Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item7 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 4===

It was a chilly night in Academy City District 11.

“This here is the last of Morning Call’s bomb making labs,” said Takitsubo, viewing a large cargo container.

It looked like an ordinary box at first, but there were signs of metalworking around the vents. According to Academy City Bomber Frenda, that was the result of additional ventilation equipment being installed on the interior of a container lab.

Kinuhata looked to the side.

“What do we do about the used clothes container over there? I super get it’s valuable, but we’ll have to research a way of selling off a ton of clothing at a decent price in a short period of time.”

Their discussion was interrupted by an electronic beeping.

It came from Morning Call’s phone that hey had decided to hold onto until the incident was fully dealt with.

The screen said the call was from Quarterback.

Mugino assumed the head was calling her through this unusual route again, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

A young female voice spoke from the phone.



“Hello, hello, Mugino-san. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”



Everything froze.

Kinuhata and Takitsubo’s eyes widened a lot at the familiar face on the screen.

Frenda didn’t speak a word.

“Forgive me the terrible frame rate and resolution. Outside the city, video calls and streaming sites are only just starting to become common. Huh? That’s not much of a reaction. I even chose to use ''this face and this uniform'' to make sure you would know who it was. C’mon, c’mon. Give me that ‘just saw a ghost’ look.”

The uniformed girl was familiar.

The short-sleeve summer uniform didn’t match the season.

That was definitely the one worn by that nervous small animal of a girl. Which was why none of it made any sense.

Mugino slowly asked a question, her voice pitched low.

“How the hell did you escape death?”

This was wrong.

She was making an undeniable mistake.

A traitor boldly announcing her survival to ''the'' Mugino Shizuri was about as suicidal as it got. If she had faked her death, she could have remained hidden for the rest of her life.

Yet Hanano Choubi laughed.

It seemed unlikely she was simply relying on the fact that this conversation was happening through a screen.

Mugino Shizuri did not forgive traitors.

Everyone knew that absolute rule. Not that she would accept ignorance as an excuse.

Hanano knew all that and yet flouted that rule with a smile.

“I see you’re still quite the dominatrix, Mugino-san. Don’t move on before I’m ready. I still have a guest I want to show you. Whoa, oof.”

A large dark shape filled the small phone screen.

She must have had a hard time propping up whatever was falling over in front of her. The blurry screen wobbled and then pulled back.

Finally, it came into view.



“May I introduce you to today’s special guest! Tah dah!! It’s the Mugino Family head☆”



They saw an elderly man in an Italian suit.

He didn’t look very good.

His slumped-over body looked unnaturally weak, his face was dripping with sweat, and there were dark red stains here and there on his fancy suit.

Out of nowhere, Hanano now held a handgun in her empty hand. The small plastic gun looked like a toy, but it definitely had the power to kill. Specifically, it was a .45 caliber.

“What are your demands? Out with it already, you suicidal freak.”

“Hm? I think you’re confused. Why do you think I have any demands for you? Try hearing me out first.”

Hanano looked puzzled.

The purity, harmlessness, and cuteness of her expression were terribly out of place.

But then it came.

“''I will now be publicly livestreaming the head’s execution, so just shut up and watch. Hanyah? That’s all I wanted to say, so where did I get it wrong?''”

Mugino’s body swelled out unnaturally from within.

Or it seemed to for Kinuhata watching on next to her.

Takitsubo had previously said having a family could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the circumstances. This was one of the bad times. ''Someone without a family to begin with had no one to be taken hostage''. Mugino was experiencing a pain Takitsubo never had to feel.

But this was even worse than that.

It could hardly be worse.

“Is this because you’re so self-conscious as the #4 you always assume people want something from you? Assuming you know what other people are thinking is a bad habit, you know? I’d even call it harassment☆”

But.

''Mugino could do nothing.

She was inside Academy City and those two were outside.

The physical distance was too great for her to rush to her grandfather’s aid. Plus, she was Academy City’s #4 Level 5. If she crossed the city wall without going through the intricate official procedure, she could easily be viewed as an industrial spy leaking a Level 5’s DNA map, making an enemy of Academy City as a whole.

This was District 11, but it didn’t matter that the city wall was right there.

“Huh? You actually know your own limits? Without even trying it first?”

Hanano laughed mockingly on the screen.

Yes, mockingly.

“I was ready for you to come charging my way even though you know it wouldn’t work. But you’re more coldhearted than I gave you credit for, ''you traitor''☆”

Hanano had already stated her goal.

She didn’t beat around the bush.

So she got right to it. On the small phone screen.

In that moment, the object held to the Mugino Family head’s head was a perfectly ordinary one.

A handgun.

The elderly man in an Italian suit directed his eyes calmly toward the camera and opened his mouth.

“I-”



''Bang!!

The life-stealing blast sounded terribly light.



The screen was dyed red.

Something heavy thudded to the ground. The camera lens was wiped off by something, but there was no life on the newly cleaned screen.

“Ah…”

It had happened so fast.

It didn’t matter how important or powerful someone was.

Anyone who wasn’t a ''confirmed survivor'' could easily die from one moment to the next.

What had her grandfather tried to say in his final moment?

Not only had she been powerless to save his life, she hadn’t even been able to receive his final message as his granddaughter.

“Ahhhh.”

Takitsubo had accompanied Mugino for years, but not even she know how Mugino defined human life.

What about family ties? What about a grandfather and granddaughter? What about respect and admiration for the head of an organization?

Ultimately, only the #4 could know the answers to those questions. Or maybe not even Mugino herself knew the answers.

At any rate, she had crossed some kind of threshold.

Something unidentified was crying out as it was born.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

“With this I’ve given you a ''reason'', Mugino Shizuri.”

The phone had cracked from being thrown to the ground, but it still produced a voice as if to supply the finishing blow.

She sounded really, truly amused.

This was the true enemy even Item had failed to kill.

“So come and kill me for my treachery.”