Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item7 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 1===

It was October 28.

The astronomy event continued to color Academy City.

In addition to enormous telescopes, camping tents and lanterns had been dragged out to the front of stores. Almost like unsold inventory was being slapped with a random brand label to try and get it sold. And even if they were also outdoor products, why were the fishing rods on sale too? Were you supposed to fish for the moon reflected in the lake surface?

The banners lining the streets included an advertisement for a Zodiac Temple escape room being held, but did an ancient Greek stone structure really count as astronomy?

The fuzzy boundary lines between these things may have been a feature of Academy City where the mystical and the occult had no home.

An airship floated gently through the blue sky, displaying the news on its large screen.

“Next up is today’s astronomy forecast. The Cepheus Meteor Shower has been the talk of the town, but we already have confirmation that the world space station will pass by in low orbit at the same location, obstructing any photographs or videos. However, removing that obstacle from your images with AI eliminates any academic value your photo or video might have had, so do be careful.”

A moment later, something happened with no warning whatsoever.



An explosion.



At the top floor of a multipurpose skyscraper in District 15, Academy City’s greatest shopping district.

The passersby came to a stop and looked up without much care. Some students even held their phones up.

This was someone else’s misfortune. The people who had always viewed the world through their small screens would soon have shards of glass and burning scrap metal pour down on them, leaving them writhing on the red-stained ground. Unlike the majority of people who panicked and fled indoors.

There was no longer a dividing line between the observers and the participants.

The bomber named Morning Call had truly bared their fangs now.

Mugino Shizuri herself had predicted it was Morning Call’s turn now.

They were undoubtedly targeting Item now.

And this wasn’t the first attack.



“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> Ahh! Morning Call just blew away another of our secret bases! In the end, that’s the fifth one! Including the Cave Behind the Waterfall and the Five Star Villa!!”

“Kinu> And as soon as our luggage arrived ahead of us too. I think the Criminal Real Estate is going to get super mad and stop working with us soon. Even though we’re not the ones doing this.”



Thanks to this, Item had scattered.

Leading to a lot of activity on a social media service that didn’t leave any records, making it perfect for criminals.



“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> …In the end, we’re short on funds now. Should we do some part-time work?”

“Takitsubo Rikou> We have received a few job offers. As tailers and tunnelers and that sort of thing.”

“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> Oh, a rich girl like Mugino will have a lot of experience with fine art. If she has an eye for it, maybe she could work as a stolen item appraiser?”

“Kinu> Do you super think we have time to waste on that? We have a bomber trying to kill us.”

“M> wtf why ru all typing evrything out”

“Takitsubo Rikou> The latest voice input has gotten really good, Mugino. I was wondering why you were so slow to respond, but are you typing it in by hand?”

“M> Oh, like this? Why not just call each other at this point? There’s no point in moving to another new hideout. If we end up standing out too much, it could give away Item’s existence.”



Any furniture and such they sent to a new place would only get blown up, so Item wasn’t meeting in person much lately.

Instead of setting up secret bases, they were each hiding out on their own.

The sketchy social media service now acted as the hideout linking them.



“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> So Morning Call isn’t even trying to hide it anymore. In the end, I miss when they were using those silent bombs.”

“M> They’ve blown up five hideouts now. Surely you’ve been able to gather some evidence by now. Do we really still need to keep running away?”

“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> In the end, I do know their methods now.”



A short blonde girl was standing in a part of the District 15 shopping area being redeveloped. Specifically, by an empty window on the 25th floor of a building awaiting demolition after all its offices and shops had been removed.

It was 2500m from the skyscraper with black smoke rising from it, placing it at the very edge of the district.

A large device was bolted to the concrete floor with metal spikes driven in using compressed gas. The bizarre precision machine was a bulky combination of a large stainless steel tube and a box.



“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> They call themselves a bomber, but they actually use a number of different methods. This time, they attacked using a stationary rocket launcher.”

“Takitsubo Rikou> Was it launched remotely?”

“M> Then just track the source of the launch signal.”

“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> In a giant shopping district packed full of surface antennae for phones? This isn’t a park full of weeds. They just have to send the detonation command signal from several antennae at once and I can’t tell which one they’re at.”

“Kinu> And that’s super what Morning Call is after, right?”



Exactly.

The short blonde girl had identified the launch site and rushed their as soon as Item’s hideout had been blown away by a rocket, but this was the result. The bomber wasn’t there.



“Perfect Cutie Frenda-tan> In the end, they aren’t setting up the launcher and immediately firing it. Morning Call is remotely sending the detonation signal from some safe position. So we can’t kill them by running toward the sound of the launch.”



Morning Call kept using the same trick.

If these attacks continued, it would soon become accepted fact throughout the darkness that Item was on the decline and could be safely attacked without any risk of reprisal. If things got that bad, the bomber wouldn’t even need to deliver the finishing blow. Item would be worn down by the endless supply of weaklings showing up to attack them. It was the same idea abused by “broken window manufacturers”. When idiots gathered in sufficient number, they could no longer sense the risk appropriately.

In the previous battle, Morning Call had realized it would be the height of folly to take on Item directly. So even if the bomber couldn’t deliver a single fatal blow, they could repeat this one effective attack over and over again. The bomber was wearing down Item until they made a mistake. And this would continue endlessly until that happened.



“M> I have zero intention of playing along with this silly marathon. What are we going to do about it?”

“Kinu> We aren’t going to find Morning Call by chasing after the sound of the launch, so we need to fundamentally change tack here.”

“Takitsubo Rikou> Well, we do have other options.”