Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

The underground mall was a grid of corridors running lengthwise and widthwise, but not all of it was open. Because tenants were periodically replaced, some corridors had metal shutters down, blocking that way.

But those two-dimensional blockages couldn’t stop vertical motion.

Every surface was freshly painted.

It was all bright and shiny but didn’t seem lived in. Since the area had been blocked off, the wall of powerful scent was like a blow to the head.

Accompanied by two large bodyguards, a beautiful brown-skinned woman stepped into the underground passageway in her heels.

Immediately, a voice came from behind her.

“Hello.”

The voice echoed through the deserted area where even the shops had been removed.

Mugino Shizuri already had a brutal beam concentrated in her right hand.

The brown woman raised her hands without turning around.

At the same time, the large men flanking the Queen Ant did turn around. The only reason Mugino did not immediately fire Meltdowner was due to something blocking her view. Something like a torn-up tarp had been thrown at her, but was it actually the metal shutter that had been nearby? The ant masked bodyguards wore something like knuckle dusters, but each one had a pair of prongs on the end. The prongs weren’t the same as a stun gun’s electrodes. Perhaps they were mechanical weapons that latched on like a vise and tore away flesh upon contact.

Mugino swung just her head aside to dodge the flying piece of metal.

“Army Ant, huh? Interesting! Just try and bite me, you lowly insects!!”

With a belligerent smile, Mugino focused on her palm.

At the same moment, a dull thud rang out.

One of the bodyguards crumpled to the floor, where he curled up and trembled.

Directly behind him, Takitsubo Rikou held a fire extinguisher in both hands. It appeared to be the type that sprayed a foam rather than a powder, but that didn’t really matter. The weight of the metal against the head was the same either way.

Mugino didn’t seem to know what to do with her palm now.

“Huh…”

“If you fought, there would only be ashes left. Don’t kill them before we can talk.”

Not mentioning what would happen after the talking was the Item way.

Bodyguard B finally recovered from his surprise and clenched his fists anew, so Mugino Shizuri really did fire Meltdowner this time.

But only after Takitsubo Rikou threw the fire extinguisher at her palm.

“Dwah!? Dammit, Takitsubo!!”

“You don’t listen,” calmly said the track suit girl without even looking toward Mugino, who was covered head to toe in white foam.

Mugino’s plan had been to fire a warning shot and, while the enemy froze in shock and terror, fire an actual killing shot, but now she had lost her chance to adjust her aim. …So Takitsubo hadn’t just predicted that shot. She knew Mugino well enough to see through her entire strategy.

After that, they shifted their focus from the bodyguards to the woman they had been guarding.

She was still facing away with her hands up.

“You owe us for saving their lives,” plainly stated Takitsubo.

“When you’re the ones who attacked them in the first place?”

The woman seemed confident despite the circumstances.

So she really was a dark side specialist. And the boss of a dark side group at that.

The bodyguards clearly wanted to fight and give her a chance to escape, but her next action changed things.

The brown beauty slowly turned around without lowering her hands.

She was willing to talk.

To reiterate, she was beautiful. However, her eyes alone were hidden behind mechanical goggles with an insect look. And the bewitching brown skin left exposed by her gaudy dress was covered with special tattoos.

“I have a full grasp of the situation, my uninvited guests.”

“Is that why you ran?”

“Emotions are no more than brain chemicals. This means they can reach me as tiny particles I can smell. Grabbing one of my adorable worker ants by the face to get him to submit was uncalled for, don’t you think?”

Before even hearing the sound of something whizzing through the air, Takitsubo opened the door to the fire hose on the wall.

Orange sparks scattered from Japanese-style embroidery scissors or…no, were those nail clippers? The U of steel, well-forged by a craftsman, looked something like an ant’s mandibles.

The thrown blade stopped after piercing through the thin metal door.

Choosing to talk had seemed odd, but apparently she had only been looking for an opening. A very dark side thing to do.

Mugino looked exasperated.

“Why not just kill her now? We can always ask someone else.”

“Wait just a bit longer. …And if you don’t want to anger Mugino any more, I would recommend getting rid of that pepper spray you’re hiding. Animal venom is no use against Mugino. The chemicals will only be roasted and broken down in the air before reaching her.”

The track suit girl showed no emotion on her face.

Not even a twitch of an eyebrow.

The queen ant was apparently rendered speechless.

To her, Takitsubo apparently seemed more off than Mugino. She obediently pulled a bottle smaller than her thumb from her cleavage and tossed aside the formic acid based pepper spray.

“How do you always know when they’re about to do something?”

“Because they do that fortune teller act.”

The “I can see right through you” fortune teller act was a standard tactic for remaining in control of a conversation. Especially for those without as much simple firepower.

She probably had a ''personal security camera'' hidden in the bushes near the chain-ink fence or something.

Information was meant to be kept close to the vest. If someone went out of the way to reveal what they knew, they had to gain something from doing so. Such as surprising the enemy into a freezing for a brief moment they could use to slice through a major artery.

Mugino seemed fed up with it all.

“You won’t get a third chance, Ms. Goggles. Next time, we give up and try elsewhere. You’re who we’re looking for, aren’t you?”

“Yes, yes. I am. I’m the Queen Ant who rules the colony.”

On closer inspection the tattoos covering her body were not a pattern or illustrations. It was a series of small written characters. In fact, it was people’s names. She must have noticed where they were looking because the so-called queen slowly spun around to give them a better look. With her hands still raised.

“Every last one of them is a worker ant or soldier ant who died for me. So I engrave them into my skin so I can live on with them. I adore every last member of my colony. Can a lonely mutant like you even understand how a queen feels?”

Mugino snorted with laughter.

She claimed to be mourning her subordinates’ deaths, but she was acting more like she was showing off a fancy accessory. She didn’t seem to be the type to truly regret those deaths and bottle up her feelings.

The Queen Ant smiled with only her lips.

It was only surface level. Deep down, she may have been searching for a chance to attack.

“Why all this setup? You have enough firepower to push back my entire colony if I sent them after you.”

“Yeah. But my power is a little much. We can’t have me overdoing it and killing the stubborn Queen Ant too. But when people make a run for it, they always take along the things that really matter. We could never have located what was truly valuable among all your money and possessions, but you’ve revealed that bargaining chip for us. Now we know what it is you absolutely refuse to have stolen.”

At the very least, they knew it wasn’t the two bodyguards.

The brown woman squeezed a pouch too small to hold a bento. Squeezed it tightly.

Her tone dropped.

“What do you want? You don’t look too worried, so I’m guessing it isn’t that someone isn’t paying you back the money you lent them.”

“If you’re pursuing the counterfeit gold bars case, you must have gathered some information on whoever made them. Give it to us.”

“Why should I? Did you think anyone could approach Army Ant and leave unharmed?”

“Even the most hated creatures have another they can coexist with. For example, the antbird that captures the bugs fleeing from the greedy march of the army ants.”

The two bodyguards swelled out from within. They must have had some strength left and were taking this affront to their boss’s dignity seriously. What kind of weapons did they have hidden away? Mugino guessed it was something worse than a handgun.

But the Queen Ant herself seemed amused.

“Hm. But did you know those antbirds can’t fly very well under their own power? At this point, they can’t acquire food without the army ants. If they don’t follow the march, only death awaits them. So in trying to use the ants, they have become bound to them.”

“Mugino.”

The Queen Ant clicked her tongue. She was probably looking for an opening.

If Mugino let this shake her, she would be devoured and killed in an instant.

But Takitsubo could sense that coming in advance.

The brown woman sighed in exasperation.

“Learn to take the easy way out and you will become trapped. That is the truth. I’ve seen it happen countless times. But if you still want our help, it will mean signing a contract.”

“…”

“Of course, if you screw it up, we will draw on our full power as debt collectors. But if you don’t mind a debt so great the interest alone is debilitating, so be it.”

“Did you think you could threaten Item?”

“You can kill as many of us as you like. We can easily replace with recruitment, brainwashing, deals, and other means. Once the individual with a special power runs out of breath, they can only wait until our gathering of well-trained predators tears them apart little by little, ever widening the wound.”

The Queen Ant grinned, but also tossed over the file in a plastic sleeve one of the bodyguards pulled out. She threw it like a flying disc. Without any real reluctance.

“DIY Garage. That’s what they go by.”

Mugino caught it in her empty hand.

The document covered a single individual.

As confusing as it was, that name referred to an individual, not an organization. It was possible the name was a strategy meant to hide that they were just one person.

Mugino clicked her tongue.

“This is all you have? I was expecting more. This doesn’t even give their real name.”

“Unsatisfied?”

“No. Like I said, one of us is great at searching people out.”