heard, the Sadistic Dolls have especially strong criminal infrastructure. The city’s higher ups are definitely involved. Just like with you. Do you want to go fight them without knowing who they are and end up in even more trouble? Don’t try anything until you know how exactly it benefits you.”
The connection ended.
The large karaoke screen resumed playing the stereotypical free footage of tropical ocean scenery.
Mugino Shizuri made a suggestion not three seconds later.
“I say we kill the Sadistic Dolls.”
“If you want,” readily agreed Frenda. “But in the end, if we don’t get rid of this competitor, they’ll keep stealing our jobs no matter how many we get from the voice on the phone. I’m sick of spending my nights in burger shops and gyudon shops like I’m a runaway. I miss futons. Can’t someone – anyone – show me to a bed!? We have to prove ourselves again to convince that Criminal Real Estate – the sooner the better. So if anyone gets in our way, my vote is for killing them.”
Kinuhata shrugged and Takitsubo stared into space while munching on the end of a carrot stick. Neither of them appeared to have an opposing argument.
That settled it.
Item was one of the villains infesting the dark side of Academy City, so they had no reason to show mercy here. Just because they were up against other brutal criminals was no reason for them to start working with the police, detectives, bounty hunters, scientists, reporters, or maids. When two criminal turfs collided, one side had to be destroyed.
“Academy City is a walled city, so there’s only so much room. No matter how prosperous it might be,” spat Mugino. She stated the inviolable rule she had learned from her family. “So the people of the city’s dark side always need to be focused on the limited amount of shares and turf available there. We’re all fighting for our piece of the pie. If we fall from the top of our field, only tragedy awaits us. Allowing one group to intervene will only lead to more and more trying the same.”
They had been stolen from.
So they had to pay the thieves back. Threefold? Ten-thousand-fold? There was no upper limit.
“Huh. In the end, This place has their song.”
Frenda operated the LCD remote to bring a new image onto the big screen.
It was the Sadistic Dolls’ new song, Color of the Whip.
Having footage of them in a back alley karaoke box like this probably came from how they existed on the border between major and indies. Using what they had seen last night, this music video, and information found on an online encyclopedia, Item put together a tentative profile of their enemy.
Saki.
Vocalist. Specializes in using her voice, but due to her shy personality, she sticks exclusively to singing. When it comes time for talking between songs during their concerts, she steps back and lets the guitarist take over. She also writes their lyrics.
Weapon: unknown.
Meg.
Guitarist. She handles the main melody and is the leader who gathered the band together. As seen above, she is charismatic and handles the talking during the concerts.
Weapon: killer electric guitar that “fires” ultra-high-voltage electricity.
Suzuran.
Bassist. Also develops their music videos and designs their costumes. As part of this, she runs their official website and social media, so the fans see her as the one they have the most direct communication with.
Weapon: flamethrower bass equipped with an oxyacetylene torch.
Yuami.
Synthesist. Doesn’t stand out much, but because their music is primarily streamed desktop music, there are rumors that she is secretly in charge of the entire band. Also their songwriter.
Weapon: unknown.
Amamo.
Drummer. Has the unusual background of being recruited into the band after working as a bouncer at a live music club. Runs the punishment games involving paper fans, whips, and baseball bat spankings during their concerts and videos.
Weapon: unknown.
Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.
“Mugino, you don’t seem too surprised.”
“Someone at my school was talking about them.”
“Pft. In the end, it’s hard to imagine you of all people putting on a uniform and going to sch- bwah!!?”
Frenda’s ill-advised comment earned her a wordless pummeling from Mugino’s fists.
From the look of things, the Sadistic Dolls used next-gen weapons rather than esper powers. Did that mean they had no high-level espers, or were they hiding their powers?
All of those names were of course stage names and the heavy makeup and color contacts they wore likely kept mechanical face recognition from working. Even with all this footage, tracking down their addresses or common hangouts would be difficult.
They appeared to be classified as something a lot like underground idols.
Of course, if they were super-famous entertainers raking in the dough, they wouldn’t be out killing for the dark side.
Mugino clicked her tongue while watching the music video playing on the big screen.
“The Sadistic Dolls. They’re a goddamn public girls band. Did any of you know they worked as dark side assassins before this?”
No hands went up.
Mugino nodded.
“Neither did I. That leaves two possibilities: 1. Someone considers them extremely valuable and has been keeping them in reserve. 2. They’re such a new team no one’s had a chance to hear about them yet.”
Kinuhata sighed at this.
The answer was obvious.
“That killer guitar and the wall-slicing torch will leave a super ton of evidence they were at a site, so you’d have a hard time keeping all five of those cards hidden for long. I can understand ordinary people not knowing, but it’s super fishy that we’ve never heard a single rumor of them on the dark side.”
“Right.” Frenda crossed her arms and nodded. “But in the end, even if they are newbies with little to no records to go on, there’s no way that cult killing was their first job. The way they got in, killed, and got out tells me they’ve done this before.”
“There are some traces,” said Takitsubo.
She used the glass table to spread out some paper documents she must have printed off somewhere.
They all listed unsolved cases and none of them had any definitive proof of the Sadistic Dolls’ involvement. She had gathered this information from online news articles, sniffing out the truth in a different way from Anti-Skill forensic investigators.
“1. A surface level dark side group calling themselves Revenge For Hire was burned to death in a fire. Acetylene was detected in the burnt remains of the building, so their flamethrower was probably responsible.”
“Have they never heard of being discreet? Not that I’m one to talk when I use bombs.” Frenda sounded somewhat exasperated.
Takitsubo nodded expressionlessly and continued.
“2. The executives of a corrupt company that caused quite a lot of health damage selling phony diet products were found in the trunk of an abandoned car. To be clear, that’s around a dozen people in a single trunk. Linked to that case, a scrapyard employee was found dead with his throat slit. Probably a witness.”
“…”
The air inside the box seemed to electrify.
Maybe they were newcomers still learning the ropes, but it was frowned on for dark side people to take ordinary people’s lives without a very good reason. Enough so that this kind of more indiscriminate criminal was looked down on with contempt.
“3. A money launderer who worked for sketchy companies and organizations was found dead under mysterious circumstances. He apparently laundered the money by using real money trading in online games to frequently trade electronic money for rare items. It also appears that the victim’s wife was abducted. Anti-Skill failed to rescue the hostage and the wife died.”
A tongue click echoed through the room. From Frenda.
Mugino breathed a heavy sigh.
“So they target pros.”
That meant they only attacked criminals to reduce their numbers.
In other words, they had a twisted sense of justice.
“I don’t know how seriously we should take it, but there are hints of that view in the Sadistic Dolls’ lyrics too. Mugino, take a listen to their latest song – Color of the Whip.”
No need.
With people like this, the odds were good they weren’t even aware they were bad people. They were true idiots who believed that the principle of “the enemy of your enemy is your friend” trumped the laws of the land.
Takitsubo tapped her index finger against one of the paper documents on the glass table.
“There was unverified information going around online for all of these cases, but the criminals were always erased just before the mass media picked it up. Of course, it could just be that the Sadistic Dolls operate online instead of on TV, so that’s where they search out their targets too.”
“Yeah, right. They clearly have a client, don’t you think? It’s super obvious that someone wants to silence these people before the story gets too big. So they might super claim to be fighting for good or for justice, but all they’re doing is kill people for money – just like us.”
Takitsubo did not reject that idea.
And…
“I can’t be certain with so few samples to go off of, but there is one thing the Sadistic Dolls seem to do every time.”
“?”
“They intentionally make the case look bigger than it is to gather onlookers. And that means both ordinary people and the dark side.”
“I see. They did trigger the alarm themselves just before they left with the cult, didn’t they?”
“That must be how they draw out the dark side individuals and groups lurking below the surface. Maybe they just enjoy it and maybe it’s a PR stunt meant to get their name out there quickly. I bet they’re fighting with the dark side beyond the scope of their jobs – it just hasn’t shown on the surface yet. Which would mean…”
“In the end, their target is us – Item?” Frenda didn’t sound happy about it.
The Sadistic Dolls didn’t even have the bare minimum of manners. In fact, it looked like they had a bad habit of actively involving ordinary people or even taking their target’s family hostage to achieve their goals. In that sense, they were an especially unpleasant enemy for Frenda.
There was only one real plan here.
These people weren’t going to back off if Item left them alone.
“We’ll just have to kill them before they can kill us,” declared Mugino.
“Okay. In the end, we need to fully uproot this threat.”
That settled it.
The track suit girl did not try to stop them now that they had a plan.
Even that seemingly harmless girl was still a member of the dark side.
“Mugino, where are we going to make the attack?”
“The Sadistic Dolls haven’t been around long, but all newbies are the same. For example, they’ll want to use a special service to quickly strengthen their bonds so their makeshift team doesn’t fall apart from infighting.”
Frenda seemed to know what Mugino meant.
“So in the end, we’re headed to a bond builder?”
Part 2
Their laundry was still spinning round and round inside the industrial washing machine.
The LCD display said it would be a few more minutes until it was done. They had taken travel time into account when deciding when to leave, but they had still arrived at the laundromat a little early.
“Ugh, I’m so bored. It’s these brief moments of downtime that really piss me off,” complained Frenda.
“Hey, if we super don’t do something, the Academy City Bomber is going to start a fireworks show over here.”
Kinuhata’s annoyed comment made Mugino scratch her head with a hand.
“Damn, I hate this too… Okay, how about we play rock-paper-scissors impressions?”
“What’s that? Ooh, I’ve never heard of that party game. In the end, you need to tell me all about it!”
“Hm? Since when do you know about these things, Mugino?” asked Takitsubo.
“I just heard about it at my school is all. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
While the four of them were playing their game, an electronic beeping sounded.
Now their laundry really was done.
“Super whose underwear is this? They’re all see through and there definitely shouldn’t be a hole here.”
“In the end, any of the sexy ones will be from Mugino’s collection.”
“Kinuhata, those are mine,” said Takitsubo.
“!?” “!?”
First, they collected all their dried laundry. Laundromats these days were as bright and shiny as a trendy cafe, so there wasn’t all that much reluctance for girls to use them.
Once done there, they returned to the multi-tenant building containing the karaoke box.
There was a spa in the same building.
It too was kept bright and polished, probably to give it a clean look to draw female customers. That said, the fake marble texture made it all look quite cheap. And based on the layout, it was probably a former sex industry establishment remodeled into a spa. With all its university students, District 5 had a lot of izakayas, smoking bars, and other adult-oriented establishments.
There were several teenage girls gathered there right as the spa opened, but were they all summer break runaways?
Item took a shower first and held a strategy meeting at the same time.
“Ahh, I can finally wash the sleep sweat away…”
“Mugino, stop avoiding the issue.”
Whether robbing a bank or staging a kidnapping, the greatest threat to a crime carried out by a group was infighting. So quickly strengthening the bonds between the group of gathered criminals was an even greater insurance of safety than a counterfeit passport or a getaway car.
Enough so that the dark side had people who specialized in providing that service.
Mugino raised her head to enjoy the warm shower water to its fullest as she spoke.
“They’re known as bond builders. A robbery team might be thrown into a cheap apartment or campsite and forced to live together, eating the same things and going to sleep at the same time every single day…to artificially create the bonds of a family within the group.”
Kinuhata spoke from the adjacent booth.
“Oh, really? And is there any super objective proof this works?”
“Of course not. We’re not Anti-Skill or Judgment.”
That was how it worked with the criminal underworld where there were no compliance rules or reports to be filed.
Since they couldn’t just throw more people at the issue like the government could, your own experience and nose for danger were your lifeline on the dark side.
“Bond builders, huh? Super sounds to me like they’re consensually doing some light brainwashing.”
“Because they are. Supposedly, a week with them and you have so much love and affection between you and your accomplices that you won’t rat each other out even if Anti-Skill captures you.”
If the Sadistic Dolls were using a bond builder to create instant unity within their group, they would be a client and that bond builder would have their personal information.
After drying their hair with driers and putting on fresh clothes, the girls rode the subway.
The subway station had a lot of boys and girls in casual clothing. They appeared to be out trying to make the most of the last few days of summer break. Being forced to study every day and compete in the entrance exams and then having your breaks controlled by the higher ups was definitely not fun.
“Huh? Weren’t we suppose to meet on the upper deck for our patrol?”
Item heard an odd voice from overhead. The speaker was descending the long escalator while Item ascended it. Three girls were wearing their school uniforms even during the break. Mugino gave them an irritated glare before looking away. Annoyingly enough, those girls wore special armbands on their right shoulders. They were from Judgment.
(“Ugh. And we super know one of them. That’s Yamagami Erina.)”
They had happened to run into that girl at the Colosseum and the illegal casino. And she wasn’t alone this time.
That just made this worse.
If their eyes happened to meet here, she might recognize them even in this crowd. And the escalator was a single long path, so they couldn’t slip away into a side route or turn around at this point.
They were going to meet at the center point of the up and down sides of the escalator.
They would be less than a meter from each other.
“It’s so easy to lose your sense of direction in a subway station, so maybe Sarusa-chan is lost on the platform below.”
“She’s not you, Aomi. I doubt that’s it.”
“You can cheat using your power, Mii. Your judgment isn’t reliable on this.”
Frenda and Mugino looked down at their phones to hide their faces as much as possible and Frenda surreptitiously tossed a firecracker down to the bottom of the escalator with her other hand.
The Judgment girls reacted quite sensitively to the harmless “pop!!”
“Whoa!? What was that!?”
“It’s our job to find out. Erina-chan, it might not have been a gunshot or explosion. Summer break is almost over, so some idiot streamer might be setting off fireworks in the station.”
The teacher’s pets rushed down the escalator, so they never even glanced over at the suspicious girls right next to them.
Mugino and Frenda suppressed a chuckle, but…
“Mii, use your Clairvoyance to check all around this area! Did you find anything!?”
Hearing that, the two quickly resumed their act.
Fortunately, the glasses-wearing clairvoyant had never met them and, even if she could see through the walls and ceiling to see Item’s faces, she presumably couldn’t share that information with Yamagami Erina. The lack of objectivity when compared to thoughtography was one weakness of clairvoyance.
Only after reaching the top of the escalator and approaching the ticket gate with a casual gait did Frenda breathe a heavy sigh.
“Honestly… But in the end, we should be safe since clairvoyance can’t pick up voices, right?”
“She might be able to read our lips, so do be careful, Frenda.”
Hearing a short beep, Frenda – who could make friends with anyone – pulled her phone from her pocket, but the message-based social media app notification was for Mugino.
“Shiratori// Ehh? You’ve really completed all your summer homework already? But I was hoping to make an accomplice out of you by suggesting we work on it together. Ugh, now what do I do about this giant pile… Really, it’s all the Sadistic Dolls’ fault. Their latest music video is just that good. Oh, right. Is there a seat you want for the new post-summer seating chart? Class Rep Shiratori Okibi-chan here can use her magic touch to ensure you draw exactly the number you want from the box, so-”
Mugino didn’t bother reading it through to the end before closing the app. There was no way she was reading that wall of text.
Track suit girl Takitsubo tilted her head with a blank stare.
“Who was that from?”
“My phone tree group. For school. What a pain.”
Technically, it had been a hidden message that only showed up for the people designated by the poster. Mugino had brought up her school in the karaoke box too. She was aware herself that a sailor uniform and school bag looked wrong on her. In fact, her large chest tugged up on the top enough to show off her navel.
After climbing the stairs to the surface, they smelled greenery.
They were in District 21. The area had a lot of nature and included Academy City’s only mountain and dam.
“Why’d we come all the way out here? Do we super know that bond builder is stationed here?”
“In the end, they’re specialists who make a bit of cash off of major criminal plans like robberies and kidnappings, right? They must be paranoid of losing everything by having Anti-Skill raid the place before they can get their clients’ bonds built.”
“So lately, bond builders make sure they work somewhere they can’t be located by searching real estate.”
Mugino pointed with her thumb.
Being out in the great outdoors with all its negative ions made them feel a bit cooler than before. Maybe the heat island effect just wasn’t as strong here, though. The leaves hadn’t started changing for autumn yet, so everything was green. And a vehicle the size of a large tour bus was parked on the curb, seeming to encroach on the tunnel of trees overhead. As big as the vehicle was, it was still a personal possession.
“I see. So in the end, they went with an RV.”
That would indeed allow them to provide a living space while also staying on the move so they could slip past Anti-Skill and Judgment. Even if they were caught at a checkpoint, the interior was a lot more complex than an ordinary vehicle, which meant a lot more hiding places. If necessary, the criminal group could hide behind a sofa or under the floor.
Even this mountainous district would have cameras equipped with motion sensors to monitor birds and other wildlife and the drum-shaped cleaning robots were all over the place.
While keeping an eye on any surveillance of that sort, Frenda used a small multi-tool knife to cut through a plastic wrapper and stuck something to the middle of the door. Then she knocked roughly on the RV’s side door. The sound of the knock suggested the RV was bulletproof. The short girl with fluffy blonde hair leaned next to the door.
A voice that sounded like a college girl spoke through the (on the surface) metal door.
“Who is-”
Frenda ignored that and blasted the thick door.
The heavy bulletproof door was blown inwards, knocking over the RV’s owner inside.
Frenda and Kinuhata charged sharply into the smoky interior and made a quick assessment of the entire space. This was a challenge because they weren’t used this kind of space that wasn’t quite a room but not quite a vehicle either.
“Clear.”
“Super clear. Some petty car thieves are having a training camp in here, so what do we do about them?”
The sudden explosion had panicked the occupants too badly to put up much of a resistance. The two girls dragged a few large boys out by the collar.
Mugino spoke to the aproned young woman who was lying half-crushed below the door.
“Cough up your client data, bond builder.”
“A-are you – cough – asking me to retire?”
“You missed your chance to resist a while back, loser.”
Mugino snatched the bond builder’s phone from a table.
“Ah!”
She aimed the camera at the shocked woman’s face to unlock it and then operated the touchscreen one-handed.
“Let’s see. First, I’ll go to Cash Friend’s official site and borrow up to their maximum of 5 million yen...oh, already done. A simple 5-second approval test is a scary thing, huh?”
“Eh? Hey, wait!! What do you think you’re doing with my phone!?”
“Just indulging in my hobby: visiting consumer finance sites. Now to transfer all that money out of your online bank account. Next, I think I’ll borrow as much as they’ll let me from Luxury Celeb, Heaven’s Bank, and Share Chip. Or should I also try some usurious loan sharks while I’m at it?”
“…”
“And to be clear, unlike false billing fraud, the messages demanding payment won’t just go away if you ignore them.”
End of preview. Full novel goes on sale June 7.