Difference between revisions of "Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter2"
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Shiratori Okibi. |
Shiratori Okibi. |
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She was indeed the Class Rep with excellent grades. |
She was indeed the Class Rep with excellent grades. |
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Latest revision as of 21:10, 3 March 2025
Chapter 2: The Fourth Estate[edit]
Part 1[edit]
“It’ll be alright. We took care of the Sadistic Dolls.”
“You say that. But you didn’t. Leave any signs. Pointing back to us. Did you?”
“I promise you I didn’t.”
The boy smiled bitterly while listening to the cheerful artificial voice coming from his phone. It sounded a lot like a female voice actor.
Their discussion was as suspicious as could be, but they weren’t stupid enough to just use the ordinary call feature. They were instead using an avatar clerk app. That was an industrial service that allowed boutiques or cosmetics shops to display a 3D clerk on a tall LCD screen and answer customers’ questions, but it wasn’t well known that anyone could use the service with their phone or tablet as long as they went through the correct process. By using throwaway accounts, it was easy enough for both sides to feign ignorance if the contents of the communications were ever discovered.
A service that let both sides communicate without revealing their real faces or voices was extremely useful.
For members of the press, seeking out a variety of ways to contact people was a part of the job. It let them create an environment where whistleblowers felt comfortable sharing their information and it gave them the means to contact various publishers themselves.
The boy was in District 4.
The district was already unique for its focus on food, but he was in the even more unusual Chinatown.
To help them blend into the scenery, even the three-bladed wind turbines were painted red here.
There were colorful flowers planted in dark soil around him, but the location couldn’t quite be called a small park. He sat inside a roofed gazebo where anyone was free to get some rest. It was chilly there since it was still early in the morning, but sensors would automatically detect the heat during the day and activate the spot cooler on the ceiling.
It was a public facility meant for people to enjoy the flowers, sip on some Chinese tea, and maybe play some go to enjoy a relaxing break. But no one would be using it before the trains even began running for the day.
It was early in the morning of August 30.
Specifically, it was 4:30 AM.
A middle school boy named Kagiyama Sasuke was using the avatar clerk app to communicate with someone while crouched down and performing some kind of work.
He was digging a hole in the dirt.
He held a smooth white blade in his other hand. The blade was more than 30cm long. The nonmetal knife appeared to be ceramic, but it was not.
“Using an esper power. To kill can be tracked back to you. After a search of the Bank. But adding in a weapon. Creates physical evidence.”
“We thought of that, of course. Ah ha ha. There won’t be any evidence left.”
The term “biodegradable plastic” might sound like some kind of cutting-edge technology, but it could even be created from cream.
And as long as you had the material, you could make just about anything out of it.
For example, you could create a large knife with a 3D printer and then hone it with a whetstone. If you killed someone with it, the knife would be the greatest piece of evidence, but if you simply buried it far away from the crime scene in District 9, it would degrade underground as various microbes consumed it.
“We’re on the side of justice, so we aren’t supposed to be resorting to these exceptional measures,” said Kagiyama. “Our specialty is civilly killing people with photos, after all.”
“Civilly?”
“What, do you have a problem with that?”
They called themselves the Frees.
A freelance writer, a freelance photographer, and a freelance drone operator.
The three of them worked together as a no-pressure press group.
They undoubtedly worked on the side of justice.
Ideally, they could capture a decisive enough photograph to eliminate the evils of society. But as proud journalists, they wouldn’t push too hard or pursue their enemy too far. However, in the face of an evil powerful enough to cover up the decisive photograph they presented, “exceptional measures” were necessary.
That meant directly killing that evil themselves to end it.
The photos allowed their target to turn over a new leaf after losing everything. Killing truly took their life. The Frees paid careful attention to that distinction when choosing their target’s fate.
Kagiyama patted the dark soil down and wiped his hands off with a wet tissue. He noticed a bit of soil under his nails, but he figured that wouldn’t be enough to keep him from handling his camera equipment.
Now the evidence was gone.
As time passed, the knife itself would be completely eliminated by soil bacteria, so he could ignore any and all risks, including any fingerprints that may have been left on the knife.
“In that case. You need to continue. Working on the main job.”
“We’ll keep working on the case you were interested in. And I mean supplying information, not killing.”
Kagiyama logged out of the avatar clerk app and stomped down the black soil with the sole of his shoe.
The buried knife would disappear on its own.
And now…
“If we do everything that noble bunch wants us to do, we’ll be out here the rest of the summer. So what’s Item up to?”
“I’m monitoring them.”
He was answered by a girl in a gaudy suit.
Her name was Saetani Melusine.
The blonde high school girl was part French. She held a 30cm plastic tube, but it was not the kind of skinny water bottle that capable businesswomen in tight skirts used to carry around coffee.
It was another tool of their trade: a highly-directional shotgun microphone.
“In the end, the Sadistic Dolls’ guitarist was killed by someone else on their justice side, right? And not even the voice on the phone knows who on the justice side it was?”
The device was meant to get high-quality recordings of bird cries from a distance because wild birds were so cautious. By placing the shotgun microphone on the wooden table and pointing it in the right direction, it could accurately pick up on the voices through the thick tempered glass of the convenience store more than 30m away.
For whatever reason, Item appeared to have no set hideout and instead frequently move between different businesses with 24-hour service. They were behaving like summer break runaways and they were currently occupying a convenience store eat-in section.
The one seated in a stool by the window and resting her cheek against the long counter in obvious boredom was Frenda. She was staring lazily over at her phone which was resting on its side so she could watch something on it. She really did look like a harmless girl who didn’t want summer break to end so she ran away from her strict dorm to spend her time anywhere that had free internet service.
But what she said was far from harmless.
“Do you really think someone could outdo that voice on the phone on the intelligence front? In he end, I feel like she’s manipulating us.”
“Wrong, muttered Saetani with a chuckle.
Kagiyama Sasuke and Saetani Melusine went to different schools, but they were both in their school’s newspaper club.
As was the third member of their group.
“Our funds are drying up.”
“What about our usual uploaders? Fumiaki is getting pretty dull, so what if we send them a few of our stocked photos?”
Newspaper clubs were mostly a thing of the past.
In an age where people could see anything they wanted on their phones, who would bother stopping in the hallway to read a school newspaper on the wall? And even if they tried to force a shift to a digital edition online, there wasn’t much they could do. The new rules meant to prevent students from starting secret school message boards tended to hinder the school reporters too.
But that made the clubs the perfect camouflage.
By creating a secret network of school newspaper clubs, they could use each school’s infrastructure to pursue the scandals of corporate executives and celebrities and deliver the finishing blow by anonymously sending the photos to the editorial department of a weekly photo magazine.
“Any news on recruiting Tokiwadai’s newspaper club?”
“No, but they wouldn’t wait this long to respond if they weren’t seriously considering it. They definitely have some latent rebelliousness at their school. It sounds like things are chaotic there, so who knows if they’ll eventually join with us or not.”
The pursuit of the truth was everything for journalists.
Which meant they couldn’t just report on criminals. They had to dig up everything they could find on the victims as well.
Kagiyama started up the recording app he used to take memos and played a recording of an elderly man’s voice.
That man was the father of the scrapyard worker who was thought to have been caught in the mass murder perpetrated by the Sadistic Dolls.
“Please go away. I don’t know who you are, but we just want to be left alone. I beg you not to use our son’s death as an excuse to justify your own crimes!!”
With the recording app still open, Kagiyama gently shut his eyes.
And reflected on what he heard.
“It hurts us as much as it hurts you.”
“Yes. But if we tell them that, we would be making those parents into our accomplices.”
“That is how the victim’s relatives tell us to do it without openly saying it. True justice knows how to pick up on those hints and act on them.”
The Frees believed in acting on the victims’ behalf.
They would do anything if it would avenge the people who couldn’t take direct vengeance themselves.
They weren’t looking for thanks. In cases of apparent revenge, the relatives were always the top suspects, so it was best if those relatives said nothing at all. It was enough to know they appreciated it deep down where no one could see it.
The Sadistic Dolls task had been completed without incident.
It was time to face the next tragedy.
Saetani adjusted the position of her shotgun microphone.
Her power was Electro Reading.
With it, she could accurately detect the sound of static electricity crackling on the surface of people’s bodies, allowing her to predict the movement of their muscles and joints. While it would allow her to predict someone’s next action with perfect accuracy and set up a cross-counter, the sound of the static electricity was so faint she couldn’t hear it without her ear pressed up against her enemy’s chest. That made her power impractical without a shotgun microphone to support it.
(Of course, my power isn’t much better in that regard.)
“There’s definitely something going on with the rumored #1, Accelerator, but reaching him right away would be difficult.”
“Right.”
“So we need to prove ourselves first. Once we’ve proven we can freely kill a Level 5 with the power of mass media, the adults should be more willing to cooperate with us. Fortunately, the #1 has earned himself a lot of enemies. We can deal with him later.”
Kagiyama peered through the viewfinder of his SLR camera. It was equipped with a telephoto lens so large it looked like it could snap a photo of the footprints on the lunar surface.
“First, we need the upper hand when it comes to information. Specifically, we need to know exactly how much information Item has on us.”
“Then what?”
“If they do have our information already, there’s no point in hiding. We’ll just be assassinated when we least suspect it like a certain someone was.”
“And if they don’t have anything on us, we peacefully go into hiding?”
“Right.”
“Don’t make me laugh. We both know you’ll be spreading their photos and voice recordings online as efficiently as you can. They have no future either way.”
Just then, Kagiyama heard a dull thud and felt a vibration.
(What was that?)
He looked away from Saetani seated next to him and then froze.
“Ugh, that convenience store’s air conditioning is too strong. I can’t get any sleep there. I’ll freeze solid if I don’t get some fresh air first.”
It was Mugino Shizuri.
That extremely dangerous girl was approaching another bench in the gazebo, putting her only a meter away.
Part 2[edit]
Mugino was in a bad mood as she plopped herself down on the gazebo bench.
Her phone was the source of that bad mood.
She had a call from the Mugino family outside Academy City.
“Such a wretched state of affairs… How could the daughter of the glorious Mugino family find herself homeless and spending her nights in junk food establishments?”
“Shut up, Mujinayama. What happened to paying me respect?” grumbled Mugino.
While Butler Mujinayama spoke quite gently, she knew better than to take what he said at face value.
He ordinarily did not directly call Mugino’s phone. He must have made this decision after using various indirect methods to finally sense that something was wrong.
There was pity in his voice.
That was not an emotion that a butler should have been directing toward his master.
This was an emergency for a high-class girl.
“If necessary, we can send supplies to support you. We could even send an RV or a large truck along with a kit for building a simple house with 2x4 construction. Academy City keeps itself locked up tight, but there are delivery services using the official routes.”
“You must be kidding. If I accepted a handout from the family, I’d be their laughing stock until the end of time.”
“I am intensely relieved to hear you say that. Even if you must live a miserable life without a roof over your head, I see you have not forgotten that you are a proud member of the Mugino family.”
“Mujinayama.”
She was ready to give him a serious talking to, but discovered he had hung up on her.
He might be the lead butler, but he was only a servant and she was the heiress.
“Damn bastard.”
She just about crushed her phone in her grip but stopped herself at the last second. Mujinayama had been getting around the restrictions on his speech to encourage her. And he had succinctly told her what things were like in the Mugino family at present.
A house was more than just a place to sleep.
For the upper classes, it was as much of a status symbol as a wristwatch or handbag.
(He’s too damn nice. Ugh, we need to find a new hideout sooner rather than later.)
Part 3[edit]
Yes, Item had four members.
While the Frees were focused on one of them, they could lose sight of another.
The two guilty journalists were left trembling with a brutal criminal seated across the gazebo table from them.
“(Wh-wh-wh-wh-what is Mugino Shizuri doing here all of a sudden? I thought all four of them were in that convenience store!)”
“(Don’t ask me! I was only in charge of listening. You’re the photographer, so it’s your fault for getting so focused on your phone! I just thought some of the four were more talkative than others!)”
They weren’t speaking out loud, of course.
That wasn’t an option with Mugino only a meter away. Seated side by side, Kagiyama and Melusine pressed an index finger against each other’s back and secretly communicated by tapping out Morse code.
They had chosen this spot because it wasn’t covered by the security cameras and the slightly cracked walkway kept the drum-shaped cleaning and security robots away, but now they wanted all of those things here. Now that villain had no reason to leave.
“Yawwwn…”
Only a meter away, Mugino put away her phone and calmly yawned.
They felt like they were in a strange zoo with no cages or fences and a lion was lying in front of them and opening its great maw in boredom. But at least Mugino didn’t seem cautious.
Did she not know?
It didn’t seem like she had purposefully snuck up on them. She must have left the convenience store without them noticing and then just so happened to spot the gazebo and decided to sit down there.
They were fine.
Everything was alright.
There was nothing directly linking the killing of the Sadistic Dolls with the Frees. The murder weapon was a biodegradable plastic knife which was already degrading underground. Without any damning evidence, Mugino would have no reason to suspect them.
She was dangerous.
But reading people like this didn’t seem like her forte.
She seemed a lot more like a meathead who solved everything in battle!!
It was worrying that she seemed like the type to just kill everyone she thought was remotely suspicious, but not even a dark side team would be allowed to indiscriminately harm ordinary people.
So they were safe. Unless she could somehow prove it.
This was working out in their favor.
Kagiyama searched for every little thing that would make him feel better, but then…
“You came out here, Mugino?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
Another one showed up.
(Takitsubo...Rikou.)
She didn’t directly participate in Item’s battles, but she supposedly provided mental and targeting support.
Which meant her specialty was data analysis.
Part 4[edit]
“The days of major vs. indies are over! Now it’s all about general artists who bring music and video sites together! The big name there has got to be the Sadistic Dolls. Their new song The Color of the Whip is just so good and they’re having a streaming event on the last day of summer break!! I can’t wait☆ Oh, I know! How about you watch it with me?”
“Eh?”
Mugino couldn’t exactly tell Class Rep Shiratori-chan that the band was already dead.
Not when the girl was speaking so excitedly and peacefully over the phone.
“With phone culture cutting into their business, internet cafes have started renting out home theaters, so it shouldn’t be too expensive to get ourselves a great live viewing environment. Don’t you want to join me in enjoying the Sadistic Dolls’ streaming event on a big screen?”
“Oh, uh, your breaking up. Hello? I can’t hear you? Damn, I’m losing my signal. (click)”
Hanging up like that was pretty rude, but it was exceptional for the Mugino to feel the need to put on such an obvious act when doing so. Even that deadly beast tried to put on appearances for her public life.
“Mugino.”
Takitsubo waited until the free talk app was closed to speak up.
She was well-behaved for the dark side.
“Are you out here because the convenience store was too cold? Keeping the air conditioning on that strong can’t be ecological.”
“Yeah, and Frenda and Kinuhata have so little fat on them it makes no sense that they’re the ones who can take it.”
“Don’t say that. They can’t help it. And I don’t think chest size has much to do with how well you handle the cold.”
“You’ll make those dumbasses cry tears of blood saying things like that.”
As they chatted, the track suit girl sat down next to Mugino.
Now it was 2 vs. 2.
And the other side was Item, a group that specialized in direct combat.
This had been a safe zone just 5 minutes ago, but now it was a gazebo from hell itself.
Sweat poured down Kagiyama Sasuke’s body.
“(What do we do? Hey, what do we do!? Hey!?)”
He tapped away on the blonde girl’s back to communicate, but then he felt a very dangerous sensation. He must have tapped too hard and unhooked her bra. Yet Saetani didn’t react in the slightest.
Her thoughts must have briefly left her body and begun floating in the ether.
While Mugino pulled her phone back out of her pocket and irritably did something with it, Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.
“Mugino, on the dark side, we’re supposed to retaliate when someone makes a fool of us, right?”
“Butting in on our territory is like declaring war. I don’t know what piece of shit stole our job, but I will make them pay. ...Oh, right. Gather up all the cleanup delinquents! As many as we can get! It’ll take a lot of people to collect all the scattered fragments and clean everything up!!”
Mugino kicked the table with her phone in hand, making the media pair shrink down even more than before.
They began a sweaty strategy meeting only a meter away.
“(Wait, hold on. We can call Anti-Skill over what they’ve said here, right?)”
“(No, she hasn’t said exactly what they’re cleaning up. She’s just barely talking around it.)”
But Kagiyama wanted help regardless.
Was there no way of reporting this to Anti-Skill or Judgment so they could handle everything instead?
He operated his phone under the table in what felt like a prayer, but it had no signal. No signal? In Academy City, a city of cutting-edge science in the middle of Tokyo?
“Shut up! I said all of them!! Have the outside workers on standby too. Yeah, all of them!! Including that expert called Hanatsuyu Kuchikusa or whatever!!”
Yet Mugino was somehow yelling into her phone just fine.
Her own signal was getting through. Unnaturally so.
Was she jamming the ordinary phone signals!?
“Phew. Calling people is always such a pain.”
“I feel bad for the delinquents when you yell at them like that.”
“Yeah, and we were the ones who screwed up this time. Maybe I should buy them something to eat later. ...I need to direct this anger at the pieces of shit who stole our job.”
“Mugino.”
At this rate, all four members of Item could end up in this gazebo. The Frees were experts at gathering information, but they couldn’t launch a direct attack using a microphone. Especially with someone so terrifying. They preferred to make waves without revealing their own identities.
That meant they needed to leave this gazebo of death and go elsewhere. If they managed that, there was no way-
“Hey, you.”
“!”
Kagiyama’s shoulders jumped.
He was an expert journalist who made sure to always get the devastating photo, so having his target within arm’s reach was never ideal. He sensed trouble – big trouble.
“We’ll pay, so help us out. You do media work, right? And I can tell you’re not some major newspaper employees who get to take part in some fancy press club.”
She’d noticed.
And her instincts were serving her pretty well here!?
“Let me guess – freelancers who use that freedom to take a step into the dark side where you package up people’s misfortune to sell unconfirmed stories to sports papers and weekly photo magazines? Or maybe unethical journalists who prefer making money by threatening company executives and celebrities with photos of the skeletons in their closet?”
“…”
Kagiyama Sasuke and Saetani Melusine couldn’t come up with a response.
Track suit girl Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.
“How can you tell, Mugino?”
“The expensive shotgun mic I could see a video streaming freak carrying around, but you don’t see many amateurs using one of those along with an SLR camera that can only take still photographs. And I doubt they’re birdwatching in this restaurant district with nothing but crows to see.” Mugino looked bored. “I don’t know their exact ages, but even freelance students who’ve signed an exclusive contract with a major newspaper will use equipment lent to them by the paper. And kids especially will rely on borrowed equipment if they can. And those would have waterproof labels with an asset management number on them. A camera lens alone normally costs a fair bit of cash.”
“You mean like the women in suits on the train whose phones and laptops have a weird number on the back?”
“More or less.”
Takitsubo blinked twice.
And then took a look around.
“Is there a celebrity around here? Maybe on a secret date in Chinatown?”
“Frenda seems to know everyone, so maybe she’d know.”
Mugino and Takitsubo discussed it casually before both turning to face the other two.
Sweat poured down Kagiyama’s back, but he did his best to keep it off his face.
He remembered the time he was trying to get a photo of a celebrity’s affair during the middle of the night, but the celebrity discovered him and tried to run him down with a giant four-wheel-drive vehicle. He was reminded of the headlights and overly thick bumpers rushing toward him like death itself.
But this was worse.
He wasn’t going to escape Mugino Shizuri by running into a park with bollards guarding the entrance.
“Ha ha… Um, our photos are more important than our lives, so we can’t comment until they’ve actually been published. We just finished a job and were performing maintenance on our equipment.”
(Damn. We could take them out right now if we could only contact Amekawa!!)
Kagiyama smiled while thinking of their third member and just about clicked his tongue.
Amekawa Souji had played the most important role when it came to finishing off the final member of the Sadistic Dolls. His power was Remote Murder and it was perfect for settling conflicts.
But right now, Kagiyama was too scared to even pull out his phone. If he so much as glanced at the small screen, those two might get suspicious. And that could have devastating consequences.
“Does Frenda know anyone on TV?” asked the track suit girl, her gaze wandering through empty space.
“She muttered something about having no need for a has-been movie star when she was cleaning out her phone. Y’know, when she starts unfriending people on social media like crazy.”
“We probably shouldn’t let Kinuhata know about that. They might get into a fight.”
Saetani’s Electro Reading alone didn’t seem like enough to overpower the combo of Meltdowner and AIM Stalker.
Kagiyama’s power wasn’t any better.
Bind Scoop.
It was a mental power based on “the fear of being found out”. When he took a photo of someone, they were hit with an invisible psychological pressure that let him remotely control them as he wished. However, not just any photo would do. He wasn’t so talented that a single surveillance drone would let him conquer a country in record time.
The photo had to meet a few different conditions.
1. The target must be unaware they were being photographed.
2. The target had to be looking right at him.
3. The target had to be caught in the act of some personal scandal which they believed would be devastating if it got out.
So it was nearly impossible for him to control Mugino or Takitsubo now that they were right here with him. Aiming his enormous SLR camera at them from this close without them noticing but also with them looking at him was asking too much. Plus, he would have to be catching them in some kind of devastating personal scandal.
Saetani and Kagiyama (forcefully) poked at each other’s back with their index fingers.
“(This is why I keep telling you to carry around a pen camera just in case!)”
“(Those take a video after you press the button, so they don’t work with my power!)”
And so.
There was no doubting it.
If they thoughtlessly fled from the gazebo or shouted and attacked those two, they would simply be Meltdownered by a yawning Mugino.
(But it’s not over yet. I can still bind and control Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai in the convenience store. Then Item can tear themselves apart!)
Takitsubo expressionlessly but curiously viewed the camera sitting on the table.
“Wow. You still use a big SLR even though phone cameras have gotten so good?”
“Since everyone uses the same phones, that’s become the new average, so you have to work hard to stand out from the crowd. That means you need specialized equipment for any professional work.”
Mugino gave the camera bag, big battery, and directional shotgun microphone on the table an exasperated look.
“Even if it’s the end of August, it’s still summer. Why bother sitting around waiting for the perfect moment with that huge camera and shotgun mic? You can fake all the photos and voice clips you want nowadays.”
“Yes, it’s true computers can even create fake articles and photographs.”
Kagiyama smiled a little and shook his finger.
He noticed some dark filth under his nail, which depressed him a little.
“Most deductions and opinions can always be buried along with the truth when a terrified politician scatters fake articles around and points to them as proof they’re being targeted by a smear campaign.”
“Yeah, I have heard the authenticity of real videos can be called into question by injecting them with codes and artifacts associated with generative AI.”
“Right. We’re approaching a world where credibility is nothing but a popularity contest.”
That might make it sound like reporters and photographers would no longer be necessary.
That may have been a dying occupation.
But…
“That only makes a real photo all the more powerful.”
“Oh, really?”
“The real deal acquired the old fashioned way carries the unique power to break through all the fakes. The more over-the-top tricks powerful people with skeletons in their closet try, the more powerful a cross counter formed from the truth. That’s what we believe.”
Still seated on the bench, Mugino threw her upper body onto the table, squashing her large chest below herself. She used her own arms as a cushion and grinned.
“Interesting.”
Uh, oh. Making himself sound valuable only made it harder to escape.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed high school girl gave up on Morse code and just plain pinched his back. And too strongly for him to consider it a reward.
Then she again spoke with him by firmly rubbing her index finger against his back.
“(You use your power to help them out. In the meantime, I’m going to feign illness and go home!!)”
“(Are you stupid? If you leave like that, you’ll make those monsters suspicious and then it’s all over! You know my power is no good in direct confrontations!!)”
“Anyway, Takitsubo, I say we get their help if they can be useful.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“It doesn’t matter what photos they get as long as it isn’t being livestreamed or sent to the cloud. We’re safe as long as we check their devices and destroy them if we find they’ve recorded anything we don’t like.”
Bull’s eye.
That would explain the powerful jamming. Which meant it was already far too late!
“Besides, unethical journalists who aren’t sure whether they’ll deal with a magazine or the actual celebrity they photographed are part of the dark side. They’re the same as us.”
“But, Mugino, they’re part of the media, which means you could also say they’re on the side of justice. Doesn’t that scare you?”
“Rumors fade.” Mugino whispered to Takitsubo who was expressionlessly tugging on her coat. “But when a scandal that was all over mass media and personal blogs suddenly vanishes one day, it isn’t because people stopped caring. It’s because someone drew a line and said no one was to cross it.
“And I’m not talking about a press club,” added Mugino with a grin. “The big companies aren’t going to protect them, so the smaller media people can always sniff out when to back off. The ones who can’t are weeded out. By which I mean, they mysteriously drive their car into a dam or somehow wind up inside a giant jet engine at the airport.”
“Does that mean what I think it does, Mugino?”
“You two are supposed to get your photos in secret, but now we know what you look like. I know you know what kind of retaliation you’ll suffer if we were to let that information slip.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha...ha…”
Saetani laughed stiffly.
Kagiyama had known her for a long time, but he couldn’t tell if she was acting or not.
It didn’t matter how much Mugino threatened them. They could launch a surprise attack as long as they got away from this gazebo safely.
“So how much are you planning to pay them? Use too much money and Frenda will be upset again,” said Takitsubo, exasperated.
“That’s not an issue. We have money – we just don’t have anywhere to spend it,” replied Mugino, sticking her tongue out a bit.
Then Mugino whispered into the phone she had left on the table.
“Hey, voice on the phone.”
“Don’t expect me to answer at all times of day. It’s always like this with you. We! Have! Our! Roles! Here! I am the one who sends you jobs and controls everything from above. Or did you forget?”
Mugino looked annoyed as she spoke into her phone.
“Did you get the security camera footage from that building?”
The Frees had of course planned for that much.
And it would seem unnatural if they didn’t say anything for too long.
They didn’t want to give the impression they were cautiously listening in, so the two of them exchanged a glance and Saetani spoke first.
“Could you start by explaining what kind of case you’re investigating?”
They started off carefully.
Intentional or not, Mugino and Takitsubo hadn’t mentioned any specifics about the case.
If Kagiyama or Saetani carelessly mentioned the Moe Bells, a knife, or a murder, they were dead for sure.
“There are different kinds of crimes. If security cameras were all anyone ever needed, the media would be out of a job.”
“That’s true. You can’t track the criminal from camera to camera to locate their home if they’re cognizant of the cameras’ positions, hide their face, and frequently change coats while hidden behind pillars,” added Kagiyama.
That set up a continuing conversation.
They were putting on a bit of an act, but they could safely mix in some accurate but safely revealed information. In fact, that would seem more natural.
However…
“It’s a murder. ...Anyway, a big entertainment commerce building like that will have more than just the obvious cameras on the ceiling, right? To catch streamers making prank videos. Like 2mm cameras hidden in the gaps in the wall.”
“!”
(We didn’t know about those cameras!?)
Part 5[edit]
“Mugino, your clothes are all sweaty.”
“Damn this demanding body. And after the convenience store was too cold.”
“Hee hee hee. Your bra strap is showing through. This is why you shouldn’t wear a single layer of white in the summer.”
Kagiyama Sasuke was too panicked to focus on that.
He nearly gasped out loud. What was that about 2mm cameras in the walls!? Saetani Melusine kept trying to catch his eye. She was clearly confused and seeking instruction.
The woman’s voice coming from the phone was loud enough to reach the two of them as well.
“No luck there. It was in the Moe Bells, remember? All the life-size cardboard characters and giant balloons block the security cameras a lot. The elevator hall in question had this huge model airplane hanging from the ceiling by wires, so we can’t see a thing. Keeping those cameras a secret from the ordinary workers backfired because they end up covering them up accidentally. It’s always like this, I swear.”
(D-don’t scare me like that.)
“What about fingerprints?”
“Mugino, the victim was stabbed 19 times, but no one saw a bloody figure flee from the scene. They must have been prepared, so I doubt they would have been careless enough to leave any prints.”
Takitsubo answered before the voice on the phone could.
She was acting like a pet cat trying to take its owner’s attention away from the video they were watching.
And she was right, of course.
Fingerprints were the most basic thing to think of. Kagiyama and Saetani were both relieved, but…
“Hey, voice on the phone, then did they leave any hairs on the floor? Or footprints? If we check the shoe print, we can figure out the manufacturer and size. Tracking down the store where the shoes were bought could help narrow down who did it.”
…Had they been that thorough?
Anxiety slowly grew within the Frees.
Kagiyama knew it was dangerous, but he asked a probing question despite Melusine pinching his back.
He tried to be careful.
“Um, but, even if there were hairs on the floor of this...did you say it was an elevator hall? Anyway, that wouldn’t be enough to identify the killer. A lot of people would pass through there in a day and the air conditioning could have blown the hairs in from somewhere else.”
“If we end up with a list of 100 or even 1000, we can just investigate them all. Of course, it’d be our support team that did it.”
“Mugino, it wouldn’t be that many. The cleaning robots would pass through periodically, so we wouldn’t find anything from more than an hour before the killing.”
Kagiyama nodded with a smile.
“A-and how many people would that mean?”
‘Who knows. It’s not like we’ve taken exact statistics or anything, but if we assume not too many balding people were using the elevator, I’d guess ten at the most.”
“Ha ha. Oh, that’s good. Sounds like you can narrow it down a lot…”
The shotgun microphone on the table was still switched on. Saetani’s wireless earphone was still playing the distant conversation within the convenience store.
“Super by the way, what are we going to do about the support team’s equipment?”
“For now, put in an online order with this Armory person who 3D prints weapons. We’re in no position to make them ourselves right now.”
“Are guns made with craft plastic actually reliable? Are they sturdy enough?”
“Oh? So in the end, you’re worried about those delinquents now? You’ve grown. Then only order blades and blunt weapons from the Armory and order the more explosive toys from Wartime Arsenal.”
Frenda Seivelun was smiling with her laptop open in the convenience store’s eat-in section.
Kinuhata’s glum look changed to one of confusion.
“Why don’t you super order them?”
“Because I have a higher priority job to take care of.”
“?”
“In the end, it’s about you.” Frenda pointed straight at Kinuhata. “School starts after August, right? But in the end, you were trapped in a secret lab for so long you don’t have an academic history.”
“Now that you super mention it.”
“Your record will stand out as is, which could hinder your work on the dark side. It would be safer to rewrite some documents to make it look like you attend some school or another.”
“Even Mugino can’t super avoid stuff with her school, right?”
And so Frenda was writing a job order for some other sketchy worker.
“Kinuhata, I’ll have them make an ID for you, but in the end, is there a specific elementary school you want to go to?”
“I don’t care about the specifics, just super make it a middle school!!”
While those two were shouting in the convenience store, the voice on the phone was speaking calmly.
“Nineteen stab wounds makes for a fairly vigorous killing, but the culprit didn’t leave any sweat or saliva splattered on the floor. We can’t expect any hair either. If they were wearing a thin, foldable raincoat or windbreaker to keep the blood off, they would have had the hood over their head.”
No.
That wasn’t true at all, but Kagiyama had no reason to correct them.
Just knowing they hadn’t collected any hair from the floor was good enough.
“I wouldn’t expect any footprints either. Since this was right in front of an elevator, even with the cleaning robots, there would be far more footprints than fallen hairs.”
“And,” softly interjected Saetani. She knew the risks, but it was worth directing this conversation away from the truth. “Even if you did find some, shoe prints aren’t as decisive as fingerprints or DNA. You might not be able to track down the individual who bought the shoes if they were some cheap, mass-produced kind.”
“True,” said Kagiyama, trying to look helpful.
He had to resist striking a triumphant pose, but Item didn’t seem all that shocked.
They had only been reviewing the basics.
Mugino and Takitsubo looked like they were only now getting to the main thrust of the conversation.
Mugino glanced down at her phone.
Everything focused in on a single point.
“So the key is the murder weapon.”
“Exactly,” said the voice on the phone. “Find that and everything standing in our way falls apart. It’s always like that. And once we know their identity, we can pursue them as much as we like. Since we do have the corpse, we can investigate the wounds and the knife to quickly determine if it was the one used.”
Quickly.
Determine.
“B-but wouldn’t the killer have been wearing gloves?” asked Kagiyama with a smile.
“So what if they were?” coldly replied the voice on the phone. She spoke more firmly than expected, preventing his interruption from guiding the conversation. “Gloves would only prevent us from getting fingerprints or a palm print. We could still tell where their hand touched it. ...Also, Mugino, if you’re going to recruit on-site help, you need to support them yourself. It’s always like this with you.”
Her tone was light, but that was a fairly stern warning.
“I’m only in charge of Item itself. Just like with the delinquents in your support team, it’s not my job to protect their information.”
“As if some evil-hearted member of the privileged class is going to protect anyone at all.”
A dangerous tension filled the air, but that wasn’t enough to make a Level 5 flinch.
Mugino rested her head in a hand, looking only half-convinced.
“Gloves, huh?”
“There were some pieces of leather less than a millimeter thick on the floor, so they probably wore cheap leather gloves,” said the voice on the phone. “And it was apparently the real stuff, not synthetic. With that kind, the surface cracks in no time at all. Now, since they were cheap, there are probably tons just like them around, so tracking down the killer through purchase records probably isn’t possible.”
“So we can’t get direct fingerprints and we can’t track the purchase of the gloves. Does that mean we’re looking for DNA? Like getting genetic information from sweat that soaked through the glove and onto the knife’s grip?”
Takitsubo used the corner of a neatly folded handkerchief to dab beads of sweat from Mugino’s cheek, leading to those two fighting over the handkerchief.
“Is that really possible?”
Kagiyama was trying to put on an act to draw out information, but this question was mostly a completely honest one.
He couldn’t be certain one way or the other.
Not when Academy City tech advanced far too quickly. Especially on the dark side.
Yesterday’s safe zone might not be so safe tomorrow.
“Probably not,” said the voice on the phone. “Extracting DNA from no more than sweat isn’t happening. What we would actually want are skin cells from more than a millimeter deep. Those would come comes off with the sweat, but the glove in the way would act like a filter to block it. Plus, leather repels water.”
“…”
This relief was like violence.
Melusine’s tear ducts nearly loosened. Even though she knew crying would give away the game.
But…
“Camera check, camera check.”
It wasn’t Mugino who jumped in surprise – it was Saetani.
She could see him, but she had ignored him. She must not have expected him to use it on her.
The target had to be looking at him without noticing what he was doing and the camera had to catch them in a compromising situation. If those conditions were met, the target’s body would be physically bound. Including on the level of pulse rate and perspiration.
That was Kagiyama Sasuke’s Bind Scoop.
For Saetani, tapping out Morse code on her companion’s back to communicate without Mugino and Takitsubo noticing counted as a compromising situation. Which meant Kagiyama was in position to threaten her.
“(Hey, what are you-?)”
“(You should thank me for being so cautious.)”
If he could keep Saetani’s tears from escaping, they could survive this.
But…
“Which is why the dark side’s video hunters use the bones.”
The voice on the phone sent the conversation in another odd direction.
Kagiyama could feel the skin of his face going cold.
Blonde Saetani tried to recover her composure too quickly and failed.
“Bone- what?”
“I said we could find traces of the glove, right? We’ll check for those on the knife’s grip and use the distribution of the grip pressure to determine the shape of the culprit’s hand bones. That’s common practice in Academy City. Investigations are always like this.”
“Mugino, don’t the hand bones and joints have an especially complex structure for the human body?”
“Yeah, enough so that delinquents who don’t know what they’re doing will break their own fingers when they throw a punch.”
“Exactly,” said the voice on the phone. “Hand identification isn’t just done with the veins. With so much complexity in one place, it’s as possible to identify an individual from their hand bones as it is from their teeth☆”
After listening to all this and organizing her thoughts, Mugino spoke with her voice low.
“So that’s even more reason the murder weapon is our top priority.”
“What we’re looking for is pretty sharp and also heavy,” said the voice on the phone. “Maybe something like a big machete used to cut through the underbrush when hiking through the mountains, or a cleaver used to crush cow bones while chopping the meat? Whether it’s stainless steel or ceramic, it’ll be a sturdy, heat-resistant material, so it can’t be quickly eliminated in a fire like paper or plastic can be.”
“Academy City is a walled city, so it should still be somewhere in here. So would the best plan be a thorough search of trash dumps, rivers, and so on? Taking your time is the best shortcut to finding solid evidence,” said Saetani, praying it would turn out all right.
Item was close, but they were a little bit off-base.
Following this line of investigation would not lead them to the Frees. They wouldn’t expect for the murder weapon to be made from biodegradable plastic and to be slowly vanishing as they spoke.
Saetani had to calm them down.
She had to convince them they had plenty of time and then have them waste their time. As proven by the countless free-to-play online services, you could get people to waste any amount of time if you developed the right logic.
“Huh, they super sell nikuman at the end of August here? Is that cause this is Chinatown?”
“Munch, munch. In the end, I wonder if this really contains Hokkaido brand-name pork? Luckily, Frenda-chan has the forensic investigation kit needed to check its DNA map!!”
“Super cut it out.”
The convenience store conversation was still playing from Saetani’s wireless earphone thanks to the shotgun microphone.
Nothing she heard there seemed like it would lead to a solution.
But the lazy flow of time there could come in handy. With the scent of death so powerful in the gazebo, every little thing tended to make her panic and focus a little too hard. She did her best to feign normalcy and, when she couldn’t anymore, focused on those two chatting to help tap the brakes.
Takitsubo tilted her head.
“But we could be at a dead end if the knife has already been disposed of.”
“How would they do that with a metal knife? If they had the Meltdowner-level firepower needed to melt steel, they could have just used their power to kill her. I don’t get why they’d use some lame knife instead.”
“Mugino, no one said the knife had to be made of metal.”
Kagiyama’s heart leaped into his throat.
All of a sudden, they were approaching the truth.
These kinds of coincidences meant you could never relax when dealing with the dark side.
Kagiyama was soaked with sweat, but then something rested her head on his shoulder.
It was Saetani.
She tapped out a message on his back.
“(Calm down and suppress you emotions.)”
“…”
“(Take deep breaths. And focus on how often you blink. The stiffening in your cheeks isn’t worth worrying about. As long as you keep your eyes from wandering and your breath from catching, it shouldn’t be noticeable.)”
Her counseling was always perfect.
Because she could instantly scan the physical state of the target’s body and perceive their mental state.
Her Electro Reading let her “hear” the static electricity running along their skin to accurately detect the movement of their muscles and joints. And as long as she could hold her ear to their bare skin without rousing suspicion, she didn’t need the shotgun microphone.
And she was right.
This wasn’t over yet.
(They might suddenly get closer to the truth in theory, but we can still distance them from us. This isn’t over. We have nothing to fear as long as Item doesn’t discover anything definitive. As long as we can get through this and leave the gazebo, we’ll have a chance to take them by surprise.)
Mugino still didn’t understand, so she pouted her lips like a small child.
Kagiyama couldn’t have her getting any closer to the truth, so he chose to speak up here. That way he could direct their thoughts away from the truth. He couldn’t give them an answer – he could only give them a hint. It was important they were convinced they had thought it up themselves.
“So if it isn’t metal, could it be made of rock or glass?”
“Those have a melting point between 1400 and 1500 degrees, so there wouldn’t be much point.”
“Ehh? Then is there something else?”
Sulking Mugino was growing more childish by the second.
She rested her head on Takitsubo’s shoulder and pushed against the girl while giving her own thoughts.
“A knife carved from wood probably couldn’t slash, but it could be used to stab. And it could be easily disposed of in a fire. But that would only be a toy.”
“It could also be biodegradable plastic, Mugino. That might sound fancy, but you can use cream to make one in your kitchen. And that would be able to slash and stab.”
“…”
They were screwed.
If Kagiyama tried to say anything here, they were screwed for sure.
“But even if the knife is buried so it can degrade underground, the bloodstains won’t go away. So maybe the blade doesn’t have any blood on it? So maybe, Mugino, this was a remote attack that could damage the target by harming a doll or a picture?”
…How good was this track suit girl’s intuition!?
Had she really arrived at the biodegradable plastic and the remote attack without any hints to guide her!?
Whether she was guessing or had some kind of power helping her, now that the idea was on the table, it couldn’t be ignored.
It took all of Kagiyama’s willpower to avoid glaring at her with bloodshot eyes. Once they were in position to attack from a safe position, she would be the first one they silenced.
Remote Murder.
The third member of the Frees was a freelance drone operator named Amekawa Souji. His power made it so striking or stabbing a target’s shadow with a weapon would apply the same damage to the target themselves. It technically used the idea that “the mind rules the body” to produce physical injury through the placebo effect or hypnotic suggestion. Once it was in effect, it would still work even if Kagiyama or someone else was the one doing the stabbing. It was easy to avoid once you knew how it worked, but no one would be expecting it the very first time. It was especially useful that no blood or flesh that could be used as evidence ended up on the murder weapon used to attack the shadow.
If only they could contact Amekawa Souji wherever he had gotten off to.
If only they could scatter the screws and nail in his box across the ground so the downpour of sharp weapons contacted Mugino Shizuri’s shadow.
Even that violent Level 5 would be killed instantly.
If they could only do that, it would be over all at once, so where was that guy right now!?
“(He might have seen what was going on in this gazebo from a distance and gone right back home. He does use drones, after all.)”
“(If he did, I am so killing him later.)”
Without speaking aloud, Kagiyama and Melusine conversed using their fingers on each other’s back. Knowing that freelance drone operator, that was a distinct possibility. Then again, maybe it was better for one of them to be hiding somewhere than for all three of them to be trapped here.
Across the table, Mugino frowned and lifted her head from Takitsubo’s shoulder.
The track suit girl looked a bit disappointed as she turned to face her.
“A biodegradable weapon, huh? I don’t like the sound of that. If they buried it, it’d slowly disappear on its own.”
Uh, oh.
They were gradually moving in the right direction.
“B-but.”
Kagiyama leaned forward.
He wanted to direct them to a different set of rails before they settled on this one. He wanted to guide them in the wrong direction.
“While this is a walled city, you might not find it even if you dug all through the city. It could be on private property, it could be in the sewers, or it could even be in a building if they used a potted plant. And if you are going to dig up everything, you’ll need some kind of paperwork giving a justification. I don’t know, maybe disposing of unexploded ordnance or repairing aging plumbing.”
“Not necessarily,” said the track suit girl, expressionlessly pointing somewhere nearby.
At the ground.
A few objects the size of tennis balls were scurrying around.
They were rodents. And not hamsters either. These were the uncute variety.
“Wah!?”
“They aren’t all that unusual in areas that serve food.”
Mugino jumped in uncharacteristic surprise, but Takitsubo didn’t seem to mind their presence.
In fact, she looked a little happy.
“Hee hee. I just found one of your weaknesses, Mugino. It can be our little secret.”
“Shut up. My Class Rep has told me way too many scary stories about rats. Like that they spread the plague and that they carry so many germs their bites are really dangerous. Apparently they even used to chew through the wiring in tanks, bringing them to a standstill. And if that Class Rep says so, it must be true!!”
“…”
Takitsubo used two sticks to pick up a filthy rat and tossed it at the Level 5. Mugino screamed.
She seemed annoyed her partner would trust anything her Class Rep said.
Then Takitsubo expressionlessly continued the conversation.
“There are different kinds of biodegradable plastic, but it can be made by chemically altering cream. And if it was made from that, it wouldn’t surprise me to find small animals can sniff it out. They can apparently dig up tissues and drink bottle lids from the bushes on the side of the road. And District 4 is far enough from the scene of the crime that the culprit might try to use a public space here to let the knife quickly degrade without creating any connection leading back to themselves.”
Mugino didn’t react at all to this explanation (because she had her feet pulled up onto the bench to keep herself as far away from the ground as possible), so Takitsubo tilted her head and used a stick to shoo the rats away.
Saetani spoke to the track suit girl bent over toward the ground.
“A-a stray dog might have buried some kitchen garbage. You might find something gross. And even if the killer did use biodegradable plastic, we don’t know if they used cream.”
“Any non-dairy ingredient would be hard to come by. And they wouldn’t have any reason to not use it.”
Takitsubo stuck the end of the stick into the ground and began digging.
Were the sounds of thin threads snapping coming from hair-thin grassroots?
Mugino looked puzzled, her feet still up on the bench.
“Wait, you’re really going to dig here? We don’t even know how deep the killer would have buried it.”
“It can’t be too deep if the rats could smell it.”
Mugino had nothing to do but didn’t want to stick her hand where the rats had been gathering, so she spoke as if to just fill time.
“So what, did they 3D print a knife using biodegradable plastic made from cream? Damn, anyone could acquire all of that, so it’ll be hard to track them down.”
“But, Mugino, what would they gain from killing the guitarist?”
“If they were professionals, they wouldn’t have cared who it was. There’s no point in taking a job that puts you up against someone else in your business because that only leads to unnecessary trouble.”
“If the killer themselves didn’t have a motive, maybe they were doing it for someone else,” softly suggested Saetani.
“You mean it was a hired killing?” asked Mugino and blonde Saetani nodded.
“But it might not have been spelled out so clearly. It’s possible the killer was moved to do something after seeing the poor people whose family members were killed,” added Saetani with a chuckle.
“Hm.” Mugino nodded (her feet still pulled up on the bench). “But if that’s why they killed the guitarist, they were pretty damn stupid.”
“?”
“I mean, think about it. No one asked them to do that and even the surviving family members told them not to, but the killer refused to listen. I’m not going to deny the fake news flooding the world is a problem, but dumbasses who can only view accurate information in a distorted light are an even bigger problem.”
Saetani poured all her willpower into keeping a straight face.
Kagiyama wondered if he had managed the same.
And eventually, Takitsubo came to a stop while using her stick to dig into the dark soil.
Kagiyama and Saetani had a very bad feeling about this, so they started to reach for their SLR camera and shotgun microphone on the table. Their hands collided.
“(Now is not the time to try for a bittersweet romance! And I haven’t forgotten you unhooked my bra earlier! Are you in love with me or something!?)”
“(Can’t you just let bygones be bygo- oh, no! We lost our chance!!)”
Her feet still pulled up onto the bench, Mugino peered down into the hole dug in the dark soil.
“I’ll be damned. There it is.”
Part 6[edit]
This was bad.
It could hardly be worse.
Kagiyama Sasuke understood this intellectually, but he still couldn’t make himself move.
He could only watch as the track suit girl wrapped a handkerchief around her hand and stuck her hand into the hole.
Takitsubo Rikou grabbed the grip and lifted an object up to eye level.
It was a weapon with one-sided blade measuring more than 30cm. It wasn’t made of metal, but it was still quite heavy. Because it was 3D printed, it was all one piece, from the tip of the blade to the bottom of the grip. It wasn’t multiple pieces held together with screws.
The white plastic knife had already started to crack.
It looked ready to fall apart at any moment.
“Whoa.”
“Tch. Don’t hurt yourself, Takitsubo. Having your DNA on it would only complicate matters.”
(That’s right. This isn’t over yet.)
Kagiyama did his best to catch Saetani Melusine’s eye.
(Don’t give it away! They haven’t completely identified their enemy yet!!)
The voice on the phone, who was apparently watching through the phone camera, sounded exasperated.
“Wait, really? I know the blade is the thinnest and most fragile part, but why does it have to be like this? If the bacteria eat away too much of it, we can’t compare it to the body’s wounds.”
“What about the glove marks? Y’know, how you said we could identify someone from the distribution of their hand bones.”
“We can try, but I’m not sure it’ll work. Since District 4 works with food, garbage-eating soil microbes are artificially disseminated there. If the surface of the grip’s been eaten away, the glove marks won’t be there anymore.”
“God, you’re useless.”
“Why is it always like this with you!?”
If no one were watching, Kagiyama might have high-fived his partner.
They’d won.
They’d escaped.
On instinct, Kagiyama reached for his SLR camera on the table. Not yet. Don’t smile yet. Once they were away from the gazebo, it would finally be their turn to attack.
(Top priority has to be Takitsubo Rikou since she’s too clever by half. Next would be Mugino Shizuri since she’s the most powerful. The other two I’ll kill using Amekawa’s power! I’ll stab them so many goddamn times for giving us so much trouble. We’re justice. We’re on the right side here. The Frees know when to use photos and when to use violence, so how could we ever lose to some villains who only know how to use violence!?)
Just then…
“The person who buried this knife is the one who killed the guitarist, right?”
“?”
Matching the knife to the body’s wounds and identifying the wielder’s hand bones from the glove marks on the grip would both be difficult.
But Takitsubo was looking at something else.
And she made it sound so simple and obvious.
“Then that settles it. We’ve caught the dark side killer.”
Part 7[edit]
“Super tah-dah! It’s a super dangerous criminal psychology quiz☆”
“Huh!? In the end, don’t just buy whatever magazines they have just cause you’re bored. The trick is to see how far you can get with the free services they offer, but here you are falling for the convenience store’s tricks!”
“How you answer these questions determines how much of a criminal you are. Super let’s see…”
“In the end, you need to listen to me…”
“Let’s go!! Question 1: Someone was murdered at an izakaya. But for some reason, a man who wasn’t even at the izakaya was arrested at his distant home. Now, why did Anti-Skill make this mistake?”
“Hmm?”
“Oh, should I super set a time limit for these questions?”
“In the end, it’s cause that man ate yakiniku.”
“…”
“Hey, what it is?”
“Um, uhh… I’m super not sure what to say…”
“Just give me the answer already. How much of a criminal am I, Kinuhat- hey, don’t just avert your eyes without saying anything!!”
Part 8[edit]
Takitsubo twirled her stick.
That was the one she had used to dig up the dark soil to reveal the white knife.
She poked at the knife’s grip with it.
And…
“Mugino, do you see this black stuff here? I think it’s pieces of the leather glove.”
“Oh.”
Without meaning to, Kagiyama made a sound instead of Mugino.
“You can get DNA from animal cells the same as with human ones.”
Hadn’t Frenda Seivelun made a fuss about that in the convenience store?
Something about using a forensic investigation kit to get the DNA map of the meat in her nikuman and see if it was really the advertised Hokkaido brand-name pork?
And the voice on the phone had said the DNA had to be taken from pieces of skin, not from the sweat itself. And what was leather?
“The biodegradable plastic itself will break down on its own while buried, but this stuff on the grip won’t. It will stay.”
The shotgun microphone left on the table sent the distant convenience store voices into Saetani’s ear through her wireless earphone.
“Pressure me all you want, that answer super isn’t in the magazine! It only gives things like he owed the victim money, he had a twin, or Anti-Skill is incompetent. How twisted a criminal are you if not even expert psychologists can measure your criminality!?”
“My answer was completely normal! In the end, you get hundreds of kilograms of meat from a single cow. All meat taken from the same cow will have the same DNA, so while the man was getting drunk at home, Anti-Skill assumed he had been at the izakaya!”
Whether or not she knew about this other conversation, Takitsubo expressionlessly spoke on much the same topic.
“I don’t know exactly how leather gloves are made, but I assume they use leather from the same animal for the outside and inside. So if anyone has pieces of leather with the same DNA as the pieces on the knife’s grip, we can conclude they were wearing the exact same glove.”
Kagiyama looked down at his hands.
The ends of his nails were a bit dark.
No, there was something underneath the very ends of his nails. Caught where washing his hands with soap wasn’t enough to get it out.
Mugino’s face went blank.
There was no smile in her eyes.
Not even a hint of one.
“Oh, really?”
Their eyes met.
Kagiyama averted his eyes. His face was covered in uncontrollable perspiration.
They didn’t even need to check the DNA.
Part 9[edit]
The dark side beasts climbed over the table to immediately attack.
Part 10[edit]
Mugino called the support team and had them clean up the bodies and bloodstains left around the gazebo.
“Ehh? In the end, you should’ve called me to join you if all that was going on.”
“Isn’t it a bad sign that the media was super sniffing around?”
Frenda and Kinuhata weren’t happy about being excluded.
“You seem to be acting like this over,” said the voice on the phone. “But weren’t there supposed to be three of them?”
“Hey. The last one was a drone operator, right? If they’ve vanished, they’ll probably start attacking us remotely, so where the hell did they get off to!?”
“He’s right here.”
Mugino was answered by someone to the side.
This was clearly an outsider.
A large object was tossed over. It was the upper half of a boy, which hit the top of the gazebo table and fell down to the ground, splattering red and black stains across the scene the support team had just worked so hard to clean.
Mugino glared over at whoever had done this and then froze.
This was unusual for her.
“What...are you doing here?”
“Grr.”
The low bestial growl sounded like a stray dog, but that was no dog. The partner accompanying the newcomer was a supposedly-extinct Japanese wolf.
“(Super what do you think about that?)”
“(You aren’t going to find a mysterious animal in this city of steel and concrete. In the end, it’s better to assume a stray dog’s DNA was messed with to force some atavism.)”
This person could toy with technology to that level.
They were undoubtedly part of the dark side.
The Japanese wolf’s master was a girl with long black hair. She looked to be high school age. Her busty body was contained by a white and blue short-sleeve sailor uniform with a pleated miniskirt. That was likely the uniform to some school or another. On her feet and legs, she wore white boots, special sock garters attached below the knee, and short black stockings. Above it all, she wore a thin coat and a hunting cap.
While it had cooled down a lot, it was still only late August. The inside of her coat had to be filled with electric cooling products and tools that violated anti-weapon laws.
“Mugino. Do you know her?” calmly asked Takitsubo.
The track suit girl may have been asking if this girl provided a service on the dark side, like an unlicensed doctor or a weapons dealer.
But looking back at Frenda and Kinuhata’s earlier conversation, there was another possibility.
Even if it was only to avoid having their records stand out, the Item girls were all enrolled in a school somewhere.
So…
“Shiratori Okibi. But you’re supposed to be the Class Rep at my ordinary school!?”
And in response, the girl accompanied by a Japanese wolf laughed.
Shiratori Okibi.
She was indeed the Class Rep with excellent grades.
“I am a detective.”
That was another stereotypical identifier.
It was another name for the justice that opposed all villains.
“And I’m also the loser who had her target – the Frees – stolen right before her eyes☆”
