Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3

Opening

The essence of humanity is made of two things: conflict and order.

Even the elementary schoolers racing to take first place know this.

Prologue: Keep Out Until the Day Before

We are deeply sorry.

These coin lockers will be sealed for the duration of the event.

“Okay.”

At night near the train station, Frenda Seivelun, a girl with fluffy blonde hair, ignored the notice that didn’t sound remotely sorry and reached her hand into an outdoor coin locker. But instead of using the doors covered up with yellow and black plastic tape, she was reaching into the narrow gap between the lockers and the wall.

She pulled out an oddly long and skinny bag and casually walked off with it.

(It’s getting harder to use actual coin lockers. Like these ones that only accept payment with a smart card linked to your name. In the end, you can’t hide anything dangerous like that!)

Preventing exactly that was the point, so complaining wasn’t going to accomplish much.

A short girl met up with her after taking a different route. Kinuhata Saiai.

“Super what is that? Another bomb?”

Why would she hide an explosive so near the busy train station? Ultra-cute Frenda-chan was the friendly sort of bomber☆

“An amplifier. It’s an amplifier.”

“?”

“In the end, you can think of it as an illegal device that boosts the power of a phone’s antenna.”

“Is that super necessary in a city packed full of base stations?”

“Girls and bombs take a lot of effort to get ready. Yes, quite a lot indeed.”

They were on another Item job.

But this one was a little different from the usual fare.

“Honestly, is fighting a serial killer super really a job for Item? If this person is so openly causing trouble, can’t Anti-Skill use their giant net to deal with them?”

“In the end, there are reasons why the heroes can’t do it. Like turning them into a martyr.”

A serial killer was hiding within society and killing people according to their own rules. But the strange attraction that sort of violent criminal created was one odd aspect of the human world. Especially the kind that attacked a great evil that could not be stopped by ordinary means.

The pair left the train station area together.

The unnaturally long and skinny bag was fairly noticeable, but combined with the two girls, passersby probably assumed it was a musical instrument or video equipment. Cuteness was such a wonderful weapon girls had at their disposal.

The dark side generally dealt with mad scientists who wouldn’t let a little thing like people’s deaths stop their research and various professionals who were rewarded for causing death. The current enemy was a mutation that the dark side didn’t know quite how to read.

Academy City had a serial killer.

The flippant discussions online had dubbed the killer John Doom.

“That freak’s target is Nabeyaki Precision Industry, right?”

“Right. Everything from electric toothbrushes to phones use NPI’s lithium ion batteries, but they’ve been accidentally exploding recently. There have been 15 deaths so far, 8 of which were minor children. As for injuries…well, you can probably guess. After all, even public cleaning robots and educational tablets have been exploding out of the blue, so every generation resents the company. You can see why it’d make a serial killer’s nipples hard.”

“I super heard a rumor that the executives were informed of a possible design flaw back when the initial accident happened, but the relevant documents were ‘lost’ before they could be seized.”

“Who knows if that’s really true. It sounds plausible enough, but when you track the story back to its source, it comes from independently-owned online news sites and sports papers. Their name is being hidden, but I bet the stories are all by the same writer. You can’t trust something just because there are multiple sources.”

Frenda did some kind of work as they walked. The area near the large train station had been brightly lit, but the light level was dropping fast as their distance from it grew. This kind of fading scenery was seen in big cities and not just in rural areas.

This nearby stagnation was like another world bordering the darkness. The atmosphere was familiar to Item.

“Super regardless, there was a class-action lawsuit, but the thick layer of corporate lawyers protected the executives and they were all acquitted.”

“In the end, they didn’t even get a suspended sentence. …But then the first board member to come strutting out of the courthouse with an ugly smirk on his face became the first murder victim. And only three steps outside the courthouse at that.”

The method had been fascinating even from a dark side perspective.

Major TV station reporters with big cameras and online news reporters with only their phones had gathered around the acquitted executive in the hopes of getting a story for the day, but they had instead ended up with a completely different scoop right on their live broadcast or livestream. Those mass media reporters had feigned decency by screaming in horror, but they had definitely been rejoicing on the inside.

“John Doom super threw a big laptop lithium battery out of the unruly crowd, right? And during the panic, they made a skillful escape without anyone noticing.”

“And from there, it’s been nothing but more sensational murders. In the past three months, five executives have been killed. Once it was attached to their house’s front door and once CO2 was used to launch it from a distance like artillery. The exact method changes each time, but the murder weapon has been consistent. In the end, they’ve all been blown up by one of NPI’s own lithium batteries. Man, this one really is messed up in the head. I mean, the killer’s really enjoying their justice. If Anti-Skill or someone like that goes after them, it could turn them into a martyr which would only give them more supporters, right?”

“Their beliefs and preferences are a super mystery, so it’d be a pain if that started spreading through an existing structure, you mean?”

So to prevent that, this dirty job was being left to dirty people to complete in a dirty way.

By the people who accepted the pure and the impure and who wouldn’t be influenced by shortsighted justice.

“Oh?” said Frenda.

A bright light was flashing down a narrow alley.

It resembled a camera flash, but was more brutal.

“What? In the end, has Mugino already gotten started?”

“Hey, I’ve driven him outside like we planned. You aren’t going to tell me you haven’t surrounded the site with traps yet, are you!?”

An honest answer would have gotten Frenda a spanking and a lie would have gotten her murdered, so she opted for silence. She heard a rustling sound from down the alley. Someone had kicked over a pile of trash bags. They were approaching. Fast.

“Bastard!!”

Kinuhata took a step forward to stop them, but her small body was instead launched backwards. Which was unusual. Her Offense Armor could forcibly stop a shotgun blast, but apparently a small explosion had occurred when the projectile hit her. With a white flash as bright as a welding flame.

With the shield gone, Frenda would be next.

It didn’t even take a full second.

In an unnatural ducking stance, the dark beast aimed the barrel her way. The gun’s silhouette was unexpectedly large. At close range, she could tell it was larger than a plastic umbrella.

A finger found the trigger.

Thick lightning dropped from the sky above.

No, that was a self-destructing drone that had purged its main wings and charged straight down toward the ground.

It pierced sharply into the ground and exploded, launching the dark beast hard into a nearby wall. They slowly slid down to the ground. The movement was sort of sticky, so they were probably bleeding badly.

Frenda had needed the amplifier because of the vertical distance required. Base station antennae were not floating in the air. A toy like this was necessary when sending a drone up too high for even the signal from an antenna on top of a skyscraper to reach.

Frenda sighed with her phone in hand.

(A margin of error of 3 meters. These plastic bottle drones I made leave something to be desired quality-wise.)

A few meters might not seem like much, but those few hundred centimeters could lead to failure when aiming for a narrow alley. When bombing a target deep in an alley, she couldn’t afford to accidentally carve away part of the neighboring building’s roof instead.

(In the end, retrieving all the traps set up around the entire area is such a pain, so I was hoping I could just keep a mobile trap circling in the sky above. But I’m not sure I’m willing to trust this with my life.)

“Kinuhataaa? In the end, did you think I was chatting with you for no reason? I said John Doom has been consistent in their weapon choice, didn’t I? They always use one of NPI’s defective batteries to blow people up. I gave you the clues you needed, so you need to pay attention. It’s called reading comprehension.”

“Ugh, super dammit… Why do I have to have my verbal ability mocked by this blonde girl whose writing skills are suspect at best?”

“Oh, what was that? In the end, this is the first time I’ve ever heard someone talk about ‘writing skills’ in the normal world.”

“People super don’t normally talk about reading comprehension either!”

Ignoring that complaint, Frenda kicked away the gun that had fallen to the ground.

It was primarily made of special steel and military plastic, but the silhouette itself was similar to an old-fashioned hunting rifle. However, the muzzle was odd. It opened up like a conical funnel.

“A blunderbuss. That ancestor of the shotgun could turn pebbles, glass shards, fish bones, or just about anything else into a bullet by shoving them into the muzzle. Is this a modern version? In the end, this killer does have interesting taste.”

Scattering a pile of trash to hit the enemy at high speed must have been the serial killer’s preferred method. Perhaps because they saw it as returning the defective trash their targets had thrown out into the world and then roasting them like it was an incendiary round.

“Keh. A drone attack…huh?”

The “genius criminal” who had sent shockwaves through society turned out to be a young boy. He had probably only just started middle school. He could even be described as plain.

In a city where 80% of the population were students, younger criminals was a known trend.

“Come to think of it, that’s one thing I never tried on those fat ass executives. Why didn’t I think of it? It sounds fun…”

Fun.

He really was a serial killer. He had been focusing on a great evil, but he didn’t seem to be acting out of panic or anger.

Two more people emerged from further down the alley: Mugino Shizuri and Takitsubo Rikou.

“What, he’s already dying?”

“So we made it in time for the climax.”

That made four.

Item was fully present.

The small boy showed no interest in the weapon that had left his grasp.

“Wow. A secret group of only girls? Sounds like something from a movie.”

“Flattery will only get you a quicker death.”

He didn’t need one.

The boy known as John Doom collapsed to the side and stopped moving. With his eyes still open.

Something exploded.

It happened far in the distance, at the center of a vortex of light making up the city’s nightscape.

The 55-story headquarters building tilted diagonally before falling straight down. No. After its balance was thrown off, it collapsed under its own weight. Just like poking at a house of cards. Filthy gray dust spread out at ground level, thickly blotting out the lights of the city night.

If all that had been done with defective batteries, it was one hell of a waste of resources. Both by John Doom for setting it up and for the corporation for making so many of those explosive batteries.

“Ah, wait, why!? But John Doom is super already dead!!”

“He doesn’t have any electrons attached to him, so it wasn’t his brain or heart stopping that triggered it. In the end, maybe he had set up some junk on a timer. And a whole lot of it.”

“Who cares,” Mugino said coldly. “Our job was to deal with the crazed criminal. The defense team screwing up their job isn’t going to get our reward reduced.”

“That was the kind of company that has people work tons of overtime, right? In the end, there were probably a lot of normal people in there.”

“Normal?”

Mugino’s tone was unchanged.

Everyone placed their dividing line between the outside world and the dark side differently. This was hers in this case.

“The company was the target of a serial killer, but that doesn’t change the fact that quite a few people died from their products exploding. Everyone in the company knew about it and said nothing. They could have become a whistleblower, organized a strike, or otherwise fought it from the inside, but they didn’t want the trouble and just kept on receiving their generous paychecks. They’re not innocent.”

“I wonder if the defense team protected them. I hope that team wasn’t slacking,” said Takitsubo with her usual blank look.

In the end, Nabeyaki Precision Industry didn’t matter all that much to Item. They were simply completing the odd jobs so common at this time. Just like the train station trash cans being removed and the coin lockers being sealed.

All the ultra-thin LCDs wrapping around the decorative columns were playing the exact same ad.

“Not long now until the Daihaseisai. Let’s all make the year’s best memories together!”

Chapter 1: Mens Sana in Corpore Sano…or Something Like That

Part 1

September 18.

It was still morning and the sun was shining.

Frenda Seivelun was using social media on her phone while waiting to meet up with her 1st grade little sister.

The fluffy-haired blonde girl hummed happily and leaned against a decorative column at the train station.

“Hm, hm♪”

The summer heat had withdrawn and the sky shined a beautiful blue as the city below had become an alternate time-space belonging to a certain event. The shopping district and train station area were strung up with national flags much like Christmas lights in December and fireworks were going off in the sky, making pleasant popping noises. Food stalls and trucks were set up wherever there was space and the scent of cooking sauces and mayonnaise reached Frenda’s nose even here. With so many visitors from outside the city, the population density was unusually high. If the 80% of the 2.3 million who were students each had their parents, brothers, and sisters here, how much more would that be? …The correct answer may have been “I don’t even want to think about it”.

To efficiently transport all those people, a fleet of self-driving buses had been sent out into the streets. You did have to pay attention because some of the ordinary streets could be blocked for the sporting events, but those mild inconveniences were greatly outweighed by the festive atmosphere.

Frenda wasn’t interested in the events themselves.

She was only thinking about her family.

(Oh, how fun. I can’t believe I’m looking forward to a meeting. Is this really Academy City? Hard to believe this is the same dangerous place where a serial killer and a corrupt corporation fit in so well.)

It seemed out of place for a dark side bomber to be saying that, but people had a way of making special exceptions for themselves.

“Onee-chan.”

Hearing that, Frenda looked up from her phone.

Something was there.

A 7-year-old in a red headband and athletic bloomers was striking a pose with hands on her hips and a smile on her face. Again, a 7-year-old in athletic bloomers.

“What do you think, Onee-chan!? This is a special Daihaseisai outfit. In the first place, I’m going to get first place like this. Pretty cool, right!?”

“Sooooo cuuuuute! Are you trying to kill me, my sister!? Kyah, in the end, kyah, kyah!!”

“In the first place, this is not the reaction I was expecting.”

Part 2

At present, it was September 19. So a full day later. Item gathered at a movie theater that morning, but only three of them were there.

Nothing happened on the first day of the Daihaseisai. The dark side had been on edge during the opening ceremony, but against all their expectations the event remained peaceful.

The first move was only made on the 2nd day.

Right away, the big screen displayed some gruesome footage. A hanged woman swayed below an overpass. The corpse was an adult, not a student, and her clothing made her look like the scientist type.

The audio-only voice on the phone sounded carefree.

“She was discovered three hours ago. There are some unnatural aspects to the body, so there was a request for someone from the city’s backstage to investigate separate from the ordinary Anti-Skill.”

“It was a hanging. Isn’t that super just a suicide?”

“It’s always like this with you. What if I told you she was injected with a tryptophan-based pain stimulant beforehand? It’s hilarious, really. 350 times the ordinary level would mean feeling the kind of pain you normally wouldn’t get by slicing yourself down the middle with a chainsaw☆”

So she had been made to take a large quantity of a pain-causing substance?

While suicide was wrong, it did take quite a bit of courage, so a lot of people would fail to go through with it due to pain or fear. Taking something to shut off the pain would make sense, but trying suicide after amplifying your pain was certainly odd.

“Mugino, something else is odd too. She suffocated from constriction to her trachea. And the nails on both her hands are broken, so she didn’t die right away. It looks like she was fighting the rope around her neck for quite a while.”

“Huh? She was hanged, so of course she died from constriction to her neck.”

“Death by hanging can also come from breaking the neck or constriction of the carotid arteries. And if the length of the rope is wrong, they can gather too much momentum and decapitate themselves. It’s actually pretty unusual for it to only cut off their breath, forcing them to suffer for a long time.”

“Hm? But in movies they struggle for a super long time after the chair falls out from under them.”

“The nooses used for filming are made to not put any weight on the neck.”

So said Takitsubo.

Which made sense since doing it for real would kill the actor.

“The point is there are different ways for hanged people to die. Not breaking the neck and suffering for this long is an unusual type.”

“You’re on the ball today, track suit girl. Most likely, this was designed to intentionally let her struggle until the very last moment. It’s always like this with those people.”

And again, the unnaturally long suicidal suffering had been amplified 350 times by a pain stimulant made from tryptophan. That was one unnatural aspect atop another.

Yes, this was sounding a lot like the cruelty found on the dark side.

Track suit girl Takitsubo tilted her head.

“So this is officially being handled as an ordinary suicide, but it was actually a ceremonial punishment based on some complicated rules?”

“Tryptophan itself is a necessary amino acid used to preserve health. So finding it in the human body isn’t going to raise any red flags, right? So it threads the needle where word of this won’t spread among ordinary people, but the dark side will take notice and tremble in fear.”

This made them curious about the victim and why she had been killed in this complicated fashion. After all, this had been a punishment that had to be kept hidden. That was a much greater level of bad luck than angering a drunk and getting beaten to death for it.

There was of course a file on her.

It had likely been pulled from the Bank or something like it because it only listed her official history.

Mugino scanned through it.

“Matsuba Sarina, age 29. Lives in District 3 and works as a pharmacist, but currently volunteering as a Daihaseisai drug testing official?”

“Even if she lived a clean life and did everything above board, that position could make her some enemies in the elite schools, don’t you think?” said the voice on the phone. “The festival’s official drug tests are too sensitive. No one wants to spend a full year training up an athlete only to have them disqualified because some cold medicine or mouthwash triggered a false positive.”

Ordinary people saw the Daihaseisai as no more than a large scale athletic festival, but the elite schools were different. For them, it was more like a technical skill expo where the results of their esper development theories – that is, their high-level espers – competed to show who was best. The results greatly influenced how many student applicants the school received and it could determine whether or not they could land large sums of research funding from the city’s higher ups.

Specifically, in values counted by the billions of yen per year. And they would receive that each year as long as their school’s position in the rankings didn’t shift too drastically. That was more than enough money to kill over. After all, even a prestigious school that got first place each year would be counted as last if they were disqualified. That would mean disaster for their funding.

But Mugino had a question.

“Hah. You expect me to believe the proud teachers at Tokiwadai, Nagatenjouki, or some other fancy school would go to the effort of carrying out this ceremonial punishment?”

“If they didn’t want to dirty their hands, they might have gone through a middleman to hire someone like you to do it. It’s always like that with them.”

So that was a possibility too.

Also, there was no guarantee an elite school was behind it. Someone else might benefit from the killing somehow.

“Anyway, I want you to leave behind all your preconceptions and gather whatever information you can to objectively work out who the killer was. And since the Daihaseisai is this week, watch out for the outside reporters who are in the city with all the guests. We’d have a harder time pressuring them.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“By the way, where’s the other girl? The bomber. That little scientist knows a lot about chemistry and can play at being a forensic investigator, so I would think you would want her on this case. It’s always like this with you.”

Part 3

“What a pain.”

It was 10 in the morning as Frenda breathed a heavy sigh.

She had been like this ever since leaving the peaceful world and joining the others in the shadows.

She had been doing nothing but complain on this sunny morning.

“In the end, is that all the evidence you have? If you know we probably aren’t gonna find anything, then could you not call me in!? Ugh, my sister’s 50-meter dash is startiiiiing.”

Complain all she wanted, a job was a job.

It had only been three hours since discovery, but the yellow tape had already been removed.

Was that because it was being treated as a suicide with no sign of foul play?

“By the way, don’t you have to compete, Mugino? You’re the Level 5 representing your school. In the end, shouldn’t you be changing into athletic bloomers, tying on a headband, grabbing a baton, and running with all your might?”

There was a “bfh!!” of escaping air.

Mugino glared over at Kinuhata, who made sure to be looking somewhere else.

“I don’t like to make official appearances cause of idiots like that.”

Frenda didn’t respond to that low, brooding comment.

But she did speak while crouching on the ground playing at forensic investigation. With her head drooping.

She must have really wanted to see her sister running in athletic bloomers.

“We’re not going to find any new evidence. Even if it was ruled a suicide, it would have been in the public news. In the end, I’m sure Anti-Skill already did all the basic stuff.”

“What about the nearby security cameras?”

“Anti-Skill definitely checked those.”

So if this was a murder disguised as a suicide, the murderer must have been confident they couldn’t be caught by those ordinary methods. Then what was that confidence based on? Where was their secret loophole located?

Track suit girl Takitsubo swept her blank gaze side to side.

The passersby were a motley crowd. In addition to the track suits and gym clothes were a cluster of girls in school swimsuits. They may have had a swimming event at an indoor pool. Everyone displayed a bright smile and showed no particular sign of stopping here, so they likely weren’t here to steal a look. They may not have even known this was the site of a suicide(?).

A distinctive tone sounded as several children watched something on a single phone. They appeared to be watching a streaming quiz show.

Takitsubo looked to them and then expressionlessly narrowed her eyes a bit.

“Mugino, this place might be below an overpass, but it still gets a lot of traffic. Foot and car traffic.”

“So? That’s probably why the place was opened back up so soon.”

“The body was found three hours ago, which would mean shortly before 7 AM. Even during the Daihaseisai, the students will gather at their schools in the mornings and the parents from outside will be out early competing for the best spots on the schoolyards. You could call that rush hour. It wouldn’t have been as bad as the train stations, but there must have been even more traffic here than there is now.”

“What’s your point?”

“With so many eyes around, it would have been difficult to hang a struggling person without anyone noticing.”

The four exchanged a glance.

When disguising a murder as a suicide, nothing would be more foolish than being spotted by a crowd in the moment you set up the disguise.

Something didn’t add up.

“But there super weren’t any witness reports, were there?”

“Which means that’s where the trick lies,” readily stated Takitsubo. “I wonder if a small accident happened in this area near the estimated time of death. 10 or 20 minutes would be enough. If the overall flow of foot and car traffic was altered, there wouldn’t be any witnesses.”

Part 4

“Hey, hey. In the end, do you know what this symbol means? My phone’s map updated and now it’s covered in these weird icons. And the thing is…”

Someone casually stopped passersby and changed the subject in only five seconds.

She did this with girls her own age and even with salarymen in suits and sports reporters who come from outside the city.

Frenda’s ability to make friends with anyone meant this questioning was primarily her job. Kinuhata was instead wandering around trying to see whatever she could see.

“Huh? I’m asking if anything happened around here. No, I’m asking! Don’t answer my question with a question. C’mon, there are tons of things that could change the flow of pedestrians and cars. Like a speed trap or the street being closed for an event. Was there nothing like that?”

Elsewhere, Mugino was speaking in obvious annoyance while switching between different phones.

She was likely speaking to the support team that knew a lot about cars. But Takitsubo was pretty sure her effort would be in vain. The examples she gave sounded plausible, but the murder(?) happened before 7 AM. That was too early for any of that.

With her back against a concrete wall below the overpass, Takitsubo Rikou watched it all play out from a short distance away.

“Phew,” she sighed.

The sound expressed the weight of the atmosphere.

She was picturing some of the ordinary people who had ignorantly passed through here. Specifically the small children who had been huddled around a single phone to watch a streaming quiz show.

The distinctive tone of a correct answer wouldn’t leave her mind.

(A streaming show…)

She pulled her rectangular mobile device from her pocket.

She tapped the video site icon and the initial screen displayed some video titles in large text. Was the selection based on an analysis of her preferences, or was it simply what was trending?

She had the phone in her hand. She could bring up the quiz show with a single finger.

But she didn’t move.

That dream was already over.

“I’m back. In the end, I’ve gotten all the information I think I’m going to get. Huh? What’s wrong, Takitsubo?”

“Nothing.”

Frenda approached with a smile and Takitsubo shook her head.

With her usual lack of expression.

“Because I belong here.”

Part 5

Their investigation revealed a simple answer.

A large number of cardboard boxes had been thrown out onto the street near a refrigerated truck parked on the curb to refill vending machines. And instead of the worker, it was a pedestrian passing nearby who ran into the stack of boxes and sent them tumbling into the street.

That had stopped the flow of traffic and rubberneckers had created a wall blocking the sidewalk, greatly changing the flow of people.

Takitsubo gave a quiet snort with no change of expression.

“See, I told you.”

Kinuhata looked puzzled by this.

“You seem…uncharacteristically motivated today, Takitsubo-san. You’re usually more super zoned out and act like nothing that’s happening matters to you.”

“That’s cause this is about a disguised killing and doping. With dangerous chemical research that can get you destroyed by false accusations, the reaction is understandable.”

“?”

Mugino and Frenda didn’t seem to need anything more than that, but Kinuhata felt like that wasn’t enough of an explanation.

It was convenient the products knocked into the street were vending machine drinks. If they had been convenience store bentos, they would all have had to be thrown out, possibly turning it into a major incident, but plastic bottles inside cushioned cardboard boxes wouldn’t be damaged by a fall to the ground. And unlike metal cans, there wouldn’t be any permanent dents either.

This had been designed to just barely avoid leaving a record as a public incident.

However, this just meant they had to find the culprit’s face in the video recorded by the refrigerated truck’s drive recorder.

And once they did…

“Yamazaki Urika. Age: 17. Sex: Female. In the end, that’s her.”

“She’s asleep.”

Frenda and Takitsubo were alone.

And the track suit girl was correct. A high school girl wearing an absurdly bright neon cheerleader outfit made of a tank top and miniskirt was fast asleep with her head down on a table in the outdoor space of a cafe in District 13. Even though the cafe was receiving a lot of business at this morning hour. Was that really a coffee on the same table as the blonde twintails girl?

Of course, catching the blond twintails girl wouldn’t end this. A disguised suicide using a pain stimulant was clearly too much for someone acting alone. Yamazaki whatever-her-name-was was only a low-level lookout or something similar, so the job wasn’t over until they used her to track down the mastermind behind the killing.

So even if their target was peacefully sleeping, moving in and capturing her wasn’t necessarily the right move. The voice on the phone would not be happy with them if they brought her a lizard’s tail. And so they were continuing this the Item way.

“Take this before we get started.”

Behind cover, Frenda gave Takitsubo fake glasses with special lenses that obstructed security camera facial recognition and a mask with something like a QR code printed on it that accomplished the same thing.

Since this would require vigorous movement, the glasses had a sports strap.

The track suit girl seemed to like them since she began adjusting the glasses with her right hand on the earpiece.

“Hee hee. Glasses make me look smarter.”

“In the end, take this too.”

Frenda shoved something into the track suit girl’s hands. It was a sporty bag too small to even fit a bento or water bottle.

It contained a 9mm automatic handgun. And a few magazines.

“?”

Takitsubo only tilted her head at it. The unnaturally bright color of the military plastic had signs of being filed down, so it was probably a handmade firearm Frenda had assembled from parts made from a thermosetting material poured into a mold like she was making taiyaki.

Takitsubo flipped it over a few times and stared at the object like she didn’t know quite what to do with it. Frenda sighed at the girl’s lack of tension.

Mugino and Kinuhata were not here.

…Times like this were a problem for Kinuhata who could boost her athletic ability with Offense Armor. Because she could easily catch a fleeing target in mere seconds. And needless to say, Mugino would one-shot the target with Meltdowner before she had any chance to run away, which was useless here.

Item was a team, so they knew who was suited for what roles.

There were times when they needed the team members who wouldn’t overdo things.

(But in the end, this isn’t a job we can trust the delinquents of the support team to handle. Their appearance makes them stand out too much.)

“How do you use this?”

“Please, Takitsubo, do not look down the barrel. Anyway, you don’t need to think too hard about how to use it. In the end, just aim it forward with your right hand, aim at the fleeing enemy’s back, and pull the trigger whenever.”

Frenda wasn’t saying pulling the trigger whenever would hit or that she didn’t care where any stray shots might fly.

There was a more fundamental issue here.

“It’s loaded with blanks. We need to scare that idiot half to death so she’ll run to her hideout and tell us where the criminal group is, but we lose if she actually dies. So don’t fire too much and focus on conserving ammo.”

“I see. You’re so nice, Frenda.”

(Am I? In the end, her mistake will give away the entire group’s hideout, so she’ll probably just end up with her accomplices trying to kill her.)

Not that Frenda would be shedding any tears for the enemy.

“In the end, let’s get to it.”

They had equipped their special glasses and masks, so they didn’t have to worry about staying out of view of the security cameras inside the cafe which was covered in windows. Frenda and Takitsubo approached the outdoor table.

Since their target was asleep, they first had to wake her.

And then make her run.

Frenda and Takitsubo aimed their handguns toward her ears.

“In the end, on your mark.”

“Get set.”

Bang, ba-bang!!

Far away, Azumi and Fremea were leaning forward in their gym clothes.

They were at the starting line of the 50-meter dash.

“Whoa, what?”

“In the first place, what was that? What happened?”

They made a false start thanks to a loud sound at an odd time. A stir ran through the 1st graders whose serious race had been interrupted, so their female teacher formed a megaphone with her hands and addressed them.

“Okay, everyone, calm down. Return to your starting positions. That was probably just a prank someone pulled since this is such a big festival. Anyway, we’ll be redoing that from the start, so don’t relax just yet!”

Part 6

Their job began with guns in hand.

They had quite a few eyes and phone cameras on them, but that wasn’t an issue since Frenda and Takitsubo were hiding their identities with special glasses and masks. Plus, it was the Daihaseisai, so the people watching would assume a peaceful reason for this, like they were streamers or performers of some kind. Thanks to that, they could chase someone through the streets while firing their guns without causing a major commotion.

“Eek, eek. Eeeeek! No, no, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, please no, someone help!!”

The blonde twintails cheerleader ran down the main street sidewalk in such a panic she wasn’t just pumping her arms – she was swinging her entire body around. And she was in tears. Some small children who thought it was a joke were laughing.

She ran faster than expected since the soles of her shoes were customized in an Academy City fashion, but their expectations had been spot on that she was a minor villain who wouldn’t fight back. …Of course, if she had fought back, they would have just changed tack to the live bait course where they hit her, let her go some, hit her again, and so on.

Glasses girl Frenda sounded somewhat exasperated as she pursued the girl.

“Wow, she’s running full tilt… I can see her fancy rich girl panties. How indecent of her.”

“Frenda, that’s part of the cheerleader uniform. It’s supposed to be seen.”

Liar. You wouldn’t have the courage to remove your skirt in public if you were wearing that, would you, Takitsubo?

The track suit girl must have had plenty of lung capacity and endurance left over because she kept talking while running so fast. With an expressionless face that showed no sign of tiring.

“The victim was in charge of the drug testing, right? What would lead someone to kill a pharmacist?”

“Maybe she did something that threatened her own life.”

“Like checking an elite school athlete’s blood and finding a mysterious new drug that slips past the previous tests?”

“In the end, it could’ve been the opposite.”

That question was met by silence.

As she ran, Frenda raised a finger on her empty hand.

“What if the tester adds something to clean blood after the fact? Then she could get any elite athlete she wanted disqualified. She could even manipulate the outcome after seeing what place everyone gets in the events.”

Takitsubo tilted her head. While firing blanks.

“That would be physically possible, but why do it?”

“I can think of a dark side reason for it. But in the end, if there was a reason to go to such lengths in the fight over first place, it would also create a motive for killing the unscrupulous tester.”

Why was doping wrong in the first place? The harm the drugs did to the athlete’s health was the most popular explanation, but as members of the dark side, Frenda and Takitsubo tended to take a more cynical view and that righteous explanation felt about as genuine as a wax food model. It wasn’t only the dangerous drugs that were banned and, if you suggested that researching the drugs to determine how much could be taken without causing any harm, most people would probably reply in the same way: not even a single drop is acceptable.

In the extreme, there were time-delayed blood transfusions (storing your own blood and returning it to your body at a later date) to boost the amount of oxygen being transported by the blood. That method didn’t use any drugs at all, but it was still banned as a form of doping. To put it another way, there was some other reason why it had to be banned.

(In the end, you can say time-delayed blood transfusions aren’t healthy since they increase your blood pressure. But on the other hand, you aren’t disqualified for consuming too much sodium or being too nervous.)

That meant the primary issue was not the mystery drug labeled with a skull and crossbones. Even if a drug was invented that could safely boost muscle growth or muscle explosiveness without any negative health effects – of course, even air can harm your health through hyperventilation if you breathe too much of it, so it’s impossible to create a substance that is truly harmless – it would likely still be banned.

Frenda and Takitsubo felt a lot more comfortable with the explanation that sports would no longer function as entertainment if technology could easily manipulate the outcomes regardless of talent or effort.

With special talent and untiring effort, anyone had a chance to win and you never knew the outcome until the very end.

…Even in an age where super expensive corporate AIs could analyze breaking ball patterns and calculate out a solution to an opposing pitcher, people still sought bright and shining dreams in sports. Possibly even more than they did with idols. Even though money and technology were already creating disparities in several areas: uniforms, shoes, diet, training facilities, trainers, etc.

Takitsubo tilted her head while running and vaulting over a bollard and chain.

“Hmm. If the athlete didn’t do anything, wouldn’t any tampering done after the fact be found out? I mean, they really didn’t do anything.”

“Haven’t you heard the Daihaseisai drug tests are overly sensitive? In the end, the athlete can’t fully deny it if they’re told it could have been an unfortunate accident from some cold medicine or an artificial additive in some snack they ate. There’s no way to definitively prove that everything you ate, touched, and breathed over the past few days was clean.”

“The devil’s proof?”

“Right. In the end, sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?”

Aside from that, once an official test came back positive, the athlete under suspicion would sound like a liar no matter what they said. Whether they were a popular athlete or a club ace, overturning such a result would be highly unusual. You could call that an abuse of material evidence.

(But in the end, if we’re right about this, we already have a general picture of the whole case.)

Frenda frowned as she sporadically fired blanks.

That Yamazaki cheerleader was still running like mad, but there was little risk of losing sight of her in that bright outfit. In an armpit-baring tank top and fluttering miniskirt, she couldn’t even manage a costume change where she removed a coat or something to change her appearance mid-flight.

“Y’know, in the end, it bothers me how nice that ass is below her skirt!”

“…”

Takitsubo Rikou usually acted as Item’s moral compass and applied the brakes when they were being unreasonable, but she declined to comment here. However, two large objects in the chest of her track suit were jiggling with every step she took.

Jiggle, jiggle☆

“It bothers me!!”

“Kyah.”

It was important to look like they were only playing around.

Because if they did, the crowd would put themselves at ease and reject the possibility of this being a serious incident.

That said, even a low-level villain could get clever when running for her life. Such as running into an underground parking garage with multiple exits or crossing a concourse plaza with a lot of ups and downs. That she didn’t seek help at an Anti-Skill station suggested she knew she was involved in something illegal. And once the blonde twintails girl entered a large train station, she dashed right toward the ticket gate.

“Oops.”

“Frenda, those stairs lead to the inner track of the belt line. The purple line.”

Did the cheerleader intend to board a train just before it departed? Frenda and Takitsubo were using the glasses and masks to hide their identities while breaking the law, so they couldn’t use the smart cards linked to their names, but they would be too late if they turned aside and bought tickets at the machines.

Pursuing the girl on foot would be difficult like this. Frenda focused on the wireless earphone she had in one ear.

“You’re up, Madam Silk!!”

“Are you super kidding me?”

They’re brute forcers weren’t suited for this kind of sensitive and delicate job, but they had no choice. Being able to swap out tailers when the situation called for it was one advantage of a team.

Waiting in front of the ticket gate wouldn’t solve anything, so Frenda and Takitsubo turned back and ran outside. Just as the train in question was departing.

(I saw the target’s face in the train window. In the end, it doesn’t look like she pulled the “stay on the platform and let the train leave” trick.)

Frenda watched as Kinuhata jumped (using her power of course) from the station roof to the departing train’s roof, landing with a dull “thud!”

“This train follows a single route, so in the end we can get ahead of it. We can’t wait for the support team to arrive with a car, so…I know, there’s a bus stop two stations from here, so we’ll wait there. Keep an eye on the target until then.”

“Super acknowledged.”

Then someone intruded on the friendly four-person group call.

The annoying adult had something to say.

“What do you think you’re doing shooting up a storm out there!? It’s always like this with you! You’re supposed to be keeping Academy City safe right now!!”

“Mugino, you handle her.”

Shout, yell, growl.

The angry argument was too noisy, so Frenda turned the volume down to near silence as she and Takitsubo boarded a large bus at the bus stop. It was one of the self-driving buses without anyone in the driver’s seat which were so common during the Daihaseisai. The bus may have just passed a large event site because the only passengers were two or three girls about Frenda’s age. They were wearing bikinis and sun visors, so was there a beach flags or beach volleyball event happening at an indoor facility somewhere around here?

Despite what the simplified route map suggested, the belt line was not actually a perfect 360-degree circle. The railroad had a lot of sharp curves and tended to zigzag, so there were plenty of areas requiring deceleration. The bus, however, followed a main street directly to the destination, allowing it to arrive sooner.

“Phew.”

The track suit must have been too hot for all this running around because Takitsubo remained standing and tugged on the neck of the garment to create a tunnel to capture the air conditioning blowing down from the ceiling.

Frenda gave her an exasperated look.

“My, how indecent of you, Madam Waterfall.”

“No one can recognize me with the glasses and mask, so it’s fine.”

It didn’t even take a few minutes.

They left the self-driving bus and walked to a smaller train station than before.

This time they bought tickets in advance (with quite a lot of money) and elegantly walked right on through the ticket gate. The cheerleader might not get off at this station, so they needed to quickly locate her on the train from the platform and then decide whether they would board the train or stay on the platform. If they couldn’t decide before the train departed, the two of them would split up.

But…

“In the end, where’s the train?”

“Report, report,” said Kinuhata’s voice in Frenda’s earphone. “That super twintails forced open the window and jumped out while the train was moving. I’m in pursuit.”

“What the hell did you do!? You threatened her too much, Madam Silk!!”

She jumped from a moving train? That blonde twintails girl wasn’t dead, was she?

Regardless, it sounded like they would have to pursue on foot.

Leaving this to the girl who didn’t know how to tail someone properly would only lead to more trouble.

Part 7

Frenda and Takitsubo returned to the ticket gate and tried to leave the station, but the gate wouldn’t open. Unlike with something called a platform ticket, the train ticket produced an error if you tried to use it to exit from the same station you entered through. They didn’t have time for that and they had paid, so they jumped the gate. It wasn’t like they could be identified.

Once outside, they ran back along the train tracks until they spotted Kinuhata.

And Mugino approaching from a different direction.

Both of them were wearing the same masks and glasses.

“In the end, where’d Miss Panties go!?”

“Super Twintails went that way!”

“Where does that cheerleader even think she’s going? An American football locker room?”

“Can someone please just use her name.”

Don’t expect that kind of thoughtfulness from the dark side, Takitsubo.

The cheerleader may have been breathing a sigh of relief after thinking she had escaped. When she came to a stop, they fired more blanks to send her into a panicked run all over again. Miss Panties sure could run fast for someone who had just jumped out of a moving train. …That may have been thanks to an esper power, so they had to keep their guard up.

The cheerleader fled while showing a preference for extremely short streets, pedestrian zones, and stairs. A car from Item’s support group wouldn’t have been much help.

“?”

Soon, they found themselves among District 3’s famous office buildings.

However, what they approached didn’t seem like a tidy office. It must have been some time since a cleaner had been called in because the higher windows were covered in dried raindrop stains. The cheerleader’s blonde twintails whipped behind her as she rushed into the basement of what appeared to be an abandoned building.

“Mugino, that’s the villain’s hideout.”

“Huh? How do you know she isn’t just passing through? Like you could with a pool or amusement park.”

“That basement only has the one exit.”

“Super when and how did you get the layout?” asked an exasperated Kinuhata.

Takitsubo appeared to have gotten the information from a disaster prevention panel pasted on the building’s outside wall for firefighters to check. According to the diagram displayed on her phone, the base was an underground studio for a video broadcast station that had been abandoned since the company went out of business. That would make for a large, soundproofed hideout set up for high-speed fiber optic communication.

There was only one exit.

So Item descended the narrow stairs with high firepower Mugino and solid defense Kinuhata in front.

“Phew, I can finally remove these,” said Takitsubo.

They no longer needed the glasses and masks meant to fool ordinary people. During strenuous exercise, the glasses would fog up and the masks were a little hard to breathe through. So they removed them.

The four reached the bottom of the narrow stairs but didn’t find the cheerleader there.

There was a single door, thick and bulletproof. The thin slide-open slit suggested a doorman on the inside would check to see if an unexpected visitor was familiar and unlock the door if so.

They had finally found what they wanted, but the cheerleader would have reported what happened when she entered. If the enemy was on guard, they wouldn’t open the door no matter what.

Mugino’s instructions were simple.

“I want to keep any of them from escaping while also learning the full scope of the incident. So leave one survivor and kill the rest.”

“Super acknowledged.”

Either way, a merely “bulletproof” door or wall couldn’t stop an attack from a Level 5 or Level 4.

All they had to do was break in, cause trouble, and kill.

But just as they thought that, the track suit girl spoke up.

“Mugino.”

“Hm? Whoa!?”

With a dull “thock thock!!”, sharp objects burst from the thick wall next to the door. They were sharp metal rods about as thick as a ballpoint pen and just the portion emerging from this side of the wall was more than 30cm long. If Item had been pressed against the wall, they would have been pinned to the wall in several locations. Plus, these were the people who used a pain stimulant that increased the human sense of pain by 350 times.

Mugino clicked her tongue by retaliating with multiple Meltdowner blasts through the door and wall.

The doorman directly on the other side would have been vaporized by the first blast, but this was a group. It wasn’t over yet.

“Tch. Was that a semi-auto crossbow!?”

A bow might seem old-fashioned, but each bolt was bigger and heavier than a bullet and the tip was sharpened. It was a lot like swinging a heavy pickaxe full force into a bulletproof vest. It produced an effect different from an ordinary bullet.

Grasping the situation, Mugino’s lips curled into a fierce smile.

Her battle freak side was coming out.

(Interesting. I like the way you don’t let my level hold you back. Battle is never boring because you never know what’s going to happen. They say a cornered animal is dangerous, but let’s find out just how hard this one can bite back!!)

“If you don’t surrender, Mugino will fill you with holes. We can either get the story out of you or leave no stone unturned to gather the information ourselves. Either is fine by us, but which would you prefer?”

“Okay! You’ve made your point!! We’ll explain everything, so please be peaceful!!”

A very reasonable male voice came from within.

Mugino Shizuri had lost her chance to attack.

“…”

She silently turned to look at Takitsubo. With her mouth forming a small triangle.

The track suit girl feigned ignorance.

They were pros, so they had to prioritize their job. If that battle freak went nuts and slaughtered everyone, they wouldn’t even know how many people had been in the murderous group, which would make closing out the case a pain. So asking first made more sense.

The four girls walked in.

They found a dimly-lit space. It was large. The underground space was the size of a small public pool.

“W-welcome, honored guests.”

This was the man who had announced their surrender before. He was probably one of the leaders, making him the mastermind behind the killing.

He looked to be in his late 20s. He was wearing a tuxedo for some reason, but Mugino had seen enough tuxedos for a lifetime at her family home and this tuxedo’s fabric and stitching looked somehow cheap to her. It may have been a factory product instead of tailor made. …The place looked something like a strange cafe.

Bunny girls and dancers had abandoned their jobs to crouch down and tremble. Some expensive-looking bottles of ’18 or ’25 vintage something-or-other lay shattered on the floor. Some burly bodyguard types were watching from a distance, but most of the people had their hands over their heads with meek looks on their faces.

The interior design was clearly meant for people of that sort.

The large underground space was lined with sofas and tables that looked borrowed from fancy clubs with poor taste and large LCD monitors were set up all over. The monitors displayed numbers, numbers, numbers, and videos of students wearing track suits and gym clothes. They were apparently showing the status of different Daihaseisai events.

The structure of the numbers on the screens was extremely reminiscent of horse racing and cycle racing. Or casinos. Was the leader wearing a tuxedo because he was also the manager?

“Is this the toy you scared us with?”

They finally saw the semi-auto crossbow for themselves where it lay at the feet of a man in black with his hands up.

The Chinese Zhuge crossbow was the most famous, but weapons like this had existed since ancient times. Although the ancient version had been so complex its power had been reduced and it hadn’t seen all that much use.

The Academy City version had a large boxy sealed magazine attached directly atop the bow. Perhaps that was to prevent the user from accidentally touching the poisoned bolts. That seemed like it would get in the way of aiming, but picking it up and aiming it showed it had a dot sight attached on the side of the latch that attached the giant magazine. So was it aimed something like a shoulder-fired rocket launcher? The bowstring was pulled back with electrical power. Since it had penetrated a concrete wall, it likely was too much for human strength to pull back.

“?”

Frenda petrified when she checked one of the monitors.

One of the contestants was a smiling blonde-haired, blue-eyed 1st grader.

Frenda very nearly cried out loud.

(I-in the end, they’re involving my innocent sister in this?)

“Are you stupid? This isn’t something you should be gambling on!!!”

The manager in the cheap tuxedo rubbed his hands together and smiled.

He was sweating profusely. His thin smile was plastered to his face and wouldn’t leave.

“Th-th-this is about investment. Yes, investment. We only engage in clean and legal business transactions here. We wouldn’t dream of running an illegal online gambling casino.”

“Then what is this place?”

“I-I should have mentioned it earlier. We are known as the Investment Club.”

“So a casino going by that name, huh?”

“We are a venue for business transactions!”

He corrected her with dizzying speed.

Was that why they had needed the high-speed fiber optic communications in addition to the soundproofing?

They would predict which school would win an event, pay money, and, if their prediction was correct, receive an adjusted payment in return. The words they used and the means of putting in and taking out money had changed, but what they were actually doing was no different from sports betting.

“Is this the dark side reason you mentioned before, Frenda?” asked the blank-faced track suit girl.

“That’s right. In the end, it’s dark trading.”

“Super what’s that?”

“Something like illegal online gambling, Kinuhata.”

The Investment Club’s manager looked like he badly wanted to say something, but Takitsubo expressionlessly continued her explanation.

“I call it gambling, but betting money isn’t legally allowed, so they use different words like ‘investment’ and ‘speculation’ to place their money on entire schools instead of individual athletes. But the profit the gamblers receive depends on which schools win the events and which esper development theories are accepted as correct.”

The only guaranteed way to profit off of stocks was insider trading, but the next best thing was market manipulation. Of course, many different grownups were carefully checking for those illegal acts. But unlike ordinary corporations, the distribution of profits from public institutions – in this case, school management – tended to not be monitored. Did that come from the assumption that Academy City’s schools were sacred institutions of learning with no connection to worldly moneymaking? If so, that was even more naive than a belief in sportsmanship.

And so this was entirely possible during the Daihaseisai, where the results could greatly change the value of a school’s esper development theory or patents. This profit margin gambling worked by paying money up front and then receiving a distribution of the intellectual property.

A vicious smile formed on Mugino’s face.

“Well, the Daihaseisai is basically a motor show or race featuring human bodies. If you see it as an exhibition of each school’s esper development tech, you can imagine all the sketchy researchers and investors watching on among the spectators, can’t you?”

“Ugh, is that really super acceptable?”

“It’s just barely allowed under Academy City’s rules. And since it isn’t gambling, they don’t have to consider an upper rate limit. …But of course that’s only when no one ends up dead.”

The track suit girl’s piercing words made the Investment Club’s manager tremble.

“I thought it was odd,” continued Takitsubo, expressionless. “The initial data on the victim said she was a pharmacist who lived in District 3, right? This district is full of tall office buildings and doesn’t have many homes. At most, it has luxury apartments for investment. The director of a major hospital might live there, but not an ordinary pharmacist.”

That meant she had a secondary source of income. One that earned far more than her day job.

“In the end, this disgusting facility that takes the glory and first place awards of the innocent athletic bloomers and turns them into moneymaking tools…is viewed like a VIP trading room at a stock exchange?”

Frenda took an exasperated look around.

Bunny girls, alcohol, dancers in frilly outfits, and young women in hostess-style dresses. The place really did feel more like a casino than a stock exchange.

Clearly irritated, Mugino said, “Tell us everything you know about Matsuba Sarina. The dead drug tester.”

“She did work with us, but she was altering the drug tests after the events to get athletes disqualified and alter the outcome of the event after the fact. Alter it any way she liked.”

“That’s a lot like fixing matches, Mugino. Was she receiving payment from specific customers for manipulating the results?”

The Investment Club’s manager nodded several times at the track suit girl’s question.

“Y-yes. And this was a major betrayal of all our clients. In our business, we must be fair or we lose all trust and lose most of our customers. We could not overlook the situation.”

So she was punished.

They had given her a thorough death to punish her for a crime too serious for a single life to cover. And more than that, it must have been a sign to the gamblers that nothing like this would happen again.

To sum up, the villains had only been killing one of their own. You could even call that a good thing since it meant no ordinary people had been harmed.

“Excuse me…but what is going to happen to us?”

Mugino concentrated a beam in her palm.

“What do you think?”

“Wait, please wait!! We can make a deal. This is a once-a-year festival. With our services, you can be rich beyond your wildest dreams by the end of the Daihaseisai week!! Okay? Okay? Letting us live is very much in your best interests!!”

The next move was made before Mugino Shizuri could say anything.

Some kind of explosive detonated.

Something entered through the door that was the only entrance and exit. A whole group of somethings. Just like seeing a swarm of insects, their numbers and movements inspired a deep-seated revulsion.

Frenda instinctively shouted out loud when she saw the men hiding their faces behind ant-like masks.

“Army Ant!?”

It happened so suddenly.

Weren’t they debt collectors? But what were dark side debt collectors doing here? …No, wait. They had a connection to Frenda Seivelun from a previous incident. When she had feared her sister might be abducted, hadn’t Army Ant been the disgusting kidnappers targeting the 7-year-old as a group? And hadn’t it been the bright and wonderful Frenda who had hired someone to stop them by killing them!?

Every member of Army Ant was carrying a semi-auto shotgun. And these were bare-bones models with almost all the parts removed. The ultra-light shotguns were probably meant to be attached below an assault rifle and used for door breaching.

Just as Kinuhata moved to cover Takitsubo who was standing in a daze, there was an explosive blast and a blossom of blood. Army Ant had blown away a large man of the Investment Club with a 12-gauge shotgun. Blown him a whole two meters away.

Frenda quickly hid behind a thick pillar, but she was also confused.

(Huh? So in the end, they aren’t after me?)

She was afraid that speaking out loud would gather the perverted kidnappers’ attention and remind them of her, so she kept her mouth shut.

Investment Club did put up a fight. The macho bodyguards in tuxedos snatched up the semi-auto crossbows on the floor and began shooting Army Ant with them.

“Gegyahhh!?”

One Army Ant who was hit screamed and rolled on the floor. Those definitely weren’t ordinary bolts. He collapsed on his side, arched his back hard, and didn’t seem capable of stopping.

The track suit girl spoke softly while Kinuhata protected her.

“The tryptophan-based pain stimulant.”

Didn’t that thing boost your pain signals 350 times? At that level, the rubbing of your clothes against your skin would have you writhing on the floor and slowly fry your brain too badly to ever recover. What would happen if your torso was pierced by a bolt went without saying.

The Investment Club and Army Ant began a fierce firefight.

There were explosive sounds other than the shotguns. Clay-like objects flew through the air. Army Ant was likely throwing their door breaching explosives as grenades. And the Investment Club was throwing fancy bottles of whisky as Molotov cocktails. Their methods were so similar Frenda wondered why they couldn’t just get along.

Mugino would gladly let the two sides kill each other off like this, so she would have loved to snatch away Frenda’s brand new phone (that she had bought despite the cost so she could record her sister’s glorious performance on the field) and watch the moving footage of some salmon swimming up the river, but that wasn’t an option.

Stray shots were flying this way all the time.

Mugino saw someone holding a crossbow in the corner of her eye, so she reflexively aimed her right hand that way and fired Meltdowner. The person looking with shock at the giant hole in their gut was the Investment Club’s manager. He had been trying to fight Army Ant who had suddenly burst in and begun firing.

“Oops.”

“Mugino, both sides are our enemy, so it’s alright.”

Kind Takitsubo kindly forgave her.

But the Investment Club and Army Ant both turned this way.

They didn’t look like they were viewing an outsider.

They wanted to deal with the smaller annoyance first so it wouldn’t act as a thorn in their side during their all-out war. And so they silently agreed to a truce.

And Mugino Shizuri had an even shorter temper.

“Ugh, really?”

In that moment, there was no denying that both the Investment Club and Army Ant had underestimated Academy City’s #4. No matter how powerful she was, she could only fire one straight-line shot at a time. That wasn’t well suited for defense, so if they surrounded her and fired projectiles from multiple directions, one of them would manage a lethal blow that brought her down.

“What a pain in the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssss!!”

They were far too naive.

Item’s leader was the dangerous sort of person who would kill because she found someone annoying.

Pissed, Mugino Shizuri snapped her fingers and tossed a card into the air.

And she fired Meltdowner at it.

At the Silicon Burn.

Boom!!!

Passing through the special semiconductor caused the beam to split and fan out over 180 degrees, creating an electric downpour that pierced and silenced them all in an instant. It was like a blowing storm of light. To have this much power even as small streaks of light showed just how absurd Level 5s were.

There was no scent of blood in the air.

Only a scorched stench.

Frenda spoke from the floor where Kinuhata had grabbed her head and pulled her down.

“I-in the end, I nearly died. Could you give a little warning before doing that?”

“Mugino is special, so she can use her special move without any preparatory motions or incantations. Isn’t she wonderful?” said Takitsubo.

“Hey, don’t encourage her like that. In the end, that’s a big reason there’s no stopping that battle freak when she’s on a rampage!!”

At any rate, the Investment Club and Army Ant were all dead. Frenda was pretty sure the bunny girls carrying drinks to the tables, the blonde twintails cheerleader who had fled in here, and even the fancy guests had been filled with holes along with the rest, but they had all been villains with wallets full of dirty money, so why should she care?

“Hm,” murmured Mugino.

That semiconductor card was something she had asked the unscrupulous adults to make based on a past experience of hers, but it was only a prototype and the scatter distribution hadn’t been as even as she would have liked. There was much room for improvement.

“Oops, I killed them all. Now we can’t ask them for information.”

“So when the Demon Lord fights, the options super aren’t ‘live or die’ like they are for the rest of us…”

Anyway, why had Army Ant attacked out of the blue like that?

After Item had made such a commotion firing blanks around town, the voice on the phone would probably be extra mad if their final report was short on details. They could leave cleanup of all the blood and bodies to the support group, but it was worth poking around a bit before everything was cleaned up.

“Look, Kinuhata,” said Takitsubo. “These Army Ant guys don’t have any phones. And their wallets don’t have any IDs or cards. Do they always do that on a job? Maybe so their belongings won’t lead to anyone else in the group if they’re killed.”

“But no phones? Isn’t that super inconvenient? How do they coordinate?”

“There’s something hidden behind these ant masks. It’s hard to tell since they’ve been taken apart, but these are the wireless LAN devices that were in the news a while back for being able to use nearby routers without being properly registered.”

Some of the dead bodies lying around were pierced by sharp metal bolts with a pain stimulant applied, so Takitsubo and Kinuhata made sure to be careful as they removed one of the helmets and discussed the matter. Everything was peaceful.

Mugino discovered something too.

“Found a car key. But with how thorough they’ve been, I doubt this will be enough to track down the car’s owner.”

And so rummaging through the Army Ant members didn’t turn up much of anything.

Then what about the Investment Club who had been their target?

Frenda had been searching on that end.

“The computer is…a little too much. With a communications facility this big, in the end there’s no searching anything out without a specific keyword to go on.”

“Frenda. What about Army Ant?”

“C’mon, Takitsubo. There’s no way it’ll be that eas- what the hell? In the end, that worked.”

A list of files came up.

But none of them were all that important.

Army Ant’s primary job was debt collection on the dark side, but it looked like those same skills had led the Investment Club to hire them as couriers for dark trading payouts. Maybe the online banks were unreliable due to all the traffic during the event, but there were records of Army Ant making a few deliveries of heavy gold bars.

“So was this some super infighting? But why? It’s all super confusing.”

“Kinuhata.” The track suit girl beckoned her over. “I moved the wine cooler behind the bar counter and found a safe hidden in the floor. Can you use Offense Armor to tear off the door?”

Kinuhata didn’t even bother responding. She tore away the 5cm-thick piece of special alloy.

They found a space about the size of below-the-floor kitchen storage.

“Wow,” exclaimed Frenda, her tone rising.

There was cash from a number of different countries, gold bars, and even diamonds. Regional banks would only store a few tens of millions of yen in paper money nowadays, but there was far more than that here.

“If a client wins but they’re slow to pay out, it could lead to a major problem or even put their lives at risk. And an always online server could be hit by a DDoS attack at any time, so they would want some amount of hard cash in case their online bank isn’t usable. It’s a safety measure.”

Since Army Ant had actually delivered some gold bars, the Investment Club’s caution must have been warranted.

Still crouched, Frenda held her hands out toward the glow of the gold bars like she was warming them over a campfire.

“In the end, what do we do with these? Nee hee hee. Slip them into our pockets?”

“I wouldn’t.”

Frenda looked confused.

Since when was Item such a pure and honorable team?

But Mugino sighed.

“Those are fake.”

“…”

“They’re well-made counterfeits. Try to use them and you’ll be tracked down and arrested. Take them with you if you want to analyze them, but you won’t be able to liquidate them. This is a murder scene. If Anti-Skill gets suspicious, you won’t be able to explain where you got them and you won’t be able to claim you didn’t know about any of this. And if you don’t have an answer, they’ll just find you guilty.”

Frenda’s mouth formed a small triangle.

Well, this sucked.

“Could this be what made Army Ant mad enough to come here and kill the Investment Club people? Basically, their professional pride as debt collectors was wounded. The goods they were carrying, heart pounding and sweat pouring at the thought of being found out and arrested, turned out to be worthless counterfeits.”

Item had discovered the truth behind drug tester Matsuba Sarina’s death.

This concluded the Investment Club case.

But…

“I get the feeling there’s something more hidden behind all this.”

Chapter 2: Mass Gold Counterfeiting

Part 1

Increasing an amount of pure gold by artificial means.

That might sound like fairy tale magic, but from a scientific perspective, it was a field of research with a history stretching back into BCE times.

You could also call it a type of scam.

The most classic example is melting down the gold and mixing in silver or some other metal. You can find countless examples of this, including the legend of Archimedes.

Moving forward in time a bit, gold mixed with flour or wax became rampant. This was the method used by the dishonest sort of alchemist when they wanted to receive large sums of money from bored aristocrats in the name of “research funding”.

Of course, pure gold remains highly valued to this day, so searching for a cheap material that shines with a similar golden light isn’t a bad thing. In the honest world, there are plenty of harmless and non-malicious examples in the fields of decoration and interior design.

But to be blunt, the 18-karat gold everyone prizes so highly is not pure gold. 25% of it is in fact an impurity mixed in.

So there are countless examples of research to create gold-like metals, both legal and illegal.

But it didn’t sound like this case would be that simple.

Part 2

They stopped at the closest movie theater.

“Um, ahem. After speaking with the higher ups, I received a most pleasing result.”

“Good work.”

“Listen up, you fools who dug up some extra work. I was really hoping to get this minor incident squared away so I could enjoy the rest of the Daihaseisai like I was on vacation, but you couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you!? Are you that interested in defending the peace of Academy City? Do you see yourselves as heroes now!? It’s always like this! You idiots! You imbeciles!! You’ve got me so mad only day drinking can make me feel better!!!”

Item was being treated like program testers who had been called in for work, found a bug in the program being developed, and were now being berated for forcing the programmers to stay up all night fixing it.

The voice on the phone sounded quite upset.

The middle manager whose plans were in shambles shouted in desperation.

“Pwahh… Nwohh! Yeah, times like this require real beer, none of that third category or fourth category crap!! Anyway, Item, your job is to search out the counterfeiter behind the super realistic fake gold bars – aka HoloAu79 – which is causing such a stir lately!! You discovered this, so you deal with it!”

They discovered it? If it was already causing a stir, Item could hardly have discovered it. It felt a lot like this was a convenient excuse to shove an annoying job onto them.

Kinuhata sighed and asked a question.

“Super what is Holo whatever you said? Is it someone’s name?”

“Hologram gold. In other words, gold bars that are there but you can’t touch,” explained the blank-eyed track suit girl.

Incidentally, computer viruses were named by the security companies that creating the antivirus software, not the person who wrote the virus. So the name could change between companies. Similarly, vehicle burglars and bank robbers tended to be given names like that when the police or media began discussing the cases. So the HoloAu79 name had likely come from the Academy City authorities. Because writing paperwork was a lot harder without a name for it.

The transmission ended.

Mugino thought a bit as the theater’s lights came on.

“This is probably why those Army Ant people were involved… As dark side debt collectors, they would have found it unforgivable to be hired to transport well-made fake gold bars while watching out for Anti-Skill.”

In the professional world, the reward being the same didn’t necessarily mean nothing was lost.

It was like a locksmith thinking they were creating a spare key for someone’s house and then later learning their client had actually been a stalker. Unwittingly doing such a low-level job could hurt their professional pride.

“But, Mugino, did the Investment Club people really have those gold bars to trick their customers?” asked Takitsubo.

“…”

Their deadly “punishment” for the drug tester had been to eliminate one of their own who had betrayed their clients. If the Investment Club would go that far to regain trust, would they really deceive those clients themselves? It didn’t fit and sounded unlikely.

Meaning…

“The counterfeits were made to be indistinguishable. So isn’t it possible the Investment Club received them without knowing what they were?”

“What a pain. If they only had them by coincidence, then investigating those dead people won’t turn up anything. We’ll have to restart the investigation from the ground up.”

“So it was a false charge…”

The usually zoned-out Takitsubo sounded unusually somber.

That said, being so devastatingly unlucky it got you killed by coincidence was something that happened on the dark side.

Mugino rapidly summed up the situation.

(Well, if we are restarting from the ground up, should we start from there?)

The talk of gold counterfeiting didn’t have all that much to do with the Daihaseisai. Ultimately, there was no time limit forcing them to solve this case during the festival. So they could avoid packing their schedules too full and keep some time for themselves as they worked on the case.

Frenda stretched and held a hand to her mouth.

“Yawwwn… Then in the end, will we be splitting up and grabbing a nap and some private time?”

“You go and recharge your sister batteries. You look ready to die.”

“Frenda. You should try to get there by lunchtime. She goes to a normal elementary school, right? All the parents will be watching on tarps with bentos ready, so you don’t want your sister to be the only one all alone during the long lunch break.”

“You think I don’t know that!? I got up early this morning and prepared a lunch. In the end, you’d better not be doubting the power of a big sister’s homemade mackerel bento!!”

Now wasn’t the time for being heartwarming.

Kinuhata panicked.

“H-hey, wait! I’d like it if we could work out at least a general plan. If the counterfeit gold bars in the Investment Club base were there by coincidence, then we have super no hints at all. How were you three intending to find the counterfeiter once we do meet back up later!?”

Mugino shrugged and didn’t answer.

So track suit girl Takitsubo answered for her. Why couldn’t this more considerate girl be their leader?

“Kinuhata. Army Ant is upset that money experts like them were hired to transport counterfeit gold bars, right?”

“Hm? Hold on. Why did you super use the present tense there?”

“If they aren’t satisfied with their attack on the Investment Club, they will be gathering information on the counterfeiter behind the HoloAu79. In the way only a large group can.”

Part 3

It was the busy time shortly before lunch.

Some of the morning events must have had already ended, so the population density of the streets had shot up.

Sticking to the edge of the sidewalk, Takitsubo spoke in the shadow of a roadside tree.

Takitsubo and Mugino were the only ones present at the moment.

“Mugino, what will you do?”

“About what?”

“About the next step,” clarified the track suit girl. “Even if we can leave the physical attack to you, we still need to think up a way to get Army Ant’s leader – the Queen Ant? – to talk.”

“Huh? I can just-”

“If we rely on your ad libbing there, you’ll probably impulsively use Meltdowner and kill their queen. She’s a queen. You never get along with villains who look down on you. We can’t have you doing that before we get the information we need.”

…Mugino had to admit that was a possibility. A strong one.

So did they have to think up some other way?

“Do you have an idea, Takitsubo?”

“I do.”

No hesitation.

This girl was terrifying for reasons other than physical violence using an esper power or bombs.

“It wouldn’t be a guarantee, but it would help if there was something that Queen Ant valued more than her own life. Let’s go with that if we can’t come up with a better idea ahead of time.”

“So why not just do that?”

“I knew you’d say that. I didn’t want to tell you because you stop thinking as soon as someone says they have an idea. I want to investigate some other viewpoints and angles, so don’t tell Kinuhata and Frenda for now.”

They couldn’t let their guard down since there were light-footed villains who were prepared to flee at anytime, but they were talking about a debt collection boss. They were bound to be motivated by greed.

Then the other two returned from wherever they had been.

“Frenda-san, why are you carrying so super many cups?”

“In the end, I’m comparing different sports drinks. They were handing out samples on that street over there. I wonder which one’s best? Being a big sister isn’t easy. I’m meeting up with my sister at lunchtime, remember? This topic is bound to come up while we’re eating our bento! So I need to be researching as much as I can to have enough trivia for her.”

One area was making even more noise than Frenda and Kinuhata.

The noise came from the ordinary people.

Apparently an area had been set up to let people try out one of the events.

Obstacles made of material as soft as sponge or an artificial leather sofa had been painted bright neon colors. It looked like a large-scale athletic facility bigger than a park playground. A full lap was likely less than 200m, but there were metal poles you had to climb, long slides, and other intense ups and downs. It resembled the endurance testing course seen on New Year’s TV specials. Some people were ignoring the rules of the event and just enjoying falling in the water.

The Daihaseisai included a wide variety of events, but this one appeared to be one where you ran through the obstacle course to hit a button and then answered a quiz button. You had to run back and forth several times to answer all the questions. Although the actual project was apparently meant to show off the specs of Academy City espers by letting ordinary people end up all sweaty and exhausted while the espers could complete it in mere seconds.

While watching that from a distance, Mugino made a comment.

“…Do you still have regrets?”

“Not really.”

“You don’t actually have to give up on it. There are those on the dark side with official identities too. You can get by if you aim to be one of the top level villains.”

“You’re overthinking this. It isn’t something I want that badly anymore.”

The soft sigh came from Mugino.

She knew Takitsubo Rikou’s situation best.

False charges.

She had ultimately avoided being found guilty and remained free, but that didn’t erase the path taken to reach that point and there was no guarantee the psychological scars would fully heal. She could no longer trust the ordinary world and its systems. Most people would force themselves to accept the untrustworthy systems because that was the only way to live in society. But if someone had talent for things that weren’t exactly praiseworthy, that could unfortunately create a reason for them to avoid the “honest” world. As long as they had the talent needed to slip into the cracks of society and walk a darker path while rejecting the things they found untrustworthy.

“I’m fine,” said the track suit girl. Plainly. “This life suits me better, Mugino.”

Part 4

Until 7PM, she cheered until she was hoarse. During the flapping penguin dance, she moved to get the best photo spot and ended up grabbing a dad from the same class by the face to fight over the spot. That was a good time. By the end, the two had exchanged a firm handshake and parted ways.

And now Frenda Seivelun was smiling and holding her sister’s hand.

After all, this was her precious family. How many tens of thousands of photos did she take with the continuous shooting mode again? She had also filmed video constantly at the highest quality. What’s that? This joyous occasion would last the entire week? Then I’m gonna fill up the cloud no matter how big it is!

While the elementary schools were gathered in District 13, the two of them were currently in the more miscellaneous District 7. For the Daihaseisai, students would visit other schools and arenas depending on the event.

That part seemed to stick in her 7-year-old sister’s memory more than the event itself.

“Sigh. So I’ve finally set foot in a high school. In the first place, I feel so grown up…”

“What do you want for dinner? Hamburger steak? Sushi? My sister, they have food from all over the world on top of the train station.”

“A-a nighttime restaurant. In the first place, the Daihaseisai is such a grown up event. We even get to walk around when it’s dark out.”

Apparently that excited a first grader more than a meal. An Anti-Skill officer out on patrol smiled at the little sister clinging to Frenda’s side and looking excitedly all around.

“In the first place, I’m thirsty. I want a coconut cider.”

“I see, I see. The night is the best time for those carbonated drinks, my sister. In the end, it’ll be hell for you if you drink one during the day when you still have events to play.”

“?”

Thanks to the Daihaseisai, the streets were full of people even at night.

The little sister was so excited that she was still wearing her athletic bloomers and red headband even though all the day’s events were over. Her skin seemed kind of shiny, but that was from the big sister worrying about the bright sun during the day and applying some sunblock or moisturizer rather than using bug repellent. Dressed like that, they wouldn’t be able to enjoy dinner at the kind of restaurant with a dress code and required reservations.

And then the first grader pointed into the distance and raised her voice.

“Oh, wow. Fireworks!!”

They were hard to see from this distant train station concourse thanks to the tall buildings, but there were some red and green flowers blossoming in the sky. By measuring the time lag between the light and the sound (and using her knowledge as a dark side bomber), Frenda worked out that the fireworks were 2050m away. That would be the riverside area. Large-scale fireworks shows and night parades like that weren’t uncommon during the Daihaseisai.

Frenda smiled bitterly.

“In the end, I bet we’d get stuck in the crowds if we tried to head there now.”

“Then in the first place, we should get a good spot early tomorrow! Promise!?”

The little sister smiled and held out her pinkie finger, so Frenda crouched down and held out hers.

It was absurd for her to protect Academy City’s peace. A dangerous dark side villain who slung bombs around wasn’t one to talk here.

(Still, I don’t want to see the end of times like this. No matter what.)

Part 5

At midnight, Item met back up.

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“Frenda’s all shiny.”

“Oh, you can see this joyful aura, can you? Yes, it’s impossible to live a healthy life without soaking up the occasional sun. And I got a generous dose of the bright and shining sun known as my sister!”

Their job was to capture the counterfeiter making the HoloAu79 gold bars, but they had no information on the counterfeiter. So they needed to first contact someone who might have that information.

That meant a visit to the base of Army Ant who they had fought during the day.

“But isn’t that a mystery of its own? You see low-level Army Ant grunts around a fair amount, but does someone know where their headquarters are? Their loan shark base super might not even be in Japan.”

“Kinuhata, you’re looking at it wrong,” said Takitsubo.

“?”

“Army Ant has no fixed base. So investigating real estate to track down a building won’t work.”

As they spoke, Item waited for the crosswalk signal before crossing the street despite the lack of other pedestrians or cars at this late hour.

Apparently image was everything. Not long ago, tall signs displaying missing people posters or warnings about heading out late at night had been attached to the wind turbine poles with wrapped wire, but all of those appeared to have been removed for the Daihaseisai. Quite the merciless choice.

The unnatural cleanliness of not properly alerting people to the danger didn’t seem like it would lead to safety.

“I don’t know how good a counterfeit this HoloAu79 stuff is, but Mugino saw through it on sight, right? Is it really that super good?”

“Only because gold appraisal is almost entirely automated in Academy City. …If you let people do it, you’ll have no end of idiots who scrape a little off the surface and steal it. So in this day and age, fooling mechanical sensors matters more than fooling people. A few people might not be fooled, but most people will trust what the neatly-organized data tells them.”

“In the end, HoloAu79 doesn’t have a sign, right?”

Ordinarily, counterfeit money would include a minuscule sign that only the creator would know to look for. Because once the money was in circulation, there was a risk of it returning to the creator’s own wallet. Nothing would be sadder than being arrested for unwittingly trying to pay at a store with your own counterfeit money.

However, HoloAu79 lacked a sign like that.

If the creator had decided a petty bourgeois like them would never do business in anything as fancy as gold bars, they didn’t need a sign to avoid reacquiring it.

That had made this a lot more difficult for the Academy City higher ups.

“So Army Ant doesn’t have a fixed base, huh?” muttered Mugino.

By then, Takitsubo had already found the answer.

“Those shiny things.”

“Hm? In the end, aren’t those meant to keep crows away? These ones look homemade, though.”

“There’s a pattern, Frenda.”

Takitsubo viewed something like aluminum foil tanzaku hanging near a trash dumping site.

“If they move locations a lot, they need some way of communicating with their people. Without relying on corporate social media that is so easily traced.”

“Takitsubo-san, you’re super good at this kind of thing, huh?” Kinuhata sounded impressed.

“I used to want to make quizzes. Again, used to.”

No one really looked into who made these sorts of things. The four girls followed the signs that were clearly homemade yet wouldn’t rouse suspicion when hung up in the streets.

Between two buildings late at night, they found a tall fence blocking the way. The chain link door was locked with a thick chain and a padlock while a man in baggy pants leaned against it and boredly messed with his phone. He wasn’t keeping an eye on his surroundings, but was he supposed to be a guard?

When Mugino approached in obvious annoyance, Mr. Smartphone finally looked up.

“I have business with Army Ant’s boss.”

“Don’t make me laugh. You think I’m letting an outsider in? I’m sure you worked yourself to tears gathering up all the money, but you can wait until tomorrow to pay back your debt. With the interest for the extra day, idiot.”

He became much more cooperative once she grabbed his face with her entire palm. His bent knees and back had him pressed fairly compactly against the ground, though.

Frenda cackled.

“It’s a miracle he didn’t get his upper half vaporized for that.”

“Mugino really is kind.”

Past the filthy fence door, they found a square space of plain concrete.

White beams of light pierced straight into their heads. Those were headlights.

Quite a few vehicles were gathered here.

Was there a larger entrance somewhere?

Several large trucks were parked at the center. But their boxy storage containers had the sides opened straight upwards. Giant speakers, stage lightning from directly above, electric instruments, and a DJ booth… Those were surprise concert stage trucks meant to throw a party anytime and anywhere.

There were also a few vans modified into food trucks to serve alcohol and snacks to the members. (Even though they had all gathered here in cars and motorcycles!)

More than 100 scantily-clad boys and girls filled the space.

The ant masks were a strange sight when there were this many of them.

That explained the great number of vehicles.

Frenda whispered in partial exasperation, although the “Boom! Boom!! Boom!! Baboom!!” of giant woofers threatened to drown her out.

“Army Ant. …In the end, those ants don’t have a fixed anthill and wander the jungle as a group, right?”

“Every one of these people are illegal debt collectors? What has the world super come to?”

At least it sounded like Army Ant only bared their fangs against dark side people who borrowed money and then failed to pay it back.

They were also known for turning people into small diamonds if they couldn’t pay, so was a device for that running in one of the trucks?

Also…

“Super wait a second. Aren’t we missing someone? Where did the two with huge chests go!?”

“We got separated in the crowd. In the end, we need to get going, Kinuhata.”

Frenda showed no intention of actually trying to search for the other two. She grabbed Kinuhata’s thin arm, parted the crowd, and continued on.

The crowd density was a little better than a packed train and she appeared to have found her target already.

“The area with the most guards and the best escape route is, in the end, over there.”

“Are those two super alright?”

It had probably started out as a long limousine, but it had been modified into a convertible. With the movable walls and roof open, it looked something like a VIP table at a sketchy club.

The sofa was as large as a bed and a light green cocktail sat on the side table. Probably a mint-flavored drink called a grasshopper. Did the queen see that as eating grasshoppers like army ants did?

But…

“No one here?” asked Kinuhata, blinking.

Then she used a single Offense Armor boosted arm to flip over the entire 2 ton limousine.

There was a square metal panel on the ground.

They appeared to be borrowing power from an underground mall, so the surface was connected to the underground space.

After the queen escaped, someone else must have moved the limo to cover it up.

“She got away!? Super when did she notice us and run off!?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Large men began slowly surrounding Kinuhata and Frenda.

Were they trying to buy time?

But Frenda didn’t seem particularly bothered.

“In the end, this is all going according to plan☆ Oh, and one other thing, Kinuhata.”

“Super what do you want!? This isn’t the time!”

“Can you use this wall?”

“…”

Was this why Frenda had stayed with Kinuhata and her Offense Armor?

Kinuhata briefly considered leaving Frenda here, but Item was supposed to be a team. She frowned as she grabbed the back of Frenda’s collar and ran straight up the wall to the roof of the 15 floor building. She had to use the windows as footing in some places, but her ability to concentrate nitrogen in a single location allowed her to remove the air between the sole of her shoe and surface of contact, letting her shoe act something like a suction cup.

“Man, that’s convenient. With a Level 4 around, I don’t even need any reverse bungees or rocket boosters.”

“Is that super all I’m worth to you?”

Were the popping sounds from below gunfire? Kinuhata and Frenda ignored the commotion down there and instead jumped to another building.

“What about the other two? Where are we going after super abandoning them?”

“Well, in the end, we’re doing our jobs.”

Part 6

The underground mall was a grid of corridors running lengthwise and widthwise, but not all of it was open. Because tenants were periodically replaced, some corridors had metal shutters down, blocking that way.

But those two-dimensional blockages couldn’t stop vertical motion.

Every surface was freshly painted.

It was all bright and shiny but didn’t seem lived in. Since the area had been blocked off, the wall of powerful scent was like a blow to the head.

Accompanied by two large bodyguards, a beautiful brown-skinned woman stepped into the underground passageway in her heels.

Immediately, a voice came from behind her.

“Hello.”

The voice echoed through the deserted area where even the shops had been removed.

Mugino Shizuri already had a brutal beam concentrated in her right hand.

The brown woman raised her hands without turning around.

At the same time, the large men flanking the Queen Ant did turn around. The only reason Mugino did not immediately fire Meltdowner was due to something blocking her view. Something like a torn-up tarp had been thrown at her, but was it actually the metal shutter that had been nearby? The ant masked bodyguards wore something like knuckle dusters, but each one had a pair of prongs on the end. The prongs weren’t the same as a stun gun’s electrodes. Perhaps they were mechanical weapons that latched on like a vise and tore away flesh upon contact.

Mugino swung just her head aside to dodge the flying piece of metal.

“Army Ant, huh? Interesting! Just try and bite me, you lowly insects!!”

With a belligerent smile, Mugino focused on her palm.

At the same moment, a dull thud rang out.

One of the bodyguards crumpled to the floor, where he curled up and trembled.

Directly behind him, Takitsubo Rikou held a fire extinguisher in both hands. It appeared to be the type that sprayed a foam rather than a powder, but that didn’t really matter. The weight of the metal against the head was the same either way.

Mugino didn’t seem to know what to do with her palm now.

“Huh…”

“If you fought, there would only be ashes left. Don’t kill them before we can talk.”

Not mentioning what would happen after the talking was the Item way.

Bodyguard B finally recovered from his surprise and clenched his fists anew, so Mugino Shizuri really did fire Meltdowner this time.

But only after Takitsubo Rikou threw the fire extinguisher at her palm.

“Dwah!? Dammit, Takitsubo!!”

“You don’t listen,” calmly said the track suit girl without even looking toward Mugino, who was covered head to toe in white foam.

Mugino’s plan had been to fire a warning shot and, while the enemy froze in shock and terror, fire an actual killing shot, but now she had lost her chance to adjust her aim. …So Takitsubo hadn’t just predicted that shot. She knew Mugino well enough to see through her entire strategy.

After that, they shifted their focus from the bodyguards to the woman they had been guarding.

She was still facing away with her hands up.

“You owe us for saving their lives,” plainly stated Takitsubo.

“When you’re the ones who attacked them in the first place?”

The woman seemed confident despite the circumstances.

So she really was a dark side specialist. And the boss of a dark side group at that.

The bodyguards clearly wanted to fight and give her a chance to escape, but her next action changed things.

The brown beauty slowly turned around without lowering her hands.

She was willing to talk.

To reiterate, she was beautiful. However, her eyes alone were hidden behind mechanical goggles with an insect look. And the bewitching brown skin left exposed by her gaudy dress was covered with special tattoos.

“I have a full grasp of the situation, my uninvited guests.”

“Is that why you ran?”

“Emotions are no more than brain chemicals. This means they can reach me as tiny particles I can smell. Grabbing one of my adorable worker ants by the face to get him to submit was uncalled for, don’t you think?”

Before even hearing the sound of something whizzing through the air, Takitsubo opened the door to the fire hose on the wall.

Orange sparks scattered from Japanese-style embroidery scissors or…no, were those nail clippers? The U of steel, well-forged by a craftsman, looked something like an ant’s mandibles.

The thrown blade stopped after piercing through the thin metal door.

Choosing to talk had seemed odd, but apparently she had only been looking for an opening. A very dark side thing to do.

Mugino looked exasperated.

“Why not just kill her now? We can always ask someone else.”

“Wait just a bit longer. …And if you don’t want to anger Mugino any more, I would recommend getting rid of that pepper spray you’re hiding. Animal venom is no use against Mugino. The chemicals will only be roasted and broken down in the air before reaching her.”

The track suit girl showed no emotion on her face.

Not even a twitch of an eyebrow.

The queen ant was apparently rendered speechless.

To her, Takitsubo apparently seemed more off than Mugino. She obediently pulled a bottle smaller than her thumb from her cleavage and tossed aside the formic acid based pepper spray.

“How do you always know when they’re about to do something?”

“Because they do that fortune teller act.”

The “I can see right through you” fortune teller act was a standard tactic for remaining in control of a conversation. Especially for those without as much simple firepower.

She probably had a personal security camera hidden in the bushes near the chain-ink fence or something.

Information was meant to be kept close to the vest. If someone went out of the way to reveal what they knew, they had to gain something from doing so. Such as surprising the enemy into a freezing for a brief moment they could use to slice through a major artery.

Mugino seemed fed up with it all.

“You won’t get a third chance, Ms. Goggles. Next time, we give up and try elsewhere. You’re who we’re looking for, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes. I am. I’m the Queen Ant who rules the colony.”

On closer inspection the tattoos covering her body were not a pattern or illustrations. It was a series of small written characters. In fact, it was people’s names. She must have noticed where they were looking because the so-called queen slowly spun around to give them a better look. With her hands still raised.

“Every last one of them is a worker ant or soldier ant who died for me. So I engrave them into my skin so I can live on with them. I adore every last member of my colony. Can a lonely mutant like you even understand how a queen feels?”

Mugino snorted with laughter.

She claimed to be mourning her subordinates’ deaths, but she was acting more like she was showing off a fancy accessory. She didn’t seem to be the type to truly regret those deaths and bottle up her feelings.

The Queen Ant smiled with only her lips.

It was only surface level. Deep down, she may have been searching for a chance to attack.

“Why all this setup? You have enough firepower to push back my entire colony if I sent them after you.”

“Yeah. But my power is a little much. We can’t have me overdoing it and killing the stubborn Queen Ant too. But when people make a run for it, they always take along the things that really matter. We could never have located what was truly valuable among all your money and possessions, but you’ve revealed that bargaining chip for us. Now we know what it is you absolutely refuse to have stolen.”

At the very least, they knew it wasn’t the two bodyguards.

The brown woman squeezed a pouch too small to hold a bento. Squeezed it tightly.

Her tone dropped.

“What do you want? You don’t look too worried, so I’m guessing it isn’t that someone isn’t paying you back the money you lent them.”

“If you’re pursuing the counterfeit gold bars case, you must have gathered some information on whoever made them. Give it to us.”

“Why should I? Did you think anyone could approach Army Ant and leave unharmed?”

“Even the most hated creatures have another they can coexist with. For example, the antbird that captures the bugs fleeing from the greedy march of the army ants.”

The two bodyguards swelled out from within. They must have had some strength left and were taking this affront to their boss’s dignity seriously. What kind of weapons did they have hidden away? Mugino guessed it was something worse than a handgun.

But the Queen Ant herself seemed amused.

“Hm. But did you know those antbirds can’t fly very well under their own power? At this point, they can’t acquire food without the army ants. If they don’t follow the march, only death awaits them. So in trying to use the ants, they have become bound to them.”

“Mugino.”

The Queen Ant clicked her tongue. She was probably looking for an opening.

If Mugino let this shake her, she would be devoured and killed in an instant.

But Takitsubo could sense that coming in advance.

The brown woman sighed in exasperation.

“Learn to take the easy way out and you will become trapped. That is the truth. I’ve seen it happen countless times. But if you still want our help, it will mean signing a contract.”

“…”

“Of course, if you screw it up, we will draw on our full power as debt collectors. But if you don’t mind a debt so great the interest alone is debilitating, so be it.”

“Did you think you could threaten Item?”

“You can kill as many of us as you like. We can easily replace with recruitment, brainwashing, deals, and other means. Once the individual with a special power runs out of breath, they can only wait until our gathering of well-trained predators tears them apart little by little, ever widening the wound.”

The Queen Ant grinned, but also tossed over the file in a plastic sleeve one of the bodyguards pulled out. She threw it like a flying disc. Without any real reluctance.

“DIY Garage. That’s what they go by.”

Mugino caught it in her empty hand.

The document covered a single individual.

As confusing as it was, that name referred to an individual, not an organization. It was possible the name was a strategy meant to hide that they were just one person.

Mugino clicked her tongue.

“This is all you have? I was expecting more. This doesn’t even give their real name.”

“Unsatisfied?”

“No. Like I said, one of us is great at searching people out.”

Part 7

The four regrouped on a dark street. It was best to leave the document with their analyst Takitsubo.

The track suit girl caught it in a hand.

“I’ll contact you by midday,” she said right away. “This will probably take a lot of work, but I can ask the support group for help. Leave it to me.”

“Eh? What about those of us with super nothing to do?”

“I’m going to get some sleep. In the end, I need to be ready to cheer on my sister in the direct sunlight!!”

With that, they parted ways without waiting for the dawn.

Mugino walked through the empty, late night street all alone and pulled out her phone.

The enemy was a counterfeiting specialist. Someone like that would probably think differently from an ordinary criminal. It would be best to simulate exactly how they thought and what they would do.

She knew someone with a lot of knowledge there. And someone who wouldn’t mind at all if she contacted him at this hour.

“Mujinayama.”

“Yes, Lady Shizuri?”

Mugino Shizuri frowned when a young female voice came from her phone.

“Who’re you?”

“Hanagai. I work as a maid. Butler Mujinayama is currently in the hospital and is still not well enough to answer your requests, so your calls have been redirected to me.”

“Honestly, how long is he planning to stay in the hospital?”

“In Academy City, you all expect wounds to heal much too fast. I can’t imagine what kinds of bizarre cutting-edge medical technology you use in there.”

For once, Mugino fell silent for a moment.

When you lived in Academy City, it was easy to forget how unusual and special the things here looked to the rest of the world.

“General knowledge is good enough. I want some basic information on counterfeiters.”

“Skilled with their hands but lacking in confidence would be the standard character profile. That is why they have the extremely high skills required but do not use their own creations. In a fight, they will not rely on physical strength. On the other hand, they value their own territory – which includes both their special tools and their workshop – so when pursued, they tend to lie in wait and launch a surprise attack rather than running away. So you should be ready for homemade weapons such as a stun gun or pepper spray.”

“Hm.”

Mugino had more or less expected it, but this sounded a lot like Frenda. Although if Frenda knew she was at a disadvantage, she would lay traps to help her escape rather than try and resist.

“However, all of that is only the standard. If you have any clues that could narrow things down further, I believe I could extract more useful information for you, Lady Shizuri.”

“I don’t intend to get that much help from the Family.”

Mugino sighed in exasperation and turned a corner.

A maid was standing there.

And this wasn’t a cafe cosplayer. This was a high-level maid of the Mugino Family who specialized in Molotov cocktails.

“Why are you here?”

“The Daihaseisai is one of the few times when the city is open to the public. Is it that surprising to see outsiders around?”

Mugino hung up the phone and tossed something over with her other hand.

The golden object was HoloAu79.

It was smaller than a brick, but when Hanagai caught it in both hands, she grunted a bit from its weight. Was acting delicate and cute part of her maid training? Then again, it did weigh about as much as a heavier bowling ball.

“This is their homemade gold. There’s your info. So what can you tell me?”

“Hm. No signature to tell it from a real one.”

“That’s all?”

“That means they aren’t the type to seek recognition. Even aside from functionality and practicality, they didn’t bother signing it out of interest or pride. That makes them seem obedient at first glance, but it also means they are irresponsible and feel no guilt about committing such a serious crime. …A craftsman like this will not hesitate to use a powerful homemade weapon. Even in the middle of an innocent crowd.”

“…”

So they were like Frenda…but different at a fundamental level.

That bomber was very picky about where she would set her traps. She handled highly dangerous explosives, but she avoided collateral damage even when making an attack in a crowd. She was the dangerous sort of pro who actually felt pride in her ability to kill just her target in a crowd.

Based on that comparison, a pro without such hangups would be a very troublesome enemy if they were pushed past the limit.

Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai had one more thing to say.

“Their specialty is creating alloys, but that means they will likely misuse the tools used for that. It could be armor or blunt weapons made from their own special alloy, it could be the processing equipment used to produce great heat, or it could be the molten metal itself. If you want to fight them, you should probably start by separating them from any innocent people.”

Part 8

Item had a support group working for them.

Frenda Seivelun could befriend anyone, so one might think she was most popular with those tough delinquents…but she wasn’t.

Takitsubo Rikou was.

She entered the dimly-lit bar the delinquents hung out in. Alone. There was generally no one else in the bar during the day and she hadn’t asked why they were able to use it during the day like this.

The track suit girl had one main question.

“Can you gather the information I asked for?”

“There are still two or three difficult ones.”

“Don’t push too hard. It’s good to know when to tap the brakes yourself even though the goal is in sight.”

The support group cleared a path for her. They all looked at her like someone on a different stage from them.

Violence was not a card in Takitsubo Rikou’s deck.

Which meant she had earned the delinquents’ obedience some other way.

She scanned through the paper documents spread out on the billiards table.

“Hm. The missing information would probably be…here. These District 10 exterminators. They specialize in termites, but…yes, they also do repairs to damaged homes.”

“That’s the most dangerous district.”

A delinquent glaring down at the same billiards table breathed a heavy sigh.

Apparently there were parts of the world even delinquents preferred to avoid.

“When you say repairing damaged homes, you actually mean they help people to break open the front doors to mansions and to open safes for a fee, right? A burglary adviser who uses their own termites to create a reason to enter the house. If you need any rough jobs done, just ask. I’m sure the building is well guarded, but if a few of us charged in, it would create enough of an opening for others to sneak in the back and swipe some documents.”

“Don’t,” immediately cautioned Takitsubo. “We’re in the middle of the Daihaseisai, so there are even reporters from outside the city around. Stick to the safe and sure route, okay?”

“But isn’t this information Item needs right away?”

“If it comes to it, you can investigate the victims. Since you mentioned mansions and safes, they must go after fairly valuable targets, right? If any big names are among their victims, you can threaten to tell the victim who was responsible and I’m sure the exterminators will gladly give you the information. Without any bloodshed.”

This here was why she was so popular with her subordinates.

Unlike the other three Item member, Takitsubo Rikou generally avoided direct violence. (This was partially because she didn’t know all that much about violence and combat.) So she did not give commands that would reduce the numbers of the support group. Even if their numbers could easily be replenished. She would reject the shortest route and think up a safe method even if it required a bit of a detour. The trust this engendered had spread to every one of the delinquents.

The support group could not disobey any order, so Takitsubo was like the one empty chamber in a four-shot revolver. That would naturally give her support from those playing Russian roulette.

Unfortunately, Takitsubo had little influence and decision-making power in Item, so she was rarely the one giving instructions like this.

“Takitsubo-saaan.”

A support group delinquent called out to her.

While carrying a thin box bigger than a pizza box?

“A caterer just delivered something. I’ve checked inside and it doesn’t look like there’s any risk of a bomb or gas. What do you want to do with it?”

“Who is it from? A friend?”

“If the name on the ticket is accurate, it’s from Mugino-san.”

“Hm.”

“I think it’s food for you. The handwriting matches, so I don’t think we need to change locations right away. But the decision is yours.”

Takitsubo opened the box and saw a large plate of smoked snacks. A lot of it was salmon. There was also some thin slices of smoked cheese and ham. It may have been a Hokkaido special.

“This is definitely from Mugino.”

Mugino clearly hadn’t given any thought to nutritional value or other practical matters.

This was simply what Mugino liked.

It was full of something other than efficiency and functionality. There wasn’t a message card, but Takitsubo received a message all the same.

Work was work.

Working too hard and harming your health was wrong.

“I see.”

However, Takitsubo had no intention of changing her lifestyle.

She was Item’s searcher.

How much information she could supply in advance would determine how many injuries the ones in the line of fire would receive. That was her job, so she couldn’t hold back.

Was that way of thinking the result of the false charges in her past?

The main reason she acted as the brakes within Item was to protect Mugino who had a tendency to run wild. She protected Mugino not from simple violence but from nastier and more troublesome powers like society and systems. It had been that way ever since Item was just the two of them.

(It isn’t often she sends something like this. Now that Item has more members, is she starting to see herself as a leader?)

Takitsubo smiled a little.

Then she gathered the support team who were helping her with an investigation.

That she didn’t keep all the food to herself was another reason she had so much support from them.

“Time for a break, everyone. This should help you focus a while longer.”

Part 9

Shortly before noon, Takitsubo came through on her promise in a Japanese-style pasta restaurant that used chopsticks. With her usual lack of expression.

“I found him. In District 23.”

That was a special district dedicated to aerospace development. It contained things like an international airport, a rocket launch site, and an underground silo mass driver, so it had plenty of large warehouses and maintenance hangars that ordinary people never got near. Buy one of those and it could easily become a dangerous scientist’s secret base.

“In the end, how did you figure that out with only that thin file?”

“Do you want to know?”

In the next seat over, Kinuhata forcefully covered Frenda’s mouth.

That question was guaranteed to lead to a lengthy digression in explanation land. And the extensive explanation from the expressionless yet somehow smug-looking girl might be something that only Takitsubo could understand thanks to her ability to receive all sorts of unseen information. No one else would understand a bit of it.

“The mysterious DIY Garage took some jobs with the dark side in the past, which is why he is fairly well known. By investigating the secret payment methods he used with those people, you can gradually work out what he’s trying to avoid. As long as you provide a clear plan in advance, the support group does good work.”

Takitsubo looked like she had even more to say, but Kinuhata didn’t engage. This wasn’t the sales talk of a clothing store salesman, so she wasn’t letting this go on for long.

As long as they got the information they wanted, it didn’t matter if it came from the day’s horoscope or big data analysis. After picking up on the right search terms from the file, Takitsubo Rikou arrived at the following conclusion.

“He seems to be renting an airport maintenance hangar meant for a private plane. Anyone who can prepare the appropriate paperwork under a fake name can get their own private space the size of a school building. And no one will grow suspicious hearing mechanical sounds from inside. It’s perfect for a lab.”

“Then that’s the place.”

At times like this, Mugino didn’t question Takitsubo’s “oracles”. She knew from past experience that the more she said relating to these answers, the more she would regret it.

And more than that, Mugino was mildly curious about how talkative Takitsubo was being. A lot of people had died from unwittingly using counterfeit gold bars. Did she see that as a form of false charges?

(Why is she getting so worked up when those were all dark side villains who died?)

Frenda was the only one who hadn’t ordered pasta. She had to share a bento with her sister at lunchtime, so they waited until the afternoon events to begin.

Afterwards, the four of them got to work.

“So do we super know this DIY Garage person’s real name?”

“Uikawa Kyusaku. Age: 45. Sex: Male. Divorced. Officially works as at a mobile device repair shop that only accepts jobs online. The official paperwork says he lives in District 8, but that’s probably a decoy. A young woman periodically enters the house because he has hired her part-time to clean up the place and keep it from falling into disrepair. Uikawa himself shows no sign of living there, so he may sleep in his secret lab.”

“In the end, you really did figure out everything, huh?”

“Because the support team is so good. Make sure you take good care of them.”

Frenda made her exasperated comment as she burned a vertical line through the tall fence and entered District 23.

Below the blue sky, they cut across the taxiway next to a runway and walked past a circular metal panel that looked like an enormous hatch. It resembled a missile silo except bigger. It was probably an underground silo mass driver.

They approached one of the giant boxy buildings that each could have contained a gym.

Without any advance information, they couldn’t have told it apart from the rest.

“Any traps?” asked Mugino, annoyed.

“In the end, I’ve already deactivated the alarm and explosives.”

Frenda didn’t hesitate to respond as she messed with the contents of a rectangular panel in the asphalt.

The front door was so massive that sliding it open would be like moving an entire wall measuring a few dozen meters, but they ignored that and used the smaller side door.

They were prepared to respond instantly if anyone was inside, but to their surprise the place was deserted. The lights were still on even though it was daytime. Was it like that year round since the hangar had no windows?

“Did he super run away?”

“With his lab intact? A lot of the machines here cost a hundred million yen each. And if someone who sets explosives traps really intended to run, they would blow away their lab first because it would be a treasure trove of information no matter how thoroughly they cleaned it. In the end, he would try anything that an outsider could think up on the spot.”

Takitsubo pointed to one corner of the large facility.

“Is that for late-night snacks? A toaster, a gas stove, and a steam oven. He has all that, but the card storage and stamp-sized flash memory haven’t been fried. There’s no sign of it being shredded in the blender either. It doesn’t even look like he dumped water on the big computers. I don’t think he’s destroyed anything yet.”

That would mean he just so happened to be out.

…Just so happened. That was another factor that couldn’t be calculated for. Mugino silently scowled, hoping this wouldn’t lead anywhere unpleasant.

“The place is a mess.”

“The air conditioning isn’t anything special… Since this isn’t a biolab, there shouldn’t be any danger from bacteria or microbes, but in the end you should still watch out for chemicals.”

“Is that something being cautious can help with?”

Since gold was counterfeited here, Mugino had been imagining something like a blast furnace, but there was in fact a wide variety of equipment. There was something like a microwave oven larger than a bathtub, there was a press and a lathe like you would find in a downtown workshop, there was a high-tech industrial 3D printer, and there was even a sewing machine and a jeweler’s work desk. Overall, the place felt jumbled. Mugino opened a giant silver refrigerator to find rows of flasks containing colorful chemicals. She wanted to avoid touching those.

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“Looks like he counterfeits more than just gold.”

“Did you know Michelangelo started off as an art forger? If he hadn’t had a change of heart, he probably would have stayed that way.”

This was a topic that came up a lot in labs, both on the dark side and not. And it was a tantalizing story for the adults who wanted to shape born geniuses how they liked.

(So it isn’t just gold… Then what kind of tech will he use as a weapon?)

Takitsubo appeared to be investigating a bookcase by the wall. She pulled out a thick file.

“September 1. Purchased 1 VSOP and 3 VSO?”

“Huh? Aren’t those brandy grades?”

“Hm? What do they mean? Do more letters super mean better?”

Kinuhata looked like she didn’t get it. At her height that wasn’t surprising. The bigger problem was probably that a student like Mugino was so unusually knowledgeable here.

“In the end, do you drink, Mugino?”

“No. But those premium drinks can be used in place of money. Which is great when you want to make a payment without anyone noticing. When I was little, my grandfather and the others made sure I memorized all the brands and grades. This was before I learned my times table, if you can believe it.”

That said, Item committed crimes as casually as visiting the train station or even making an online purchase, so they weren’t a group of well-behaved girls. Those extreme delinquents didn’t touch alcohol because their esper development already put a heavy burden on their brain growth and they couldn’t afford anything that would reduce or hinder their brain function. Because their lives might depend on it.

Anyway, a purchase record of fancy brandies was an odd thing to leave lying around in an airport maintenance hangar. If the thick file was entirely made up of those records, how much alcohol was this guy buying?

And…

“Here we go. …Is this the HoloAu79?” asked a disgusted Mugino.

A few golden bars were lying on the floor. They were about a size smaller than bricks. No matter how well made they were, their creator would know they were fake, so he wouldn’t treat them with much care. DIY Garage clearly wasn’t the type to grow attached to his creations.

Takitsubo’s voice dropped lower than usual.

“It was him trying to get rich with these that caused the Investment Club to be suspected and attacked.”

“It’s not like they were good people. Have you already forgotten about the hanging?” asked Mugino, exasperated.

But if Takitsubo wanted to get all worked up over false charges, that was her business.

“In the end, this looks like the machine.”

Frenda lightly slapped her small palm against a glass cylinder taller than she was. The top was covered by a fairly sturdy metal lid and several thick tubes connected to it. The glass itself probably wasn’t normal and it was as thick as the windows of a presidential vehicle.

It had the look of a tool used for chemistry or physics experiments.

“Looks like a tornado maker,” said Takitsubo.

Was that why a scene from an educational program appeared in the backs of their minds?

The device was essentially a press that applied incredible pressure, but it wasn’t used on metal.

It was used on liquids.

“Ever heard of epithermal gold deposits? …For some reason, lots of gold veins are found in hot spring regions and one theorized explanation says the materials in the volcano or hot springs combine underground to form gold. In the end, a fair amount of research has been done to determine the time, heat, pressure, and distribution of hot spring materials needed to create one gram of gold. That said, I’ve never heard of it being mass-produced that way.”

If you wanted to artificially acquire gold, there were plenty of options, including gathering up accessories from pawn shops and prying open phones. It wasn’t worth spending vast amounts of research funding on. Or so it had seemed.

“Then did this DIY Garage personally work out the exact values needed to make that cocktail and then greatly reduced the necessary time and expenses with this artificial device? I don’t know if he’s processing a bunch of hot spring water brought in from elsewhere or mixing chemicals together, but he must have gotten it working as a business and started selling the product.”

Kinuhata frowned at Takitsubo’s explanation.

“Then is this super real gold?”

“If it was, Mugino wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.”

“Oh,” said Kinuhata, falling silent.

Exactly right.

It was real but fake. Mugino brushed her hair off her shoulder and explained.

“My guess is he could create something a lot like pure gold, but he couldn’t completely remove the hot spring impurities. And this created a subtle difference in the surface luster.”

That was probably enough to fool the mechanical sensors.

After all, it really did contain the components of real gold.

Mugino scoffed.

This was better than an alloy that simply looked golden, but it was still visually recognizable as fake. And more than that, the fact that he introduced it to the market under false pretenses said a lot. Even the counterfeiter knew it couldn’t truly pass as real gold.

“If he had super stuck to this a while longer, I bet he could’ve become one of the great inventors of our time.”

“I’m not so sure. The creation of artificial diamonds didn’t cause the global economy to collapse.”

At any rate, this confirmed that DIY Garage was the gold counterfeiter.

Now they had to either gather information in the lab and track him down wherever he was or wait here for him to return. It was up to Mugino to make that decision, but…

“Oh?”

Someone was there.

A small man stood near the side entrance. He was carrying a paper bag in his arms. The bag was overflowing with food.

DIY Garage.

“I had set things up to kill any intruders, but was there a malfunction? Would you mind giving me your thoughts and opinions so I can investigate how this happened?”

“Hey, Mugino.”

Frenda didn’t see this as a problem.

As long as no unfortunate false charges were involved, this was no more than a shortcut.

There was no need to hold back against another member of the dark side.

“In the end, our job is done once we stop the flow of counterfeit gold, right? And if he struggles, we can kill him?”

“I’d really rather not die.”

He was blunt.

He didn’t sound like his life was on the line. His flippant tone made it sound like they were talking about someone else. You would think he was only saying he preferred not to buy eggs at full price when there was a sale later that day.

Mugino frowned in displeasure.

“Probably not, but what can you do about it at this point? This is what you get for your money-driven misdeeds when you lack the power to back it up.”

“Do you mind if I fight back?”

“Feel free if you’d prefer a painful death.”

“Thank you.”

With a horrible tearing sound, something broke through the wall behind DIY Garage. Like thin sheet metal being torn through. Giant objects burst out on either side of the small man.

Earsplitting scraping sounds continued.

There were several shapes.

Together, they formed a twisted cone measuring more than 2m. Each one was about the size of a roof tile. The countless pointed armor panels were forcibly welded or glued together to create some kind of artwork. Sword-like protrusions jutted out wildly. If this was art, the theme either had to be a toppled pile of junk or countless antennae.

“This is a product of polymer chemistry. My specialty is synthetic polymers, though. With a thermosetting polymer, it isn’t hard to create armor superior to steel. And polymer gels are neat too since they can be used as a microactuator. It’s like the surface of a CD. By moving the gel to create tiny dips and bumps that accurately mark out 0s and 1s, it functions as a signal that can be used to compute fairly complex calculations.”

But if this was a work of art, it probably wouldn’t be equipped with a giant heavy machinegun or a 40mm auto grenade launcher. On the right and left. The weapons were also made of artificial polymer. …Maybe the bullets were too.

A product of polymer chemistry.

The small man spoke calmly with the bizarre weapon protecting him.

“Well, it’s probably simplest to think of it as a strange kind of plastic.”

Kinuhata’s eyes widened as far as they would go.

“Ah, ah…”

The scraping sounds were not coming from the armor.

The armor pieces were completely fixed in place, so they did not collide with each other and make noise.

“You’re super kidding.”

“It’s not really worth calling a tank or a self-propelled gun,” said the small man, sounding unconcerned. As if he were showing off the tree in his garden he took care of daily. “The original idea was to develop an automatic sniping module. Sniping is all about math and physics, so I wanted to throw out the unscientific process of relying on the mental calculations of the kind of genius who is maybe born once every few decades and instead set a world record through simpler and more mechanical means. My initial goal was perfect aim at 5000 meters.”

The current record with absurd anti-materiel rounds (at least as far as the official records went) was less than 3000 meters. Perfect aim at 5000 meant being able to fire ten thousand times at that range and hit every single time. If that ability was mass produced and distributed like baseball bats and tennis rackets, the current security procedures for VIPs and military bases would be entirely useless.

“That said, it is a delicate field, so putting together a product and programming it with all the relevant ballistics and fluid mechanics isn’t enough to hit. Air temperature, humidity, wind direction, the shape of the bullet, the weight, the center of gravity, the rotation rate, gravity, the Coriolis force… You can include all of that and still, for whatever reason, you won’t hit. This issue is already well known, which is why the problem is such a headache. You should be able to use the same program used for the CIWS Gatling gun protecting a warship from aircraft, yet there is some other factor preventing an automatic sniping module from seeing the light of day.”

A Gatling gun that sprayed tens of thousands of bullets from all across a warship or base operated under very different rules from an anti-personnel sniper rifle that had to make a single decisive shot.

It could be seen as a struggle between two people.

“Ultimately, it all seems to come down to a biological adjustment we can only describe as intuition. I guess you could call it the ability to read some kind of unquantifiable current. I was unable to name and classify it. It isn’t as vague as a premonition, but it isn’t as precise as a prediction.”

On the dark side, information was more valuable than bullets. Not knowing critical information could be deadly, so you wanted to greedily absorb as much accurate information as you could get.

Or so they had thought.

Yet Kinuhata’s breathing nearly caught in her throat.

She had seen plenty of dark research in the shadows of this city.

But with DIY Garage’s creation – with the thing protecting him – she didn’t want to know what it really was.

She didn’t want confirmation of what it was.

Meanwhile, Mugino’s voice dropped terribly low. She apparently still had the willpower to stand up to this.

“If you can make all this, surely there was a better way to make use of that ability.”

“There are multiple types of vision: color, depth, kinetic, and so on. When a sniper peers down the scope, those different types of vision combine in a complex way very different from when viewing the scenery with two eyes.”

The small man calmly continued on.

He kept his own pace even in the face of Mugino Shizuri.

“And this isn’t limited to vision. The same goes for the way changes in air pressure can give you a headache or make an old wound ache. Subtle changes in air temperature and humidity are valuable information for a sniper. And your five senses aren’t simply governed by five sensory organs. For that matter, your sense of taste can detect five different types of flavor, so you strictly don’t only have five senses.”

“Th-then super what is this supposed to be!?”

“Well. I was wondering if I could create the perfect sniping module out of nothing other than plastic if I gradually reduced the living parts. I’m making progress little by little. For example, where I leave in living tissue, and how much, greatly changes each sniping module. The sniping scores of each module help me decide what is truly necessary, what I should make out of plastic, and what problems I still have to overcome. And I will eventually be able to create the eyeballs, eardrums, muscles, and organs out of plastic, so it will all work out. It’s something of a mess now, but just like the initial stealth fighters, this is a work in progress. But this is not an errant evolution. It is a necessary process. This is paving the path of evolution to the greatest next generation weapon, so none of it is unnecessary.”

That wasn’t what Kinuhata meant.

None of that mattered.

Yet DIY Garage didn’t understand her priorities at all.

And there were several bombshells mixed into his statements.

Spoken so casually they would slip right past you if you weren’t paying attention.

“Perfect aim at 5000 meters. It will take some cleverness, but I think I should be able to move beyond the horizon and reach 8000 meters. Regardless, I have succeeded at mass producing an automatic sniping module made with polymer chemistry. Now I just have to bring the costs down. This is hardly a purely industrial product, but that problem will eventually be solved as I simplify the process. This will boost efficiency well past the point of praying to god and waiting for a genius to join your army.”

“…”

As she listened, Frenda Seivelun was suddenly reminded of her sister.

She recalled one of the simple summer break project ideas found online. Bagworm caterpillars would create bags to protect themselves by gathering up dried leaves and small sticks, but if you put the caterpillars in a box full of wool and origami paper, they would gather those things and create colorful bags for themselves.

This was similar.

What was?

Everything in front of her.

In other words…

“In the end, are those…p-people!?”

Each individual plastic piece was about the size of a roof tile. The collections of those plastic pieces were more than 2 meters in size and covered in countless protrusions like a sazae or other spiral shell. It wasn’t clear how how heavy they were, but the things digging their nails into the ground and dragging the entire objects forward were the upper halves of human bodies.

“Their explosive strength and focus have been boosted beyond that of the average esper. Thanks to the plastic wiring optimizing the connections in their brains. Now, that more than doubles the weight of their heads, meaning they can’t stand up and walk around under their own power, so they have to crawl around on the ground.”

“Their brains are heavier, huh? And what happened to their minds exactly?”

“They can still think. I value their minds. But I can easily draw out their fighting instinct by heating their brains to specific numbers. And some of the plastics get hot when they react.”

This was the source of the scraping sounds.

They came not from plastic but from human fingernails.

The thin metal wall had likely been broken with the help of gunpowder rather than tackling through it. A blast of the heavy machine guns attached to the sides of the giant “bags” had destroyed the outer wall.

So.

Because camera image analysis, radar scanning, and other ordinary methods hadn’t been sufficient, had he tried to correct the error by forcibly attaching human eyes and ears!?

“The ratio of human body and plastic differs between units. I have created a gradation. I’m sure I will learn something new from seeing which one kills you best.”

Frenda’s eyes widened.

Something glistened stickily on the back of the hand of one of the noisily scraping bagworms. The slight sparkle was a remnant of sunblock.

As a dark side bomber and an expert in all forms of chemistry, she had built a variety of dangerous tools, but this was a forbidden territory not even Frenda Seivelun was willing to touch.

“You call this polymer chemistry? In the end, have you been abducting ordinary people and forcibly modifying them into this!?”

“Were they abducted? Yes, but not by me. All I have done is purchase convenient products and used them to achieve my goal. So if this upsets you, take it up with the people who sold them to me. When you get down to it, human lives are the most expensive thing in this world. These weren’t exactly great specimens, but they still cost a fortune. Not that you can buy them through ordinary channels.”

He sounded like he was chatting while basking in the sun on the porch.

There really was something wrong with Academy City’s dark side. There had to be some unseen distortion of space. Everyone who spent time in that world lost their minds.

VSO meant 10-20 years old.

VSOP meant 20-30 years old.

…But this wasn’t about alcoholic drinks. Had that only been a code for recording human trafficking transactions!?

Mugino clicked her tongue.

Snipers.

She couldn’t help but be reminded of Mujinayama. These snipers took a very different form however.

“Come to think of it, there have been some missing person posters recently… But they were all mercilessly taken down because they would hurt the Daihaseisai’s image.”

“Again, that wasn’t me. Oh, dear. You seem to have the wrong idea. All I’ve done is assemble the parts I bought to create a polymer chemistry product.”

He wasn’t trembling in fear at having his crimes revealed, but he also didn’t seem to be gloating about the results of his messed-up research.

DIY Garage spoke as casually as if he were discussing the weather.

Kinuhata was breathing heavily. She couldn’t stop sweating.

She wasn’t the only victim of the dark side’s inhumane experiments. She had known that intellectually, but seeing it for herself was something else entirely. She was forced to face the fact that she was receiving dirty money to protect the city that did this kind of thing. It might not be an unscientific thought, but she knew she definitely wasn’t going to heaven.

“Tch. Super what are you thinking, you bastard!?”

“Yes, I do have to wonder what my client was thinking when they approached me to build this.”

He made it sound like it wasn’t his problem.

It was like her words couldn’t hit him. Or more like they did hit him but slid right off, leaving an unpleasant sensation behind.

Maybe nothing in the world was his problem. He was the worst kind of scientist. The type who would build whatever idea popped into his head without considering if it would bring about the end of the world.

“Kinuhata.”

She didn’t need to be told.

Arguing with that freak wouldn’t accomplish anything.

The direct threat lay elsewhere.

The automatic sniping modules were armed with heavy machine guns and auto grenade launchers.

Were they communicating with each other? Were they scanning the terrain, the atmosphere, and other aspects of their surroundings? The many long protrusions extending from the “bags” glowed softly.

The threat was those human bagworms.

But…

“Do we seriously have to super fight those things? I mean, the people used to make those modules or bagworms or whatever aren’t even from the dark side!! Is there super some way of saving them!?”

“I really don’t think so.”

The interruption came from DIY Garage as the bizarre monsters guarded him.

The man who knew them better than anyone spoke calmly.

“See, I melted their bodies down bit by bit to completely fuse their muscles, blood vessels, and nerves with the various components. Forcibly tearing them out would kill them from blood loss and shock due to pain. Their nerves are kept in a constant state of excitement to boost the transmission speed, but it’s more effective to directly inject the adrenaline than to have it secreted by their adrenal glands, right? Not to mention that the actual biological parts leftover are fairly light. They don’t provide enough internal pressure, so even if you applied general anesthesia and performed surgery, they wouldn’t be able to maintain their own blood pressure. Ordinarily, the optimal pressure is preserved by shape-memory polymers – that is, tiny bits of gel – that create an incombustible gas to inflate them from within. My point is that they can’t survive with just their biological parts.”

That was awful.

And had all of that really, truly been necessary!?

“Kinuhata.”

Again, an interrupting voice brought her back to her senses.

DIY Garage.

He really was a professional steeped in the dark side, so he lacked the morality that would allow him to be convinced through conversation. Speaking with him would only let him infect Kinuhata with his ideas.

“Really, it’s you girls who are the cruel ones.”

“…”

“You barged into my lab with deadly tools and powers, ransacked the place, and then lay in wait for me to return. So this isn’t my fault. It was your barbaric actions that forced me to play my own trump card.”

Part 10

A product of polymer chemistry.

Those backwards fallen objects – the giant bagworms made from plastic and held together by human bodily fluids – were crawling.

A loud “gashunk!!” indicated a weapon being loaded.

The many long protrusions extending from the “bags” flashed irregularly.

A heavy machine gun aimed Item’s way.

This deadly weapon was made from a lighter material than metal. And there were several of them.

“!!”

Item immediately leaped behind the thick metal cover supplied by the lathe, press, and other machines solidly and heavily fixed to the floor.

The gunfire seemed to tear their eardrums and rattle their skulls.

They couldn’t even move like this.

Mugino was pinned behind the giant lathe.

She filled in any gaps in her knowledge by assuming Mujinayama’s level of skill. An expert anti-personnel sniper would react sharply to any human movement. Simply poking her face or hand out from behind cover would get her accurately shot.

But that likely wasn’t the real reason Mugino and the others couldn’t make their next move.

Were they going to fight?

Could they really destroy those things? Was “destroy” even the right word?

Sniping. Mujinayama had been modest, but Mugino thought of him as a type of genius. But he had also been a top-rate teacher.

“Mugino,” whispered Takitsubo, hiding behind the same lathe. “What should we do? Our top priority is survival. So if we aren’t going to fight, I think we should focus on retreating.”

“How are we supposed to do that?”

Takitsubo sounded considerate, but that was a direct path to death and annihilation.

Even now, the heavy machine guns were firing. Mugino and the others were behind cover, but even that wouldn’t last forever. Once the cover was torn through, they would be shot and killed. Heavy machine guns would be powerful enough to destroy a military four-wheel-drive vehicle or a thinly armored truck. Once their shields were gone, this was over and Item would be shredded no matter where they ran. They couldn’t reach the emergency exit door less than 10 meters away. And even if they did manage that, they would end up on an airport runway with no cover in any direction. With perfect aim at 5000 meters, there was no escaping on that open terrain.

But more than that.

They were supposed to run away and ignore this inhumanity?

“…”

Frenda clenched her teeth while pressed against the back of a giant press. She tried to force herself to focus on the job and the numbers, but she just couldn’t. How were they any different from her 7-year-old sister? They had been ordinary people living ordinary lives in the bright world out there. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if they had friends on the dark side or had some special trick up their sleeve? But ordinary people didn’t have those things.

Her instincts were sounding the alarm. Loudly. If she stopped opposing this, she would simply be killed.

(Based on the rest, I’m guessing the grenades use plastic too. In the end, does that mean they’re a high-explosive plastic based on plastic explosives? But why aren’t they launching any? I though they were meant for times like this when thick cover is preventing a frontal attack, so they launch an explosive behind the target and turn them to mincemeat with the blast and fragments.)

If they weren’t using them, there had to be a reason why.

With all the bullets they were spraying, concern for the lab couldn’t be the answer.

“Frenda, what do you think!?”

“In the end, probably the same thing as you, Mugino.”

Frenda didn’t need to think before answering.

Of course she didn’t.

Mugino Shizuri consciously regulated her breathing.

These people had been abducted, sold, and, because their specs were insufficient, sliced open, melted, and permanently fused with some horrific dark side machine.

Could she really tell them to suffer on their own because she found it hard to look at?

There was no rule against it, but she refused to escape to safety just because they couldn’t be saved.

She couldn’t leave this in the hands of justice.

If even evil looked the other way, what in the world did these people have left?

So Mugino Shizuri slowly breathed in and out.

She forced the booming storm of gunfire out of her mind.

She prepared to face the bottomless darkness.

And…

“Sorry… I will retrieve your bones!!”

They hadn’t reached for ill-gotten gains of their own free will and choice. She knew it was wrong to force this onto ordinary people who weren’t even part of the Family.

Still, Mugino raised her voice and aimed her palm.

She would end this.

If she stuck her head out, she would die. So instead she shot Meltdowner through the lathe she was hiding behind, blasting a hole in one of the giant bagworms along with it.

There was no voice.

But in that final moment, Mugino sensed a warmth in the silence that no machine could produce.

Like a sense of relief. Or of thanks.

Then a rumbling.

There was an explosion and red splattered everywhere.

She didn’t know if this was real blood or finely tuned artificial blood.

The rusty smell was faint. The stench of burnt rubber or plastic was much stronger.

It didn’t end with the one explosion.

Had the ammunition contained inside detonated? The other bagworms stiffened in place (likely based on a program) to negate the blast.

Had they avoided using their grenades because they didn’t want to trigger an explosion in the lab equipment?

During a slight lull in the gunfire, Frenda and Kinuhata climbed over their worn-down cover and charged out.

This was likely their first and last chance.

Explosives soared through the air and nitrogen was concentrated around a fist to smash through the plastic armor. It didn’t feel like they were destroying weapons. The feeling Kinuhata felt in her hand was much rawer. Even Mugino grimaced. Death was supposed to hold such great meaning that even a dark side pro would fall on their rear and beg for their life when faced with it. Yet here the brutal Meltdowner beams were a means of saving those people. There really was something deeply wrong with this city.

Just because the burned and crushed weapons themselves smiled as they died did not mean all was forgiven. They knew that, but this was a decision only the dark side could make.

The sounds of destruction continued.

Polymer chemistry, was it?

For Item, that science wasn’t particularly powerful now that the tides had turned.

They only felt anger.

Anger that someone would spend so many people’s lives for such a flimsy strength boost.

“Pant, pant!!”

Once it was all over, Mugino Shizuri was soaked red.

And not with her own blood.

“So they lost. In addition to how the human was used, I set up a gradation between multiple units testing plastic distributions from 70% to 90%, but I didn’t expect them all to be defeated. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions so I can make further improvements.”

Only one person remained.

The cause of it all: DIY Garage.

Covered in the blood of innocents and surrounded by a stench like melted plastic, Mugino Shizuri growled like a wounded beast.

“…Any last words?”

“I can say anything I want?”

Even at this point, DIY Garage did not tremble in fear or beg for his life. Even though she had been planning to Meltdowner him the instant he let any of those emotions leave his filthy mouth.

There was no emotion at all in his voice.

The look in his eyes was entirely unchanged and he simply laid out the words like he was Villager A.

“Do not forget this. You will regret it next time we meet.”

“Next time?”

A rusty scent scattered around.

Because Mugino had punched him in the face. With her fist clenched tight.

“Next time!? You’re already out of lives!!”

She didn’t use Meltdowner.

She wasn’t going to end it that quickly.

Instead, she climbed on top of him and used her fists. With each blow, she smashed another feature of that shitty scientist’s face.

“On the dark side! We find our own ways!! To live our lives!! By gathering up the pieces we’ve risked our lives for!! We don’t live cheap lives!! Where we can just open our mouths!! And expect someone to feed us!! And we definitely don’t have anything for a monster like you!! Not for someone who steals away other people’s lives and then wastes them on this garbage!! You think a piece of shit like you!! Gets anything as valuable as a next time!? Are you fucking kidding me!!?”

He wasn’t reacting much, so she grabbed his collar and dragged him to his feet.

A wet sound followed.

Mugino hadn’t done it. A human fist couldn’t make a human head pop like a watermelon smashed by a stick. Something had flown in from the side too fast to be seen by the naked eye and blown away DIY Garage’s head.

A sniper.

Clear interference.

What asshole granted that shithead the salvation of a death free of fear and suffering?

“Huh!? Is everyone trying to piss me off now!?”

With one hand still holding the collar of the corpse with nothing above the lower jaw, Mugino sent her bloodshot eyes darting out and concentrated a beam in the palm of her other hand. She aimed that palm past the outside wall.

And she fired.

A thick beam burst through right next to Mugino Shizuri’s head.

The rest of DIY Garage’s body was sliced through and vaporized.

Mugino froze in place for more than a second.

That alone could be fatal on a dark side job.

And even after wasting that much time, she still didn’t understand what had happened.

What was that?

A Meltdowner beam had flown back toward her?

Academy City’s #4 Level 5 power wasn’t something that could be easily mass produced.

She could only think of one other possibility.

But if it was that, this couldn’t get much worse.

“Was that…Reflection!?”

If so.

Then only one person could be lurking outside that broken and melted wall.

Chapter 3: Crime Eraser

Part 1

The wall contained a large hole.

Only darkness was visible on the other side. Even though it was currently daytime.

But they couldn’t move.

Item didn’t dare make any careless moves.

Academy City’s #4, Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner…didn’t work?

That phrase carried great meaning.

And it hadn’t been diverted, scattered, or deflected.

It had been bounced back.

It was hard to believe, but they had no choice but to believe after it happened before their eyes.

A long silence followed.

The first to break it was Kinuhata Saiai.

“This…is bad.”

Yes.

The Dark May Project had messed with her brain and implanted her with a portion of the #1’s personality, so she knew.

This was her original, who she had yet to see.

At Level 4, she could barely reproduce even a fragment of his power.

And that powerful being was now just outside that hole in the wall.

“If that really was the true Reflection…this is super bad. Mugino is a super bad match for him since each of her attacks is so powerful!!”

Yes.

The ordinary logic did not at all apply to him. If the stories she had heard were true, the more you fortified yourself with devastating esper powers and next-gen weapons, the greater your risk of death.

Academy City’s #1.

Accelerator.

…That monster could easily bounce back a Meltdowner beam just by standing in front of it. Getting into a fight with him had to be avoided at all costs.

“I-In the end.”

Frenda Seivelun’s eyes darted this way and that.

She may have been subconsciously searching for another exit.

But what safe escape route was there in the wide open space of District 23?

“Could it be some kind of trick? On the dark side, it’s pretty unusual for that strongest monster to actually show up, right!?”

“The semiconductors Mugino created by directly researching Mugino can interfere with her power, but even that only manages to scatter it. Taking a Meltdowner beam super flying straight at you and turning it around 180 degrees is impossible!!”

“…”

Track suit girl Takitsubo stared straight into the hole in the wall.

With her head tilted, oddly enough.

Something crashed through the wall made of thin sheet metal. It was a giant steel beam used for building construction. It easily cut across the gym-sized lab, mercilessly tearing through the press, industrial 3D printer, and other equipment in its way.

Those things had endured the human bagworms’ heavy machine gun fire, but this broke through so easily.

“That’s more than just Reflection… This super really is vector manipulation!”

“In the end, what do we do!? We’re up against the #1 here. I agree heading out onto the flat runway is a bad idea, but if we stay here, he can just snipe us from wherever he wants. Like stabbing knives into the barrel in that party game!!”

Part 2

“Yes, exactly like that.”

“…Ksh…”

“Bending vectors, huh? I have to admit, that Reflection is incredible.”

“Ksh…ksh, to hell.”

“Anyway, keep the output at that level and make sure you don’t overdo it. That power is much too great, so going all out would only send them fleeing in different directions. Then you would have a much harder time killing them, wouldn’t you?”

“…Kssshhh.”

“So just buy us some time, okay?”

“Ksh. Yeah, I get it.”

“Because our true target lies elsewhere.”

Part 3

Academy City’s #1.

Item had no idea what interests had brought him onto the game board.

How deep did the darkness go in this case that began with a bizarre hanged corpse!?

“A-anyway, don’t even think about fighting him. I super mean it,” groaned Kinuhata, still looking toward the hole in the wall. “Maybe a purely psychological esper would stand a chance, but even then it would be a life-or-death gamble. And a super high firepower physical esper like Mugino doesn’t stand a chance!”

“So we should escape, but, in the end, how do we do that?” Frenda sounded rattled. “You say he can control any and all vectors? If he really has a stupid power like that…then stealing a car and driving out of here probably won’t be enough to escape.”

“…”

Kinuhata, the expert on this topic, said nothing.

Which meant Frenda was right.

So fighting was suicide, but they also couldn’t think of any way to escape.

They were trapped before the fight even began.

“In the end, what do we do?”

“We can’t fight and we can’t run. To be blunt, there’s nothing we can do that will help us here. …So what if we super got him to withdraw?”

“Kinuhata, explain what you mean,” said Takitsubo.

“I have no clue why that monster is here, but District 23 is generally off limits, right? It’s not like we ran across him in a dangerous shopping area.”

It was true the odds of this happening by chance were so terribly low it felt downright malicious.

So it was more natural to think of it this way.

“In the end, he gets something out of this…or to put it another way, he’s here on the orders of a client or intermediary?”

“Almost certainly. So holing up in the lab and super buying time works in our favor.”

Kinuhata presented her choice.

It was an opinion they hadn’t mentioned before.

“In the meantime, the voice on the phone above us can apply pressure to the #1’s client or whatever. It can be a negotiation, threats, or persuasion – I don’t care. As long as the enemy’s superior super gives in, the #1 should be ordered to withdraw!”

It looked like the correct answer.

However, there seemed to be plenty of hurdles they would have to clear.

“I doubt the voice on the phone will go to that effort for us,” simply stated Takitsubo.

“Kh.”

“Besides, how are we supposed to buy time against the #1 if he can manipulate any and all vectors? Even if we throw things at him from afar, he’ll probably just walk right up to us.”

“Then what are we supposed to do!? I did my best to come up with an idea! And we’re almost out of time! Dammit, the #1 is super coming here!!”

“We just have to defeat the enemy,” said Mugino who had been keeping quiet and thinking until now.

The track suit girl didn’t even have time to hug panicked and angry Kinuhata’s head.

Takitsubo tilted her head and made sure she had heard that right (while going ahead and hugging Kinuhata regardless).

“Mugino?”

“Bwah, these boobs, what he hell, are these super real!? Wait, why are you raising your head, Mugino!? You’ll get it super blasted off by the #1!!”

“Will I, though?”

It was true her Meltdowner beam had been bent. No, reflected. There was no denying that fact. And not just anyone could do that.

But don’t forget. This was District 23, a special district that felt out of place even in Academy City where the technology was said to be 20-30 years ahead of the outside world. It was an off-limits zone that specialized in aerospace development. Which meant it as replete with devices, equipment, and facilities found nowhere else.

For example…

“There’s an underground silo mass driver out there. That huge-ass launcher uses electromagnetic guidance to launch cargo weighing tons all the way to the moon or Mars. That might just be able to create an electric field large enough to alter a Meltdowner beam’s course!!”

Part 4

“Rikuri Nee-san, they’ve figured it out. Get out of there.”

“Yes, yes. I had planned to deceive them for a few more moves. …Honestly, and I even increased the compression rate high enough to mask my voice as I pretended to talk like that celebrity. Oh, well. Does this mean they didn’t even intercept that transmission?”

“Those clever plans only work against the clever. Just grab Amazora and withdraw.”

Part 5

Academy City’s #1 Level 5 wasn’t needed.

Even if it produced an ultra-high-power attack, Mugino’s ability was still limited to controlling electrons. So if something could influence the flow of electrons, it could interfere with her ability.

Like an underground silo mass driver.

This was District 23. That special district’s technology could bend a Meltdowner beam.

“Th-then super what about that super steel beam!?”

“That only weighs a ton or two. You don’t need some incredible power to throw that. District 23 specializes in aerospace development. They’ll have what are basically giant water rockets here.”

“Mugino. Are those the things that are launched with a gas or air?”

“That serial killer John Doom launched the defective lithium batteries using CO2, remember? Developing that idea for military use is hardly unusual. I’ve seen it in the antiques my grandfather collects. They used to use compressed air or metal springs to build silent mortars.”

Their location had also been convenient.

DIY Garage’s lab was a treasure trove of specialized manufacturing equipment and experimental devices. When cornered, the target would begin searching through the junk for something useful instead of running outside unarmed. If they had gone with Kinuhata’s “stay in the lab” plan, Frenda probably would have spent her time doing just that. In other words, this place made a target less likely to flee than in an ordinary environment.

“Then this was all to buy time? In the end, what is the enemy really after?”

“Probably your favorite thing, Frenda: setting up a bomb and blowing the place up! Run!!”

If it was only a trick, they had nothing to fear.

And if they stayed here, they would be blown up along with the building.

Mugino started to leave the giant lab, but Takitsubo shoved her aside.

Blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam!!

The earsplitting roar refused to end. They could tell something was being fired in from outside, but what was it? The lab’s outer wall was already full of holes.

Maybe her ears had adjusted to the roar.

Frenda’s eyes widened where she lay on the ground a distance away.

(This doesn’t sound like the human bagworms.)

“That sounds like a Gatling gun? You’re kidding. In the end, is someone carrying that around with them!?”

“This time, I bet they’re super using some kind of esper power.”

That didn’t matter.

Was the enemy spraying bullets to slaughter Item? No. Spraying the bullets over such a wide area without taking careful aim was meant to pin the target down. That way the enemy could escape to safety while Item was blown away by the bomb along with the lab!

“Do your job, Frenda!!” shouted Mugino.

Finally recalling her role, Frenda pulled something from her short skirt. She ignited and tossed five cheap rockets out through the chewed-up outer wall.

They exploded like normal.

The Meltdowner countermeasure only worked against that one thing. Other projectiles did not have their course bent or reflected.

Just as the blind pinning gunfire stopped, Mugino rushed outside.

Kinuhata and Takitsubo did not follow.

Takitsubo had no direct combat ability, so it was best if she stayed in the lab. Kinuhata was likely worried that Takitsubo could be hit by some surprise gunfire. Even if there was a bomb that could detonate at any moment, staying here was still safer than being shredded by a Gatling gun right this instant.

Something sliced through the blue sky on a sharp approach. It flew down to the mismatched pair of sisters in front of Mugino and Frenda and stole them away into the sky.

(I know District 23 is all about aerospace development…but where did they steal that thing from!?)

The craft was less than four meters from end to end and the cockpit only fit one person at around 1.5 meters, but it was in fact a helicopter with intermeshing rotors. That Flying Room personal work craft was built using a golf cart as a base and was meant for use when performing maintenance on a mountain cabin or mountain road.

The giant Gatling gun appeared to have been discarded after being wiped clean of evidence. A wire dangling from the tiny helicopter had already snatched up the mismatched sisters in gaudy dresses and was now lifting them into the air.

And a similar girl in a dress was piloting the helicopter.

Were all three of them sisters?

“Rikuri Nee-san, be honest with me. Did Amazora get in your way again?”

“Hey, quit doubting me for no reason, Kai Onee-chan! That’s what turns a kid into a delinquent!!”

They were already in flight.

“Tch!!”

They were up in the empty sky. If Mugino raised her palm and took aim, she would be able to shoot them down with Academy City’s #4 Level 5 power before they got away.

But just then.

Gween!!

A dull impact slammed into the side of Mugino Shizuri’s head – square in the right temple.

“Kah…”

An aerial surveillance drone had suddenly flown in from the side.

And an external attachment had attached a hunk of metal about the size of a brick.

Had she been so focused on targeting that distant point it had narrowed her vision? Simply not having Takitsubo with her was all it took.

She could see the busty oldest sister stick out her tongue a little, but she couldn’t aim steadily with her vision so shaky.

She fired a couple of Meltdowner beams, but they only scorched empty air.

She shook her head and vision returned to normal.

The tiny intermeshing-rotor helicopter had already flown off into the far distance.

“Uh, oh.”

Mugino watched them go on unsteady legs and made that comment just before the giant lab exploded behind her.

Part 6

It had been reduced to a pile of rubble.

The human bagworms and their creator DIY Garage were below it all.

Really, it was a miracle Takitsubo and Kinuhata had survived after staying in the lab.

“Kinuhata, are you alright?”

“This is super my role. Let me be the tank when I can.”

Kinuhata shoved the crumbling wreckage out of the way with a single thin arm.

The Academy City fire fighters would arrive before too long. Or maybe it would be a special rescue squad since this was District 23. Either way, they didn’t have time, but they couldn’t head back empty handed.

“Mugino. In the end, let me know if you need a throwaway SIM. If you weren’t kidding about retrieving their bones, shouldn’t you start making some calls? In the end, even if the public officials discover them, it’s not too late as long as the dark side hasn’t eliminated the bodies yet.”

“Yeah…”

As those two conversed and completed a few tasks…

“Look what I found.”

Takitsubo held out a stamp-sized white chip.

Nothing was written on either side and no metal pins or magnetic tape were in evidence. It may have looked like a small plastic cover from some other machine. To an ordinary person anyway.

After adjusting the angle, holding it up in the sunlight, and such, Mugino snorted with laughter.

“Invisible printing, huh?”

“Super what is that?”

“It’s a type of paint used for cheating on tests. You normally can’t see anything, but when the unscrupulous test-taker views it through spectroscopic glasses, small writing appears.”

Kinuhata’s mouth formed a small triangle.

Entrance exams hadn’t really been a part of her life, but were there really things like that in Academy City?

“Ordinarily, it’s done on their pencil or thumbnail instead of on an obvious chip like this,” added Takitsubo, staring blankly into the distance.

What do you mean “ordinarily”?

“He did it on this noticeable chip because he didn’t want to lose it among all the other junk in his home, Kinuhata. I’m guessing this contains important data for DIY Garage. He probably chose to use this inconvenient analog medium so it couldn’t be hacked.”

When Takitsubo arrived at a correct answer, she would say it like she had seen it herself.

Mugino’s shoulders shook with laughter.

“A full A4 sheet of paper can be compressed down to the size of a stamp, right? Well, you can use that to hide some kind of list or diagram.”

“But, Mugino, this doesn’t do us much good without the corresponding lens,” said Takitsubo.

“Frenda.”

“You got it,” replied Frenda. She truly didn’t even take a second to respond. “In the end, there is something painted on here even if we can’t see it. There are only so many chemicals used for invisible printing, so I can intentionally make it deteriorate enough to see what it says.”

Item hid behind some kind of container when a fire truck arrived. Then they approached a luggage cart that had been stopped for safety purposes. They hid among the many suitcases while the caterpillar-like vehicle took them to the international airport that wasn’t part of any of this.

They were dyed red with blood thanks to the battle against the human bagworms, but Academy City had plenty of effective technologies for getting out stains. A detailed forensic analysis would still detect the blood, but they soon looked presentable enough.

When someone died, all trace of it could easily be erased.

“…”

Once at the airport, they only had to take a large bus to leave District 23. People gathered from all around the globe during the Daihaseisai, so these buses were decently crowded and no one took any real notice of Item.

After renting a rental conference room in a convenient building, they focused on the white chip.

First, Frenda poured some kind of clear liquid into a thin container and then dipped the chip in using pincers. She measured the time with a kitchen timer, removed the chip from the liquid, and dried it with the warm air of a dryer.

“Ohh, that’s incredible, Frenda. It’s just like revealing a secret letter written in lemon juice.”

“Please no, Takitsubo. Don’t reduce Super Genius Frenda-chan’s specialized chemistry knowledge down to the level of my sister playing ninja.”

This was a method of intentionally deteriorating a transparent chemical in order to give it enough color to be visible. So really it was the same basic idea!

Takitsubo’s piercing replies were always so precise it gave Frenda a headache.

“(In the end, maybe I make it all look so easy they can’t appreciate what this genius girl is doing for them. Like how you can’t just take supermarket frozen foods for granted.)”

“Hm? But you are amazing, Frenda. You have real skills that let you do what the rest of us can’t. You’re as amazing as the old man next door who quits his office job and serves humankind by attempting to invent a quasar pulse interference communicator to talk with aliens.”

“I beg you, Takitsubo. That isn’t helping at all.”

Anyway.

Something more brown than black appeared on the surface of the chip.

However, an A4-size sheet of paper had been compressed down to the size of a stamp, so reading it with the naked eye wasn’t easy. One would normally read it through a loupe (or a pair of glasses with that function built into a portion of the lens), but the four of them wanted to share this data. It would be faster to zoom in with a phone camera and take a photo.

“Hm? It’s kinda blurry. How do you set it to close-up mode?”

“Mugino, change your camera settings and you’ll end up with a phone that wont do what you want. If all you want is to prevent camera shaking, it’s easier to fix it in place with a tripod or other support. You could tie it to that table lamp.”

Anyway, it was finally time to view the important document.

The phone screen displayed DIY Garage’s personal account book. What materials did he buy, how much of them, what did he use them for, and who did he sell the results to? It was all listed up here.

“Hm? But wait. In the end, wasn’t there a separate list with the much more dangerous human trafficking stuff? The one using the brandy grades.”

“This analog medium can’t be searched or copy-pasted, so he wouldn’t be using it regularly. I bet this is a backup of his usual records kept as insurance in case someone betrays him. So the really spicy stuff will be recorded elsewhere.”

The document was full of alphanumeric strings, but that was no real problem for Mugino.

She had been born into organized crime, so she had learned at a young age how to read secret account books.

“HoloAu79 was it? Looks like the voice on the phone was overthinking things with the fake gold bars. From the way he was spreading it around, that messed-up scientist probably had no idea the Investment Club or Army Ant even existed.”

“Then in the end, the conflict between the two groups wasn’t planned at all? It was a complete coincidence?”

“That’s right.”

All of DIY Garage’s products were homemade and he appeared to have “invented” plenty of products beyond the fake gold bars. Scanning the list, Mugino saw what might as well have been the invention of a bored housewife, things that would qualify as illegal weapons, IDs and uniforms accurately copied down to the smallest detail, and more.

Kinuhata tilted her head.

“The conflict caused by DIY Garage’s fake gold bars may have been a sad coincidence, but we were still attacked by those weird sisters. And they went to the trouble of disguising themselves as Academy City’s #1. Super what was up with that?”

“Even if it was a coincidence, someone must not have wanted us looking into it. This just means we were poking around where we were not at all welcome.”

But the way those sisters had withdrawn as soon as they lost their advantage made them seem not all that concerned by it all. In other words, it didn’t feel like those sisters would lose their lives if their misdeeds came to light. They were likely assassins or eliminators sent here by a client.

The question was whether or not people who attacked others as casually as picking up some fast food would call it quits after just the one attack. It would be a pain if they only saw this as a detour and Item was subjected to more attacks with different people or methods.

Item needed to shut off that tap. They wanted information on the secret client behind the attack, not the low-level soldiers who actually made the attacks.

Someone didn’t want a product sold here to be discovered.

What on this list of inventions and sales was someone so reluctant to have come to light?

Mugino laughed in delight.

“Now this is going to be fun.”

“?”

“Law-evading murder infrastructure.”

Part 7

Mugino left the conference room and blended into the streets.

It was 5 PM.

They had begun their investigation in the morning and been caught up in a sudden battle, so they had been at work for quite a while now. It was no surprise they were hungry. And thanks to the Daihaseisai, there was no shortage of food stands and trucks on the side of the road.

“Takitsubo-san, super what are you getting?”

“It’s hard to decide when there are so many options, isn’t it?”

“Huh? You kids just haven’t discovered the amazing possibility of salmon.”

Mugino and the others bought some sandwiches and breads.

Each one came with a colorful dip.

“Doesn’t that mackerel smell? It’s the fish oil. Once it gets on your fingers, I bet it sticks around a while even if you wash your hands.”

“In the end, the challenge mackerel presents in eating it only makes it more adorable!!”

“Her mackerel love has finally reached the super terminal stage, I see.”

Kinuhata had no strong feelings about food and would have been fine with a jelly drink or smoothie, but Takitsubo offered her a very festive frankfurter. Ignoring it would only have led Takitsubo to expressionlessly shove it into her mouth, so she had no choice but to accept it.

“Y’know, I wonder what dip goes best with salmon? The wasabi soy sauce is too ordinary, but mayonnaise just makes everything taste like mayo.”

“Oh. In the end, I want try avocado with my mackerel.”

As Mugino and Frenda chatted, they ended up trying different dips with their salmon and mackerel, seeing what worked best.

They really were good friends.

All they had to do was wander around the train station area while chatting.

Law-evading murder infrastructure.

The term sounded impressive enough, but what kind of toy was it really?

“Why are you acting all self-important? It’s always like this with you. You already know the answer. It’s not an unusual concept in Academy City.”

“…This city really is crazy.”

If she wasn’t eating a grilled salmon sandwich, Mugino would have abandoned the job right there.

“When a lab animal dies after being intentionally infected or injected with bacteria, a drug, or whatever else, its remains need to be swiftly and safely disposed of,” continued the voice on the phone. “Ordinarily, it will be quickly incinerated at high temperature. Electric furnaces have been gathering attention lately. They’re like giant microwave ovens.”

Needless to say, Academy City was a city of science, so it had labs everywhere. Each of those had its own “waste disposal zone”. New drugs meant for esper development posed a risk of an information leak if an outside contractor were hired to dispose of the waste. Blood, hairs that have absorbed a chemical cocktail, and even a single cell were considered classified information.

Everyone was already incinerating dead bodies.

Did the ordinary concern over respecting the dead not exist in this city of science?

(I bet that was a part of how the city was intentionally designed to speed up research.)

“And by adjusting the output of the devices meant for small animals, they can reduce a human-sized mass to white ashes. Besides, you’ve been asking your support group to dispose of bodies. It’s always like this with you.”

That was true.

They hadn’t ever considered how exactly it was done, though.

“Roasting them in a giant oven destroys the entire DNA map, so it can’t be legally proven what you have are human remains. But for worriers like you, it’s best to be extra thorough and dump the ashes in powerful acid to fully eliminate them.”

“So would the law-evading murder infrastructure mean taking all the necessary equipment and facilities for that process and miniaturizing it as much as possible so it all fits in a single box?”

“It’s just a magic trick for making a body disappear. A single storage container should be enough. The bigger problem is the power for the electric furnace. Hooking it up to a 100-volt household power source won’t be enough. It might be quicker to determine where power can be stolen from a factory, railroad, or other facility with a large power source without being noticed. Once we know where the device is located, it won’t be long before you’ve identified the target and their range of movement.”

“Got it.”

That was probably true.

They had already seen that underground silo mass driver in District 23, but that was a fairly special case. Enough power to obliterate a human body on contact couldn’t be found just anywhere.

But Takitsubo was curious about something else.

“What about how the payment was made?”

“Yeah. In the end, that white chip listed quite the unique method. Instead of cash or electronic money, the payment was made by handing over golf clubs or fancy cars. Doing it by leaving them behind in poorly-supervised rental spaces is fairly unusual.”

“I know that method.”

The other three Item members turned to look at Takitsubo. Those words meant something different from before.

This is what Takitsubo Rikou was saying:

“Her usual expressionless face had a hint of a cloud over it.

“Some old friends of mine used it.”

Part 8

Evening had arrived. Alongside a main street was a space halfway between being a park and being woods. The space was outlined by so many skyscrapers and Takitsubo sat on the edge of a fountain there. She was toying with the small plastic bottle of tea she held in her hands.

And she quietly began speaking.

“A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko…”

“Super what is that supposed to mean?”

“They did have names, but they were more or less meaningless. Because the Advanced Lab at my school was something like a ghost story. The story said people no one had ever seen might select you based on undisclosed standards and you would suddenly vanish from your class with everyone being told you had transferred away. Your original name and identity would be erased and no one would be able to track down your new life.”

But it had really existed.

The organization had erased all traces of living people, including their names, and used them for experiments. The truth had been far more than the ghost story told for fun at the surface-level school.

Still standing, Kinuhata put a hand on her hip.

“And if you hadn’t done anything, that super would’ve happened to you?”

“All I did was take a peek inside.”

Takitsubo, who hadn’t become D-ko, smiled a little.

It was a somehow self-deprecating smile that carried many small wounds.

“The Advanced Lab’s goal was to boost esper powers. But not using methods that would be permanent in case of failure, such as messing with the esper’s brain or DNA. They used external methods like machines or drugs that could be swapped out if the situation demanded it.

“Originally even the school was experimenting with Body Crystal without knowing how dangerous it is,” said Takitsubo.

In that case, how had the Advanced Lab planned to use the already dangerous Body Crystal? The risk to the user’s life would have gone even further with them.

“I heard something caused the Superior Lab to fail before I was officially transferred there. I don’t know the details, but I think they lost some dark side power struggle. All four of the test subjects, including me even though I was still only there on a trial basis, scattered and fled, but only I screwed up and was captured alive.”

Screwed up. Captured alive.

The two phrases made an odd pairing from a dark side perspective, but apparently there was no deeper meaning there.

“They cared more about eliminating the organization and didn’t care all that much about me as an individual. I remember being fairly confused after I was dumped out into the honest world.”

Of course she was confused.

Nothing left people more at a loss than being told they didn’t have to do anything.

But if there was nothing more to it, then Takitsubo Rikou would have to face the honest world.

“I used to want to make quizzes,” said Takitsubo. “No, I don’t think it was that clear in my head. Maybe I would have been happy as a TV host or a museum worker. I wanted to be someone who explained things to people.”

Used to.

That meant it was no longer the case.

Something had forced her to give up on it.

“I lived as a normal person for a while, but it didn’t last long.”

“Did your old friends pay you a visit?” asked Mugino, seated on a nearby metal bollard.

Takitsubo nodded.

“It happened shortly before I met you.”

Takitsubo had always said Mugino rescued her when she had been arrested on false charges.

“A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko all seemed to believe it would fix their lives if they could revive the Advanced Lab. They seemed to view their painful past there as a special experience not available to ordinary people.”

Perhaps their psyches couldn’t endure believing anything else. Perhaps the Advanced Lab’s education and management had just been that effective.

“They wanted us to be a group of four. They seemed to truly believe that would make them whole.”

“…”

“The Advanced Lab wanted to restart its work, so they worked with those three. The adults were willing to do anything if it would allow their research to continue smoothly. When I returned from shopping one day, my room was gone. A dump truck had crashed into the first floor room. With my student dorm destroyed, I lost my standing at school. And those three even tricked Anti-Skill into arresting me for stealing the truck and destroying my own home. I don’t know why, but they said they found a dead body in my destroyed room.”

Those were the false charges forced upon her.

According to Takitsubo, talented students who rejected the Advanced Lab’s recruitment would be isolated and detained in that fashion. It was their usual method. They had a complete false charges manual.

“And after falling that far, in the end Mugino saved you?”

“I had to sneak into the holding area to erase some data,” awkwardly explained Mugino.

The track suit girl kindly narrowed her eyes.

Item had begun as just those two.

There would have been time shared only by the two of them.

Still seated on the bollard, Mugino crossed her legs and sighed in exasperation.

“So does that mean they see Item as an enemy? For stealing you from them and completing the four person team they wanted to be?”

“I think so. Those three aren’t thinking about their individual skill or effort. They believe they failed because they don’t meet the necessary requirements and they blame the person who stole that from them.”

It was funny really.

It made Takitsubo Rikou sound like the flag that determined the winner in a game of beach flags.

Including the fact that what she wanted was ignored entirely.

“You super said these were your old friends, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then do you know what their powers are?”

To Mugino, Kinuhata, and Frenda, those three were a mysterious group, but not so for Takitsubo. She had a general idea of A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko’s powers. That was a major advantage for Item.

Seated on the edge of the fountain with her hands around the bottle of tea, Takitsubo Rikou gave the following explanation.

“A-ko’s power is All or Nothing. Whenever she succeeds in a cross counter, her enemy’s attack power is added to her own, damaging that enemy. The explanation is really vague on the physical front, so I think it’s actually a psychological power. Just as fear of a gun or bomb can cause bleeding from the heart, excessively powerful mental activity can cause actual physical harm. …She externally boosts her power by inducing self-hypnosis with flashing lights and aromas. She cannot lose as long as she can continue deceiving herself.”

“B-ko’s power is Territory Pheromone. The power is based on the scent of her hair. When her own scent particles mix with someone else’s, the microscopic structure breaks down and she can precisely detect their location. You can think of like a radar power centered on her own location. …She externally boosts her power with lifestyle optimizations, including her diet and sleep. The research is apparently trying to draw out her top performance by having her follow the optimal routine.”

“C-ko’s power is Composite. The power lets her adhere any two objects together regardless of their material traits. By sticking an enemy’s hands together, she can restrain anyone. And I believe she had several nastier ways of connecting the body. …She externally boosts her power through brain surgery. Machines smaller than grains of corn have been attached to the interior of her skull and their slight expansion and contraction can stimulate different values in her brain.”

Takitsubo paused there.

But she finally added another point that couldn’t be ignored.

“Also, A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko are all Level 4.”

“Is that super before their powers were boosted?”

“That’s right, Kinuhata.”

The track suit girl looked up from the edge of the fountain.

And breathed a heavy sigh.

“They didn’t cheat their way into being geniuses. They are geniuses who then cheated.”

What could they accomplish when shortening their own lives to forcibly boost their powers? Just like with Takitsubo’s Body Crystal, these Advanced Lab girls sounded different somehow. They weren’t just your average Level 4.

“Also, this is all based on when I knew them…so be careful. I can’t predict how much they might have grown since then. Remember, the Advanced Lab is a research institute meant to push esper powers past their limit with machines and drugs. And technology advances fast. Especially in this city.”

“…”

“Although they also did research into intentionally lowering an esper power so that it could be fully controlled. You don’t hear about that often in Academy City, so I think that was what someone didn’t like and attacked them over.”

That explained the girls’ powers.

But what exactly did they do with those powers?

“I more or less remember their methods. They could have changed since I knew them, though.”

Takitsubo lowered her gaze to the ground, refusing to look anyone in the eye.

Or maybe she was looking to a past era.

“When they would leave the Advanced Lab to complete a dirty job, they would start by attacking the most crowded event in the area on that day.”

“In the end, is that supposed to be a large-scale diversion?”

“It could be Halloween or a graduation ceremony. They just wanted to cause enough casualties in a large crowd to trigger a large panic. Then Anti-Skill and Judgment would be too busy dealing with that to focus on anything else. Then they would, for a short time, have a lawless area where they were free to act. They used this to attack rival labs, assassinate VIPs who were preparing to reduce the lab’s budget, and so on.”

“But that method gets a ton of ordinary people involved, right? In the end, would the higher ups really allow that?”

“They didn’t allow it, which is why the lab was destroyed the first time.”

Takitsubo stated this as a plain fact.

It was all too convincing.

“And they still haven’t learned their lesson.”

Far too convincing.

Mugino crossed her arms while seated on the metal bollard.

“So their goal is retrieving Takitsubo and we’re just incidental, huh? So would the biggest event in this case be the Daihaseisai? But that’s so big you can’t really call it a single event.”

“It won’t be anything that covers Academy City as a whole. They will probably only want to affect a single district. Assuming they know where I am, this is the most crowded event nearby. The night parade. Particularly the riverside fireworks show.”

“Hm? Not one of the sporting events?”

“The stadiums and domes require seats and tickets, so they can only hold tens of thousands, but a free outdoor fireworks show will draw hundreds of thousands. Especially with so many parents and other ordinary people here from outside the city. This will likely have the larger crowd.”

“H-hold on,” interrupted Frenda.

She stepped toward Takitsubo, probably without realizing it.

“A fireworks show? You have to be kidding! In the end, you don’t mean the one on the riverside in District 7, do you? My sister will be waiting there!!”

Agreeing to meet up there early to beat the crowd had been a mistake.

Kinuhata tilted her head while performing some light stretches.

“Super how will they attack the fireworks show?”

Frenda was too worried about her 7-year-old sister to be any help.

Could she contact her sister by phone? No. An ordinary person would never believe that such great danger was lurking so nearby in the peaceful world they knew.

Mugino clicked her tongue.

“Fireworks shows these days are all program controlled, right? They won’t have time to check over every single one of the tens of thousands of fireworks tubes on the day of the show, so spending several days delivering and setting them up remains standard. …So even if someone swaps the fireworks out for a more destructive explosive, the people on site will have no way of noticing. Those girls won’t need a complex circuit board with a mess of colorful cords. An innocent person will press the switch of doom for them.”

“…”

“Frenda, our job is to stop this. If you still intend to do your job, then don’t underestimate the damage in your initial simulation. This is your sister’s life. Are you going to let her die for real because you didn’t want to see her die in a simulation?”

“B-but this is a big fireworks show. Won’t they super already have safety measures in place for accidental explosions? Like placing the launch site well away from the audience.”

“Frenda. Are you going to let us continue based on that mistaken assumption? I doubt we’ll save anyone if we do.”

“Ugh, fine. In the end, I get it already!!”

Everything Mugino said was so accurate Frenda wanted to blow up her mouth.

Irritated, Frenda kicked a metal streetlight pole and immediately hopped up and down holding her toes.

The tearful blonde girl sighed once as she brought a hand to her brow and brushed up her bangs.

Hanging her head, she spoke quickly and quietly.

“A directional mine that scatters small metal balls in a fan shape will turn everything within 50m into a sea of blood. A mine that hops up on its own and detonates like a parasol could send dangerous specks as far as 200m.”

“W-with super only one mine?”

“In the end, yes. And it only has to be as big as a small paint can.”

The fireworks that brought such delight could be seen as no more than explosives.

They were dangerous enough as it is…but bombs were commonly filled with metal balls, nails, and such to more efficiently kill people. Because that would create a solid wall of death by launching dozens or even hundreds of solid metal pieces at speeds greater than a handgun bullet.

“The fireworks show will only have safety measures in place for the flames and shockwaves produced by the explosives, so they won’t help against a bomb packed full of impurities. In the end, the launch site would need to be much farther away.”

This would easily destroy what should have been a happy time.

Defending was much more difficult than attacking. Especially when it came to explosives.

Plus, this show would apparently be launching tens of thousands of fireworks. They didn’t know the scope of the trap being prepared, but if every single firework were a trap, the number of victims would be truly nightmarish.

Frenda breathed a heavy sigh. She may have had some more specific estimates on that front.

“It looks like the fireworks will be launched from a sandbank in the river, but in the end, that isn’t nearly far enough away. …In the end, if a swap really has been made, then at least the front rows on either bank of the river will be turned to mincemeat.”

This would create an uneven distribution for the blast, which would be a problem if the goal were to slaughter hundreds of thousands of people gathered in a large space. But the Advanced Lab’s A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko’s goal was to cause a panic as a diversion to paralyze law and order, so they wouldn’t particularly care how many were killed. What they would want was to create some trouble that was as flashy and noticeable as possible.

Seated on the edge of the fountain, Takitsubo added to Frenda’s assessment with a face that was not expressionless.

“We can’t optimistically assume only the front row will be harmed. We can’t predict how many explosives they will bring in. And even if most escape the blast itself, how many will be knocked over and trampled to death when hundreds of thousands make a disorderly escape all at once?”

This was a diversion – preparation to provide ease of movement.

…The tactic was already showing an effect and it hadn’t even been executed yet. It was looking like Frenda wouldn’t be able to focus on the fight. As long as Item’s position made them defenders of the city, they couldn’t ignore the sabotage to the fireworks show. If they did, they could easily lose the trust of their higher ups and end up the ones on the run.

This was connected to major event in the honest world.

When Mugino explained the situation to the voice on the phone, she received a carefree response.

“Then you can go with that. Item will defuse the sabotage to the fireworks show and also punish those A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko girls from…the Advanced Lab, did you call it? Someone needs to show them the world isn’t that easy.”

“What, you aren’t sending any reinforcements? This goes beyond our filthy dark side. The bright and shining honest world is at risk.”

“I’d love to send some ordinary forces in, but that would probably only cause more of a panic in that densely-packed crowd. It’s always like this.”

It was irritating how right she was.

“Don’t ask to have the fireworks show canceled at this point either. A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko will hear any official announcements, so that would only provoke them.”

“They only care about causing chaos,” said Takitsubo. “It doesn’t matter to them if their bombs don’t go off. I think they would only change plans and show up equipped with masks and guns to fire indiscriminately into the crowd.”

So ordinary people would end up killed regardless.

In fact, the bombs might actually be easier to deal with.

Mugino could only speculate, but it was possible those girls had planned it that way.

This would split up Item, allowing them to possibly be picked off one at a time. Adding more personnel would only work against Item. So despite knowing about the enemy’s trap, Item would have no choice but to split up just like the enemy wanted.

The enemy was in control.

It was like a curse. If they couldn’t break free somewhere, only death and destruction awaited them.

Suddenly, a quiet question left the track suit girl.

With the tea bottle squeezed in her hands.

“But why the law-evading murder infrastructure?”

At first, Frenda froze in her standing position.

She was unsure what Takitsubo meant.

They had found so much new information at this point that DIY Garage felt like old news.

Frenda operated her phone and checked her notes and album even though she hadn’t recorded anything new.

“You mean that thing A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko bought? Well, in the end, it’s an attractive item for anyone up to no good, don’t you think? If devices that let you kill anyone you want without being found out were being sold off at clearance, I’d definitely grab one. Maybe a second one too just to have a backup.”

“That’s not what I meant… The Advanced Lab already has their false charges manual. They can frame a stranger and get away safely, so they shouldn’t need a mechanical law-evading murder infrastructure.”

“Hm? Now that you mention it…”

Mugino frowned atop the metal bollard.

They had to know that buying a product like that in secret was risky. That was why they had hired those three sisters to blow up the lab along with DIY Garage and his records once the purchase was close to being discovered.

But they didn’t seem to gain anything from the product that warranted the risk.

They already had a way to dispose of corpses, so why would A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko go to the trouble of buying it?

“The law-evading murder infrastructure is valuable, but the purchasers themselves don’t benefit from it,” said the voice on the phone. “But in that case…wait. Could it be that-”

Bang ba-bang!!

Mugino stood up from the bollard.

A few dry gunshots rang out. Through the small device she held. The phone produced uneven static for a while before finally falling silent.

“Wait…super what was that?”

“…”

“That was the voice on the phone, right? Even we super can’t reach her! Why was the higher up shot in her safe zone before we were attacked on the front line!?”

“Is this why they wanted the law-evading murder infrastructure? Instead of needing it themselves, they sold it to someone else. They made sure they had the bargaining chip they would need. And in exchange for solving the ‘worries’ of a guilty VIP with the same privileges as the voice on the phone, they received some location information they couldn’t normally get their hands on!”

Item was a group of criminals who lived on the shadowy dark side, but they were unofficially supported by Academy City. However, things changed if they couldn’t contact the voice on the phone who was meant to hold their reins.

A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko of the Advanced Lab had removed Item’s support and now it was time to enjoy the hunt.

Item was isolated.

“What do we do, Mugino?” asked Takitsubo.

“I don’t know if the voice on the phone is actually dead or not. But even if she is, we should be assigned another intermediary. We can go into hiding until then and-”

Just then.

Right next to Kinuhata, the metal bollard Mugino had been sitting on was crushed like an aluminum can.

By a 20-ton semi-trailer truck.

The enormous bumper caught Kinuhata’s small body and more dragged her straight down than knocked her forward. That was as much as the others could follow.

Only a terrible rumble of destruction followed. The truck cut right on across the park without slowing down. The impact must have opened its container because it left a few round shapes on the ground.

It had begun.

In a way, did this count as a greeting?

Still standing, Frenda couldn’t even manage speechlessness as some words spilled from the corner of her mouth.

“I-it’s…in the end, it hasn’t even been three minutes since the voice on the phone was taken out!!”

“Kinuhata.”

“If her power is real, that won’t be enough to kill her! Now scatter!!”

Several pairs of footsteps echoed out.

They didn’t have time to check where the others were running to.

At the moment, survival was their top priority.

They had no idea where an assassin might be hiding. It didn’t even have to be a person. What if the coffee they ordered at a cafe had poison or bacteria in it? Could a lantern or bug zapper fall from someone’s balcony? A buried gas pipe might rupture and trigger a massive explosion. How could they predict, be aware of, and avoid every single threat!?

“Pant, pant!!”

After reaching a gap between two buildings, Frenda Seivelun finally stopped and caught her breath.

She discovered she was alone.

No, it wasn’t that she had gotten separated from Mugino and Takitsubo along the way. They had intentionally run off in different directions to begin with. They still didn’t know what had become of Kinuhata. Frenda doubted a truck hitting her would kill that girl, but if the enemy was focusing on eliminating Item’s high-level espers, then they might have made a further attack on Kinuhata.

Item was scattered.

Without the support of the higher ups, even their connection to the support group was gone.

And the unseen enemy was hunting them as a group and team. Kinuhata had Offense Armor to help her, but Frenda was a Level 0 and would be easily killed if caught by surprise. She didn’t usually focus on it, but Frenda was Item’s only ordinary human and thus had the greatest chance of dying when things went south.

That was why she couldn’t just obey Mugino Shizuri’s instructions.

A Level 5 might be able to survive (using the thorough brute force methods that battle freak preferred), but thoughtlessly following along would only get Frenda killed. Easily killed.

So.

She had to calmly, calmly, calmly…think this through like a villain.

(To be blunt, can we even defeat this opponent in a fight?)

If not, that was fine. Knowing they couldn’t possibly win would help her when coming up with a plan. In other words, she would run away. But she had to remain calm. Was running away even physically possible? Where was her 7-year-old sister right now? Was she already at the site of the fireworks show? Was there any way to locate a single person in a crowd of hundreds of thousands packed in like a train at rush hour and then take them safely out of the city? If not, she would just have to prepare one. She had plenty of her own Level 0 options left. Like her phone’s GPS and her plastic bottle drones. So should she go with that?

Once she thought through it that far, a chill ran along her spine.

A baseless thought suddenly entered her mind.

Be careful.

Choose wrong here and you really will die.

“…”

This wasn’t a simple choice of going left or right.

This crossroads and decision was about what kind of villain Frenda Seivelun would be.

Just as she started to take the easy way out, she took a single step back.

Settle down.

Stay calm.

Truly calm.

(The enemy outplayed us and split up Item as a team. Including the voice on the phone. That much is true, but they wouldn’t go to the effort if they were confident they could beat us without doing that.)

That meant the outcome wasn’t so obvious.

In fact, it meant Item had the upper hand. Whatever the enemy tried, if Item could remain firm as a united team, that alone would scare the enemy group. Feeling like they were facing an extra large piece of unexploded ordnance, the enemy would hesitate. So Frenda couldn’t make a rash decision. When Item had the upper hand, it would be foolish indeed to steer toward destruction for no reason.

The situation was certainly bad, but she still had options. Even if those options felt like narrow and unreliable paths. So as close as it was, this wasn’t the worst case scenario yet.

If she couldn’t see that fear, she just had to define it. Mugino Shizuri, Takitsubo Rikou, and Kinuhata Saiai. Only when she was forced to truly abandon those three would she call it the worst case scenario. And even if that did happen, nothing Frenda could choose could avoid the path to slaughter and she wouldn’t be able to protect her precious sister.

And with that worst case defined, she could prioritize the vague dread surrounding her and the many other formless options spinning around her.

In conclusion, her situation here was…

Scary.

Yes, it was scary. But…

“In the end, that woke me up.”

She raised her head.

She had recovered. It had been a close thing, though.

She was aware of that.

Being at a precipice didn’t mean she had to betray her teammates. And she didn’t have to worry over who to rely on to watch her back. When she was in trouble, she could lean on them. She was certain of it. How blessed a life was this?

Also, how could she run away on her own? Say she did grab that 7-year-old’s arm, forcibly escape Academy City, and ignore both the fireworks show and the other victims. How far would she have to run? Across the wall and into the outside world? Could she actually manage that? And even if she could, what proof did she have she wouldn’t be pursued out there as well? Constantly choosing the safer seeming option would only increase the possibility of her sister being hit by a stray bullet.

She had to throw out the negative thinking that told her evasion was the best option.

She had to win and secure her safety.

If the other Item girls were still safe, then wherever they had run after scattering, they would all be heading to the fireworks show in the end.

So Frenda again raised her head.

And began running on her own two feet. She knew where she had to go.

She couldn’t give into the fear. Doing that was what would take her to the worst case scenario.

Part 9

Kinuhata Saiai was all alone in the dark city evening.

When the team’s tiny youngest member had been dragged underneath a 20-ton truck, the older members had all fled. Without a second thought.

“Dammit…”

She was leaning against a nearby vending machine.

Twenty tons had been a bit much even for her.

The fact that being in the light calmed her made her feel immature and childish.

A few softball-sized objects made of cardboard were lying on the street around here. Here and there. They had likely fallen from the back of the truck.

(Those are definitely industrial fireworks… No, those are bombs disguised to look like them. Are these spares they prepared just in case? Does this super mean the sabotage is real?)

She sighed.

Should she collect those for the sake of the innocent people who would be walking through here later on?

“Well, that would be more constructive than super messing with my phone.”

The truck had already driven off. While being dragged along the road which had acted like a giant file, she had managed to remove one side of her wireless earphones that could be tracked via GPS in case they were lost and attached it to the bottom of the truck, but she wasn’t sure how helpful that would be. After all, they had used the truck to run someone over. It was almost certainly stolen.

It irritated her she hadn’t just died there.

Because surviving meant she was still in the fight and had to deal with the problem.

The voice on the phone might be dead. With no support from her or the support group, Item was entirely isolated as the enemy hunted them down. And as a diversion or preparation for that, they would blow up or crush the hundreds of thousands at the fireworks show.

That last part was unacceptable.

Didn’t those fools realize that was unnecessary? Without that, Kinuhata’s spirit might have actually been broken.

She didn’t think of it like a movie.

She had no intention of acting like a hero in a movie.

Entertainment was fun because it wasn’t useful in anything else. It was meant to be enjoyed mindlessly.

So she switched to her work mode rather than her leisure mode.

And the dark side executioner spoke under her breath.

“Well, my life was wasting away in the shadows to begin with. I can at least repay them for taking me in. And I do owe the honest people out there for making life so super fun.”

She couldn’t forget.

The ordinary city she knew had been made by the ordinary people there.

Part 10

Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou came to a stop in a twilit park.

She doubted anyone was pursuing her. She knew the habits of A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko of the Advanced Lab. They would never continue a messy head-on fight for long. They would secure a distance and direction allowing a unilateral attack on their opponent, launch a preemptive strike from a blind spot, and then withdraw. That sounded nice if you called it a hit-and-away tactic, but they really just loved cheating and abusing loopholes.

Takitsubo had fallen victim to that enough already.

She had thought Mugino had rescued her from all that after the false charges incident, but that hadn’t solved it. It had ended it for a time, but the root problem had remained.

This was all the result of her own decisions.

She had ignored the debt for so long that the interest had grown truly unmanageable.

And now she was trapped by it.

“You really can’t change your past, can you? My own actions are returning to kill me.”

Part 11

Mugino Shizuri spoke quietly while seated on a bench at a subway station platform.

“Maybe so, but you’re Item now.”

Between the Lines 1

As the sky faded from orange to purple, the District 7 riverside was already crowded with people.

The motley collection of people all carried cardboard fans used by sticking your thumb through a round hole. They were being handed out for free around here and they doubled as a pamphlet for the fireworks show.

The wide riverside lawn was ordinarily used as a golf driving range or a grass-lot baseball field. Ropes currently divided it into some roughly rectangular areas, but that barely mattered with such a large crowd. There just wasn’t room for people to lay out a sheet and sit down. There were also some large artificial structures. At the front row near the river was a large stage like those seen at outdoor festivals and a temporary relay station for a TV broadcast had been set up.

The noise was deafening.

Large speakers were lined up across the vast space like monoliths and they produced a young male announcer’s voice.

“Welcome to the fireworks show and night parade that acts as an alternate way to enjoy the Daihaseisai!! You will soon be treated to a dance of light and sound born from a combination of skill and talent! Not only that, but a variety of artists, both professional and amateur, are joining us tonight! Allow me to introduce you to them. First is the gold standard who needs no introduction: Hitotsui Hajime. Next is, um, her name isn’t read in the German or the Italian way, is it? …Anyway, this is Arisa-chan! And we have the three-member idol unit Clearance!!”

The stands set up on the riverbank were selling the standard food and drinks but also binoculars and simple phone tripods. The single-lens reflex lenses made to be attached to a smartphone weren’t cheap enough to sell at stands like this, so the ones here were probably useless fakes.

“C’mon, Tessou. We don’t have all day, so get going!”

“Ahhh. W-wait for me, Senpai…”

Some mechanical “gashunk, gashunk” sounds came from the crowd.

More specifically, from Spider Crab crowd monitoring mobile watchtowers. In other words, Anti-Skill was equipped with stilt-like gear that allowed them to skillfully weave through the crowd. With some help from computer support and anti-personnel radar, the metal legs, which were thinner than mops, managed to walk smoothly through the dense crowd without ever stepping on anyone’s feet. They looked ridiculous, but a kick to the side from one of those could supposedly flip over the average car.

And among it all.

Partially at the mercy of the waves of people, a girl waved her small hand and called out to her friend.

“F-Fremea-chan, where are you?”

“Azumi, I’m over here. In the first place, my sister will be here soon!”

Chapter 4: Eliminate It at the Root

Part 1

It was 6:30 PM.

According to the schedule, the fireworks should have already been launched by now, but silence remained. Fireworks shows were mostly program controlled these days, but apparently Academy City still had some fireworks technicians with pride in their work.

The color of the sky was about halfway between orange and purple.

The coloration would look right at home on a can of convenience store sweet coffee, but the actual time of sunset was a little later than what the public weather forecast apps said. …Of course, this was nothing on the scale of the planet’s rotation or revolution having slowed. After the sun sank below the horizon, the sunlight was still bent and scattered by the air temperature, humidity, and other factors, so even at the same time of year, meteorological conditions created slight variations in the strict sunset time.

That meant it wasn’t fully dark yet and the fireworks technicians weren’t satisfied.

Hundreds of thousands of lives were now reliant on a stubborn perfectionism that didn’t physically exist.

Still, this was only a margin of error of ten to twenty minutes.

The technicians would eventually reach for the switch of doom and then the blast and the shockwave would trigger a panic among the hundreds of thousands here. Once that happened, the Anti-Skill and Judgment presence in this area would be too busy dealing with that to focus on anything else.

“Oh, dear.”

A-ko whispered into the truck radio while leaning forward and squishing her chest against the large steering wheel of the semi-trailer truck she had parked in a parking lot a short distance away since the large vehicle would be unwieldy on such a crowded day.

“We have a problem. They’ve wandered into a rather troublesome place. The fireworks show is only supposed to trigger the diversion, so I would really rather not get close to the coming panic. Oh, I get it. Item figured out our diversion plan and is trying to stop it.”

“I do not want to be crushed to death in a panic I set up myself,” said B-ko over the radio. “Do you think we made a mistake when we didn’t start the main hunt as soon as they split up and ran?”

“…But I would hate to waste the trap we set up in the fireworks show…” said C-ko, also over the radio.

“We always wait until the authorities are distracted to start the hunt,” said A-ko. “Let’s stick to the plan and kill them.”

“Yes, let’s do that.” “Yes, let’s do that.”

The stolen truck was filled with spare explosives (disguised as fireworks) just in case they were needed, but it didn’t look like that would be necessary. The spares couldn’t be tracked back to A-ko and the others, so she didn’t think twice about abandoning the truck here.

As she wandered around the area, B-ko and C-ko soon approached.

B-ko was a busty girl with a long blonde ponytail. C-ko was a downer of a girl with short chestnut hair. And a flat chest.

Similarly, A-ko was a high school girl with wavy black hair. Her chest was larger than C-ko’s but smaller than B-ko’s, which for whatever reason led the other two to tease her for being too “normal” and “boring”.

They all wore matching tennis clothes with frilly skirts plus track pants. The sportswear wouldn’t look out of place on the schoolyard of any school, but it was actually slightly off from what the students of any actual school wore. It wasn’t exactly fashionable, but outfits just like it flooded the streets during the Daihaseisai.

“Who’s got who?”

B-ko’s question began the usual discussion.

If it was inappropriate, they would ask you to take it up with the researchers who altered their brains this way.

A-ko said something no ordinary person would ever say.

“I’ll take Mugino Shizuri, I guess. Given the nature of her power.”

“…I’ll do Frenda…”

“Tch. That means Kinuhata Saiai for me. Damn leftovers.”

The three girls were hunting Item, but Takitsubo was not one of their targets.

They would strip away all of the excess fat, leaving only the pitiful bones behind. And once she was all alone, they would grab her hair and show her the others’ corpses. And ask her if she was satisfied.

In that sense, the fireworks show was no different.

To truly enjoy a main dish, you needed more than just that one dish. You had to whet your appetite with an appetizer and create a mood allowing for real enjoyment.

“After all, she abandoned us. Takitsubo Rikou refused to become D-ko and ran off on her own, so we need to make sure she understands our anger and sorrow☆”

They continued their chat as they walked along. Keeping it casual.

“I’m Suzunaka.”

“I’ll be Yamakawa.”

“…B-ko, you used that one before…”

“Did I? I can’t remember each and every one. Fine, I’ll change it up a bit and go with Moritana.”

“…Then I’ll be Okano…”

The three girls held their phones together and input their temporary personal information. Being able to take on a new identity without any plastic surgery or fleeing your residence in the middle of the night was both a pro and a con of such a high-tech city.

B-ko looked uncertain about her name. Even though she had chosen it.

“I forget the rules. Does the stroke count of this name give me good luck, or not?”

“…The luck changes depending on if the given name is pronounced Aibi or Manami. According to lucky goldfish fortunetelling anyway…”

“Wow, that turns into a real pain in the ass once you get into the details!!”

Part 2

“…” “…” “…” “…”

All four Item members had regrouped without issue.

On the large riverside area covered by hundreds of thousands of people for the fireworks show. It that wasn’t a miracle, what was it?

Cheating, probably.

Specifically, this location up on the riverbank had a lot of obstacles thanks to the food stalls set up.

Some boys around the age of Frenda’s sister passed by, talking loudly. They were using clear cups of cider to make their faces look all distorted. Some kids were taking photos of the small rainbows created by the mist shower.

It was a perfectly ordinary scene.

Item’s clothing was unruffled. They had been very cautious, but it didn’t look like anything had happened.

When the attack had begun, the voice on the phone had been shot and then a large semi-trailer truck had hit Kinuhata.

This was a troublesome opponent, but if A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko of the Advanced Lab didn’t have any support team delinquents, they might only be able to pull off so many simultaneous attacks. Was that why they had to cause such noticeable diversions?

Mugino scratched her head in exasperation and spoke.

“The terrain is perfect for hiding, the wide field of view is perfect for monitoring your surroundings, and there are plenty of escape routes just in case. …It makes sense. Everyone in this business thinks the same way.”

“So are there kinds of places that dark side people super tend to gather in? Although that idea is even less pleasant than the little bugs gathered on the underside of a potted plant’s leaves.”

“In that case, it’s lucky we didn’t run into A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko while waiting here,” observed Takitsubo.

Everyone fell silent at that.

That was the most ridiculous and most deadly possibility they could think of.

This area was plenty crowded.

The fireworks show didn’t seem to allow any bright lights, but when Mugino held up her phone, she saw brightly-colored AR displays all over the place. The advertisements for the plain-looking food stalls were quite something. Whenever they had a chance, they would fill up the screen with their 3D images. Simply approaching them caused a social media invitation to pop up.

Kinuhata took a look at the same screen (while stretching up on her tiptoes).

“What a pain. If you super tried to take a selfie here, I’m not sure you’d even be able to see your face.”

“That just shows how many people’s plans are tied up in this event, Kinuhata,” said Takitsubo. “This isn’t just about us.”

With such a large fireworks show, there would be a TV broadcast and amateur streamers were a common sight in Academy City. That made navigating the place a challenge for Item who spent so much time on illegal jobs.

“Let’s decide who does what. In the end, I’ll take the fireworks launch site. If you need a bomb defused, Frenda-chan’s your girl!”

“…Um. Super what are the rest of us supposed to do?”

“If Frenda tries to defuse the bomb, A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko will try to stop her. We need to stop them.”

They paused their conversation there.

Takitsubo cast a glance over at some passersby and waited for them to continue past. Some girls in yukatas were chatting happily with one holding a small, clear plastic bag filled with water. At first, it didn’t seem to contain a goldfish, but then a small red fish appeared. It apparently hadn’t been visible due to the lighting conditions.

Mugino lowered her voice.

“They’re planning to blow the place up? Would they really come here themselves?”

“What would prevent them? The fireworks show isn’t like the stadiums during the day. No one is checking IDs or tickets or inspecting bags at the entrance. Anyone can come in for free,” said Takitsubo, tilting her head.

The general mood wasn’t right for strict entrance management. Anyone could arrive from anywhere. Maybe it came from this being a free event, but for people trying to protect the place, security seemed lax for the number of people here.

The track suit girl was a pro who always considered the worst case.

“If the fireworks sabotage fails, A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko only have to put on masks and directly shoot up the place. That does increase the risk of being identified compared to the explosive trap, but all they really need is to trigger a large enough panic to keep Anti-Skill and Judgment busy. So that would be enough for them to get back on track.”

In other words, defusing the bomb wasn’t enough to say the place was safe.

Their goal needed to be protecting the lives of the hundreds of thousands here, not stopping the bomb. …Especially for Frenda who was close to biting her thumbnail if she wasn’t careful (even though her delicate fingertips were her life). From the look of her, she probably needed to reapply the makeup meant to hide her fingerprints.

It really would be necessary to take out A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko of the Advance Lab.

Mugino kept it brief.

“Where’s the enemy?”

“I have a general idea based on their preferences.”

Part 3

And so Mugino Shizuri was sneaking around on her own.

As a fireworks show, there weren’t many lights on, but the area around the stage was an exception. Bright stage lights supported by a stainless steel framework clearly delineated the world where the artists stood.

In addition to Anti-Skill in their stilt-like gear, aerial surveillance drones were flying irregularly around the other side of the stage to keep an eye on the crowd packed in at the front of the stage. The many different models of drone likely meant there were also some recording the performance for the event group and for the TV station broadcasting it. Either way, they were something to avoid for anyone on the wrong side of the law. If Mugino was spotted carelessly appearing at the edge of the screen, she might gather attention as a spectral figure in the darkness.

While keeping low and moving through the backstage shadows, she voiced her annoyance.

“An idol unit, huh? And another group of three. That’s a bad omen.”

This was where anyone involved in TV would likely be. For a live broadcast. This was a very awkward place for someone from the dark side where she very much did not want to end up appearing in people’s living rooms.

“Is she really here?”

“Mugino,” said Takitsubo over the radio. “If the fireworks bomb fails, they will cause a panic with gunfire. They usually do that by holding a position where they can gather everyone’s attention without being caught in the crush afterwards.”

So would they be spraying bullets into the crowd from up on the stage?

About the worst unplanned performance you could get.

And to make matters worse, it would be happening during the Daihaseisai when so many ordinary visitors and TV cameras from outside the city were here. That did explain why that group had so displeased the higher ups that they had been destroyed once in the past.

“But what do I do if I run into an Advanced Lab esper here? There’s not enough room to fight.”

“Use your creativity and ingenuity.”

“That just means you don’t have any ideas.”

A light leaking in from backstage cast a shadow.

Mugino leaped aside as if struck just before a metal pipe dropped down. No, a girl wielding the pipe in both hands had jumped down from overhead. With enough force to tear a piece out of the dirt ground.

“Tch.”

She produced a voice.

The voice of an adolescent girl that was beginning to show some hints of sex appeal while still not fully losing its innocence.

“You didn’t blast me right away. If you had thoughtlessly fired as you turned around because you might as well, my counterattack would have ended it.”

The two girls glared at each other and kept their distance.

Mugino’s opponent looked to be high school aged.

She may have found the pipe somewhere around here because she tossed it aside without a second thought.

Takitsubo had explained A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko’s powers and only one of them applied to what this girl had said.

…All or Nothing. This girl had a psychological power that would apply the enemy’s deadly force to her own attack if she landed a cross-counter. She was Level 4, but the Advanced Lab’s external boosting meant the level system couldn’t be relied on here.

In other words…

“So you’re A-ko? ” “I’m going by Suzunaka-san at the moment. As smart as most high-level espers are, they tend to force their way through with brute strength, so surprising them from a blind spot makes it pretty easy to one-shot them. What a pain. Looks like I’ll actually have to try this time.”

At that same moment, a bloody flavor spread through Mugino’s mouth.

Her head jolted backwards.

She had already taken a cross-counter.

From much closer range than she had expected.

A-ko whispered sweetly into Mugino’s ear after throwing a fist into her face.

“Oh? Not willing to take this seriously yet? Although that would have blown your head off if you had used Meltdowner.”

In fact.

Partway through the conversation, Mugino’s right arm had sprung up in front of her, but instead of using Meltdowner, she had thrown a pebble with a snap of her wrist.

(So I can’t use feints or try to throw off her timing. She’ll counterattack me no matter what!!)

“!!”

This wasn’t just her sense of pain being sharpened.

A-ko’s power was supposed to be psychological, but Mugino was physically bleeding. Even though that light jab couldn’t have done that.

There were stories of people bleeding from the heart when the fear of bullets and bombings on the battlefield grew too strong.

Mugino held the bridge of her nose with a hand and took a leap back before her earlobe was bitten off.

Part 4

“Kinuhata,” said Takitsubo over the radio. “Mugino has contacted A-ko. That leaves B-ko and C-ko. And it means the Advanced Lab is definitely here.”

“Super acknowledged!”

There was no predicting when the bomb would explode. Not when there wasn’t an obvious digital timer. It was all over once the fireworks technicians reached for the control board on the sandbank and the scheduled time had already passed. The color of the sky was just barely hanging on as a purple tinged with orange…but the sun was no longer visible behind the skyscrapers. If the technicians decided to compromise and launched the fireworks, hundreds of thousands of futures would vanish.

Kinuhata felt an urge to rush to Mugino and focus their attack on the known enemy, but if A-ko, B-ko, or C-ko were killed, there was a risk of the remaining two taking desperate measures. Splitting up and eliminating all three as soon as possible still seemed like their best option.

The point Takitsubo had assigned her was…

“This super…relay station?”

The TV station cameras located here and there across the vast event site had to be relayed to the TV station itself, so large-scale radio communication equipment was needed. Using ordinary internet lines could lead to unexpected freezes (especially during a major event when the communication servers were flooded with connections), so it wasn’t a good option for a live TV broadcast.

Although it was unclear if the main focus of the relayed footage was the fireworks show or the live performances.

“Hi.”

Someone called out to Kinuhata.

The girl was a bit older than Kinuhata. But she shouldn’t have been in this off-limits area.

More than that, she didn’t seem at all bothered by the presence of an intruder like Kinuhata.

“Super who are you?”

“What name did I end up going with again? Ugh, it’s no use. I can’t remember, so just call me B-ko.”

(So she’s B-ko? Her power lets her super search for the enemy’s location using her hair’s scent particles, right? Which makes her similar to Takitsubo-san.)

“That really is B-ko,” said Takitsubo over the radio. “She isn’t C-ko giving that name to hide her power, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

…Oh, had that been a possibility? It helped so much to be working with someone who knew the enemy.

And in that case, Kinuhata’s power gave her the upper hand.

Those search types were most useful when they were hidden. They were like bombers or snipers who unilaterally located their target and delivered a deadly attack from afar. Ideally that initial attack would end it because they wouldn’t want to fail to kill and be dragged into a 50-50 close-range battle.

Around 80% of their charm vanished once they were standing in front of you like this.

A search type alone couldn’t kill anyone. Since B-ko had attacked alone, she was likely hiding a weapon other than her power, but…

“What does it matter that you can use your power to accurately locate me? I was never going to hide from you in the first place. A knife? A handgun? Bring it on, whatever it is. I’ll walk right up to you and punch you so hard your skull super caves in!!”

The sound of evaporation reached Kinuhata’s ear.

Coming from her right upper arm.

No, was it the sound of something burning?

“!?”

Kinuhata shook her arm, but it didn’t help.

Throbbing pain belatedly began to torment her skin. Like drops of sulfuric acid had landed on her skin, or like orange-glowing sparks had touched her. The pain came from points of heat.

It didn’t make sense.

What just happened?

Kinuhata’s entire body was covered by Offense Armor which could withstand a shotgun blast or a 12-ton truck, so why was she feeling this pain so directly!?

“What do you think that was?”

B-ko laughed.

And didn’t move from her spot.

So did she have something that could cause burns and could be used without approaching the target?

“Could I be doing something with friction? Or maybe fire ants? Doesn’t aluminum melt pretty easily when heated? C’mon, start listing up the possibilities and trap yourself in a cage of paranoia.”

“Tch!!”

Kinuhata clicked her tongue, jumped back, and sprang to the right, but the throbbing pain continued to crawl along her arm. Worst of all, the Offense Armor that acted as a mental support for her didn’t work at all. Her thoughts were close to shutting down.

“Kinuhata.”

A voice came over the wireless earphone in her ear. Takitsubo’s voice.

“Remember: B-ko’s power is Territory Pheromone. By scattering her hair’s scent particles, those particles bond with other scents and break down…allowing her to precisely search out people’s locations.”

“Super so what!? How does that help me in this situation!?”

“That’s my point. Discussing her power is meaningless. That will not solve your problem.”

Kinuhata felt like punching that girl watching on from some safe place.

But just when she thought no more advice was coming, Takitsubo provided a more direct statement.

“B-ko’s power cannot cause an attack like that.”

“…”

Finally, Kinuhata understood.

She cooled her head while continuing to run around.

This wasn’t some strange new power. B-ko’s attack could be explained with nothing more than ordinary scientific technology. It was a form of science that could burn the skin without being visible. Yes. That sounded a lot simpler than triggering an artificial big bang or time traveling with no assistance.

There was nothing there.

She couldn’t see anything.

Yet as she threw her body around to flee, something invisible pursued her along the metal walls of the relay station.

First an unnatural dark scorch mark and then an orange glow.

The wall was burning.

In other words…

“An HMLa!!”

That is, a homemade laser.

A voice cackled loud.

It was B-ko.

“Look, you don’t need to sound that shocked. Laser weapons aren’t all that unusual.”

Still standing a short distance away, B-ko twirled something in her hand. It was even smaller than the glowing sticks used to guide vehicles at a construction site. It resembled the pen lights used at concerts.

It clearly wasn’t a normal tool.

“You can make one of these from a copier. By rearranging the equipment, insulating it and increasing the voltage, and some other annoying work, you can get as much power as a car’s cigarette lighter. It’s not some amazing weapon that can shoot down a ballistic missile, but it can ignite a piece of paper at a range of 50m. You can imagine some interesting uses for that, can’t you?”

(…Kh. So that’s it. Since I can see when Offense Armor is active, it must be super letting light through. Which means laser weapons will pass right through too!?)

Light was an electromagnetic wave. Takitsubo had known this from the start. The signal passing through her mobile device to reach her wireless earphones was getting through too, after all!

“This isn’t super all you can do though, is it?”

“Do I need more? A single boring success is enough as long as you ramp up the quantity. And lenses gathered together like a honeycomb are enough to boost the power as high as I need it.”

“Tch!!”

Before the enemy could move, Kinuhata kicked over a nearby bucket. The bucket was being used to chill the fruits and frozen treats being given out as gifts in the heat, but it must have been in the way and someone had dumped it out back. When the dry ice and water collided, they spewed white smoke.

And something tore through that white curtain.

The invisible weapon wasn’t so invisible anymore.

There was more than one red line of heat. Multiple weaponized laser beams emerged from each side of the thoroughly modified pen light, looking something like the veins of a leaf or stacked Ys.

This was a projectile weapon.

With a range of 50m.

With so many lasers, it was amazing B-ko didn’t burn herself.

“Visualizing an invisible weapon is probably the right way to go, but lasers move at the speed of light, making them history’s fastest projectile weapon. This is the next gen weapon that will end the era of guns and gunpowder. Surely you didn’t think you could escape by hiding in that smoke, did you?”

“…”

“I have combined my perfect searching power with an HMLa that can burn my target at the speed of light. Do you really think you can escape? I will kill you no matter where you run, so I hope you’re ready☆ I’ll start by burning your eyes to neutralize you. After that, maybe the Achilles tendons? And after that, I can slowly burn you to death while you roll around with your hands over your face.”

Part 5

“Frenda.”

“In the end, I’ve got a general idea of the situation. If Mugino and Kinuhata are fighting, that means we know who I’m up against, right? Takitsubo, you focus on supporting Kinuhata. You said B-ko’s using a projectile weapon? That’s a bad matchup for Kinuhata. Close quarters combat specialist espers are in a precarious position. One wrong read and the battle can turn against them, so as her honorary big sister I’m just so worried.”

“Okay, Frenda.”

“Super wait! What makes you my big sister!? You’re the one without a power giving you a shield or armor, so a single hit will kill you instantly!”

“In the end, do you really think Perfect Dark Beauty Frenda-chan would make a mistake like that?”

Both sides of the large bridge were blocked off with red cones and striped bars.

And not just because a large crowd would be dangerously heavy.

The river sandbank acted as the launch site where all the fireworks technicians were gathered. The center of the bridge was in the danger area in case of an explosion, so the bridge had been blocked off just in case there was any trouble.

The bomb had to be on that sandbank.

It was Frenda’s job to defuse its.

A blast from the sandbank might not reach every part of the event site, but the front rows would be in danger. And there was a decent chance of people being trampled in the resultant panic. A wave made up of hundreds of thousands of people could easily crush a person to death. And the victims could very well include Frenda’s 7-year-old sister and her friends.

Defusing the bomb meant going to the sandbank, but her presence on the empty bridge would be conspicuous enough to gather attention from Anti-Skill and Judgment. With so little time, she couldn’t afford any extra trouble like that.

Which meant…

“I can’t swim there, so in the end it has to be here.”

Frenda walked along the riverbank and below the bridge.

The underside of the bridge was covered by steel beams laid out like a gym ceiling in order to distribute the bridge’s weight. If she used those as footholds, she could cross there.

Except someone was already there.

Of course someone was. This was the only route.

“…I thought you’d be here…”

She was above the water, on the underside of the bridge. That footing was unstable at best and the girl was clinging to it with her hands and feet like an insect. While upside down.

Sticking, connecting, and linking. Her esper power allowed her to adhere to anything. Level 4 Composite.

“In the end, you must be the Advanced Lab’s C-ko.”

“…We never had to deal with all of Item. Frenda Seivelun. If we take you out, no one else can perform the delicate defusing…”

“You think you can fight Frenda-sama, the secret strongest Item member? In the end, you lost the moment you didn’t come at me with all three members!!”

With that shout, Frenda launched a few homemade rockets she pulled from her miniskirt.

Their course wasn’t bad, but they detonated before reaching C-ko due to the jungle gym of steel beams.

But this wasn’t a failure.

In fact, the psychological effect on C-ko mattered most. The fact that only luck and random chance had saved her would instill fear and surprise in her. She just had to be made aware that it wasn’t her own skill that had saved her.

From a distance, this would only sound like a food stall’s popcorn popping or someone using party crackers to stand out from the crowd, so this wasn’t enough to cause a panic.

(First, I scare them with a decoy attack, I confidently hold my ground, and once their wounded pride sends them into a rage, they approach just in time for me to remotely detonate the bomb I planted in advance… In the end, that’s the standard plan.)

The dust in the air split as C-ko rushed sharply in.

This was much sooner than Frenda had anticipated.

She didn’t even have time to scatter traps on the steel beams using magnetic suction bombs. The standard plan was based on some optimistic assumptions. It wasn’t too reliable in a real battle.

“…You expect me to give a bomber time…?”

By then, C-ko was already right in front of her.

She jabbed her small palm artlessly toward Frenda. Composite let her adhere to anything.

“!?”

Frenda couldn’t dodge. Just before C-ko grabbed her right wrist, Frenda flipped her poncho up and wrapped the hem tightly around her hand. That was better than having her bare hand adhered to.

She felt a powerful tug.

They were already close enough to touch. Their faces were less than 100cm apart.

“What? In the end, did you want to handcuff us together for a chained deathmatch!?”

She detonated her bomb regardless.

…A bomber who complained that bombs were useless at close range wasn’t second or even third rate in Academy City. The direction of the blast was easily altered using metal plates and such, so with the right connections you could blow away only the enemy even at close range. Such as pressing it against them with your palm.

“Zero-inch bomb!! Hwa ha ha! Behold Frenda-chan’s genius! In the end, watching that kung fu movie marathon with Kinuhata was worth it!!”

“…That really doesn’t matter…”

A voice slipped into her ears.

It wasn’t that C-ko had jumped back at the last second. She had kept her feet on the steel beam as she rotated 180-degrees around to the bottom. By attaching herself upside-down like a bat, she had skillfully avoided the uppercut-style blast aimed at her upper body.

Frenda dropped a few more bombs at about the same time C-ko kicked off the beam supporting her to reach another beam.

After all, their field was a collection of steel beams similar to a gym ceiling. C-ko’s ability to move around and attach to anything gave her a major advantage.

But at the same time…

“You abandoned your shoes.”

“…”

“And your socks too. Hmm? Were you using your ankles when it looked like you were using your hands and feet before? So does your power require direct skin contact? But in the end, you do know your toes have the equivalent of fingerprints, don’t you? Not a great power for a criminal.”

“…Shut up. I didn’t ask for your opinion…”

“And in the end, I already know how to deal with this.”

That shut C-ko up.

And Frenda was doing anything but shutting up.

“You have a close-quarters power that requires direct skin contact. …That means I can use the tactics I’ve put together for use against Kinuhata in the sparring sessions that super nice Frenda-chan does for the silly new girl whenever I have some time. No matter how nimbly you can move in any direction, you can’t avoid a blast that forms a complete wall! And if you use irregular movements to try and approach from my blind spot, I just have to create wall blasts in all 360 degrees around me!! And more than that! In the end, as long as those wall blasts are holding you back, preventing you from approaching your target, you can’t lay a finger on the world’s ultra-fragile treasure that is Frenda-chan!!!”

To reiterate, a top rate bomber could trigger explosions at extreme close range without harming themselves. Which meant they could use explosions for defense.

And C-ko whispered atop the steel beams.

“…I can stick hands together, preventing you from escaping. I can attach my feet to my footing, preventing myself from slipping off…”

Yes.

C-ko made her point clear.

“…Did you think I would be classified Level 4 if that was all I could do…?”

C-ko waved a plastic ruler in her hand.

Clear specks sprinkled from it.

She had scattered something into the air.

Some kind of white smoke spread out unnaturally.

Frenda immediately caught on.

(In the end, that isn’t just smoke. Is it some kind of acid!?)

“~ ~ ~!!”

Frenda held her breath.

She abandoned her offensive stance and jumped back on the unsteady footing.

C-ko laughed.

In just a few seconds, around half of ruler had already dissolved.

“…Breathe it in and maybe you’ll figure out what acid that is…”

“Nice joke. In the end, I’m not letting my windpipe and lungs dissolve.”

“…With sulfur, you can create sulfuric acid. You can find the ingredients even in a beautiful city filled with clean air…”

The other likely candidate was nitric acid.

The chemical formula was HNO₃. Hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen could all be found in a river or the air.

(Is she choosing what element she wants to adhere to? And that’s a powerful acid smoke, right? In the end, that’s such a dangerous way to use that!)

An unpleasant straining sound rang out.

The steel beams supporting the bridge’s thousands of tons were crying out in protest.

Not even acid smoke should have been enough to make the bridge collapse so suddenly.

There was another cause.

“…By removing the carbon from the steel beams, they return to being pure iron. That makes them soft and less sturdy. Didn’t think my adhering power could be used this way, did you…?”

Frenda didn’t bother listening to the end.

Her vision was shaking too much.

The steel beams supporting the underside of the bridge spanning the large river were breaking.

Which meant her footing was collapsing.

But Frenda did not plunge into the dark river.

(Damn, did I fall onto the sandbank!?)

That meant she was at the off-limits and highly flammable fireworks launch site.

The damage to the bridge had caused a lot of noise, but had the fireworks technicians not noticed them?

Frenda cautiously sent her gaze darting side to side and saw something unpleasant.

A rubber boat equipped with an engine was crossing the dark river to reach the sandbank.

Had the technicians not been on the sandbank because they were boycotting the start of the show? But if they were approaching now, the show would soon begin. And then hundreds of thousands would be made victims. Frenda’s 7-year-old sister, her friends, and so many others were out there.

(There wasn’t anyone here!? Then in the end, I should have destroyed the control board!)

There was no time.

As a bomb expert, Frenda had to defuse the bomb set up by the Advanced Lab trio, but she couldn’t do that with the enemy here. The sabotage apparently wasn’t too large scale, but she doubted it was something she could kick away without it reacting. She had no idea when a stray shot would hit the bomb and detonate it.

And even if it had only been from the height of a building’s second floor, she had still fallen onto an area much like a rocky riverside. She would even need to be careful when walking normally to avoid spraining an ankle. That she hadn’t broken an ankle when landing from that height was either dumb luck or further proof that Frenda-chan was a super genius.

A short distance away, a small figure landed with no evident excitement.

It was C-ko.

The sandbank was definitely a killing zone. Or right in the middle of one anyway. Was she really willing to approach the giant bomb her group had set up here?

Frenda made sure to keep her breathing steady.

“You’re going after Takitsubo because she’s an old friend, right? Mind if I ask why you’re willing to blow up a fireworks show with hundreds of thousands in the audience for such a personal reason?”

C-ko’s answer to Frenda’s question was simple.

“…None of your business…”

“Glad to hear it. …In the end, if you were doing this for a casual enough reason to mention it here, it would mean you had really and truly lost it.”

Frenda pulled a few convenient explosives from her dress’s miniskirt and calmly considered the situation.

C-ko. What could she do on this sandbank?

Her “selected component extraction” allowed her to extract and use a specific type of atom or molecule in whatever substance she touched.

She could weaken especially strong materials like blast-resistant concrete or special steel.

Either ability was enough of a threat.

And there was more.

The biggest threat was something else.

“…Wrapping the poncho around your hand earlier was a smart choice…”

“Damn… In the end, this is why I hate these high-level monsters.”

“…Without that, it would have been instantaneous. By removing the H₂O that makes up 60% of the human body, I would have turned you into a dried-up mummy…”

Part 6

Kinuhata and B-ko were rapidly changing position behind the temporary relay center on the riverside.

B-ko was armed with a homemade laser weapon built into a concert penlight.

Her esper power allowed her to precisely locate other people using the scent particles of her hair.

The combination of the two meant any target would be hit by the laser with 100% accuracy.

Or so the theory went.

“What!? My Territory Pheromone isn’t working!?”

“Are you stupid? I did tell you I’m super covered by a wall of nitrogen, didn’t I?”

As long as none of Kinuhata’s own scent could escape, it couldn’t bond with and alter the hair scent particles being scattered through the air. That way Kinuhata could pass by right in front of B-ko without her power detecting her.

(That said, the super HMLa is enough of a threat on its own!)

Kinuhata kept low.

She might be able to avoid the scorching laser weapon by swinging her body to the sides.

Still, she heard the unpleasant sound like that of a heated wire pressed against cloth.

Not even her rapid evasion was enough to fully avoid the attacks. As B-ko had said, she really didn’t want to take an attack to the eyes.

(But super wait. Where she’s aiming doesn’t match up with where I’m being burned. Only by a few centimeters, but still.)

Kinuhata’s power was specialized for close quarters combat.

She couldn’t do anything without approaching the enemy.

“!?”

B-ko, on the other hand, only had to continue wielding her modified concert penlight.

The seven lights extended along their respective lines.

The scattershot of light had a range of 50 meters. This next-gen weapon would bring an end to the era of guns and gunpowder. The brutal laser light branched out seven ways from the main axis to race out through the air. Without the white smoke making the lasers visible, Kinuhata Saiai would have either had her eyes burned away or her clothing set alight without even knowing what was happening to her.

B-ko laughed loudly and did not let up on the attack.

The laser light raced side to side again and again.

“Dry ice? Smoke? So what if you can see the lasers? If you think it’s that useful, then just try and survive!!”

The deadly cutting light suddenly bent about five meters in front of Kinuhata.

Unnaturally so.

“Ah!?”

B-ko’s surprise was wasted time.

If she had instead thrown herself down to the left or right, she would have survived another three moves.

Kinuhata Saiai had already rushed sharply up to B-ko.

She only had to extend her fist.

The deafening noise came from the wall of super-compressed nitrogen smashing her muscle and bone.

B-ko doubled over.

And coughed up blood.

But her confusion was more powerful than her pain.

“How…?”

“The orientation of the laser lens and the location of the burns differed by a super little bit. Only a few centimeters.”

B-ko leaped backwards before her entrails could be ripped out.

But her HMLa was no longer a threat.

And her power to locate an enemy couldn’t stop Kinuhata Saiai from marching right up to her.

“It’s true light passes through my nitrogen barrier, but that super doesn’t explain it all. …Light will refract on the border between different densities. And when passing through narrow gaps, it will try to circle around. Sunset continues even after the sun has fully fallen below the horizon because of the temperature difference in the air. Look through the water-filled goldfish scooping bag and the world looks distorted. Mist showers create rainbows. It’s all caused by the same thing: light is super easy to bend.”

“Kh.”

“My nitrogen barrier bent your lasers. It was even easier by taking in small pieces of dry ice. It’s just that I can only make the barrier a few centimeters thick, so the slight refraction of the light still let it hit my skin. That’s super all it was,” stated Kinuhata Saiai.

She then spread her arms a little.

“So I super only needed to mess with the air over a wider area. Dry ice sure is convenient. With it, I can bend the lasers at the border between densities enough to keep myself safe!”

Yes.

Scattering the dry ice smoke around at the start had been the right move. That did more than just make the invisible lasers visible. It changed the conditions of the air by adding an impurity. Take that far enough and the temperature and carbon dioxide density difference created by the dry ice could bend a laser weapon.

There was no such thing as a perfect weapon.

One might have an advantage after its debut, but countermeasures would eventually be developed.

“Your power can only concentrate nitrogen, so it shouldn’t be able to scatter anything over a wide area. Oh, did you absorb only the nitrogen in the area to move the scattered dry ice particles through the air!? Like creating a corona or fog bow!?”

“Trying to calm yourself by super helping me give the answers? Just keep panicking while I rip you apart!!”

Kinuhata clenched her fist, held it at the ready, and – just as B-ko held her hands up to block – tackled the girl with her shoulder.

With the nitrogen barrier surrounding her, this gave Kinuhata a greater hitbox than throwing a punch or a kick. And any hit would crush her target with super-high pressure, so she didn’t even need to master martial arts forms and worry about the speed and weight of her punches.

“Gh, bh!?”

C-ko was caught and crushed by the mass of super-high pressure nitrogen before being launched away.

Only a gross wet sound continued for a while.

Kinuhata focused on the earphone in her ear.

“Takitsubo-san, one down. …Sorry I couldn’t be super considerate of your feelings. I just super messed up your old friend, so this might be hard for you.”

“I want to end this soon so I can fish for water balloon yo-yos.”

“I know I pushed it onto you, but could you super give me back my kindness?”

But what to do now?

If she had nothing better to do, it might be best to assist Mugino or Frenda, making it two-against-one.

However, something audibly stirred.

It was B-ko.

Even though she might as well have had her torso torn through by heavy machinery. It was amazing she could stand up after bleeding that much and she couldn’t hold her shoulders straight. Even so, she was holding the laser weapon based on a concert penlight.

“You’re still going to fight when more than half dead? You have guts, I’ll give you that.”

“This…isn’t over!!”

“But I will super kill you. Without a second thought.”

Kinuhata was ready to calmly evade the enemy attack and kill her.

In fact, she didn’t even need to evade the laser pointed her way. The scorching lines of light would refract just before reaching her and her skin would be untouched.

But B-ko aimed her concert penlight somewhere else.

“?”

She didn’t have to aim the HMLa at Kinuhata Saiai. She was using several lenses to boost its power well beyond the firepower of a cigarette lighter.

Yes.

And what if she were to aim it at an industrial propane tank that stood taller than Kinuhata?

Was it used to support the simple break room in the large broadcast relay station? Which meant it wasn’t far from this back area.

“Are you super crazy!?”

“Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!!”

It detonated.

But the mic performance at the live stage a short distance away kept anyone from hearing it.

Part 7

Frenda Seivelun had fallen from the underside of the bridge and onto the sandbank in the middle of the wide river.

She immediately threw the bomb in her hand.

Instead of fleeing, C-ko caught the bomb. By touching the explosive itself, she could break apart the atoms, preventing it from detonating.

Bombs couldn’t win this.

No matter how hard she tried.

Something must have broken inside her because Frenda Seivelun fell backwards.

She landed on her rear and slid backwards.

Lipstick, foundation – she threw everything she had on her person, but C-ko didn’t even bother dodging it.

Because she could break down anything she touched.

Frenda’s resistance was entirely meaningless.

For some reason, she was reminded of her sister.

She might finally die here.

Tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

“…Come at me…”

C-ko wobbled as she slowly approached.

With her small palm held out.

A single touch would extract the oxygen and hydrogen from the human body. And with the 60% water content removed, Frenda would be instantly transformed into a dried mummy.

“…Come at me…!!”

She couldn’t even perform explosives calculations anymore. What all did she have left? A water-repelling spray used to waterproof shoes and bags and, for some reason, a chemical seasoning in her pocket. Frenda threw everything she had on her.

It all struck C-ko in the shoulder or forehead and was broken apart.

“…Come at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…?”

C-ko’s shout stretched out unusually long and shrill.

She was convulsing.

She remained on her feet as her eyes rolled back in her head.

“You can extract whatever component you want from any material? You don’t have to fear explosives because you can break them down?”

After throwing so many items, Frenda finally breathed a gentle sigh.

And explained what had happened.

“In the end…this is what happens when you throw around that dangerous power without understanding the basics of chemistry. The water-repelling coating is made from carbon fluoride and the seasoning is made from monosodium glutamate. But atoms don’t just hang around in their pure state. They will bond with other atoms to stabilize themselves.”

She wasn’t expecting a response.

In fact, she was out of ideas if C-ko did do anything now. This was really meant to confirm that C-ko was unconscious.

“So if you use your cheating power to wildly break things down like that, the fluorine and sodium will combine to create dangerous sodium fluoride. You surrounded yourself in a colorless toxin that causes respiratory distress and convulsions when breathed in in sufficient quantities to cause acute poisoning.”

She got to the end of her explanation.

She had confirmed her safety.

And she was feeling silly now.

She took a deep breath before continuing.

“But that’s still better than breathing in the even more toxic fluorine. Do you see the skill difference now? There was a compatibility issue here after all. Aren’t you supposed to be a step above other Level 4s? I wish I could ask you how it feels to be bested by nothing more than a Level 0. Really, you were wide open from the moment you started making nitric acid and throwing around chemical smoke without any protective equipment for yourself, idiot! Why would I start by throwing my lipstick after falling in the ground when I had plenty of round river stones around me to throw, loser!? Did you really think you could outdo Ultra Cute Frenda-chan when it comes to chemistry knowledge of all things!? Wah hah hah! You stupid dumbass!! How’d you end up with so few brain cells, Normal-chan of House Common? Were you an orc in your past life? Or a goblin? Bwa ha ha ha! This was your surprise attack, so you should’ve done your research and known what my specialty was in advance, you clumsy weakling coward!!!”

At any rate, the threat had been eliminated.

The fireworks show had yet to begin. Just barely. How could she approach the many launch tubes and focus on defusing the bomb without being interrupted by the ignorant technicians? Frenda ran some calculations with both her cute public face and her dark hidden face.

Or so she thought.

Just then, C-ko’s body jerked.

No, she had gone limp with her eyes rolling back in her head, but she hadn’t fallen yet!?

Frenda was dead if that girl managed direct skin contact.

She would be instantly mummified as all the water molecules were removed from her body.

Yet C-ko was trying to collapse on top of her at close range. With her arms stretched out, giving her the greatest surface area and making it that much harder to avoid.

Was she aiming for mutual destruction?

“Kah.”

“!?”

“Kahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Part 8

Behind the idol concert stage, Mugino noticed some lights in the distant darkness out of the corner of her eye. The number of artificial lights at the river’s sandbank was growing, presumably for the work there.

Meaning…

“Looks like the stubborn fireworks technicians have finally given in,” scoffed A-ko. “It’s going to explode now. So how about you turn tail and run like the filthy villain you are”

(What the hell is Frenda doing? She’d better not have screwed it up!)

Mugino worked to keep the panic off her face, but she couldn’t leave here and head to the sandbank in these circumstances. She was dead as soon as she took her eyes off this enemy.

It was one against one.

But Mugino Shizuri had a question as she faced A-ko.

A-ko’s power boosted the destructive power of her attacks during a cross-counter. She knew that.

That couldn’t be explained physically, so it was probably possible with a psychological power. Because anyone who wielded a weapon or esper power was aware how painful and terrifying their attack was. The power probably took the image in her enemy’s mind, flipped the target of the pain from herself to her enemy, and then brought that imagined pain to the surface. To a level that could cause physical wounds.

(It’s a powerful card to have in your deck, but I have my doubts that’s all she can do if it is a psychological power. Controlling people’s bodies or rewriting memories or personalities like we saw in that stadium before seems more convenient to me.)

Yes.

But a power like that shouldn’t be able to ensure a successful counterattack every single time.

She couldn’t be reading Mugino’s mind with a psychological power.

That would mean she could easily die from a failed cross-counter against a deadly attack. Why would she risk her life like that?

This didn’t just apply to Meltdowner.

Bullets were everywhere on the dark side and they too could kill. There were several different ways to stab or slash with a knife, making attacks hard to predict. To be blunt, no amount of training would bring her cross-counter success rate even to 50%. And in a battle where weapon reach and body weight differed, it might be as low as 10%. And this was in the world of real combat where a failed attack meant instant death. So how had A-ko survived to this day?

There was a trick to her consistent victories.

Mugino Shizuri suddenly spoke.

“A microwave speed gun? No, that isn’t it. It would have to be something more sensitive than that. Maybe a drum style or a rotary prism style?”

“Oh, you figured it out?”

A-ko didn’t seem particularly concerned.

“Don’t underestimate analog tech. It can produce precision and speeds unreachable by switching signals on and off with semiconductors.”

“Ultra-high speed photography, huh?”

“The Octopus Shutter. It’s sensitive enough to divide a single second 20 million times. And by reading the images into a machine as data, you can ignore the effort needed to develop them.”

A-ko pulled something from her breast pocket.

The single-lens optical device was about the size of a ping-pong ball. It used eight octopus-like metal arms to skillfully station itself on her right shoulder.

“So what if you know about it?”

A-ko smiled.

And stated the fundamental problem.

“You still can’t escape the 1/20,000,000th of a second cage. No matter what. How could you when that’s much faster than the transmission speed of human nerves? There’s nothing you can do with a power that requires you to consciously choose to shoot. I can monitor every one of your movements from beginning to end, so my cross-counters always hit. Scared to use your power now? If you still want to try it, then give it everything you’ve got, Level 5. But if you do, I hope you’re ready to at least lose your upper body!!”

Part 9

The smell of blood scattered around.

Part 10

On the riverbank lined with food stalls, Takitsubo Rikou’s breathing stopped.

It was A-ko who ultimately showed up.

She had fought Mugino Shizuri and emerged entirely unscathed. That overwhelming result felt like a recreation of the legends spreading about Academy City’s #1.

The blatant killer intent she was radiating caused a stir around her and who knows what she would do to the crowd just to silence them.

Takitsubo immediately slid down the riverbank.

On the opposite side of the audience. There was only a makeshift parking lot there. Many vehicles were parked in even rows, but since they all belonged to people here to see the fireworks, the parking lot was deserted at the moment.

A-ko slowly approached Takitsubo in the darkness.

Confidently.

On her own two legs.

She really was only interested in Takitsubo Rikou.

The track suit girl spoke while backing away.

“Mugino…and the others…”

“Eh? We killed them wherever we found them,” readily admitted A-ko. “Academy City’s #4? That monster didn’t impress me. It’s not like she can break the 1/20,000,000th of a second barrier. Esper powers are based on the human body, they can’t deal with my cross-counters that exceed the limits of human nerve transmission. She got scared, held back, and eventually lost.”

“…”

“B-ko and C-ko apparently had some trouble, but they didn’t lose.”

Then A-ko tilted her head.

“What is it, D-ko? You look surprised. It was obvious from the start that one side would win and the other side would die. Yes, that’s right. Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai are both dead. Or did you see some different future playing out?”

Takitsubo took a few more steps back.

And shook her head.

“No, that’s impossible!”

“It doesn’t really matter either way,” spat A-ko.

Even though they were discussing the survival of her supposed teammates B-ko and C-ko.

She didn’t give it a second thought.

“What matters is that I am standing in front of you. It was I, A-ko, who appeared before you in the end. Not Mugino Shizuri, not Frenda Seivelun, and not Kinuhata Saiai! It was I who claimed you!! And now I can do with you as I see fit. No, that was always my right!!”

Something was fundamentally off about her statement.

Teammates didn’t claim or have rights over each other.

No one had any rights over Takitsubo other than Takitsubo herself.

“But no one ever died while you were with us. You threw everything off balance! Stop running and take responsibility, D-ko!!”

But A-ko was too worked up by her own words to see that.

She had gotten so many people involved in this and increased the number of victims no one had ever asked for.

And she apparently couldn’t even imagine that Takitsubo Rikou was one of those victims.

“Everyone you were involved with is dead.”

“…”

“So now all I need to do is claim you. It’s simple: with Item gone, I can take it all for myself. But don’t worry. Once you become D-ko, the four of us will be complete. We will be, not Item. Nothing could be more natural. Mugino Shizuri had just gotten in the way until now.”

“Oh, really? And what can you do if it’s just you and Takitsubo?”

Both girls’ eyes were drawn in a different direction.

Toward Mugino Shizuri.

Her hair and clothing were covered in mud.

And blood.

If she was still breathing, she could have saved her life by slipping into the shadows and escaping. Why had she instead dragged her heavy body back here?

For what purpose?

That thought badly irritated A-ko.

That was supposed to be their position.

They were supposed to become four and find success.

A-ko spat out her next words like they were filth.

“You were alive?”

“Not just me. The bomb on the sandbank didn’t go off, did it? Frenda and Kinuhata both won. Sounds like it was a close thing, though.”

That would imply something else.

B-ko and C-ko were dead.

Leaving A-ko all alone.

“You…if only you hadn’t come here…Takitsubo Rikou would have become D-ko and the four of us would have been complete! Stop getting in our way, Iteeeem!!”

But she failed to even notice the situation was worsening for her.

It had all fallen apart.

B-ko and C-ko were gone. So even if she did acquire Takitsubo Rikou now, they wouldn’t be complete. And they never would be.

But A-ko didn’t seem aware of that.

If only she had Takitsubo.

If only D-ko could complete them.

…Funnily enough, Frenda had addressed this while away from these three: If you were doing this for a casual enough reason to mention it here, it would mean you had really and truly lost it.

And come to think of it…what was A-ko’s concept again?

Self-hypnosis.

As long as she continued to believe she couldn’t lose, she could push her power’s specs beyond their limits.

“What a sad creature you are,” spat Mugino with no apparent expression.

Infinite possibilities? I can do it? I can’t lose? She was wandering the front line filled with a confidence with no actual chance of success backing it up. That was suicidal.

They were similar? Because they were four-person teams?

Hell no. They were nothing like Item.

Part 11

A-ko snorted with laughter.

“What? You think you can beat me if you work together?”

Academy City’s #4 Meltdowner was no threat to her.

In fact, the more powerful it was, the greater a weapon it was for A-ko.

What good was adding Takitsubo Rikou?

“Don’t make me laugh. Try as you might, a fighting spirit will get you nowhere in this world. It’s impossible! Based on the structure!! Of the human body!!! My Octopus Shutter can follow human movements in steps of 1/20,000,000th of a second and detect any dangerous attack. So no one can escape my cross-counters! Mugino Shizuri, I will kill you, rip you apart, and present the utter hopelessness of your corpse to Takitsubo Rikou. While grabbing her by the hair and rubbing her nose in it!!”

“Don’t worry.”

Takitsubo Rikou pulled something from her pocket.

It resembled a mechanical pencil lead case.

She flicked it open with her thumb and sprinkled a white powder onto the back of her other hand.

That was Body Crystal.

She licked it up.

“This time, I’ll use it for real.”

Takitsubo’s heart throbbed hard in her chest.

That ultra-high-speed camera operated at 1/20,000,000th of a second, but that was only a mechanical substitute for real skill.

AIM Stalker was an AIM Diffusion Field scanning power that Takitsubo Rikou took the extreme risk of using Body Crystal to enhance. Did A-ko really think she could outdo that?

“Mugino.”

The track suit girl’s tone of voice had changed.

The girl could clearly view something deadly with her oracular eyes.

“It doesn’t matter where. Just continue firing anywhere away from her and outside the range of what counts as a cross-counter.”

At times like this, Mugino Shizuri did not argue with Takitsubo Rikou’s “oracles”.

There was trust there. Enough to let the girl watch her back without hesitation.

A-ko was left all alone.

She wanted Takitsubo so badly, yet they didn’t share anything like this.

“What…? What does that matter!? This isn’t something you can trick by adding in a feint before your attack. I’m tracking your actions down to 1/20,000,000th of a second. A massive number of images are being detected at all times. No tricks will ever let one of your attacks hit. Listen, I will tear them all down with my cross-counters!!!”

A-ko raised her voice, but she could not break free of this strange situation on her own.

She was an expert in cross-counters. So unless Mugino fired Meltdowner to try and kill her, A-ko couldn’t make any attack of her own.

(This is fine. This is fine, this is fine, this is fine. No matter what they do, my Octopus Shutter will break down their actions to 1/20,000,000th of a second and analyze them, so they can’t possibly escape!!)

“…Here it comes!?”

A-ko ducked and dodged before frowning.

Nothing happened.

Then what was that?

Mugino Shizuri hadn’t made any moves yet. Yet the Octopus Shutter had sent a danger signal?

Even though no attack had been made.

“I think I get what Takitsubo wants to say and wants to do. Unlike you.”

“…”

“That’s right. That high-speed detection is far faster than the limits of human nerve transmission. But that raises a question, doesn’t it? You’re only human, so how are you receiving data from that device in real time?”

A-ko was receiving data from the device, yet she didn’t appear to be viewing an LCD monitor or listening to earphones.

In that case…

A-ko had to be receiving the ultra-high-speed camera’s data from the metal octopus-like legs touching her skin. It was using electrical stimulation, just like a low-frequency therapy device. If she were viewing a monitor and reacting to that, she would lose all of her time advantage, so she had needed a communication method that essentially linked into her reflexes.

Meanwhile, Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner was made of a massive number of electrons.

Firing over and over into empty space would electrify the air itself.

So.

If A-ko’s skin was tingling from the start, she couldn’t accurately perceive the stimuli actually coming from the machine!

“But how could you- dammit!!”

A-ko cursed. Openly. She had to be abysmal at poker.

Her 1/20,000,000th of a second advantage was gone.

Without her cross-counters, any attacks would hit her like normal.

And Mugino Shizuri and Takitsubo Rikou spoke at the same moment.

They hadn’t prearranged this.

But their voices joined as one.

“You’re. Dead. Meat.” “You’re. Dead. Meat.”

Part 12

Flash!!!

The deadly beam only needed a split second.

Part 13

The sun had finally set. And the fireworks were launching into the night sky.

Since there had been no major explosion after the show began…Frenda must have defused the bomb.

The lights and booms in the sky above were irrelevant.

It was a quiet moment.

No threat remained.

The track suit girl could have shut her eyes here and been in no danger.

She had regained her ordinary life.

She could sense that even as she lurked in the shadows.

Viewing the bright circles in the night sky, she staggered on her feet and leaned sideways against Mugino.

Maybe it was the Body Crystal, but the body heat passing into Mugino was unnaturally high.

Even so.

Takitsubo Rikou smiled a little and spoke.

“Now we’re partners in crime.”

“We were from the start, weren’t we?”

Epilogue: The True Center

The Daihaseisai was underway.

It was a hectic day ruled by blue skies and fearsome direct sunlight.

Even so, the city was peaceful. There were no villainous plots or bombs.

The past wasn’t baring its fangs against anyone.

“Yum, yum☆”

(So this is what they’re doing now? A crepe. And the obvious mayo puts you at ease before the hidden anchovy-style flavor hits you. I thought I had mastered the art of the mackerel, but in the end, mackerels contain endless possibility.)

According to Takitsubo’s memory, the Advanced Lab had a few adult researchers in addition to A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko, but Frenda wasn’t too concerned.

Everyone on the dark side needed some kind of business to survive. But with their espers gone, those adults would have no luck in their dirty business. Once they were caught in the vicious cycle, they would have no chance at all to restart from nothing.

And while just about anything was acceptable on the dark side, it was still necessary to put in constant work to cover up the darker things. It went without saying what would happen to them once they lacked the money to protect themselves. Simply put, they would fall apart all on their own now.

Right now, basking in the light of the honest world was more important.

On the side of a street blocked off to cars, Frenda Seivelun was eating a tuna, mackerel, and lettuce crepe when someone called out to her.

It was a 7-year-old in athletic bloomers.

Frenda’s sister grabbed her hand as part of the borrowing race.

“Onee-chan, come with me! In the first place, I still have a shot at first place!!”

“Let’s see. You’re looking for…a grownup sexy woman? Damn those teachers. In the end, why would they ask first graders to borrow that!?”

Whether it was to help her sister win or to protest to the teachers, Frenda ran with the 7-year-old.

Along the street flooded with spectators.

She happened to catch a glimpse of Mugino Shizuri and Takitsubo Rikou through a gap in the crowd.

The light was the light and the dark was the dark.

Her eyes met with a teammate she entrusted her life to in the darkness, but at the moment Mugino chose to ignore her.

Expressionless Takitsubo Rikou, however, formed a megaphone with her hands and shouted.

As loud as she could manage.

“Go for it!!”

Mugino looked over at her in shock.

Kinuhata smiled bitterly while leaning against the railing of the pedestrian bridge overhead.

They didn’t stop Takitsubo.

Because they had protected the ordinary city where she could do these things.

And knowing the value of what they had risked their lives to protect might just give them the strength needed to survive.

Little by little, those shadowy girls were becoming involved in the honest world they had saved.

Afterword

If you picked them up one at a time, welcome back. If you bought them all at once, welcome.

This is Kamachi Kazuma.

Item has reached volume 5! Oh, and that’s the same as the number of people in Item if you count Hanano. This one was all about Mugino in athletic bloomers!! …No, wait. It was about the previous year’s Daihaseisai. Of course, this sports festival was from the perspective of the dark side, so it highlighted some fairly dark aspects.

It might be fun to compare this version of the Daihaseisai to the one in OT 9-10. The most obvious examples are how the fireworks show that was a symbol of salvation in the main series became a trigger of mass murder here and how the cheerleader outfit that Komoe-sensei worked so hard to wear was used as camouflage by an enemy.

This one also shined a spotlight on Takitsubo’s past. She might seem like the most sensible member of Item, but she is actually the most mysterious. And some of that was finally revealed! …But, well, with the dark side involved, the official records can be altered and power can be boosted with special equipment, leading to the creation of a lot of what you could think of as Level 4.5 espers. Makes you wonder what the ranking would be like if it was ranked by pure strength rather than applicability.

That the scariest thing this time was technology rather than esper powers was one thing I really liked while writing it. In my mind, that’s how it should be for Academy City.

Ultra-high-speed photography, a high school girl’s homemade laser, and a pain stimulant that increases the human sense of pain by 350 times. I included a lot of ridiculous weapons to grab your attention as you read the book.

I had all the crimes this time be focused on creation and erasure.

For me, the heart of crime fiction isn’t the violent scenes themselves but the moment in which something happens that shouldn’t be able to happen and the absolute rule of law is broken by cleverness and brute force. (For example, changing one’s face with plastic surgery or erasing one’s fingertips.) But what do all of you think?

Nothing would make me happier than knowing you enjoyed the contrast between the students working up a healthy sweat below the pleasant September sky at the Daihaseisai and the bloody battles on the dark side.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Nilitsu-san and to my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. With the extreme contrast between the business of the athletic festival and the criminal atmosphere of dark sports and with sportswear both high-tech and nostalgic, the illustrations must have been difficult. Thank you yet again.

And I give thanks to the readers. Yes, that’s right. Athletic bloomers are still in use in this world. Which means our Earth will be flooded with them once technology advances 20 or 30 years!!

…A more obvious example of this issue is the folding cellphones. This is a work of fiction, so if I don’t want something to disappear, I can keep it alive in a more advanced form. I just hope all of you are willing to accept it! Thank you for continuing to read these books!!

And I will end this here.

I had the most fun writing the chase with the cheerleader.

-Kamachi Kazuma

Ending

“I am sincerely sorry.

“I must apologize for the trouble my failure has caused all of you.”

It’s fine. As long as you’re safe.

But even a voice on the phone can become a target? The dark side really is a frightening place. Nowhere in the world is truly safe, is it?

“The situation has been resolved, so only the cleanup remains.

“Shiokishi-sama, will that be acceptable?”

Yes.

“Good. Then I have approval and authorization from the Board. I will be handling this one with my own personal connections and possessions.”

Don’t push yourself too hard. We do have people to fight on the front lines.

“I will be fine.

“I will not let anything like this happen again. We need to make sure people know what happens if they take the dark side lightly – and its higher ups especially. Right?”

…Umm. Oh, dear. Are you drinking something by any chance?

“Of course not.

“I am sober this time.”

It was night.

One place had a very different feel from the energy of the Daihaseisai.

Everyone overlooked that one spot.

Thanks to a blown bicycle tire, Anti-Skill hadn’t been along on their usual patrol.

Even the drive recorders and home security cameras from different companies had all been silenced.

Who had gone to that effort?

The work was so perfect no one even asked that question.

“Sigh. God, this thing’s heavy.”

A woman was walking along that dark street carrying a metal stepladder under her arm.

With all the camera-equipped press in the city for the Daihaseisai, that alone wasn’t too unusual, except it did stand out late at night when no events were held. Or it would have if anyone had been around to see it.

She was in an ordinary (or maybe fairly cheap) residential area filled with short apartment buildings. In Academy City, the large dumpsters on the side of the road would automatically process garbage, but they even operated at night, which had led to a fair number of noise complaints. It really came down to the morals of the neighborhood, but when people didn’t separate out their garbage properly, spray cans could end up rupturing inside the large boxes, creating a lot of noise during the night in some areas.

“I can’t drink until the job is complete. Honestly, at least I can smoke.”

The woman wore a tight skirt suit and she placed her soft palm on the side of the stepladder. The surface seemed to peel away, unnaturally revealing a deadly weapon longer than she was tall.

It was a Metal Eater Trial .50 caliber anti-tank rifle.

The monster fired absurdly large bullets and even had a full-auto mode.

It had been hidden so it couldn’t be seen.

In addition to simple camouflage, she had made full use of optical illusions that tricked the brain.

All her skill as a disguise expert had gone into it.

(If you hide things too much, people will want to see inside the box. But whether it’s a stepladder or a chain-link fence, people assume you can’t hide anything in something with gaps you can see through, so they let their guard down. Really, it’s one of the standard assumption-based tricks stage magicians use.)

…That said, applying makeup to a weapon wasn’t an unusual idea. In past wars, bricks of explosives had been painted like actual bricks or coal to disguise them and just about any sniper would spray paint their gun with camouflage.

The woman whispered while focused on her wireless earphones.

Her target was a black luxury car.

“Do you think your diplomat plates make you untouchable? I sure hope you aren’t relying on that cheap myth in Academy City’s darkness.”

“!?”

“I can’t believe you would sell out a voice on the phone fairly deep in the dark side and even try to take her life. Humans contain such depths. I’m really starting to think the final dungeon for humanity isn’t the deep oceans or space – it’s the psychological world. I have no idea what you were thinking. But it does seem you want to become the kind of horrific corpse that will go down in the history of crime.”

The other side of the phone call was a mere 10m ahead of her. She heard something from inside the thick black luxury car that was motionless thanks to an incredibly unnatural malfunction.

Maybe he was begging for his life.

She ignored it and pulled the trigger.

She didn’t have to worry about the noise. The car’s bulletproofing was only designed for 9mm handguns, so firing 12.7mm anti-materiel rounds into it at full-auto turned it to Swiss cheese in less than a minute. In fact, over half of the car’s 2-ton weight was gone.

.50 caliber, 12.7mm. That she wasn’t flipped over onto her back from firing those on full-auto while standing upright suggested she was using several forms of technology, including an extra-large muzzle brake.

The muzzle flashes shined bright like camera flashes at a press conference and the reflected light tore through the shadows.

The woman was Hanano Choubi.

“Well, that was boring. It’s always like this with them. Since it’s an electric car, I thought maybe he’d be electrocuted.”

She tapped her ear to switch off the ultra-precise noise canceling in her closed wireless earphones. The one flaw of the Metal Eater Trial was the noise caused by the ridiculous amount of powder it used. She hoped that would be fixed before the finalized version.

At any rate, she only had to leave this place and her job was complete. She would retrieve the stepladder, hide the giant gun in it, head back to safety, and start drinking. It was late, but she still wanted to eat a giant pile of fried chicken and fries. Days like this made her want to treat herself to the cheapest and most unhealthy luxuries.

And that would have happened.

“Uh…”

If she hadn’t heard an impossible groan.

What had been a thick door (and now more resembled a honeycomb or sponge) creaked. A bloody man rolled out. Probably the driver. He had likely been hit by the sharp metal fragments torn from the car rather than the bullets themselves.

Hanano didn’t hesitate to aim the Metal Eater Trial at him, but then someone emerged from the side.

A small figure.

It was Academy City’s #6. AKA the Dark Side’s Bane.

And she could only see a vague outline even at this close range?

“Please wait.”

“?”

“That man is only an embassy worker. He had nothing to do with this case and he isn’t even aware of Academy City’s seedy underside. You have achieved your revenge. The dark side has no shortage of cruel people, but no one is going to try and take advantage of your situation after this. There is no need to shoot an unrelated innocent.”

A short burst of explosive blasts followed.

Hanano Choubi had blown the collapsed man’s head off with three shots. Just to be thorough.

She belatedly realized she hadn’t hit the switch on her earphones, so the noise canceling must have been made to automatically switch on and off in certain conditions. Electronics didn’t come with paper manuals these days, so people often didn’t know every available feature.

The voice on the phone spoke in a kind voice like she was talking to a lost child.

“I decide who I kill. No one else.”

“…”

“This was my revenge, so that choice is my privilege. I need to eliminate any and all lingering concerns if I’m going to fully enjoy a healthy and peaceful tomorrow. I want to end it all today. Isn’t that how revenge works? I’m not interested in advice from an outsider who has never been hurt like this. It’s always like this.”

For a while, the #6 said nothing.

It took a full five seconds.

“”Are you…taking this lightly because it has already happened?”

“?”

“Looking at the timeline, you cannot die here. So do you think you are safe no matter how far you stray?”

She didn’t understand.

But hold on.

Hanano Choubi held one of the deepest positions in the dark side, but she didn’t understand this? When it was related to Academy City? Could that really happen?

Or.

…Was her position really as deep as she thought it was?

The small figure spoke.

“The thing is, no one can prove that Item’s voice on the phone is actually Hanano Choubi. She’s only an unclear voice coming from a machine, so the real one might be someone else entirely. Or things may be adjusted to make it that way. Discussing the past doesn’t necessarily confirm anything. You have no objective proof, so you may have already ceased to exist. …The truth is a malleable thing, so it cannot be used as a sword or a shield.”

“Wait…what are you talking about?”

“Two Wings.”

The voice was quiet.

But it seemed to pierce deep into a distortion of the world.

“Did an attack helicopter by that name exist? You can’t just let this slide. Look back further in the past to a conversation with a black market doctor. At the very least, Mugino Shizuri had already mentioned the Six Wings name in this same timeline. Before the Two Wings was ever mentioned.”

Hanano Choubi of course had no idea what the #6 was talking about. She didn’t even feel like the small figure was speaking to her. It was more like they were talking to themself or to someone who wasn’t here and she was simply caught in the middle of it.

But despite feeling left out, a cold sweat dripped from her brow to her nose.

This was bad.

Really, really bad!!

“Like I said, the truth is a malleable thing, so it cannot be used as a sword or a shield. Have you forgotten the basic fact that we produce supernatural phenomena by distorting quantum physics which are vague and uncertain enough already in their rejection of Newtonian physics? Observation can change the world. It can be affected from the outside. And Academy City has raised a ton of those monsters.”

The small figure took a step forward.

The .50 caliber weapon was useless.

Hanano Choubi seemed paralyzed.

The small figure held out a small palm.

And Academy City’s #6 whispered while viewing some other far distant place.

The person known as the Dark Side’s Bane spoke.

“I will bring you into this absurd distortion.”

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Dengeki Island: A Girl’s Battle (Still Growing) Kamijou Touma Visits Another World Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch Crossover SS Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch X Heavy Object Crossover SS I Still Want to Do a Summer Fair A Certain Collaboration Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 Kamachi Crossover Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - A.E. 02 - Afterword Durarara Crossover Preface - Academy City Chapter - Ikebukuro Chapter	Next NA