Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter4 (section)

===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.”