Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item7 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 1===

That had not been fun.

But if an explosion which mildly altered the terrain was enough to kill you, you weren’t cut out for work on the dark side.



“Ah ha ha! In the end, hundreds of remote bombs set up in a triangular pattern for self-destruction is what they use to destroy the underground portion of military bases when they evacuate them. And you all survived it? All thanks to the daily education you’ve gotten thanks to me, Frenda the Genius!”

The blonde girl had run so late she gave up and never showed, but for some reason she was gloating with hands on hips. The lawless dark side had no manners or etiquette either.

Kinuhata must have been curious about something because she kept rubbing her hands together in the small room.

“Umm, isn’t this super bad? That tablet on the wall means they must have video of us at the site of a dark side killing, doesn’t it? If they spread that around with a burner account, won’t we have a lot of trouble on our hands?”

“Huh? Kinuhata, are you shy on camera?”

“We weren’t the ones who blew up that freak. In fact, we didn’t kill any of the bodies we saw there. Trying to harass us like that would only tighten the noose around the real culprit’s neck.”

This wasn’t like the sniper who had tried to interfere.

Instead of beating a hasty retreat as soon as it wasn’t worth it anymore, this bomber was obsessed with Item for irrational reasons. Hunting the bomber down was the only way of ensuring their safety.

Mugino tapped her foot against the metal floor as she thought.

(Damn, not only did we have our target stolen from right under our noses, but we also have to supply a killing that isn’t going to pay anything. Luck just isn’t on our side.)

Their opponent this time was an unidentified bomber.

Another nuisance had stepped up onto the stage. Abduction and bombing weren’t like a brutal criminal who could be dealt with using a head-on show of highly-destructive esper power.

That job had been a race, so whoever got to the target first got paid.

…However, the Voice on the Phone said that bomber hadn’t been part of the race. That meant a stray criminal had stolen their target as a way of declaring war.

That left Item with no reason not to kill them.

Mugino scratched her head in annoyance.

“Frenda.”

‘Fine, I’ll do it,” replied Frenda in an offhand way.

Her voice was a bit muffled because she was wearing a special mask over her mouth. A hard plastic one.

Maybe the others didn’t share her knowledge of the danger, but she was the only one wearing a mask.

Track suit girl Takitsubo tilted her head.

“There are different kinds of bombers, right? What kind is the one targeting us? I know a detailed investigation of the fragments left at the site of an explosion can be compared to past bombings.”

“In the end, that’s what I’m doing right now,” replied Frenda, shaking a test tube with a plastic stopper on it.

“What is that?” asked Takitsubo, looking confused.

“A pregnancy test for explosives.”

The track suit girl didn’t have time to form a small triangle with her mouth over the idiot’s joke.

The clear fluid was already turning a cloudy yellow.

…This space was too small for the four members of Item to gather comfortably. The standard-size of cargo container defined by international shipping treaty was larger than a studio apartment, but it felt a lot more cramped with steel racks screwed into the floor and walls. And those racks were crammed full of expensive-looking analysis equipment and monitors.

This was one of Academy City Bomber Frenda’s mobile labs.

Although this one was primarily used for ''analysis''.

There were pro modifications made here and there. Because, needless to say, a container attached to a truck was not a room. Using the equipment the normal way would result in bad data from the entire container rocking side to side. But if the truck’s suspension was tightened up, the impacts from the road while driving would directly affect the delicate bottles and other chemistry lab equipment, shattering all that glass. And since she was self-taught, not all of her modifications were guaranteed to be correct. It wasn’t unusual for new bombers to get blown up somewhere in Academy City because one of their unspeakable modifications didn’t do its job.

The blonde girl checked the color of the yellow test tube using something like a ruler divided into millimeter-thick colored lines.

“Here we go. I had my suspicions after hearing the muddy sound and, in the end, it looks like I was right: tetra-ethylnipolita. Also known as ''the alchemy of explosives.''.”

“Super alchemy?”

The drop in Kinuhata’s tone wasn’t just in response to the dubious occult terminology.

She was remembering the messed-up researcher they had fought who had tried to create pure gold out of nothing. The memory was enough to ruin her mood.

Discussing bombs seemed to fill Frenda with energy. She removed her mask and flashed a bright smile (which was terribly inappropriate for the circumstances).

“Right. Explosives are a type of chemical, so they have ''an expiration date'' just like cold medicine. This is a type of recycled weapon that takes damp, expired explosives and mixes them with a powerful acid to create a new explosive. With some exceptionally burnable trash and 300 tons of acid, you can create 1500 tons of substitute explosive, so you could think of it as a bargain☆”

It was also a fairly toxic chemical.

Once in the body, it would kill someone even if it didn’t explode.

Although maybe that wasn’t too surprising when even air and tap water were dangerous if directly injected.

“So it’s an inferior watered-down version? I get mixing up a batch and selling it to cover operating expenses, but I can’t imagine a narcissist bomber would choose to use it. Don’t those self-centered egotists insist on using their own fancy original blend? Like they’re artists or something?”

“Yeah, yeah. Sorry for being a self-centered egotist of a narcissist bomber.” Frenda laughed it off as nothing. “The thing is, everyone has their own opinion on bombs. Not all of us are the kind of artists seen in movies. There are ‘franchisers’ who focus on high quantity and low price for business purposes. In the end, there are even bombers who choose to use the cheapest stuff available because it amuses them to blow up proud VIPs with musty old waste products. There are those who melt down fish trays and make explosives out of them in their dream of making cheap bombs. Others are so obsessed with health food they only make bombs out of the artificial fertilizers they hate. Remember, it’s all the result of exposing freaks to criminal psychology. In the end, everyone’s going to find their own answer.”

“Did you just super admit you’re a freak?”

“Hmm. Do you think an explosive made from the nitrogen compounds extracted from a cute blonde bomber’s bodily fluids would be popular? It would at least earn me a place in Academy City’s criminal history, don’t you think?”

“Could you not become the kind of freak you super don’t even see in movies?”

They were getting sidetracked.

They had to check through the past bombings in Academy City and track down this bomber who chose to use tetra-ethylnipolita.

“In the end, can I pass this off to you, Takitsubo? Mgh.”

“Yes.”

The weird noise at the end was the result of the container lab full of steel racks and lab equipment being cramped.

When Frenda turned around, she ended up with her face buried in Takitsubo’s chest, but Takitsubo kept talking like nothing was amiss.

“I only needed to know the primary component was tetra-ethylnipolita.”

“Mgh, mgh. I’ll add that tetra-ethylnipolita is a watered-down weapon invented out of necessity when supplies were low during a certain war. There is honestly no reason to use it when supplies are plentiful. I doubt any military has continued to use it after that war.”

“That should make it even easier to narrow this down,” said Takitsubo, already beginning to poke at a large tablet.

Mugino must have been bored without anything to do, so she asked about something unnecessary.

“How are you going to investigate this?”

“If we don’t know the answer, I just have to ''make friends'' with someone who does. And if I want to be able to search through all past bombings, Anti-Skill would be best.”

Takitsubo just came out and said it.

It was hard to tell with her track suit and blank stare, but she was no more a decent person than the rest. She was as much a dark side villain as Mugino or Frenda.

Kinuhata looked shocked.

“Are you going to threaten an ordinary person with no connection to the dark side? And a righteous Anti-Skill officer of all people?”

“Would you feel less guilty if it was a corrupt Anti-Skill officer?”

Takitsubo turned the tablet around for Kinuhata to see, like she was sitting at the phone counter and explaining the updated service plan that came with Kinuhata’s new phone.

“Hatsuyama Yui. She is a gym teacher at Hoshizora Middle School and she patrols the city’s largest shopping area in District 15. She is a corrupt officer who inflated her numbers by going after students for breaking curfew before the curfew actually begins. If I get my hands on some evidence and have a chat with her, I’m sure we can ''become good friends''.  I have all the data here on this tablet, but what do you think?”

Mugino and Kinuhata exchanged a glance.

And nodded.

As long as the woman was another rotten villain.