Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter4

==Chapter 4: The Cost of Your Choice==

===Part 1===

The situation was changing at dizzying speed.

On the first floor lobby of the District 5 tourist hotel, Kinuhata Saiai could tell she was breathing heavily. Now was no time to panic. She was currently on a dangerous tightrope walk where failing to organize the information would guarantee her death.

“Phew.”

She had to sort through the information, be it good or bad.



Striking back at the Information Broker was her top priority for now.



At the same time, she would have to finally deal with the fundamental problem of Mugino Shizuri. She doubted lies and deception would work forever there. The more she tried it, the more likely she was to make a mistake or rouse suspicion. So she had to make Mugino feel guilty by making her commit the one thing she disliked most of all: betrayal.

Then the born gangster’s own wicked principles would prevent her from attacking Kinuhata and the rest. The gang logic would muddle who was owed what.



Letting Mugino find out about any of this was out of the question, so they couldn’t rely on the support team. Kinuhata, Takitsubo, and Frenda would have to solve the Information Broker and Mugino problems on their own.



So…

“We’ll super pit Mugino and the Information Broker against each other.”

It was two in the afternoon.

Kinuhata Saiai made this suggestion while soaked with a cold sweat.

“We make it look like I got dragged into that fight. It would work best if I get injured. Then Mugino will kill the Information Broker for us and Mugino’s ‘betrayal’ of me will give us the upper hand with her. That’s the only way if all of us are going to survive. We let it all be super water under the bridge by negating betrayal with more betrayal.”

“In the end, are you serious? There’s no safety measures there.”

Frenda’s shoulders slumped, but she didn’t seem to have an alternative.

Track suit girl Takitsubo nodded a little.

“It’s more likely to work than trying to continue lying. Mugino hates betrayal from one of her own more than anything. Based on her gangster logic, not simple emotion. …So how much do you think she will blame herself if she suspects a teammate and turns out to be wrong? Especially if that teammate ends up injured as a result.”

It wasn’t a solid plan.

It would be a perilous tightrope walk. In fact, the very idea of using this loophole against her could be seen as a betrayal of Mugino.

One shoulder of Frenda Seivelun’s clothes slipped down.

Her thoughts were written plain on her face: she wanted to run with all her might, but she knew running would only get her killed.

“Ugh. Then what do we need first? That Information Broker’s identity and appearance? In the end, we can’t include her in our plan if we don’t know her personal information.”

“Then this should come in super handy.”

Kinuhata Saiai waved her phone.

“Just like when we dealt with the blackmailers, I have the location data found by messing with a security robot, hooking a phone up to it, and scanning for phone signals in the area. Anyone with five or ten phones on them is super suspicious, right? Then I have a candidate here.”

Frenda was skeptical. Which may have been the natural reaction after being dragged into a deadly problem for no good reason.

“In the end, do you really think the big boss would be wandering around on the front line?”

“You have it backwards, Frenda.”

“?”

“She can let her underlings handle a lot of the odd jobs, but not so with a delicate and difficult boss battle. It’s the same with Item and our support team, right? …If she truly sees us as a threat, the Information Broker herself will be the one gathering information.”

But that mistrust and unease regarding her own people had worked against her.

It had been convenient for Kinuhata and the others that the enemy was carrying five or more phones. They were likely for different uses – contacting her team, sending commands to disposable soldiers, etc. – but with five of them, it wasn’t a surprise to find one specific type of phone.

One for purely private use.

Instead of a pseudonym and a fictional address, this phone was linked to her real name and bank account and had tens of thousands of photos and videos on it.

They couldn’t steal all of those right away, but they could view the registration name on the small notifications and the lock screen wallpaper.

This was especially easy with narcissists who used their own photo there.



“Norsitro Chatellenie. …Finally super found you, Information Broker.”



She was a girl with silver hair and dark skin.

She looked to be older than Kinuhata and younger than Takitsubo.

Why her wallpaper was a selfie of herself smiling in only a towel was a mystery, though. Did she tend to take long baths with her phone?

Takitsubo Rikou had again shifted into drill sergeant mode. So annoying.

“Okay, Kinuhata. We know her name and appearance, but how do we find her hideout?”

“We super use her food,” succinctly stated Kinuhata Saiai.

Frenda sighed.

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, her name does sound pretty French. Her phone’s default language is even set to French.”

According to Frenda, the towel she was wearing was from a fairly high-end brand. A French brand, of course. It was an offshoot of the fancy restaurant napkins and tablecloths the company was generally known for. Silks and dresses were one thing, but Kinuhata was a little surprised to learn there was even such a thing as a super high-quality towel. Takitsubo and Frenda went on to say the one towel cost more than two million yen. Now she was super surprised!!

“She’ll definitely be looking for the soul food of her home country. That doesn’t mean she’ll be super eating French food every day, but she won’t be able to stop completely. And if she does that when she’s letting off some steam, she will leave behind some small hints. We can use those to can track down the elusive Information Broker.”

That must have been the answer Takitsubo was expecting.

She immediately returned the conversational rally.

“For food, District 4 would be best.”

“Yeah, they super have any kind of cuisine you could want. Which means that’s where a native would go if she isn’t satisfied with Japan’s French restaurants that unintentionally alter the food to fit Japanese sensibilities and work with the local ingredients.”

“But, Kinuhata, an entire district is a large area. Will Norsitro be going to a luxury French restaurant with a French manager, or does she visit an industrial supermarket with imported ingredients and do the cooking herself? Even narrowing it down to those two options leaves quite a few possibilities.”

“Will you super stop testing me?” Kinuhata sighed in exasperation and raised a finger. “B and C gangster movies always show the gang bosses and fugitives using fancy restaurants of their home country as a base, but you’d be immediately caught and arrested if you tried that in Academy City. The connection is too obvious. So if the Information Broker is trying to be safe by staying hidden, she super won’t visit a restaurant connected to her home country. By her logic, that would be suicide.”

She raised another finger.

“And ''that’s why she’ll have them come to her.'' At a disposable rental site of course. There are plenty of services that let you call in an expert chef to cook for you and even the rich in the legitimate world will do that for a home party. For a special fee. …That must exist on the dark side too, right? There must be a chef hiring service with options for every county around the world.”

“Correct.” Takitsubo laughed. “It’s called Kitchen Car. Those food specialists are based in District 4 and can enrich a criminal’s fugitive lifestyle.”

“Right. The chef’s skills are top rate, but they were unfairly fired when the entire restaurant got food poisoning or the ingredients were phony or something, so in the end, they were recruited in secret,” added Frenda.

Kinuhata sighed softly.

“That just leaves…the fact that it’s two in the afternoon. The next super time she could call a chef will be at dinnertime. How many hours are we going to end up waiting?”

“In the end, I doubt it will take long.”

“Kinuhata, proper French cooking requires hours of preparation. For a dinner scheduled for seven to nine in the evening, I wouldn’t be surprised if the chefs are already getting started.”

Oh, is that so, you damn dark side rich girls?

This was an unbelievable world for Kinuhata who was happy as long as she had movie theater popcorn and a soda.

Regardless, if Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was a frequent user of Kitchen Car, this would be easy. Tailing their French chef would eventually lead them right to the Information Broker.

“There are a few things we have to be super careful about,” began Kinuhata. She raised a finger. “First, Kitchen Car will be experts at not being tailed. After all, their job is to provide a safe option for fugitives who can’t just go to a restaurant. Trust is their main selling point, so they will make super sure they aren’t being followed. What we do about that is our biggest problem.”

She wasn’t done yet.

She raised a second finger.

“Second, using this to attack the Information Broker would be easy, but we also have to see this through to the end while fooling Mugino. Defeating Norsitro Chatellenie is super meaningless if she makes a mistake and is killed by Meltdowner before we’re ready. And Mugino isn’t stupid, so she will get suspicious with all three of us missing.”

“''Isn’t that great''?”

Kinuhata couldn’t believe it.

The legitimate VIP whose downfall had been triggered by a super tiny pencil nuke. Private Casino who had been baked to death by a white phosphorous grenade on the party hall roof. The fates of those who had opposed or betrayed Item – or Mugino Shizuri, really – flashed through Kinuhata’s mind. This situation was placing a strain on her heart, but Takitsubo had casually called it “great”?

That search expert who didn’t participate in the direct fighting really did see things differently. …Was Mugino Shizuri really the most terrifying member of Item?

“We have internal and external enemies and the situation is extremely complex and annoying, but we only have two problems to deal with. That should tell you this mission is on easy mode, Kinuhata.”

===Part 2===

Takitsubo spoke up while operating her phone on a moving train.

“I found more on the Information Broker.”

“?”

Kinuhata frowned.

Their opponent was an expert at using information. She wouldn’t be operating in a way that made her real identity as Norsitro Chatellenie a household name.

So was Takitsubo researching the Information Broker identity?

“She appears to go by some other names, but the most notable one is the Faultfinding Demon. She might take a philanthropist who insists money isn’t everything and bury them in debt. Or she might take a lawyer who claims to be opposed to violence no matter the circumstances and place them under so much psychological pressure they end up killing someone in front of a TV camera. It looks like she targets anyone who performatively makes unrealistic claims to boost their public reputation.”

“But are you sure it’s really Norsitro doing that? Information Broker isn’t a super rare term or anything.”

“Kinuhata. Do you remember the bug maker I mentioned before?”

“Yeah, during the stuff with Sudori-san. You said they were investigating Kamigi when they disappeared.”

“Well, the title of information broker is even more common than that one, but I’ve heard rumors of a sudden drop off in how often it’s used. They must all be afraid of earning her disfavor by looking like a rival.”

That made sense.

This opponent was even more dangerous than Kinuhata had imagined. Not to mention self-centered and persistent.

“Is the super dark side just full of guys who are willing to die for their weird hang-ups?”

“Stop that, Kinuhata. You should try to use gender neutral language.”

Kinuhata got scolded by the capable big sister.

…But was that really necessary when complaining about brutal villains?

District 4 was located a bit northeast of Academy City’s center.

The district specialized in all things food and it was a very international place. The food market had small flags to indicate what nationality a shop specialized in, so the long street was reminiscent of all the flags at an athletic festival. The many signs jutting out from from the building walls was chaos itself. There were so many signs overhead it felt like walking through a colorful tunnel.

Broad categories like Asian or European had naturally gathered in clumps, but there was no strict division between areas. There was an Italian restaurant and an American South hamburger shop encroaching on the red Chinatown and a sushi place with the Central and South American versions of Spanish and Portuguese on the signs right alongside the European restaurants. The sushi there apparently used jalapeno paste instead of wasabi.

“This district is like a giant manifestation of choice paralysis.”

“Frenda, is this making you crave your own home country’s food?”

“In the end, I’d be happy living on the far side of Mars as long as I have mackerel.”

If the three of them stayed away too long, Mugino Shizuri would get suspicious. But that didn’t mean they had to solve this problem before that happened. In fact, they couldn’t have Mugino just stay in the luxury hotel. To trick her, to get her to betray them, and to survive, they needed Mugino to act of her own volition.

Suspicion was the greatest fuel for someone who hated betrayal more than anything else.

“So is super that Kitchen Car’s HQ?”

“I think so, Kinuhata.”

“But wait. District 4 is all about food…and they’re in a trash house!? I thought Kitchen Car were super culinary experts!! How could they let this happen!?”

“In the end, I bet this was what happened when those culinary experts decided to build a fortress everyone would want to keep away from. Inside, they’ve probably torn down some walls to turn into a maze. It’s called hiding in plain sight. If you’re looking for someone or something, nothing is more annoying than a trash-filled building.”

The structure itself was a four-floor multi-tenant building, but bulging trash bags were piled up in every door and window and even covered the front walk.

Was that supposed to be camouflage?

That had to be a huge nuisance for the neighbors.

The trio bought kebab sandwiches at a nearby food stand and munched on them as they waited for something to happen. There were an unusual number of people jogging, but was that the result of the overabundance of tasty foods in this district?

Frenda’s sandwich must have been too spicy for her because she kept going back to her cup’s straw for more sips of soda.

“In the end, do we have any reason to think the Information Broker will call Kitchen Car today?”

“There’s no guarantee, but I think the odds are good,” replied Takitsubo. “This is a big deal for her too. It might look like she’s the one threatening Item, but this only happened because she failed to deal with us earlier. If she screws this up, she’ll truly have to go into hiding and then she’ll have far fewer options. She should want to eat everything she likes while she has the chance.”

“There they super are.”

A mid-sized yellow truck slowly emerged from the trash heap of a place. Kinuhata was surprised to find there was a metal garage door there.

“That must be Kitchen Car’s truck.”

The trio waited for the truck to pass by and made the final check by nose.

“Bouillon and mirepoix. Also truffles, pickles, horseradish, and is that lobster sauce?”

“That’s not Japanese or Chinese cooking. In the end, it’s definitely French.”

…Kinuhata couldn’t tell a thing. But she wasn’t upset about it. Really.

But a truck.

Did they need a large vehicle to fit the ingredients and the cooking equipment? It wasn’t as bad as with Chinese cooking, but French cooking probably did require some industrial firepower.

Kitchen Car were experts at providing fugitives with delicious food. That meant they knew how to keep Anti-Skill from tailing them. This wouldn’t be as easy as attaching a GPS-equipped device to track it. The truck’s radio or sensors would detect the signal.

So Takitsubo made a simple comment.

“Frenda.”

“Yeah, yeah. In the end, one plastic bottle drone coming up. Makes me wonder what you would have done if you didn’t have the ultra genius and ultimately cute Frenda-chan on your side.”

“It’s French food, right? I planned to track the nitrogen gas used to keep the wine from oxidizing.”

“But in the end, Norsitro Chatellenie is clearly underage!”

Takitsubo and Frenda were enjoying their banter.

How could they be so calm?

Kinuhata frowned.

“Won’t your drone get super shot down by an attack helicopter?”

“In the end, anything small enough will be fine as long as it doesn’t move too fast. There are plenty of UFOs flying around overhead, including small birds and convenience store bags floating in the wind. The city’s automatic air defense doesn’t react to it all.”

Of course, Frenda wasn’t just guessing here. It was based on accurate data she had researched. And the standards had to change daily.

The tablet’s screen showed the yellow truck crossing a few district boundaries.

It finally arrived in District 2.

“Isn’t that the car-focused district?”

“In the end, they do weapons and explosives there too.”

They focused on the screen some more. The yellow truck drove below a building, likely into an underground parking garage, but experts at losing pursuit wouldn’t drive straight to their client’s hideout. Frenda cautiously sent the drone around a while longer to continue observing from the air until…

“Here they come.”

“Hm. When traveling on foot, they disguise themselves as a wholesaler that specializes in fireproof curtains and carpets. Well, the ingredients and cooking equipment unloaded from the truck would be too heavy to carry without a handcart of some kind.”

“Then is this it? What is this super place?”

“I see a lot of tall, fake structures and a bunch of ropes. In the end, it looks like some kind of training ground. If it isn’t Anti-Skill, could it be for firefighters?”

The place didn’t seem to be functioning. Was it abandoned? There was even a large plastic pool set up on the grounds.

“Is it time to head in?”

“I want to be absolutely certain first. They might take another vehicle from the parking lot here.”

They waited ten minutes, but that never happened.

That settled it.

It had to be this former training ground thought to be for firefighters.

“We have her,” said Takitsubo Rikou.

===Part 3===

She woke up.

“Hmm?”

Mugino Shizuri opened her eyes in bed. And slowly sat up.

She crawled out of the bedroom still in sleepwear that let her body show through pretty much everywhere.

“Takitsubo?”

No response.

She looked around without fixing her hair.

“Kinuhata, Frenda?”

Still nothing.

(Hm…)

Just once she consciously let out a breath.

Then she grabbed her phone.

She didn’t call her familiar Item teammates.

(Kinuhata and Takitsubo were missing after the bank robbery, but now Frenda’s gone too.)

She was already making some guesses. Like that ''they wouldn’t respond'' if she called them or messaged them on social media.

There was only one person to contact at a time like this.

“Mujinayama. You’ve been discharged from the hospital, right?”

“I must apologize for the inconvenience and trouble I caused you back then, Lady Shizu-”

“Don’t bother,” she snapped and the old butler immediately fell silent.

This was Mujinayama, so he obviously wasn’t intimidated. Even over the phone, he gave the sense of a grandfather playing with his grandchild.

“Hey, Mujinayama.”

“I am at your service.”

“How do I identify a traitor?”

===Part 4===

A firefighter training ground was an unfamiliar place.

Kinuhata had trouble deciding where any specific rooms would be located. The fake structures on the surface couldn’t be all of it, so there was likely more underground.

Now, where would that evil boss be?

“Can we super determine what floor and room they’re in base on Kitchen Car’s movements?”

Kinuhata knew that was asking a lot.

The grounds were large and there were probably lots of underground pathways connecting different areas. What they could see from the outside wouldn’t be enough to fully track Kitchen Car.

But Frenda sounded cheerful as she used a cable to link her phone to a panel on the thick wall surrounding the grounds.

“In the end, check this out, Kinuhata. The security camera records are just gone.”

“Does that super mean the Information Broker is using this place in secret?”

“Then what about this third floor special observation seat? I’m guessing that’s a VIP room for instructors to watch all the trainees and keep score, but the sprinklers have been turned off there.”

“Kitchen Car was transporting cooking equipment along with their ingredients, right? They can ventilate the smoke with a hose connected to the air conditioning vent, but the heat of the fire will still be a problem. So what if they want to use an industrial high-heat gas burner or oven outside of a proper kitchen?”

“You mean they would have to super switch off the sprinklers and fire alarms? Then they must be in the third floor VIP room!”

They were already in enemy territory, so they couldn’t use the elevator which could act like a dead end. It was only three floors up, so they took the emergency stairs.

“Takitsubo-san, the plan was to pit the Information Broker and Mugino against each other, right?”

“Right.”

“But how do we super call Mugino here?”

“In the end, do we even have to? Mugino will never forgive a traitor. She’ll track us down here on her own. We couldn’t hide from her even if we wanted to.”

However, they couldn’t relax just because they were using the emergency stairs instead of the elevator.

A wire crossed the path at above knee height, the most likely height for someone to hit.

Laying several layers of traps would also narrow the trap-layers freedom of movement, so they would only do it if it benefited them. …Hopefully this meant the enemy didn’t have enough personnel to have regular human patrols.

“Have you noticed, Kinuhata?”

“Yeah, I have. These traps are weird. They’re using the bare minimum of flammables like gasoline while using a super ton of oxygen tanks and air circulators.”

Kinuhata wondered if that was to avoid breaking the laws against weapons and bombs, but setting up any kind of explosive with the intent of causing an explosion violated the law anyway. Reducing the amount used wouldn’t get you off the hook in court.

The Academy City Bomber explained in exasperation.

“They’re using oxygen to guide the flames. Have you never heard of tactical ventilation? When firefighters enter a burning building, they will methodically break windows and doors to let air through and, in the end, guide the flames where they won’t hurt anyone while the firefighters complete their rescue. They will also sometimes intentionally increase the intensity of the fire elsewhere to prevent backdrafts and flashovers. But if you wanted to, you could also create a flamethrower-like blast of fire and bend it in an S-shape.”

They all exchanged a glance.

…Firefighters. Frenda had said it herself, but apparently even she hadn’t expected the phrase to pop up here.

“In the end, this is a training ground for them, isn’t it?”

“Super umm, can rescue squad people go bad too?”

“I’ve never heard of it, but it could be. They’re trained to break down doors and enter buildings above the ground floor, so they do have some abusable skills.”

“They also sound strong. In the end, they’d definitely make big burly troops.”

The three continued up the stairs while on the lookout for traps.

After reaching the third floor hallway and cracking open the steel fire door, they sensed a presence.

They spotted someone big and burly.

Kinuhata could defeat him with Offense Armor, but his identity was a bit of a mystery. Looking like a bad guy didn’t necessarily mean you were one. People sometimes behaved in weird, illogical ways. He might just be an ordinary body builder who had snuck into the former training ground (unaware of the traps) to get a workout there, so Kinuhata and the others waited until he had walked past before slipping out into into the hallway.

Takitsubo’s nose twitched a little.

“I don’t detect an appetizing aroma.”

“In the end, the room with the most suspicious electricity usage is the third door on the right.”

Then they would start there.

Kinuhata had assumed there was only one third floor VIP room, but it turned out there were several. After pressing her ear to the door and listening for any activity inside, she slowly opened the door.

“What is this super place?”

She found a dark room.

It was about the size of a larger convenience store.

The opposite wall was made of glass to provide a view of the outdoor training ground, but Kinuhata was more interested in something else.

LCD monitors lined one section with pricey-looking office chairs in front of them. More than half the space under the desks was taken up by what looked like industrial computers.

“Did the firefighter training ground also super teach them how to respond to emergency alerts and operate their radios?”

“This might have all been brought here after the fact,” replied the track suit girl.

The right and left walls were covered by steel racks packed with paper files thicker than brick blocks.

Takitsubo scanned the entire room with emotionless eyes.

“Frenda, let’s check the paper.”

“In the end, why not the computers? Paper documents don’t even have the bare minimum of a search option.”

“I don’t want to touch the computers when we don’t even know if they use a password, fingerprints, a security key, or facial recognition. We might get it locked down or even trigger an alert to their boss. The paper is better. I’ll handle the shelves, so you two check the ones around the desks.”

“Ughh. In the end, a note with their password written on it would be too much to hope for, wouldn’t it?”

“If they’re unlocking it every single time, there must be some kind of mark or hint,” said Takitsubo even as she walked over to the shelves.

All that information felt overwhelming to Kinuhata, but apparently it looked like a treasure trove to their search expert.

“This data is related to a vulnerability,” said Takitsubo as she flipped through something like a thick manual.

Kinuhata tilted her head. What kind of vulnerability?

“The wide variety of videos and articles strewn across the internet are automatically fact checked for accuracy…but there is no system in place to fact check the fact checking.”

“???”

“It’s complicated, but in short there’s a loophole in the network monitoring system. By converting a file to the fact checking file extension, it can slip right past Academy City’s automatic checking system. The legitimate files are 512 kilobytes, so anything larger than that would be detected as illegitimate, but you can fit a ton of text in a file that size.”

“Super so what? What happens if you can slip something past it?”

“You can send unchecked electronic data in and out of the city. Using the official fiber optic lines while ignoring the dedicated systems entirely.”

They all fell silent.

Hold on.

“Wh-what are you saying? That, in the end, all the city’s classified data on next-gen weapons and esper development could be leaked outside the city!?”

“…”

Instead of responding right away, Takitsubo took a look around the room.

She blinked a few times.

“If they are selling technology like that, why isn’t any of that data here?”

“Now that you mention it… They super have a loophole they could use, but I haven’t seen any data they could sell, like the plans for a stealth fighter or a Level 5’s DNA map.”

“So in the end, what is Norsitro hoping to do with that super convenient joker in her hand?”

That was when Takitsubo’s head shot up.

The search expert was looking off in an odd direction.

That was a warning sign.

“Kinuhata. Frenda.”

“Yes?”

“Watch out. The enemy is coming.”

The door burst open from outside.

Frenda immediately leapt behind a big decorative plant and Kinuhata moved in front of Takitsubo.

A girl entered flanked by two large men. They of course recognized that silver hair and dark skin.

That was Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie.

Her phone’s wallpaper had shown her in a towel, but now her body was tightly bound by a leather belt, miniskirt, and big boots that were a glittering neon green with silver thread woven in. It was probably meant to be a bondage outfit.

“Oh, hey. You were right, Matsuzawa-san.”

“I was lucky.”

“All we had to do was leave the ‘call center’ unlocked and unoccupied and they waltzed on in here like a bunch of roaches. Incredible.”

“Milady. Shouldn’t you compare them to something more appealing, like rhinoceros beetles?”

“Is that more appealing? You must like the outdoors, Haranaka-san. They’re both just shiny black bugs to me☆”

===Part 5===

Back in the tourist hotel suite in the grown-up District 5.

What Mugino Shizuri most wanted at the moment was the live words of an expert.

Needless to say, the Mugino Family was an international gang with hundreds of thousands of soldiers around the world.

Thus, they wouldn’t go crying to the normal police if some money disappeared or someone died within the Family. That would mean tearing down their entire violent system to solve one measly case. Still, there were on occasion fools who would periodically sell information to the police (because they were being threatened or something). To reiterate, the Family would not ask the police for help when something happened.

So they had a different solution.

They had an internal investigation department that specialized in identifying and punishing traitors in their midst.

“If it’s too weak, there’s nothing to stop the traitors, but if it’s too strong, it turns into a dictatorship that wields false accusations and purges. …Mujinayama, you know how to handle these things just right, don’t you?”

“Sigh… I would have preferred you came to me for advice on how to prevent the betrayal from occurring in the first place, but I get the feeling it is too late for that.”

“Hurry up.”

When Mugino lightly rushed him, the mood changed.

His world – the vibe of the Mugino Family he had served for so many long years – pushed in through the cold mechanical phone.

“The standard countermeasure against betrayal in a system of violence is to prepare for it before it actually happens. You do not want to be running around in a panic after you have been betrayed and real harm has been done.”

“Right.”

Mugino glanced aside with the phone against her ear.

At the empty boxes for luxury brand clothing piled up in a corner of the room.

“''You don’t have to worry about that.''”

“Is that so? I would expect no less from the one who carries the weight of the Family’s future on her shoulders. I am relieved.”

That old butler did not flatter people for no reason. If she couldn’t think of any reason for the compliment, there had to be more coming.

His ever gentle voice quietly gained the sharp edge of a knife.

“However, you must not forget that suspecting your companions is itself a small betrayal. It is necessary for the maintenance of a system of violence that cannot rely on the official power structures, but it is by no means a praiseworthy thing.”

“…”

“And what if your suspicions of betrayal prove to be false? Shizuri-sama, betrayal and the response thereof are a sort of gamble. You are not a righteous detective investigating each suspicious individual until you find the criminal like a game of concentration. If you choose wrong just once, responsibility for that mistake falls on you. Investigating a traitor carries the risk of becoming a traitor yourself. You must never forget this when seeking the truth in our shadowy world.”

That was why the internal investigation department paid exceptionally well while being exceptionally risky.

It was known as the hardest department to keep balanced.

And this summed up why Mugino Shizuri had gone out of her way to seek advice from the old butler who had served the Family for so long.

Yes. If she could be sloppy and get it wrong as many times as she liked, she would have done it all herself.

But that wasn’t an option, so she wanted to know the etiquette and secrets the gangs used.

“It also depends on the severity of the betrayal in question.”

The old butler used that as a starting point.

He did not mince words.

So whether or not he included that phrase would likely greatly change the impression left with the listener. Even if Mugino Shizuri didn’t yet know why it mattered.

“Complete traitors are actually fairly rare. Most traitors move back and forth between the two sides, so they always carry some small feeling of guilt with them. It is always gnawing at them, even as they eat and sleep.”

“Are you saying the losers who can’t stand the pressure will blow up first?”

“No. It affects everyone of all sorts. Someone who truly cannot bear the impure feelings won’t bother with all those tricks and will make a full-on attack despite the risks. The family head is the type to do that.”

…Mugino Shizuri bluntly concluded that man’s way of life was unfortunately not very useful for her. After all, that freak had once armed himself, single-handedly stormed an embassy, and dragged the corrupt minister off the embassy’s grounds just because a small child had cried and asked him to rescue his grandfather (true story). If she asked that ridiculous man how to find a traitor, she could easily imagine him telling her to build up enough charisma that no one felt the need to betray her in the first place.

She wanted to discuss a more realistic way of finding a traitor.

“It is not always a lack of skill that leads traitors to leave small clues and make mistakes. There is a part of them that wants to be caught. That is why their pursuer notices their presence. Lady Shizuri, I assume you came to me for advice because you already have some kind of clue. What felt off to you?”

“…”

For one, why had the other three members of Item gone missing at the same time?

If those three wanted to do something behind her back, wouldn’t they leave someone behind to distract her and keep her from getting suspicious? Why hadn’t they done that?

How could she explain it from a standpoint of pure function and efficiency?

(Hm.)

“Now let’s circle back to an earlier point,” said Mujinayama. In a voice that would make anyone’s back straighten. “How far must a betrayal go before you can truly call it a betrayal?”

===Part 6===

The silver-haired dark-skinned girl was Information Broker Norsitro.

Were the large burly men surrounding her illicit firefighters?

More importantly, Kinuhata had picked up on a curious word in their brief conversation.

''The call center''?

“(Kinuhata, anything the enemy freely says in front of you should be taken with a grain of salt. Don’t accept it at face value.)”

“Information you think you researched on your own can be externally controlled too, you know? All I have to do is manipulate what order you find the relevant data in, so it’s not hard at all,” pointed out Norsitro in her neon green bondage outfit.

Then what about the vulnerability they had just found? Using the fact checking file extension? Maybe they had to doubt the entire idea of freely communicating across the city wall. Were they back to square one?

“Kinuhata, what did I just say about things the enemy says in front of you?”

“Ugh.”

Kinuhata Saiai groaned at having to be told a second time.

The silver-haired girl smiled elegantly at how easily manipulated Kinuhata was. She even covered her mouth with a hand despite how that clashed with her outfit.

“So instead of leaping at the documents and information you find, you should be working out how and why they turned up here and then dealing with them accordingly.”

The Information Broker.

Norsitro’s job involved more than just gathering information. She had to decide how to use it. When was the best time to reveal it or hide it? She was an expert at using information as a whole.

“That said, get the balance wrong and you can end up paranoid and doubting everything you see, so hiring an expert at information management is the best thing to do for your mental health, if you ask me.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kinuhata saw Frenda stir.

She stuck a hand in her pocket.

Kinuhata had been working with Item long enough to know what Frenda was planning.

Norsitro was still talking when Frenda pulled an explosive from her pocket and threw-



“''I’m not done talking.''”



''Boom!!'' A dull explosion rang out.

Unsure what had happened, Kinuhata Saiai was thrown through a tempered glass window. In other words, she was tossed out from the third floor. That was about the same as the top floor of a school.

On the other side, the inner wall behind Norsitro broke through and a black Eastern dragon emerged.

No.

That was actually thousands or tens of thousands of flying objects about the size of paper airplanes made from fliers.

“In the end, is that a drone swarm!? Kinuhata!”

“Ohhh? Are you sure you should be focusing on her?”

A “zap!!” of bursting air rang out.

Along with a flash of light.

Frenda Seivelun fell to her knees.

“Kah…”

(Lightning, a high-voltage current? What the hell? In the end, does she have more than just next-gen weapons?)

Frenda collapsed to the floor and couldn’t move. She couldn’t even lift her head. The most she could manage was some trembling of her limbs. She could only thank her lucky stars that none of the delicate fuses and explosives hidden on her person had gone off.

The silver-haired girl glanced over at the only one left: Takitsubo.

“You’re dropping like flies. Which makes it easier for me, so I’m not complaining.”

The drones were black devices. They were the size of 10x20cm paper airplanes, but their jagged and distorted silhouette looked something like a Christmas tree. Would their precise classification be canard double delta?

And Takitsubo spoke quietly.

“Is this why?”

“?”

“Drone swarms can’t be defended against by existing missile defense systems because there are just too many of them, so in a way you could call them an even greater strategic weapon than a nuclear warhead. But the problem is the manufacturing and operating costs. The price has to be multiplied across the number of drones in the swarm, so building a thousand of them increases the cost a thousandfold and creating ten thousand increases it ten-thousandfold. Same for the fuel and maintenance costs. That isn’t something an individual can use.”

“Yeah, I do use around 250 thousand of them at once. And the number goes up to 1.75 million if you include the spares, so the final sum is nothing to sneeze at. Keeping them in top condition isn’t easy.”

“Khah. In the end, even if it’s fully automated and it only takes a minute per drone, how much effort are you putting into this? Did you buy an entire huge factory with multiple production lines?”

“Didn’t I just say keeping them in top condition isn’t easy? Besides, a single stealth fighter costs 20-30 billion yen. And that’s just buying it. When you think of this as a super weapon superior to nukes, it’s honestly a pretty good deal.”

Her neon green bondage outfit had silver threads woven in. Was that glittering getup actually a highly conductive full-body antenna?

Norsitro chuckled and spread her arms.

The word drone apparently originally referred to the buzzing of a bee’s wings and the drones surrounding her lived up to that origin. They were surprisingly nimble and reminiscent of killer bees or of flies buzzing around something dead. Some drones would come to a stop in midair, so they may have been capable of vertical takeoffs and landings using a lift fan or something.

Also, she had the high-voltage power that had hit Frenda.

“Committing perfect crimes in Academy City is a challenge. But not so outside the city’s walls. Isn’t that right? Especially if you can use Academy City tech out there. Then it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“You aren’t going after the parents, are you?”

“What, something like this: ‘Hey! If you don’t pay up soon, we’ll threaten your precious kid over and over and over again until they’re part of the blackmailer group themselves! Then they’ll be a criminal and your whole family will be in the news!’ ”

A grin split across the silver-haired girl’s face.

That was the devilish face of someone who knew how to cash in on people’s misfortune and tragedy with maximum efficiency.

“The towering wall surrounding the city prevents the parents outside from rescuing their child no matter how much danger they’re in. What, you think they should call Anti-Skill? Heh hee hee. You know better than that. The higher ups of this city are all corrupt, so they won’t allow anything to threaten the city’s public image. Oops, and now that report is being suppressed. There won’t be any kind of official record it ever even happened.”

The parents would be helpless while knowing their child was in trouble.

The only option left would be to pay a sum of money larger than they could hope to make in a lifetime.

They could always refuse.

But it was this girl’s job to give them ''a very good idea'' of what would happen then.

The large men – firefighters? – closed in on Takitsubo.

“Now, then. Your bodyguard went skydiving and your bomber was zapped into submission. The search expert remains, but what can you hope to do on your own?”

“I can do this.”

Takitsubo was quick to make up her mind.

She grabbed paralyzed Frenda’s collar and immediately jumped out the broken window.

===Part 7===

This wasn’t a suicide.

She fell to a location less than three meters down. It was likely part of the training ground, but a net was laid out there to catch anyone who fell.

Takitsubo wouldn’t have taken that sudden dive if she hadn’t recalled seeing it earlier.

“This way. Super this way!”

Kinuhata Saiai had fallen earlier and she was beckoning over from behind a large fake building wall. Takitsubo adjusted her grip on Frenda, dropped from the net to the ground, and ran over to Kinuhata.

Fake buildings, trees, streetlights, benches – there were plenty of places to hide, but the training ground was still an open outdoor space. Staying here was not an attractive option. If they wanted to avoid being caught in a pincer attack, they needed to find a back entrance and withdraw indoors.

Takitsubo lowered the fluffy blonde girl from her shoulder to a concrete-looking floor.

“Frenda.”

“What, can’t you tell? In the end, you can’t expect any help from me.”

“I want to know how those drones work. Only you would know that.”

Did Takitsubo Rikou know exactly what people wanted to hear at times like this?

The Academy City Bomber reacted with a twitch.

“Those are just your standard wandering self-destruct drones that carry a bomb and charge at their target, right? Their structure itself is simple. Based on how far Kinuhata was blasted, the explosive they’re carrying isn’t anything special. If they’re loaded with 100 grams and it expands 800 times, in the end, that’s about the same force as a grenade. The lethal range should be around 10m.”

…But 1.75 million grenades thrown at you one after another would be more than enough of a threat. A minor fortress or combat airfield could be stained with blood and destroyed by that.

“1.75 million… She can’t be controlling them all manually, can she?”

“In the end, she’s probably providing general instructions with her phone and the exact calculations are all handled by AI. Like playing an RTS on easy mode.”

“Then super what if we jam those signals? That will cut off the manual instructions and I bet they’re linked up to a fairly large supercomputer to constantly perform so many flight control calculations.”

“I doubt that would work. She uses 250 thousand at once and has a total of 1.75 million in case some are brought down. Even if each one has a cheap toy of a CPU, linking 250 thousand of them together in parallel will provide some decent processing power. They won’t need a stationary supercomputer.”

It sounded like jamming the wireless network itself would still work, but they didn’t know what the swarm used to communicate. And if they were military, they would likely use multiple methods at once: EM, IR, magnetism, ultrasound. Actually jamming them would require blocking every one of the methods…but how many methods was “every one” of them?

Kinuhata sounded fed up with it all.

“Drones that super small have to run out of fuel or battery before long, right? If we stay on the run to buy time, won’t they eventually break down?”

“Kinuhata, we can’t make that kind of assumption without seeing their design or specs. They might generate power from the wind or the sun and they might be remotely charged using ultrasonic waves or microwaves.”

A portion of the blue sky was colored black.

As if ink had been splattered into the world.

Frenda looked up with her lips twisted into a stiff half-smile.

“So…in the end, which sounds better to you: having them attack us in a straight line or having them spread out and attack us as a wall?”

“Either way, Kinuhata would be the only survivor.”

“250 thousand at once and 1.75 million in all… If I’m super pummeled by that many bombs, not even Offense Armor is going to last.”

Kinuhata could only watch the drone swarm in a daze.

They circled an area as large as a schoolyard as they took aim. Like a giant flying serpent. If the Item girls stayed outside, they would be swallowed by a sandstorm of mechanical explosions.

And…

“Ah ha ha. You call that escaping?”

They heard a voice.

“Being out in the open makes it easier for me☆”

It belonged to Norsitro Chatellenie.

She jumped lightly down toward them from from the broken window a few meters up.

She was less than a hundred meters away.

“!”

Still seated on the floor, Frenda immediately pulled multiple explosives from her short skirt.

“I seriously doubt that will work.”

The wind roared as it spiraled thickly around them.

A giant tower rose up on either side of Norsitro. The wind wrapped around and extended high into the sky, forming powerful tornadoes.

Realizing what that meant, Frenda froze before making her attack.

The brown girl’s hair and leather skirt were flapping wildly, but she didn’t seem bothered by it.

“Handheld rockets have a terrible tendency to miss when exposed to crosswinds. I hear that world-famous Russian one that only costs 20 or 30 thousand yen has trouble hitting at even 500 meters. And with this kind of random turbulence, you have no way of calculating a path.”

Tornadoes.

Frenda’s eyes widened because she had already been hit by an esper power attack here.

“You mean…in the end, she doesn’t just have lightning!?”

“What’s wrong? Was there some other weather you were hoping for? Or were you worried about low pressure because you get headaches on those days? Just let me know☆”

Norsitro smiled in her bright neon green bondage outfit.

And it began pouring rain.

Less than five seconds later, it turned to fist-sized hail.

Then a clear blue sky shined overhead.

It was like she was casually flipping an invisible switch. Frenda Seivelun was completely dumbfounded.

Was this Norsitro Chatellenie’s power?

“You’re…kidding.”

“It super looks like she can control all forms of weather, including lightning, doesn’t it? Her power might control the air instead of electricity.”

“Kinuhata, don’t treat maybes like confirmed information. Remember what I said about information the enemy gives you?”

“Yes, yes, I have to super take it with grain of salt! …But how else are we supposed to explain that ridiculous power!? Mutter, mutter…”

Kinuhata’s complaints were cut off.

By the repeating sound of something beating at the air.

It was a Two Wings helicopter that could be flown unmanned…no, based on the arm-like wings spread out on the sides, was it a Six Wings?

250 thousand at the same time with a total of 1.75 million.

As those things flew around, the “black dragon” must have shown up on Academy City’s anti-air radar. Their operator must have known that would happen, but…

“Shut up.”

It exploded.

Even Frenda wouldn’t want to be chased by one of those. That was just how brutal the Six Wings’ air-to-air and air-to-ground armaments were, but it happened so easily.

“I said it’s a super weapon superior to nukes, didn’t I? You can’t expect ordinary weapons – even an entire squadron of attack helicopters – to deal with it.”

“So in the end, is there no way of stopping her?”

Her power was frightening, but it wasn’t just her power.

The drone swam was frightening, but it wasn’t just the drone swarm.

All three Item members had the same thought: how could they even begin to deal with a monster like this?

Even now, the two tornadoes were raging across the ground.

With a din of destruction, drink vending machines, streetlights, and fake buildings were torn from the ground and thrown into the air. People were meant to climb and descend them with ropes, so it had all been bolted to concrete pedestals, but it didn’t seem to matter.

If a human was caught in there, they would be thrown high into the sky…and then what would happen?

Norsitro grinned.

She wasn’t making a threat to negotiate. The joy of someone who planned to ''use it'' spread across her face.

“I’m not saying there’s no hope at all for you. After all, one of you is supposedly a shield esper.”

“…”

“But if protecting yourself from the fall is ''all'' you can manage, then I just have to hit you again from the side. Which would you prefer to kill you: the self-destruct drones or my power?”

She was extraordinary.

The three Item girls didn’t see how they could win even if they all attacked at once.

Norsitro Chatellenie held a position near the very top if you ignored the excessive financial cost of operating those drones as an individual.

But that was all the more reason to fight.

They couldn’t leave someone this powerful to her own devices. She would prey on Academy City’s ordinary students, drive them to the blackmailers, and even threaten the parents outside the city to make even more money. The people having their lives and futures ruined were not the fools who had purposefully rushed to the dark side to snag some dirty money. Norsitro was like quicksand that endlessly swallowed honest people with no such intentions. And because she was such a formidable enemy, she would cause a massive number of victims if allowed to go free.

It would be too late by the time the city’s wicked grown ups decided to do something about it.

If she wasn’t defeated here and now, there would be victims.

Kinuhata clenched her teeth. Takitsubo had accepted Kinuhata’s plan to survive by having Mugino betray them and fight Norsitro, but that plan had mostly fallen apart. Now it was ''more important'' to silence her as soon as possible. Kinuhata was a dark side villain, not an agent of good or justice, but she still felt that need.

And then.



“Hey.”



She heard.

A voice.

Coming from even further back than Kinuhata Saiai, Frenda Seivelun, and Takitsubo Rikou.

There must have been a different back entrance.

Was that squishy sound all that remained of an unlucky guard who happened to be there?

“Why would you go off and have a party without me?”

A grin split across Norsitro Chartellenie’s face.

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

Sweat poured from Kinuhata’s body.

The Information Broker was supposed to be an expert in handling all forms of information, so why didn’t she understand what it meant for ''her'' to be here? Why didn’t she understand the great risk there?

Regardless, the silver-haired girl spoke her name.



“''Mugino Shizuri.''”

===Part 8===

The density of the air changed.

In terms of human emotion, the most fitting word was probably “tension”.

Her presence made all the difference.

For better or for worse, Item…required Mugino Shizuri.

“Tch. Super how did you know where we were?”

Mugino answered Kinuhata’s trembling question by flicking something over without even glancing in her direction. It was a tag even smaller than a kernel of corn.

Takitsubo took it.

“Is this a brand-name clothing shop’s anti-theft tag?”

“The good brands use really nice ones. They’re convenient, so they come in handy.”



''“What is it, Mugino? Do you want to buy that?”

''“Not really…”



Was this why Mugino had been so fixated on feeling the clothing in that store? She had been interested in the anti-theft devices, not the fashionable clothing that cost 100 thousand yen each.

The silver-haired girl with her body contained in a neon green bondage outfit smiled thinly.

“Being a team leader is a challenge, isn’t it? Failure isn’t an option and that responsibility falls on your shoulders.”

“We’ve never met. Don’t act like you know me, trash.”

Kinuhata Saiai considered the situation.

Mugino Shizuri had arrived.

The plan was for Mugino to suspect them and act of her own volition, but they hadn’t finished setting things up for that. Simply defeating Norsitro Chatellenie wasn’t enough. If Mugino learned of the current situation as they did so, Kinuhata’s betrayal would come to light when Mugino started asking questions after the fighting was over. Then there was no avoiding being vaporized by Meltdowner. So this was her chance.

She knew that, but she still felt a cold sweat pouring down her back.

The fingers of death were running along her spine. She could feel them.

She had to deceive and betray Mugino Shizuri.

Screwing it up would mean death.

It was finally showtime.

===Part 9===

They were in the outdoor field of the former fire fighter training ground in District 2.

A great mass of moving air created a low roar.

250 thousand drones were packed together like a black dragon as they moved together.

They were all aimed at Mugino Shizuri alone.

The Information Broker laughed with her phone in hand. She held a hand over her mouth as she did so.

“Oops. I forget to ask.”

Norsitro’s expression was as casual as if she were out at the supermarket and realized she had forgotten she needed to buy the one item that was on sale.

“Would you prefer to be killed by my power or by the swarm? But asking now is a pain and it doesn’t really matter, does it? You’ll die a painful death either way.”

Mugino Shizuri gave a snort of laughter and flicked out a card she had pulled from her pocket. Before it could fall to the ground, she accurately struck it with a thick Meltdowner beam.

Silicon Burn.

Nearly 150 scorching electron beams thinner than hairs fanned out in front of her.

However…

“Tch. So a scattershot’s not enough.”

“I am using 250 thousand of them with a total of 1.75 million. But if you think you can shoot them all down, feel free to continue going for a high score. Although I expect you’ll be crushed to death first☆”

No matter how many Mugino destroyed, the number was replenished, so the swarm never dropped below 250 thousand.

And that wasn’t the main problem.

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner had failed to bring down the swarm. Even when using her special Silicon Burn. With Mugino’s attack a failure, nothing could stop the endless drone force. This time they charged toward Mugino as if aiming for a cross counter. En masse.

A sticky blackness filled a large portion of the scene.

Like a bottle of pitch black ink had fallen over on a painting of Academy City’s scenery.

The black dragon devoured the blue sky. No, the swarm weapon made up of 250 thousand drones circled around together to attack Mugino.

According to Frenda’s analysis, each one was as destructive as a grenade.

But there were 250 thousand of them.

If they all attacked at once…it would be like taking a machinegun spray of explosive rounds head on!

“Mugino!”

“Want to make bets how many seconds you’ll last?”

Norsitro smiled in her neon green bondage outfit.

The following explosion felt like space itself were expanding.

But Mugino wasn’t injured.

Despite the many, many explosions going off.

“Oh? I thought you were all offense, but I guess not.”

She had a shield of light.

Meltdowner normally flew sharply out as a straight line, but she must have instead had it spiral close to her hand. It looked like a round shield fully covering Mugino’s body.

The sharp fragments and even the blast itself were pushed back. Academy City’s #4 had extraordinary specs in defense as well, but Norsitro wasn’t normal either. The very act of forcing Mugino Shizuri to defend – that is, to ''threaten'' that bundle of arrogance enough that she thought she would die if she didn’t defend – was extraordinary enough.

Adding Mugino Shizuri to the fight wasn’t enough to defeat Norsitro Chatellenie.

All four members of Item together couldn’t end this.

They were on the verge of death and cutting it close.

But that was more than just a risk. With a different viewpoint – Kinuhata Saiai’s for example – it could also be a one-in-a-million opportunity.

Win or lose? Live or die?

No one knew what was going to happen, which created enough of an ''opening'' to take otherwise unthinkable actions.

Here, she could force it through.

She concluded a chance like this wasn’t going to come again.



If she was going to fool that girl.

If she was going to get Mugino Shizuri to betray her, it had to be here.



Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner, even when scattered like a shower using the Silicon Burn, could not shoot down Norsitro Chatellenie’s 1.75 million drones.

To put it another way, ''it wouldn’t look strange'' if something unexpected happened here.

The countless wandering self-destruct drones sliced through the air as they charged in.

Now was the time to make up her mind.

Takitsubo and Frenda had both given Kinuhata some advice while they were pursuing the Kitchen Car truck to reach this place.



''“Saying you will ‘deceive’ her may make it sound like something you do while watching on from some safe place, but that won’t work. A safe zone on a deadly battlefield where anything can happen will look suspicious to Mugino.”

''“In the end, the only way to truly trick Mugino is to risk your life. So you can’t be lying to save your life. This is Mugino Shizuri we’re talking about. She’ll notice immediately if you aren’t truly risking your life with the lie.”



In other words.

…A liar wouldn’t do something so dangerous. Someone trying to trick me with a lie would make sure they were safe.

By taking advantage of Mugino’s low opinion of traitors, Kinuhata could hide in her blind spot.

So it had to be here.

It had to be when Norsitro’s drones charged in and detonated at close range. It was something only possible for Kinuhata Saiai who stood outside Mugino’s Meltdowner shield and who Academy City’s #4 could not fully protect.

She did it herself.



She deactivated Offense Armor.



“Gh.”

She felt a scorching heat. From her right flank. First she felt a twisting and tugging sensation on her skin and then her small body was thrown more than two meters straight back.

“…Gah…?”

She rolled a few times and her small body was left trembling.

(Oh…no.)

Had her fear of Mugino made her take the act ''too far''? An iron taste seeped into her mouth. She could feel something throbbing inside her. She felt badly dizzy, perhaps from the blood loss, and she couldn’t tell which way was up as she lay on the ground.

She might really die here.

Takitsubo Rikou ran over, held the wound, dragged her behind cover, and waved her phone in her other hand while calling out to Mugino.

“Mugino, she’s lost a lot of blood. Her breathing is heavy and her pulse is falling. My health management app is giving red zone warnings. Kinuhata won’t last like this.”

“Huh!? …Because she was near me? But how’d she get hurt so bad when she has Offense Armor!?”

It was a valid question.

But…

“She was fighting before you got here. While protecting me. She was more worn out than anyone. If you use you power too much, you run out of stamina, right? That’s what happened here.”

…So that was the scenario they were going with.

If they didn’t push this through while Mugino’s thoughts were still confused by the red blood, they couldn’t avoid her questions about what the three of them were doing at this mysterious training ground behind her back.

So…

“Norsitro Chatellenie. In the end, she planned to kill you and take control of Item as a convenient system. Kinuhata was fighting with everything she had because she didn’t want that. She was fighting for you!”

Frenda sprinkled some kernels of truth in there.

The Information Broker didn’t just gather information – she was an expert in when to play her trump card. If they let her, she would start shouting the truth, but by establishing a different idea in Mugino’s mind first, Mugino wouldn’t listen to what the enemy was saying.

And while fighting back and looking irritated, Mugino Shizuri scratched at her head with a hand.

“~ ~ ~ Frenda!!”

“Not happening. She must have lost around a liter of blood already. The lethal limit is based on body weight and Kinuhata’s the smallest of us, so she has the least wiggle room there. Pliers, wire cutters, screwdrivers, drills – I have a lot of tools on me, but nothing that can heal people. In the end, I think the most I have is disinfectant, bandaids, and bandages?”

“1.5 to 2 liters is the limit even for a large man. Kinuhata is in serious trouble if she doesn’t get a blood transfusion immediately,” stated Takitsubo Rikou.

She never showed any emotion on her face, so she didn’t have to try and put on an act here. The listener would imagine their own emotional state mirrored back to them in her voice.

So the more pressure Mugino felt, the more urgent Takitsubo’s warnings would sound.

They were being pushed back. Item’s leader clicked her tongue.

“Did you call that kid the Information Broker? From the way they move, I’m guessing those guys around her are firefighters.”

“In the end, probably so.”

“That makes them a security team specialized in keeping her alive over defeating her enemies. …They should be prepared for any kind of emergency. Which means they might have transfusion kits for each blood type including Rh positive and negative.”

“Then what should we do, Mugino?”

Since Kinuhata couldn’t talk, Takitsubo organized their information from behind cover.

She showed Mugino the horrific values on the health management app.

“We can’t even withdraw with her like this. Moving Kinuhata in this state will kill her. Fight or run, we need to start by giving her enough blood to save her.”

…The numbers on the health management app were of course fake. The app was called Vital Jamming. It was a joke app that let you adjust some simple sliders to change the readings to show a minor cold, an injury, or even close to death.



''“Look, these are the numbers on your health app.”



''“This shows your current calorie intake and exercise level. If you keep this up, the results will be tragic a month from now. The changes will be noticeable in your figure. Especially in the hips and legs.”



…Takitsubo already had it installed on her phone to make the threats necessary to get Mugino to go jogging.

(Does that mean I’m still super alive enough she needs the app to make me look bad enough? Damn. And here I was getting all worked up thinking I might really die.)

Kinuhata felt regret. And embarrassment.

She was supposed to know this was all meant as a way to keep her alive.

The #4 must have decided Meltdowner alone wasn’t enough. She moved Kinuhata, who was lying collapsed behind some twisted metal with no engine or electronics inside. It may have been used to practice rescuing people from a vehicle after an accident. A moment later, that cover was engulfed in a series of explosive blasts.

Mugino grimaced at the continuous noise and raised her voice.

“If they have transfusion kits, where do you think they would be!?”

“Blood is a liquid, so it gets heavy if you have a lot of it. With A, B, O, and AB with Rh positive and negative for each, carrying around the liters needed to resuscitate people of any blood type would mean fighting with weights strapped to you. I doubt they would do that. But they never know when one of their people will be badly injured. In the end, they won’t keep it too far away.”

Or to put it more simply…

“At the very least, I doubt it’s in these fake buildings out here. If you want to find their transfusion kits, you’ll want to head inside the training ground’s main building!!”

They had an objective.

Of course, they couldn’t actually have Mugino save Kinuhata.

Their goal was for Mugino Shizuri to betray her teammate.

They needed the perfect genius of Academy City’s #4 to fail here.

“My, my. Oh, dear, dear. Hee hee.”

This came from Norsitro Chatellenie a short distance away.

She was here too, so she had of course seen that delightful drama play out.

Mugino was already under the impression that Kinuhata had been injured while fighting for her, so even if the Information Broker accused the other three, it seemed unlikely Mugino would blast them with Meltdowner right away.

As an information expert, she must have picked up on that mood.

So she knew nothing she said would get through to Mugino now that she was “the villain who harmed Mugino’s teammate”.

In her neon green bondage outfit, the girl shrugged and operated her phone.

“Sounds like you have an interesting predicament on your hands, but it looks like sticking to the villain role will be the must fun for me. Speaking of, do you think I’ll just let you through?”

“Tch!!”

One movement of her finger moved the swarm of drones.

Not even Mugino Shizuri could push back the entire swarm of 250 thousand drones with a maximum of 1.75 million.

Several beams sliced through the sky, triggering a few explosions, but that wasn’t enough to bring them all down at once.

“Mugino. Your wall doesn’t have to be sturdy. Even a curtain or net can catch and stop the flying drones.”

“Go to Frenda for little tricks like that!!”

The training ground facility included more than the outside field. Item carried injured Kinuhata down a flight of stairs and entered an underground field meant to simulate a subway station, but that didn’t last even ten seconds.

After a rapid series of explosions, the entire thin ceiling was torn away.

“You can’t get away.” The bondage girl was staring down at them with hands on her hips. “Training grounds like this are designed with wide open spaces underground. They’re fairly flimsy, which makes them easy to blow away. Although that means you won’t be buried alive below dirt, so maybe you should count yourselves lucky?”

They didn’t have time to complain.

The drones were like the downpour of flaming arrows meant to bring down a castle. More and more poured down from above, so Item had no choice but to run down the hallway and climb back to the surface at another exit.

Each individual phenomenon might not be so bad, but they couldn’t seem to regain control of the overall situation.

They couldn’t escape the palm of Norsitro’s hand this way.

“Mugino. In the end, they’re here too!”

“Kh. Kill them to clear a path!!”

Large men, presumably former rescue squad members, emerged from behind vending machines, benches, and other hiding places. They were armed with unique weapons like firefighting axes and rope guns that launched the rope with noncombustible gas.

On top of it all, Norsitro Chatellenie had an unidentified weather control power.

Everyone could tell things were only getting worse.

They were tumbling into the abyss and fast.

They could physically reduce the number of rescue squad members, but the number of drones never seemed to drop. No, Mugino and Frenda were shooting down quite a few of them, but that was like trying to change the weather by throwing stones up at the rain falling from the sky. It was a waste of time.

And if they couldn’t stop somewhere, they couldn’t stop Kinuhata’s bleeding.

They weren’t even supposed to move her right now, so what would happen if they tried to break through the enemy like this?

“Mugino… In the end, we have to give up,” said an astonished Frenda as she scattered mines to slow the enemy down.

…That Frenda could say something like this without it sounding out of place made Kinuhata suspect she was always adjusting her ''emotional distance'' even during ordinary conversations. Because what came next was a suggestion only allowed in the dark side.

“We can’t get a transfusion kit! We don’t even know if there’s one here, so we shouldn’t risk our lives looking for it. I get wanting to save Kinuhata, but you’ll be killed too if you keep this up!! This isn’t just about Kinuhata! If we don’t withdraw now, we’ll all be killed!”

“You’re the leader. So you decide,” added Takitsubo to drive the point home.

Item wouldn’t distribute the responsibility among its members. Stressing that this was Mugino’s decision applied pressure to her. That was a necessary part of setting things up for Mugino herself to betray Kinuhata.

They had no choice. There was no other way.

It didn’t really matter how Mugino phrased it.

But they couldn’t let her claim that they all made the choice together. So all of those psychological loopholes and outs had to be plugged up in advance. Item’s search and information expert showed no mercy here.

“Make a decision, Mugino. Without a choice from our leader, we will all die.”

With that, she preemptively eliminated the option of not making a choice and letting them run out of time.

Now Mugino Shizuri had no excuse.

Since they couldn’t overwhelm Norsitro and acquire a transfusion kit right away, Mugino had only two options: abandon dying Kinuhata and escape or choose nothing and let Kinuhata die when time ran out. Either option would mean Kinuhata’s death, so this was a powerful card to use against Mugino Shizuri who despised betrayal more than anything.

Kinuhata and the others had betrayed her first.

Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor.

So for the three of them to survive, they had to cancel out their betrayal with Mugino’s betrayal.

“Mugino… In the end, I think Kinuhata wants to say something.”

The stage was set.

Takitsubo, supporting her bloody body behind unreliable cover, glanced over into Kinuhata’s eyes.

She understood.

The final emotional push would be most effective…coming from Kinuhata herself.

“Forget…about me.”

Kinuhata forced out the words as she gasped for breath.

This wasn’t an act.

She was cold.

They hadn’t managed to stop the bleeding. She could feel her body temperature dropping.

She hadn’t been killed right away, but she had lost a significant amount of blood. She found she couldn’t speak any louder than this.

“Whether or not there’s a transfusion kit somewhere in the facility…it’s super too late for an injury like this. So please…get out of here. You’re wasting your time. You’ll only get more of you killed. So please…”

An odd feeling filled Kinuhata as she spoke.

She was deceiving Mugino.

Objectively speaking, this was a terrible thing to do.

But she was finding she no longer had to consciously lie to betray Mugino here.

Strangely, she found she was speaking her true feelings.

She didn’t want Mugino to die here.

She didn’t have to lie about that, so she simply placed her current honest feelings in her words.

“I’m thankful… If you hadn’t taken me in, I’d probably still be on ice in the back of that lab. Gh… I was only meant to rot away without every leaving that place, so now I’ll just be returning to the earth. So you don’t have to feel bad about it… So hurry and go.”



(Yeah…)



The words left her almost on their own

And while it happened, a thought came to her.



(If only I wasn’t carrying all this baggage. If only I had super been the kind of person who could say this without needing to sully it like this.)



That could never happen.

The initial assumptions were wrong.

Or maybe this was the final destination of the traitor.

The end result for a selfish dreamer.

The final refuge of a fool who couldn’t bear the weight of reality.

“I was only ever something extra you picked up, right? So you don’t need to bet the fate of Item as a whole on someone disposal like me. Go!! I’ll break their perimeter. I’m going to die anyway, so I might as well go out in a blaze of glory and take a ton of them with me. Cough… That’s a hell of a lot better than dying a meaningless death!! There’s no saving me now, but I’ll super use what time I have left to make Norsitro and her people regret crossing us! So get out of here already!!!”

She drove her point home.

Kinuhata Saiai waited for Mugino to speak.

For her to say, “Fine then. If there’s no other option, we’ll leave Kinuhata here to die.”

For her to admit, “I don’t want to die here, so if you’re going to die anyway, you take care of it.”

Reality wasn’t like the movies. Especially in Academy City’s dark side, a heartless response like that would hardly be a surprise. And because Kinuhata knew that, she bet on it happening. She bet her life and future on it. Bring it on. Because if Mugino didn’t abandon her here, this would end without her receiving the bargaining chip she needed. Then she would be accused of betrayal and reduced to charcoal.

In the distance, a neon green bondage outfit creaked and Norsitro shouted to them in amusement.

“What do you think you can do with that dying body? You can’t even act as a shield against my swarm, so how do you expect to break our perimeter!?”

Something exploded.

The rusty smell grew stronger again.

A sharp fragment must have grazed her because Mugino had a cut on her right cheek.

The drones were only as big as a paper airplane made from a flier, so they could only carry so much explosive. And Frenda’s expert analysis said they weren’t carrying anything special. Each blast was only about as much as a grenade, so the lethal range was about 10 meters.

Even so, a lethal range was a lethal range.

Rapid-firing Meltdowner beams wasn’t enough to stop them all, so Mugino destroyed the base of a nearby fake three-story building to topple it and use the plywood as a shield. She could shoot down the leading drones, but that wouldn’t last forever. And even if she did defend against the sharp fragments, the shockwave still circled around the cover and struck her body.

A single bomb or bullet could kill. Far too easily. That was how it worked on the dark side. A total of 1.75 million? No, she couldn’t let her guard down with even a single drone.

But.

Even so.

“…Takitsubo.”

“What?”

“There’s still a chance, right? If I manage to get inside that building at the cost of my own flesh and blood and acquire a transfusion kit, we can save Kinuhata, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Heh,” laughed Mugino Shizuri.

And she gave her answer.

Item’s leader held her palm straight out and stepped forward. Out from behind cover.

“That’s all I needed to hear.”



…Wait a second.

Why isn’t she betraying me?



“I’m not running.”

Her voice wasn’t particularly loud.

But Mugino Shizuri did speak.

She had to know how bad the situation was for her. She had toppled the fake building to create a shield because she knew she couldn’t shoot down all the drones with Meltdowner.

But a fake building was only a fake. While the drone attacks weren’t designed with penetrative power in mind, this wouldn’t last long. Once the consecutive blasts broke through, it was all over. And Mugino had stepped out from even that much cover.

And yet.

She completely thew out the cold calculations of the dark side.

“I will never abandon a teammate and run.”

A drone exploded.

Close by.

Kinuhata received no new injuries.

Because Mugino Shizuri stood in the way, clenching her teeth. A shard several centimeters across had lodged itself in her shoulder.

This was the borderline between life and death. If the truth came out, it was all over. That was why Kinuhata had put on an act, even if it meant losing more than a liter of blood.

She was of course deceiving her teammate.

But Mugino Shizuri’s heart turned out to be…unexpectedly sturdy?

“Bring it, Information Broker!! I don’t know your name, but you will pay for underestimating Item. Did you think ''the'' Mugino Shizuri would let you get away with doing this to one of my teammates right before my eyes? You’ll be nothing but charcoal once I’m done with you!!!”

Takitsubo fidgeted nervously with her usual lack of expression.

Frenda Seivelun appeared aware how dangerous the situation was. She was frantically trying to work out a course correction from behind cover.

“Wait… In the end, why are you getting all hot-blooded right now when all our lives are on the line!? Don’t you know what Item’s leader is supposed to do!? Hurry up and tell us get out of here, Leader Mugino!!”

“This is my decision to make and I will never betray anyone. I won’t leave Kinuhata hear, turn tail, and run!! It isn’t a matter of pride anymore. All the tools I need to save my teammate’s life are within arm’s reach. If I have to let these blasts tear the flesh from my bones, so be it. I’ve got plenty of excess flesh to offer. So I will get my hands on that transfusion kit!!”

“…”

Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner could not shoot down all of the drones even with its scattershot. She could also use her power to defend, but that wasn’t its primary use and it was far from perfect.

More explosions erupted.

She wasn’t critically wounded yet, but she was gradually being worn down.

Academy City’s #4 was.

The next head of the proud Mugino Family was.

All because Kinuhata Saiai had dragged her into this.

Mugino would have had more options here if she were alone. Meltdowner could pierce through any obstacle. She could have escaped outside the former training ground and then sniped Norsitro through the thick wall.

But she couldn’t do that.

Because she couldn’t leave injured and bleeding Kinuhata’s side.

Because she would prefer to accept some disadvantage than abandon a teammate.

Because she wanted the life-saving transfusion kit no matter what.

As fearsome as she was, Mugino Shizuri wasn’t lying. She wasn’t deceiving anyone. She wasn’t betraying anyone. Yet she was being worn down for the sake of a dirty liar.

While roaring that this was better than abandoning her dying teammate and escaping on her own.

“You’re…kidding.”

Kinuhata Saiai was not Mugino Shizuri, so she hadn’t heard what the old butler Mujinayama said.

But he had said that the best way to prevent betrayal was to prepare for it in advance.

And he had said that suspecting your own people was a form of betrayal in and of itself.

Because.

If the person you suspected was not in fact a traitor and was instead a reliable ally who trusted you from the bottom of their heart…then your own suspicion of them would have branded you as a traitor.

Bull’s eye.



“No…”



She had decided to deceive.

There was no way around the fact she only had the one life. So she had decided survival even at the cost of betrayal was the right choice.

But she couldn’t do it anymore.

Something was burned through inside Kinuhata Saiai.



“Are you kidding me!? I super can’t stand it anymorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre!!!”

===Part 10===

Someone was crying.

They were bawling loudly like a small child.

It was the siren of doom.

Lies? Acting? Deception?

She was past caring about any of that.

Frenda and Takitsubo were watching Kinuhata Saiai from a short distance away.

This was past the point of not knowing how to approach an unmanageable child. Theirs were not the expression a parent would give to their child. The look in their eyes was one of abandonment – of “sigh, now you’ve done it”. They also kept an invisible distance from her so they could stay safely out of the way of what was coming. They chose to trust only the sixth sense they had developed as villains.

The world seemed to rapidly pull away from Kinuhata in all directions.

The weeping girl was left all alone.

If was over for her once Mugino Shizuri discovered the truth. She had known that from the start. But Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t stand it any longer.



“I…”



Her words caught in her throat.

She was aware how self-destructive this was.

Some part of her brain was screaming for her to stop.

But it was too late.

It was game over whether she stopped here or spat out the rest of her words. Mugino Shizuri would never forgive a traitor. Once she was certain of her suspicions, they would not go away on their own.

But that was fine.

She would feel better this way.

She wanted to get it all out before someone could stop her and before she passed out from blood loss.

It would pain her more for this to end unresolved. That she couldn’t bear.



“I lied to you!! I couldn’t abandon that ordinary person who was being forced by the blackmailers to rob the bank, so I saved her knowing she was a criminal who had attacked you! Everything’s gone wrong since… But that’s no excuse. I made my choice and I’ve been lying to you super ever since!!”



Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie gave her an icy look.

Unsurprising really.

The last thing she would want after working so hard to gather up information on a scandal was for the target to self-destructively go public with it. The treasure held by the brown girl in the neon green bondage outfit was now worthless scrap. Of course she wasn’t happy about it.



“It was all my fault!! So that’s enough, Mugino! I don’t need a transfusion kit! Just get out of here. You super don’t need to get hurt here!!!”



There.

She’d said it. She had come clean.

So Kinuhata Saiai managed a somehow twisted smile even as the tears spilled from her eyes.

…If only she’d done this in the first place.

She still didn’t think it had been wrong to act on behalf of the ordinary person being threatened into committing robbery by the blackmailers.

But what about the rest?

Self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation, self-preservation! Kinuhata Saiai had been ugly, dirty, and rotten. How could she possibly excuse her actions there?

Had saving the girl being forced to rob a bank really and truly been the same thing as lying to her teammate to save her own skin?

Saving someone was no excuse for betrayal.

If she really had done the right thing, she didn’t need anything else. Instead of worrying about her own life, she should have accepted an honorable death.

All of this was the result of failing to do that.

She had been weak, wretched, and yet greedy. Mugino Shizuri had been injured in her attempt to protect that traitor. She had shed her own blood. And it wasn’t going to end there. At this rate, Mugino, Takitsubo, and Frenda would all die. Item would be finished.

And it would all be Kinuhata Saiai’s fault.

An enemy and a traitor from within were two very different things.

Kinuhata Saiai had been taught an important lesson.

She now knew she had fallen to a position more miserable than death. She was like an insect flipped on its back and unable to right itself.

Even when she had been raised in the back of an unofficial lab, wasting her life away unknown to the world, she had at least still had a human soul.

Even when she had been taken in by Item and been asked to help with their dirty jobs, she had had her soul as a villain.

Kinuhata could tell she was having trouble enunciating. Was it her tongue or her brain? One or the other wasn’t working right after losing so much blood. She didn’t care which. This was far better than having the fear and pain rule her thoughts, preventing her from doing what had to be done.



“I’ll super handle the rest.”



When had her soul been reduced to that of an insect?

She knew the answer.

From the moment she chose to give up on being human.



“I know this is just more selfishness on my part, but I super want to take responsibility for my own actions. You don’t have to bother with any of this, so hurry up and go!!”



And.

Academy City’s #4 monster…listened to it.

It entered her ears.

It soaked into her brain.

Mugino Shizuri now knew what had happened. She had certainty. And she did not forgive traitors. Because she had been raised by the Mugino Family as a born gangster.

To reiterate yet again, Mugino Shizuri did not forgive traitors.

So.

What was the definition of a traitor?

What had Mujinayama said, after his long years of service to the Mugino Family and everything he had seen there?

“Heh. Shut the hell up.”

And.

There was no beam of light.

Even though Kinuhata was ready for it.

Mugino Shizuri placed her palm on the sobbing girl’s head.

Ignoring her own bleeding.

“If you can say all that and you can risk your life to come clean regardless of the consequences, then you’re no traitor.”

Mugino Shizuri’s bloody face bore a small smile.

She was the kind of person who could smile here.

The world had pulled away from Kinuhata in all directions, but she wasn’t alone. Someone had approached her and rubbed her head.



“You’re Item. I will never forgive a traitor, but I always protect my own.”



Kinuhata Saiai couldn’t get any words out.

A moment later, a drone dropped down like lightning and triggered an explosion.

===Part 11===

Reality was heartless.

No matter what emotions had just been exchanged between Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai, the silver-haired girl only had to input a simple command on her phone to send 250 thousand drones rushing in to attack. Each of those unmanned weapons was loaded with an explosive and the swarm made a merciless physical attack.

There was an explosion.

But it happened far off in the empty blue sky. Within the dragon of closely-packed drones.

More explosions followed. The chain reaction continued on and on.

The drones attempting to blow up Mugino and Kinuhata broke apart well before reaching them.

“Wha-?”

Norsitro Chatellenie was speechless.

Apparently this was something not even the Information Broker understood.

…Like any aircraft, drones were at risk of breaking apart when pushed too hard. When attempting maneuvers beyond their limits, the combined force of the air resistance and shockwaves would rattle the main wings and cause the aircraft to shake apart. Within Earth’s gravity, you could never forget that it was ''unnatural for anything to leave the surface and fly.

But what had caused this?

The 250 thousand drones were electronically controlled by the parallel processing of 250 thousand CPUs and fully guided by Norsitro’s smartphone. She couldn’t see any reason for them to break apart on their own!

“A maximum of 1.75 million drones? With 250 thousand operated at once? Your swarm control system can break through even if a fair number are shot down by anti-air weapons?”

This came in a casual, singsong voice. And a wicked one.

Mugino Shizuri spoke even while stained red by her own blood.

“But all you’ve done is gather an ass-ton of the same craft, which means they all have the same weakness. I just have to find a single vulnerability and I win. And I had plenty of time to gather information while they were pummeling me. Your trump card was laughably easy to defeat.”

“Oh, is that so? And what exactly are you going to do? Fry all their CPUs with an anti-ship EMP bomb? Or maybe pull an anti-air microwave cannon out of your ass? Fantastical super weapons are great for winning theoretical arguments, but they can’t protect your very real life. Do you have an attack method that can help you in the real world!?”’ shouted Norsitro in her glittering neon green bondage outfit. “You won’t run away? You always protect your own? …Absurd. Why would you ''make that kind of performative claim in front of me''? Did you not look into the legend of the Information Broker? Yes, yes. You have my full attention now. And I won’t rest until all of you are dead!!”

But bloody Mugino gave a snort of laughter.

(Well, she does attack with lightning. I suppose they would be designed to withstand an electric surge.)

That Norsitro would give an actual response to that kind of speculation showed how naive Norsitro was.

When the enemy gave the answer themselves, she had only two options: scoff at the answer for being way off, or frantically try to throw them off because they made a lucky guess.

But if she hadn’t said anything at all, doubt would remain. Whether it was right or wrong, staying quiet had likely been Norsitro’s best option. But she couldn’t help herself. Even though this was like playing concentration and giving up your turn by flipping over cards for your opponent.

“Kh. I have the power to change the weather. The drones can fly through rain or hail without issue!!”

“Sure. ''For unnatural weather you designed yourself'', right?’

Mugino didn’t even glance over behind cover.

Standing out in the open, she pointed her index finger straight up into the blue sky.

“You adjust the drones’ maneuvering based on the weather. There’s an optimal speed for sunny weather, an optimal angle for rain, and so on. When you know it’s coming, you can use your own program there. But with truly unexpected gusts of winds blowing between the buildings, the drones will tilt on their side. And during a sudden downpour, the apparent viscosity of the air changes and the main wings will rattle until they break.”

That was where Mugino had to strike to win.

Meaning…

“It comes down to the ''air’s viscosity''. Or the apparent viscosity anyway.”

She gave the answer.

Saying it here wouldn’t change the result. She had only said it to assert dominance over her opponent in an act of villainous cruelty.

“If I burn the air with Meltdowner, it will reduce the humidity, which dries out the air. But if I instead blast a water tank, the water inside will pour out, greatly increasing the apparent air resistance. It’s simple once you know the trick, but that is enough for the 250 thousand and 1.75 million drones to tear themselves apart. Pretty neat, right?”

“Kh… You mean…that’s what you did?”

It might seem obvious, but that kind of obvious thing could be the most dangerous among all the unusual things found in the supersonic world. Quite a few of Academy City’s prototype fighter craft had ordinary air tear off their main wings because they were unable to withstand their own vibrations.

“The last thing you want is for someone else to alter the weather. That’s why you control it yourself. No matter how unnatural it might look, you needed to alter the environment for all those drones! Even if it meant using some strange power!!”

The maximum of 1.75 million was a certainly a threat, but using the exact same craft for all of them had been a mistake.

Securing multiple different models would have been a challenge when manufacturing, operation, and maintenance were taken into account. The simple financial cost and effort of operation would have been several times greater. But the choice had come back to bite her in combat. The world’s armies would not use a single standard craft just because it was the latest and greatest. Just like Academy City used the Two Wings and Six Wings simultaneously.

A single vulnerability would affect them all.

Throw them off there and the entire swarm would be suddenly destroyed.

The explosions continued. Mugino wasn’t aiming Meltdowner in that direction, but the drones couldn’t approach the former training ground where their targets awaited. They all broke apart on their own and their explosives detonated.

Mugino Shizuri sneered.

She might fight for Academy City or the greater world beyond its walls, but she was neither good nor righteous.

This was the smile of a villain who knew the taste of blood.

“Now, that takes care of those annoying drones buzzing around. Which only leaves your power to deal with.”

===Part 12===

Mugino Shizuri and Norsitro Chatellenie.

Regardless of how many other people were around, this was their battle.

Whoever won would win it all. Whoever lost would lose it all.



“Don’t expect a signal. I’m not flipping a coin or anything.”

“Did you not consider that I might kill you while you said that, fool?”

They both took action immediately.

A thick beam burst from Mugino’s palm.

The neon green bondage girl smiled.

She was still alive and well.

Several of the fake training ground structures had been burned and melted, but that was all.

(Meltdowner missed its mark?)

“No, did she bend it with a current rivaling a bolt of lightning!?”

There was another beam of light.

Something powerful pierced through Mugino Shizuri from head to toe.

A high-voltage current.

In fact, it was a lightning bolt of more than a hundred million volts.

“Kah…ah…”

Mugino’s breath caught, but she managed to stay on her feet, probably because her Meltdowner power controlled electrons. She had touched a torn high-voltage line outside the city without issue yet a shock at the District 3 bus terminal had briefly stopped her heart, suggesting her psychological state influenced the effectiveness of that ability far too much to be a reliable means of defense.

“Mugino, that isn’t an esper power.”

And Takitsubo Rikou made a judgment from behind cover.

This was the natural result of repeatedly using the same trump card in front of that search expert.

“She is controlling 250 thousand drones at once. Each one is the size of a small paper airplane, but you can think of that like fanning the air with a fan 250 thousand times that size. The movements of that swarm can cause a gust of wind in a single direction, a swirling tornado, or even rapidly reduce the air pressure, allowing her to change the weather itself. She can even cause hail and lightning that way.”

“Ha ha!!”

Not at all bothered and even laughing, Norsitro Chatellenie immediately responded.

“Didn’t I tell you!? Oh, sorry. Your leader wasn’t here when I explained that, was she? Anyway, I said keeping them in top condition isn’t easy!! The Superb Starling weather control swarm claims to be a strategic weapon superior to nuclear warheads, so it had damn well better be able to handle this!!!”

Meaning…

“You…”

Academy City’s #4 Level 5, Meltdowner.

Mugino Shizuri, leader of Item and born gangster of the Mugino Family, had been cornered this far by…



“''You’re a Level 0''?”



“Funny, isn’t it?”

She was laughing.

Information Broker Norsitro Chatellenie was.

Was that sneer on a face more pained than a lost child’s directed at herself?

“The villain who stands at the summit of Academy City’s evil, devours the city’s ordinary people, and has extended her reach into the world beyond the city…is no more than a Level 0. And I’ve fought back against this entire world because I hate being called that!! Yes, it’s true. I wanted to prove to everyone who’s ever laughed at me that I am not powerless and there is so much I can do!!!”

…She had been certain.

Mugino Shizuri had been absolutely certain that large-scale weather control was Norsitro’s esper power.

So she had thought this would end up as a battle between elites.

But it wasn’t.

This was a lot messier.

“There was a major…incident.”

The enemy was a true Level 0. yet she had challenged Item’s Level 5 and two Level 4s head on and driven them to the brink of death.

“Someone had to die and we all discussed who it should be. Everyone’s eyes gathered on me. Not one of them defended me. …That’s when I made up my mind. I decided I would survive even if it meant killing them all. I decided I would be the one looking down on every last one those shits who tell their pretty lies so they can pretend they’re good people!!”

Was that the trauma that led to her surrounding herself with a rescue squad that provided her with the power to survive rather than the power to kill?

She had been labeled a Level 0.

She had been abandoned by the adults’ systems and the children’s rules.

She had been declared unwanted.

But still she clenched her teeth and reached out her hand in that rotten quagmire.

She wanted power.

She wanted to be strong.

The drone swarm could not approach Mugino. She used the viscosity of the air to bring them down before they could.

But that did not rid the 250 thousand drones of their ability to act like a giant fan to stir up the air, manipulate the air pressure, and alter the weather. Using that did not require directly approaching their target.

This was a harmful technology, but Mugino was willing to recognize the girl’s ability to convert her desire for improvement into actual power.

However.

That was only if she didn’t arrogantly brag about her unprecedented achievement and hadn’t become a monster who endlessly devoured ordinary people’s lives.

(Power corrupts, huh?)

“I can’t respect a villain who reduces herself to a disposable rocket only meant to elevate the things she’s created. What have you become in your constant fear of being killed?”

“?”

A battle between villains begins before the fighting actually starts.

Whichever one was daunted and taken in by the other would fail.

So those who lived in the shadows paid close attention to how they lived their lives even as they turned their back to the sun. They didn’t think twice about breaking ordinary laws and regulations, but they followed their own ironclad rules or Family solidarity and they despised lies, deception, and betrayal in their midst.

And once the 1.75 million drones and their weather control were stripped away, the win condition here was as simple as can be.

She was the Information Broker.

Mugino couldn’t let the bondage girl’s weapon get to her and she had to view her for who she really was.

…The lightning was powerful, but it wasn’t enough to take the life of Academy City’s #4. The rain and hail were powerful enough to engulf Academy City if used systematically, but they couldn’t immobilize Mugino right away.

And no matter how much the winds and tornadoes might bluster, they couldn’t alter Meldowner’s electron beams the way they could a lead bullet or rocket.

Mugino Shizuri grinned.

“So would your one and only effective card be…the lightning? But that’s for defense, not attack. It’s true a current of more than a hundred million volts might be able to interfere with and bend my Meltdowner.”

“…Wait…”

“That’s right. If you’re so smart, you should have realized this ages ago. …If you ''only'' have the one effective card, coming up with a countermeasure is easy.”

Mugino didn’t have time for games.

Kinuhata Saiai must have gone the extra mile in trying to deceive Mugino because it didn’t look like she had used fake blood. That meant her bleeding was real. In that case, Mugino’s goal was to acquire and use a transfusion kit. Norsitro Chatellenie was no more than a point on the way.

So this wouldn’t be a skirmish.

If she was going to kill her, one major attack would do the trick.

Item’s leader announced her intentions.

To make sure it wasn’t too late.

To save the life of her teammate.

These parting words were not just for show.



“You’re – dead – meat.”

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