Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 3===

It was the busy time shortly before lunch.

Some of the morning events must have had already ended, so the population density of the streets had shot up.

Sticking to the edge of the sidewalk, Takitsubo spoke in the shadow of a roadside tree.

Takitsubo and Mugino were the only ones present at the moment.

“Mugino, what will you do?”

“About what?”

“About the next step,” clarified the track suit girl. “Even if we can leave the physical attack to you, we still need to think up a way to get Army Ant’s leader – the Queen Ant? – to talk.”

“Huh? I can just-”

“If we rely on your ad libbing there, you’ll probably impulsively use Meltdowner and kill their queen. She’s a queen. You never get along with villains who look down on you. We can’t have you doing that before we get the information we need.”

…Mugino had to admit that was a possibility. A strong one.

So did they have to think up some other way?

“Do you have an idea, Takitsubo?”

“I do.”

No hesitation.

This girl was terrifying for reasons other than physical violence using an esper power or bombs.

“It wouldn’t be a guarantee, but it would help if there was something that Queen Ant valued more than her own life. Let’s go with that if we can’t come up with a better idea ahead of time.”

“So why not just do that?”

“I knew you’d say that. I didn’t want to tell you because you stop thinking as soon as someone says they have an idea. I want to investigate some other viewpoints and angles, so don’t tell Kinuhata and Frenda for now.”

They couldn’t let their guard down since there were light-footed villains who were prepared to flee at anytime, but they were talking about a debt collection boss. They were bound to be motivated by greed.

Then the other two returned from wherever they had been.

“Frenda-san, why are you carrying so super many cups?”

“In the end, I’m comparing different sports drinks. They were handing out samples on that street over there. I wonder which one’s best? Being a big sister isn’t easy. I’m meeting up with my sister at lunchtime, remember? This topic is bound to come up while we’re eating our bento! So I need to be researching as much as I can to have enough trivia for her.”

One area was making even more noise than Frenda and Kinuhata.

The noise came from the ordinary people.

Apparently an area had been set up to let people try out one of the events.

Obstacles made of material as soft as sponge or an artificial leather sofa had been painted bright neon colors. It looked like a large-scale athletic facility bigger than a park playground. A full lap was likely less than 200m, but there were metal poles you had to climb, long slides, and other intense ups and downs. It resembled the endurance testing course seen on New Year’s TV specials. Some people were ignoring the rules of the event and just enjoying falling in the water.

The Daihaseisai included a wide variety of events, but this one appeared to be one where you ran through the obstacle course to hit a button and then answered a quiz button. You had to run back and forth several times to answer all the questions. Although the actual project was apparently meant to show off the specs of Academy City espers by letting ordinary people end up all sweaty and exhausted while the espers could complete it in mere seconds.

While watching that from a distance, Mugino made a comment.

“…Do you still have regrets?”

“Not really.”

“You don’t actually have to give up on it. There are those on the dark side with official identities too. You can get by if you aim to be one of the top level villains.”

“You’re overthinking this. It isn’t something I want that badly anymore.”

The soft sigh came from Mugino.

She knew Takitsubo Rikou’s situation best.

False charges.

She had ultimately avoided being found guilty and remained free, but that didn’t erase the path taken to reach that point and there was no guarantee the psychological scars would fully heal. She could no longer trust the ordinary world and its systems. Most people would force themselves to accept the untrustworthy systems because that was the only way to live in society. But if someone had talent for things that weren’t exactly praiseworthy, that could unfortunately create a reason for them to avoid the “honest” world. As long as they had the talent needed to slip into the cracks of society and walk a darker path while rejecting the things they found untrustworthy.

“I’m fine,” said the track suit girl. Plainly. “This life suits me better, Mugino.”