Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item7 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

Outside Academy City.

Police sirens blared. The police were finally beginning to respond, so the pressure from that embassy must have evaporated. It was October 29 and the day had worn on until the sun set. Not that pursuing the case at this point would find even a single member of Quarterback still alive.

An elderly man in an Italian suit walked calmly along without paying any heed to the police cars and motorcycles roaring past him. His suit was of course a luxury product without a speck of blood on it.

The Mugino Family head raised his arms and stretched.

(The people who make a quick getaway after a crime will get caught by the checkpoints and patrols as intended…but this is probably the last day I can relax here in Tokyo.)

“Hmm, that should end the Quarterback case. I’m a little sad to see it go. Like the end of a festival.”

The maids and butlers of Management and the troops had already withdrawn. With the police functioning normally, he couldn’t afford to stand out ''too much''.

Only Mujinayama accompanied him.

“Couldn’t you have at least left Manager Kagyu with you? The ire of one of the mansion’s young maids does not make for a comfortable work environment.”

“If I bring up model trains with her, she only tilts her head in confusion.”

“Hm? That sounds cute to me.”

“That isn’t the reaction I want. Why is it you always look at those young maids the same way you would your own grandchild? I bet you’d smile happily if one of them served you a fried egg they had burned black.”

“The real question is why you, who has an actual granddaughter, don’t feel that way looking at the young maids.”

“The point is I won’t force Kagyu to discuss it with me if she doesn’t understand it. I’ve come all the way to Tokyo, so I need to check out all the model shops I can before returning to Yokohama!”

“I must warn you I will report any and all Family expenditures to your wife.”

Things weren’t as bad as the day before, but a thick bulletproof car wouldn’t be much use with security on such high alert. If he wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble at a checkpoint, it was best to travel by foot.

(If I let that benevolent checkpoint bring me to a stop, there are those who would blow me away along with the police using a 5000-yen anti-tank rocket. I can’t bring that kind of trouble to this bright world.)

“Would Tokyo’s model train shops be in Akihabara?”

“You fool, anywhere in such an obvious location will have been picked clean of the good stuff. We would either find nothing worthwhile or inflated prices. But there are these strange areas where you can find otaku shops in locations hobbyists are too afraid to go. Like right here in Shinjuku☆ The fourth floor of this mess of a multi-tenant building has a really nice shop.”

The head gestured for Mujinayama to accompany him, looking as excited as a small child.

The sharp blast of an explosive rang out.

It was a gunshot.

And from point-blank range.

“Kah…?”

A shot to the back.

It came as a complete surprise. Which was why his first breath afterwards contained a questioning note.

At the same time, a portion of his brain half-reflexively analyzed the damage to his body.

That was just how much combat experience he had.

(.45 caliber. And that was no normal bullet. This scraping sensation left inside me means the bullet was made by heating the hell out of some boron carbide powder, the next hardest material after diamond. And it was made flat to ensure the full force of the impact hit me. Which means this was a Crocodile Killer.)

That was just about the worst bullet that could be fired from a handgun.

Instead of an unnecessarily large revolver that was more for show, this was designed to ensure the target suffered and died.

Oddly, international treaty banning its use by soldiers had led to its use spreading among civilian police forces instead.

But where had it come from?

Not even the King of Mugino had eyes on the back of his head, but that elderly man had a man he trusted more than his own eyes watching his back.

There was only one possible culprit for shooting him from point-blank range like this.

The Mugino Family head managed a scratchy voice.



“Mujina…yama?”

“''Wrong. It’s always like this with people.''”



The words were followed by a heavy, sticky sound.

It sounded less like makeup being removed from a face and more like a solvent being used to strip away a thick layer of dried paint.

The old butler’s face disappeared, revealing a young female one.

Even her height had been faked.

“I have nothing against Mugino Shizuri, but roping that #4 into this is the only way to show my target I mean business.”

This meant nothing to him.

She likely didn’t expect him to understand what she was talking about.

She had the tone of someone talking to themselves.

And even if he had been caught by surprise and shot in the back, he was still the extraordinary Mugino Family head.

He was stronger alone than when he had his many subordinates and an assortment of powerful weapons.

That was how it was supposed to work, yet…

“!!”

His quickly-thrown punch was easily blocked. Followed by a dull sound. A single blow was all it took to send him slumping to the ground.

“Khah!!”

“It’s no use. In this timeline here in ''the past'', I exist in an unstable state as the cat in the box, so no one can truly kill me. And you aren’t even one of the ''confirmed survivors''.”

None of it worked against Hanano Choubi.

It wasn’t a matter of strength. It was like trying to attack an illusion seen in the fog. The Mugino Family head didn’t let it show on his face, but he didn’t think he could win this one.

Collapsed on the ground, the elderly man coughed up blood and glared at the young woman.

There was one question that mattered more than his own life.

“What happened…to Mujinayama?”

“''What do you think happened to him''?”

That was all Hanano asked, her eyes open wide and unblinking.

The head head’s arm shot up like a separate creature.

Even more strongly than before.

But the result had already been determined. A few more dull impacts rang out.

Hanano clapped her hands together as if dusting them off.

“Now, then. I have what I need, so I just need to contact her… Yes, this should do: Quarterback’s phone! If Item has been taking good care of it, they should still have Morning Call’s phone with them. And with that, it’s about time I made my move.”

“…?”

“Really, I do feel bad. ''All'' I need to do is tear down a timeline, so I thought pitting Frenda Seivelun and Yumiya Rakko against each other ''in the past'' would be enough…but it turns out weak interference like that gets ''worked out'' by some kind of unseen force. She couldn’t go on a mission because of a bad hair day? What even is that? Since that wasn’t enough to change the predetermined current, I needed to do something a little more irreversible.”

“What are you talking about?”

“''I’m talking about my reasons for killing you,'' Mugino Family head.”