Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 10===

A product of polymer chemistry.

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

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

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

A heavy machine gun aimed Item’s way.

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

“!!”

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

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

They couldn’t even move like this.

Mugino was pinned behind the giant lathe.

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

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

Were they going to fight?

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

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

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

“How are we supposed to do that?”

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

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

But more than that.

They were supposed to run away and ignore this inhumanity?

“…”

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

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

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

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

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

“Frenda, what do you think!?”

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

Frenda didn’t need to think before answering.

Of course she didn’t.

Mugino Shizuri consciously regulated her breathing.

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

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

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

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

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

So Mugino Shizuri slowly breathed in and out.

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

She prepared to face the bottomless darkness.

And…



“Sorry… I will retrieve your bones!!”



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

Still, Mugino raised her voice and aimed her palm.

She would end this.

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

There was no voice.

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

Like a sense of relief. Or of thanks.

Then a rumbling.

There was an explosion and red splattered everywhere.

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

The rusty smell was faint. The stench of burnt rubber or plastic was much stronger.

It didn’t end with the one explosion.

Had the ammunition contained inside detonated? The other bagworms stiffened in place (likely based on a program) to negate the blast.

Had they avoided using their grenades because they didn’t want to trigger an explosion in the lab equipment?

During a slight lull in the gunfire, Frenda and Kinuhata climbed over their worn-down cover and charged out.

This was likely their first and last chance.

Explosives soared through the air and nitrogen was concentrated around a fist to smash through the plastic armor. It didn’t feel like they were destroying weapons. The feeling Kinuhata felt in her hand was much rawer. Even Mugino grimaced. Death was supposed to hold such great meaning that even a dark side pro would fall on their rear and beg for their life when faced with it. Yet here the brutal Meltdowner beams were a means of saving those people. There really was something deeply wrong with this city.

Just because the burned and crushed weapons themselves smiled as they died did not mean all was forgiven. They knew that, but this was a decision only the dark side could make.

The sounds of destruction continued.

Polymer chemistry, was it?

For Item, that science wasn’t particularly powerful now that the tides had turned.

They only felt anger.

Anger that someone would spend so many people’s lives for such a flimsy strength boost.

“Pant, pant!!”

Once it was all over, Mugino Shizuri was soaked red.

And not with her own blood.

“So they lost. In addition to how the human was used, I set up a gradation between multiple units testing plastic distributions from 70% to 90%, but I didn’t expect them all to be defeated. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions so I can make further improvements.”

Only one person remained.

The cause of it all: DIY Garage.

Covered in the blood of innocents and surrounded by a stench like melted plastic, Mugino Shizuri growled like a wounded beast.

“…Any last words?”

“I can say anything I want?”

Even at this point, DIY Garage did not tremble in fear or beg for his life. Even though she had been planning to Meltdowner him the instant he let any of those emotions leave his filthy mouth.

There was no emotion at all in his voice.

The look in his eyes was entirely unchanged and he simply laid out the words like he was Villager A.

“Do not forget this. You will regret it next time we meet.”

“''Next time''?”

A rusty scent scattered around.

Because Mugino had punched him in the face. With her fist clenched tight.

“Next time!? You’re already out of lives!!”

She didn’t use Meltdowner.

She wasn’t going to end it that quickly.

Instead, she climbed on top of him and used her fists. With each blow, she smashed another feature of that shitty scientist’s face.

“On the dark side! We find our own ways!! To live our lives!! By gathering up the pieces we’ve risked our lives for!! We don’t live cheap lives!! Where we can just open our mouths!! And expect someone to feed us!! And we definitely don’t have anything for a monster like you!! Not for someone who steals away other people’s lives and then wastes them on this garbage!! You think a piece of shit like you!! Gets anything as valuable as a next time!? Are you fucking kidding me!!?”

He wasn’t reacting much, so she grabbed his collar and dragged him to his feet.

A wet sound followed.

Mugino hadn’t done it. A human fist couldn’t make a human head pop like a watermelon smashed by a stick. Something had flown in from the side too fast to be seen by the naked eye and blown away DIY Garage’s head.

A sniper.

Clear interference.

What asshole granted that shithead the salvation of a death free of fear and suffering?

“Huh!? Is everyone trying to piss me off now!?”

With one hand still holding the collar of the corpse with nothing above the lower jaw, Mugino sent her bloodshot eyes darting out and concentrated a beam in the palm of her other hand. She aimed that palm past the outside wall.

And she fired.



A thick beam burst through ''right next to Mugino Shizuri’s head.



The rest of DIY Garage’s body was sliced through and vaporized.

Mugino froze in place for more than a second.

That alone could be fatal on a dark side job.

And even after wasting that much time, she still didn’t understand what had happened.

What was that?

A Meltdowner beam had flown back toward her?

Academy City’s #4 Level 5 power wasn’t something that could be easily mass produced.

She could only think of one other possibility.

But if it was that, this couldn’t get much worse.



“Was that…''Reflection''!?”



If so.

Then only one person could be lurking outside that broken and melted wall.

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