Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item7 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 6===

Of course, Item couldn’t cause a disaster.

But if their opponent had specialized equipment, they could ''trick that opponent into thinking there was one.

“It’s started,” emotionlessly stated Takitsubo with her eyes on her tablet. “It shouldn’t be enough for human’s to sense, but some people are behaving differently.”

“In the end, are the sensitive people just that sensitive?”

Academy City phones had an earthquake alert app installed by default, but without a large-scale earthquake alert, people would generally ignore most quakes they couldn’t sense themselves. Although looking at the dots representing people’s locations showed that some people would respond.

And when an alert could be falsely triggered by a wide-spread malfunction in the wind speed or atmospheric pressure sensors, it was possible to trigger a false alert on purpose.

…For example, you could detonate a ton of explosives underground.

Frenda looked proud of herself.

“We’re dealing with another bomber, right? In the end, that just means I need to hold a hand to my chest, looking into my heart, and ask what I would do. Because the answer is found within this wonderful, beautiful, and perfectly-sized chest!! …''What is the last thing the Academy City Bomber would want to happen''?”

“Does this long, boring cutscene have a super skip function?”

“Kinuhata, have you broadened your horizons from watching movies and started playing games on your phone?”

By systematically triggering a series of tremors ordinary people couldn’t sense, they could trigger a false positive in a program meant to predict spontaneous urban winds.

The greater the specialist, the more they would freeze in front of their monitor.

An expert bomber would be convinced they were about to be destroyed by their own explosives or toxic gas. So instead of following standard procedure and waiting inside the sturdy building, they would try to escape outside no matter what.

“Hmm.”

Takitsubo tilted her head and, unsure what to do with the large tablet in her hands, she held it to her large chest like a waitress holding her silver tray while waiting for the customer to order.

Item’s tracker wasn’t thrilled. Even though this was her specialty and everything was going smoothly.

“Frenda. Am I just supposed to search for every single person who rushed outside during the tremor?”

“That’s got to be tens of thousands, right? Now, if every single innocent person who happened to open the door and step outside sounds like acceptable collateral damage to you, go right ahead, but I’m voting against it.”

“Then what do we do?”

Takitsubo must not have believed this method would work.

The Academy City Bomber smiled and provide a correction.

“In the end, you want to pay attention to what happens immediately after the quake ends.”

“Super why?”

“A lot of people will have unwittingly opened their door. And some people will have been more sensitive to it than most. There are times when an otherwise ordinary person picks up on a slight shaking, sound, or pressure change. If we suspect them all, we’ll be here all day. …But what about after it ends? Won’t everyone breathe a sigh of relief and relax?”

Mugino sighed without speaking a word.

Slowly.

…That would be the usual reaction after a disaster. Once you knew you were safe, you wouldn’t need to scramble around any more.

“But in the end, a bomber with plenty of secrets is a different matter. They fled their hideout in a panic, thinking the building winds were going to destroy it, but they won’t want Anti-Skill to later retrieve their personal information from their illegal lab. They will have set a time bomb to erase all evidence after they got away. With maybe a minute or two on the timer.”

However, the time bomb being discussed here wasn’t necessarily the kind to trigger a big, flashy explosion like in a movie.

Fingerprints, hairs, saliva, paper documents, electronic data – safely erasing everything that could lead back to them would be the top priority, so the bomb could actually be a high-pressure bottle with a spray nozzle that fills the entire room with a mist of powerful acid. Like a more incredible version of a bug bomb that exterminates all the insects in a room at a the push of a button.

Conveniently, manufacturing tetra-ethylnipolita also required a large quantity of acid in addition to the old, damp explosive.

“I see. It’s true a bomber’s chemistry lab would have equipment worth over a hundred million yen each.”

“And equipment that can’t be bought no matter how much cash you have, so you have to buy all the components from different stores to avoid arousing suspicion and then build it yourself.”

What kind of equipment would that be? Kinuhata frowned, but Takitsubo was her usual expressionless self. It was hard to tell if she already knew the answer or if she had activated skip mode and it was all passing in one ear and out the other.

“In the end, they should regret their actions once they realize it was a false alarm. And in the end, ''they’ll head back in to stop the time bomb’s unnecessary countdown.'' Most people will relax once they realize the possibility of danger is past, but if someone instantly panics and rushes back the way they came, that’s who we want. Especially if they seem ''more'' concerned on the way back.”

That sounded plausible enough, but…

“Um. What about someone who ran outside while they were cooking and then super realized they had left the stove on?”

“In the end, that could happen. But then wouldn’t they hesitantly head back inside? In the worst case, they could be met by a pillar of fire taller than them when they opened the door. Normal people are excessively afraid of having temporary peace and safety taken from them. Even if they know checking the stove as soon as possible allows them to keep the damage to a minimum if there is something wrong. What’s happening in their kitchen and whether they’ll lose their home or restaurant is like a huge game of baccarat for them. They’ll feel considerable pressure while slowly flipping over that card.”

“Oh, so is it like how no one wants to go first in Russian roulette even though the first shot has the greatest odds of survival?”

“More or less. Normal people love peace and safety, so they can’t act swiftly based on nothing but odds. But a dark side pro can throw out their feelings and run the numbers.”

Frenda had an answer for everything.

Was that thanks to her experience in dealing with fire and explosions?

Of course, this was a fake trap, so there was no actual building wind damage. Thus, there wouldn’t be any tempura fires after someone’s oil spilled in their kitchen.

“We want someone who seems a lot more concerned as they head back into the building than when they ran out in fear of the wind damage that isn’t coming. Takitsubo, run a search based on that. In the end, this can’t fail.”

That would reveal the Morning Call bomber.

Of course, this tracking method wouldn’t work on just any criminal.

It only worked with a technological criminal with tons of pricey equipment who didn’t want to lose their tools.

Traps were based on psychology, so there was no one-size-fits-all answer.

Traps used to inspire a mistake were often influenced by past successes. Frenda must have succeeded with this before. And she might use a similar type of trap in the future too.

(It’s all about using information only an expert would notice. I bet you could use this to smoke out a sniper too. …Not that I ever want to be stuck in a situation where I have to do that.)

Takitsubo organized the necessary information with her fingertips.

She had the massive collection of data taken from security cameras and cleaning robots across the city.

Most of it was filtered through mechanically, but ''that alone'' could miss something important.

“I think I found them.”

“In the end, it’s worth double checking. There is always a chance it’s some unfortunate innocent person. In the first phase, when they rushed out of the building, they should be clutching whatever they treasure most. Are they holding a loupe for precision work? A pro will definitely take the tool they’re familiar with. They could buy a new one, but the slight scratches and cloudiness on the surface of the lens would make it completely different. A pristine new one wouldn’t bring back the familiar idiosyncrasies they were used to.”

“Then this probably is them.”

Just as the others looked at the screen, the app suddenly shut down. The home screen and its rows of square icons reappeared.

Anti-Skill must have noticed the illicit access. Now they couldn’t use that trump card again.

Takitsubo didn’t seem bothered as she erased the electronic SIM and shut down the device.

The tablet itself was disposable.

“They’re here in District 2. Come with me.”