Difference between revisions of "Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter1"
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“In the end, do you think the voice on the phone is intentionally letting us do this? Maybe she wanted us to get impatient and act without permission so we’d do the job for free.” |
“In the end, do you think the voice on the phone is intentionally letting us do this? Maybe she wanted us to get impatient and act without permission so we’d do the job for free.” |
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| − | “The suspicions can wait until after we have solid evidence. Make our move |
+ | “The suspicions can wait until after we have solid evidence. Make our move too soon against someone on her level and our names are going straight on an elimination list.” |
“I’m sure it’s fine. In the end, she’s probably just too stupid to realize we’d do this.” |
“I’m sure it’s fine. In the end, she’s probably just too stupid to realize we’d do this.” |
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Revision as of 06:09, 24 August 2024
Chapter 1: Public and Private
Part 1
“Room 407 – coming in☆”
After a knock, a young woman employee entered.
She carried a large plate.
“Here is your additional order of cold pork shabu-shabu pasta. Thanks for participating in our summer sesame sauce fair.”
It was early morning on August 29 inside a karaoke box in university-heavy District 5.
The karaoke box was one of the places Item had been using to sleep in since the Criminal Real Estate refused to do business with them. Their poor reputation had spread to the lodging industry, so they couldn’t even use a hotel, meaning they had been moving between establishments with 24-hour service: internet cafes, sports gym nap rooms, family restaurants, etc.
However, the wireless microphone and giant LCD remote were still in their charging stands.
The four girls clearly had no intention of singing and some large bags were sitting unnaturally in the corner of the room.
Plus, they all looked like they had just woken up.
…Anyone would have seen them as girls who had run away from home during the summer and needed somewhere to crash for the night, but apparently the part-time worker wasn’t sympathetic enough to question it. The female employee, who likely had a story of her own since she was working into the early morning, did only what her job demanded and then left the room.
Frenda’s face lit up.
“Oh, yeah, here it is. Check it out, everyone, it’s breakfast. Time to split up and share this cold pasta☆”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Pork shabu-shabu and carbs first thing in the morning? That seems super greasy and heavy.”
Kinuhata looked disgusted.
Bu while a karaoke box would deliver drinks and snacks to your room if you called, their menu was designed for parties. Excepting a light and healthy breakfast here was a mistake.
Without even enough energy to get up from the short sofa, Mugino pulled a wet tissue from the cylindrical bottle she had brought in with her and wiped herself around the neck.
“Ugh, my skin is all sticky… The spa near here doesn’t open until 10, right? Dammit!!”
None of them were time-control espers, so Kinuhata didn’t respond to that.
But she was curious about one thing.
“Takitsubo-san, super when does our laundromat stuff get done?”
“In another 50 minutes, so we don’t need to rush. I had them dry it too, so it’ll take time.”
On the other hand, if they took too long after the laundry was done, the employee would unlock the door and their laundry would be stolen. It was a necessary penalty to keep the limited number of industrial washing machines running efficiently.
Everything came with a time cost with this temporary lifestyle.
It was a common issue for runaways, but…
“Damn, and we wouldn’t have to deal with any of this if we could just get a new apartment… We have the money! Bathing and laundry aren’t supposed to be this much trouble. Go to hell, Criminal Real Estaaaaaaaate!!”
“In the end, I’m more worried about managing my explosives. I just shoved them in that bag over there and now they’re all rolling around together. The sunlight reflecting of the asphalt might melt the plastic explosives.”
But none of their complaining was going to change anything.
Their top priority was regaining trust within their industry, but then their job had been stolen from them.
A change came over the large screen on the wall.
“Yawwn. Another screw up on the job? It’s always like this with you. I do so wish I could pay you for a successful job, but it is what it is. Bitching about it isn’t going to help. You said it was the Sadistic Dolls that got there ahead of you? I’ll look into these competitors.”
The screen displayed pure black, but a young female woman’s voice played from it.
This was “the voice on the phone” who gave Item their jobs.
Mugino slowly sat up on the sofa and spoke in a low, unsteady voice that had more to do with annoyance than lack of sleep.
“You didn’t set up this double booking yourself, did you?”
“Why would I? Just sending Item in would have been enough to take out that cult leader. Just so you know, my superiors have already chewed me out over this. It’s always like this with them.”
The voice on the phone claimed she had been “chewed out”, but it didn’t sound like she was preparing to skip town.
Her shield wouldn’t be so thin that a mistake or two was enough to get her killed …Of course, that shield of hers wouldn’t necessary protect Item as well.
“Anyway, at least that cult leader did end up dead. That’s better than having her escape while you were fighting her troops. Far, far better.”
The four girls’ silence made it very clear they didn’t see what was so good about it, but the voice on the phone wasn’t going to let that faze her.
“Also, this should be a major setback for the AI development race. We might even see the age of smartphones revert to the old feature phones, so if there are any accessories you like, I recommend stocking up now.”
“So the city’s higher ups were super competing over all that?”
The cult had used AI and Item had used a criminal AI to rewrite their security cameras, sensors, surveillance drones, etc. in real time. Looking back, both sides of that conflict would have left a bad impression. Of course, this was all about convincing the VIPs at the top of the city, not about changing public opinion.
(Super based on this, I wonder if the lipstick-sized antenna used to connect to the criminal AI was left behind instead of being collected by our support organization.)
It might come back eventually, but it sounded like they would have to live without AI for a while.
Instead of being fully stopped, this had created a gap where development came to a standstill. Maybe you had to be in the position of the higher ups to understand who benefited from that.
“Anyway, I’ll find another job for you to make up for your mistakes. To us and to the Criminal Real Estate.”
“And you want us to sit around until then? Not happening.”
“It’s always like this with you. From what I’ve heard, the Sadistic Dolls have especially strong criminal infrastructure. The city’s higher ups are definitely involved. Just like with you. Do you want to go fight them without knowing who they are and end up in even more trouble? Don’t try anything until you know how exactly it benefits you.”
The connection ended.
The large karaoke screen resumed playing the stereotypical free footage of tropical ocean scenery.
Mugino Shizuri made a suggestion not three seconds later.
“I say we kill the Sadistic Dolls.”
“If you want,” readily agreed Frenda. “But in the end, if we don’t get rid of this competitor, they’ll keep stealing our jobs no matter how many we get from the voice on the phone. I’m sick of spending my nights in burger shops and gyudon shops like I’m a runaway. I miss futons. Can’t someone – anyone – show me to a bed!? We have to prove ourselves again to convince that Criminal Real Estate – the sooner the better. So if anyone gets in our way, my vote is for killing them.”
Kinuhata shrugged and Takitsubo stared into space while munching on the end of a carrot stick. Neither of them appeared to have an opposing argument.
That settled it.
Item was one of the villains infesting the dark side of Academy City, so they had no reason to show mercy here. Just because they were up against other brutal criminals was no reason for them to start working with the police, detectives, bounty hunters, scientists, reporters, or maids. When two criminal turfs collided, one side had to be destroyed.
“Academy City is a walled city, so there’s only so much room. No matter how prosperous it might be,” spat Mugino. She stated the inviolable rule she had learned from her family. “So the people of the city’s dark side always need to be focused on the limited amount of shares and turf available there. We’re all fighting for our piece of the pie. If we fall from the top of our field, only tragedy awaits us. Allowing one group to intervene will only lead to more and more trying the same.”
They had been stolen from.
So they had to pay the thieves back. Threefold? Ten-thousand-fold? There was no upper limit.
“Huh. In the end, This place has their song.”
Frenda operated the LCD remote to bring a new image onto the big screen.
It was the Sadistic Dolls’ new song, Color of the Whip.
Having footage of them in a back alley karaoke box like this probably came from how they existed on the border between major and indies. Using what they had seen last night, this music video, and information found on an online encyclopedia, Item put together a tentative profile of their enemy.
Saki.
Vocalist. Specializes in using her voice, but due to her shy personality, she sticks exclusively to singing. When it comes time for talking between songs during their concerts, she steps back and lets the guitarist take over. She also writes their lyrics.
Weapon: unknown.
Meg.
Guitarist. She handles the main melody and is the leader who gathered the band together. As seen above, she is charismatic and handles the talking during the concerts.
Weapon: killer electric guitar that “fires” ultra-high-voltage electricity.
Suzuran.
Bassist. Also develops their music videos and designs their costumes. As part of this, she runs their official website and social media, so the fans see her as the one they have the most direct communication with.
Weapon: flamethrower bass equipped with an oxyacetylene torch.
Yuami.
Synthesist. Doesn’t stand out much, but because their music is primarily streamed desktop music, there are rumors that she is secretly in charge of the entire band. Also their songwriter.
Weapon: unknown.
Amamo.
Drummer. Has the unusual background of being recruited into the band after working as a bouncer at a live music club. Runs the punishment games involving paper fans, whips, and baseball bat spankings during their concerts and videos.
Weapon: unknown.
Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.
“Mugino, you don’t seem too surprised.”
“Someone at my school was talking about them.”
“Pft. In the end, it’s hard to imagine you of all people putting on a uniform and going to sch- bwah!!?”
Frenda’s ill-advised comment earned her a wordless pummeling from Mugino’s fists.
From the look of things, the Sadistic Dolls used next-gen weapons rather than esper powers. Did that mean they had no high-level espers, or were they hiding their powers?
All of those names were of course stage names and the heavy makeup and color contacts they wore likely kept mechanical face recognition from working. Even with all this footage, tracking down their addresses or common hangouts would be difficult.
They appeared to be classified as something a lot like underground idols.
Of course, if they were super-famous entertainers raking in the dough, they wouldn’t be out killing for the dark side.
Mugino clicked her tongue while watching the music video playing on the big screen.
“The Sadistic Dolls. They’re a goddamn public girls band. Did any of you know they worked as dark side assassins before this?”
No hands went up.
Mugino nodded.
“Neither did I. That leaves two possibilities: 1. Someone considers them extremely valuable and has been keeping them in reserve. 2. They’re such a new team no one’s had a chance to hear about them yet.”
Kinuhata sighed at this.
The answer was obvious.
“That killer guitar and the wall-slicing torch will leave a super ton of evidence they were at a site, so you’d have a hard time keeping all five of those cards hidden for long. I can understand ordinary people not knowing, but it’s super fishy that we’ve never heard a single rumor of them on the dark side.”
“Right.” Frenda crossed her arms and nodded. “But in the end, even if they are newbies with little to no records to go on, there’s no way that cult killing was their first job. The way they got in, killed, and got out tells me they’ve done this before.”
“There are some traces,” said Takitsubo.
She used the glass table to spread out some paper documents she must have printed off somewhere.
They all listed unsolved cases and none of them had any definitive proof of the Sadistic Dolls’ involvement. She had gathered this information from online news articles, sniffing out the truth in a different way from Anti-Skill forensic investigators.
“1. A surface level dark side group calling themselves Revenge For Hire was burned to death in a fire. Acetylene was detected in the burnt remains of the building, so their flamethrower was probably responsible.”
“Have they never heard of being discreet? Not that I’m one to talk when I use bombs.” Frenda sounded somewhat exasperated.
Takitsubo nodded expressionlessly and continued.
“2. The executives of a corrupt company that caused quite a lot of health damage selling phony diet products were found in the trunk of an abandoned car. To be clear, that’s around a dozen people in a single trunk. Linked to that case, a scrapyard employee was found dead with his throat slit. Probably a witness.”
“…”
The air inside the box seemed to electrify.
Maybe they were newcomers still learning the ropes, but it was frowned on for dark side people to take ordinary people’s lives without a very good reason. Enough so that this kind of more indiscriminate criminal was looked down on with contempt.
“3. A money launderer who worked for sketchy companies and organizations was found dead under mysterious circumstances. He apparently laundered the money by using real money trading in online games to frequently trade electronic money for rare items. It also appears that the victim’s wife was abducted. Anti-Skill failed to rescue the hostage and the wife died.”
A tongue click echoed through the room. From Frenda.
Mugino breathed a heavy sigh.
“So they target pros.”
That meant they only attacked criminals to reduce their numbers.
In other words, they had a twisted sense of justice.
“I don’t know how seriously we should take it, but there are hints of that view in the Sadistic Dolls’ lyrics too. Mugino, take a listen to their latest song – Color of the Whip.”
No need.
With people like this, the odds were good they weren’t even aware they were bad people. They were true idiots who believed that the principle of “the enemy of your enemy is your friend” trumped the laws of the land.
Takitsubo tapped her index finger against one of the paper documents on the glass table.
“There was unverified information going around online for all of these cases, but the criminals were always erased just before the mass media picked it up. Of course, it could just be that the Sadistic Dolls operate online instead of on TV, so that’s where they search out their targets too.”
“Yeah, right. They clearly have a client, don’t you think? It’s super obvious that someone wants to silence these people before the story gets too big. So they might super claim to be fighting for good or for justice, but all they’re doing is kill people for money – just like us.”
Takitsubo did not reject that idea.
And…
“I can’t be certain with so few samples to go off of, but there is one thing the Sadistic Dolls seem to do every time.”
“?”
“They intentionally make the case look bigger than it is to gather onlookers. And that means both ordinary people and the dark side.”
“I see. They did trigger the alarm themselves just before they left with the cult, didn’t they?”
“That must be how they draw out the dark side individuals and groups lurking below the surface. Maybe they just enjoy it and maybe it’s a PR stunt meant to get their name out there quickly. I bet they’re fighting with the dark side beyond the scope of their jobs – it just hasn’t shown on the surface yet. Which would mean…”
“In the end, their target is us – Item?” Frenda didn’t sound happy about it.
The Sadistic Dolls didn’t even have the bare minimum of manners. In fact, it looked like they had a bad habit of actively involving ordinary people or even taking their target’s family hostage to achieve their goals. In that sense, they were an especially unpleasant enemy for Frenda.
There was only one real plan here.
These people weren’t going to back off if Item left them alone.
“We’ll just have to kill them before they can kill us,” declared Mugino.
“Okay. In the end, we need to fully uproot this threat.”
That settled it.
The track suit girl did not try to stop them now that they had a plan.
Even that seemingly harmless girl was still a member of the dark side.
“Mugino, where are we going to make the attack?”
“The Sadistic Dolls haven’t been around long, but all newbies are the same. For example, they’ll want to use a special service to quickly strengthen their bonds so their makeshift team doesn’t fall apart from infighting.”
Frenda seemed to know what Mugino meant.
“So in the end, we’re headed to a bond builder?”
Part 2
Their laundry was still spinning round and round inside the industrial washing machine.
The LCD display said it would be a few more minutes until it was done. They had taken travel time into account when deciding when to leave, but they had still arrived at the laundromat a little early.
“Ugh, I’m so bored. It’s these brief moments of downtime that really piss me off,” complained Frenda.
“Hey, if we super don’t do something, the Academy City Bomber is going to start a fireworks show over here.”
Kinuhata’s annoyed comment made Mugino scratch her head with a hand.
“Damn, I hate this too… Okay, how about we play rock-paper-scissors impressions?”
“What’s that? Ooh, I’ve never heard of that party game. In the end, you need to tell me all about it!”
“Hm? Since when do you know about these things, Mugino?” asked Takitsubo.
“I just heard about it at my school is all. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
While the four of them were playing their game, an electronic beeping sounded.
Now their laundry really was done.
“Super whose underwear is this? They’re all see through and there definitely shouldn’t be a hole here.”
“In the end, any of the sexy ones will be from Mugino’s collection.”
“Kinuhata, those are mine,” said Takitsubo.
“!?” “!?”
First, they collected all their dried laundry. Laundromats these days were as bright and shiny as a trendy cafe, so there wasn’t all that much reluctance for girls to use them.
Once done there, they returned to the multi-tenant building containing the karaoke box.
There was a spa in the same building.
It too was kept bright and polished, probably to give it a clean look to draw female customers. That said, the fake marble texture made it all look quite cheap. And based on the layout, it was probably a former sex industry establishment remodeled into a spa. With all its university students, District 5 had a lot of izakayas, smoking bars, and other adult-oriented establishments.
There were several teenage girls gathered there right as the spa opened, but were they all summer break runaways?
Item took a shower first and held a strategy meeting at the same time.
“Ahh, I can finally wash the sleep sweat away…”
“Mugino, stop avoiding the issue.”
Whether robbing a bank or staging a kidnapping, the greatest threat to a crime carried out by a group was infighting. So quickly strengthening the bonds between the group of gathered criminals was an even greater insurance of safety than a counterfeit passport or a getaway car.
Enough so that the dark side had people who specialized in providing that service.
Mugino raised her head to enjoy the warm shower water to its fullest as she spoke.
“They’re known as bond builders. A robbery team might be thrown into a cheap apartment or campsite and forced to live together, eating the same things and going to sleep at the same time every single day…to artificially create the bonds of a family within the group.”
Kinuhata spoke from the adjacent booth.
“Oh, really? And is there any super objective proof this works?”
“Of course not. We’re not Anti-Skill or Judgment.”
That was how it worked with the criminal underworld where there were no compliance rules or reports to be filed.
Since they couldn’t just throw more people at the issue like the government could, your own experience and nose for danger were your lifeline on the dark side.
“Bond builders, huh? Super sounds to me like they’re consensually doing some light brainwashing.”
“Because they are. Supposedly, a week with them and you have so much love and affection between you and your accomplices that you won’t rat each other out even if Anti-Skill captures you.”
If the Sadistic Dolls were using a bond builder to create instant unity within their group, they would be a client and that bond builder would have their personal information.
After drying their hair with driers and putting on fresh clothes, the girls rode the subway.
The subway station had a lot of boys and girls in casual clothing. They appeared to be out trying to make the most of the last few days of summer break. Being forced to study every day and compete in the entrance exams and then having your breaks controlled by the higher ups was definitely not fun.
“Huh? Weren’t we suppose to meet on the upper deck for our patrol?”
Item heard an odd voice from overhead. The speaker was descending the long escalator while Item ascended it. Three girls were wearing their school uniforms even during the break. Mugino gave them an irritated glare before looking away. Annoyingly enough, those girls wore special armbands on their right shoulders. They were from Judgment.
(“Ugh. And we super know one of them. That’s Yamagami Erina.)”
They had happened to run into that girl at the Colosseum and the illegal casino. And she wasn’t alone this time.
That just made this worse.
If their eyes happened to meet here, she might recognize them even in this crowd. And the escalator was a single long path, so they couldn’t slip away into a side route or turn around at this point.
They were going to meet at the center point of the up and down sides of the escalator.
They would be less than a meter from each other.
“It’s so easy to lose your sense of direction in a subway station, so maybe Sarusa-chan is lost on the platform below.”
“She’s not you, Aomi. I doubt that’s it.”
“You can cheat using your power, Mii. Your judgment isn’t reliable on this.”
Frenda and Mugino looked down at their phones to hide their faces as much as possible and Frenda surreptitiously tossed a firecracker down to the bottom of the escalator with her other hand.
The Judgment girls reacted quite sensitively to the harmless “pop!!”
“Whoa!? What was that!?”
“It’s our job to find out. Erina-chan, it might not have been a gunshot or explosion. Summer break is almost over, so some idiot streamer might be setting off fireworks in the station.”
The teacher’s pets rushed down the escalator, so they never even glanced over at the suspicious girls right next to them.
Mugino and Frenda suppressed a chuckle, but…
“Mii, use your Clairvoyance to check all around this area! Did you find anything!?”
Hearing that, the two quickly resumed their act.
Fortunately, the glasses-wearing clairvoyant had never met them and, even if she could see through the walls and ceiling to see Item’s faces, she presumably couldn’t share that information with Yamagami Erina. The lack of objectivity when compared to thoughtography was one weakness of clairvoyance.
Only after reaching the top of the escalator and approaching the ticket gate with a casual gait did Frenda breathe a heavy sigh.
“Honestly… But in the end, we should be safe since clairvoyance can’t pick up voices, right?”
“She might be able to read our lips, so do be careful, Frenda.”
Hearing a short beep, Frenda – who could make friends with anyone – pulled her phone from her pocket, but the message-based social media app notification was for Mugino.
“Shiratori// Ehh? You’ve really completed all your summer homework already? But I was hoping to make an accomplice out of you by suggesting we work on it together. Ugh, now what do I do about this giant pile… Really, it’s all the Sadistic Dolls’ fault. Their latest music video is just that good. Oh, right. Is there a seat you want for the new post-summer seating chart? Class Rep Shiratori Okibi-chan here can use her magic touch to ensure you draw exactly the number you want from the box, so-”
Mugino didn’t bother reading it through to the end before closing the app. There was no way she was reading that wall of text.
Track suit girl Takitsubo tilted her head with a blank stare.
“Who was that from?”
“My phone tree group. For school. What a pain.”
Technically, it had been a hidden message that only showed up for the people designated by the poster. Mugino had brought up her school in the karaoke box too. She was aware herself that a sailor uniform and school bag looked wrong on her. In fact, her large chest tugged up on the top enough to show off her navel.
After climbing the stairs to the surface, they smelled greenery.
They were in District 21. The area had a lot of nature and included Academy City’s only mountain and dam.
“Why’d we come all the way out here? Do we super know that bond builder is stationed here?”
“In the end, they’re specialists who make a bit of cash off of major criminal plans like robberies and kidnappings, right? They must be paranoid of losing everything by having Anti-Skill raid the place before they can get their clients’ bonds built.”
“So lately, bond builders make sure they work somewhere they can’t be located by searching real estate.”
Mugino pointed with her thumb.
Being out in the great outdoors with all its negative ions made them feel a bit cooler than before. Maybe the heat island effect just wasn’t as strong here, though. The leaves hadn’t started changing for autumn yet, so everything was green. And a vehicle the size of a large tour bus was parked on the curb, seeming to encroach on the tunnel of trees overhead. As big as the vehicle was, it was still a personal possession.
“I see. So in the end, they went with an RV.”
That would indeed allow them to provide a living space while also staying on the move so they could slip past Anti-Skill and Judgment. Even if they were caught at a checkpoint, the interior was a lot more complex than an ordinary vehicle, which meant a lot more hiding places. If necessary, the criminal group could hide behind a sofa or under the floor.
Even this mountainous district would have cameras equipped with motion sensors to monitor birds and other wildlife and the drum-shaped cleaning robots were all over the place.
While keeping an eye on any surveillance of that sort, Frenda used a small multi-tool knife to cut through a plastic wrapper and stuck something to the middle of the door. Then she knocked roughly on the RV’s side door. The sound of the knock suggested the RV was bulletproof. The short girl with fluffy blonde hair leaned next to the door.
A voice that sounded like a college girl spoke through the (on the surface) metal door.
“Who is-”
Frenda ignored that and blasted the thick door.
The heavy bulletproof door was blown inwards, knocking over the RV’s owner inside.
Frenda and Kinuhata charged sharply into the smoky interior and made a quick assessment of the entire space. This was a challenge because they weren’t used this kind of space that wasn’t quite a room but not quite a vehicle either.
“Clear.”
“Super clear. Some petty car thieves are having a training camp in here, so what do we do about them?”
The sudden explosion had panicked the occupants too badly to put up much of a resistance. The two girls dragged a few large boys out by the collar.
Mugino spoke to the aproned young woman who was lying half-crushed below the door.
“Cough up your client data, bond builder.”
“A-are you – cough – asking me to retire?”
“You missed your chance to resist a while back, loser.”
Mugino snatched the bond builder’s phone from a table.
“Ah!”
She aimed the camera at the shocked woman’s face to unlock it and then operated the touchscreen one-handed.
“Let’s see. First, I’ll go to Cash Friend’s official site and borrow up to their maximum of 5 million yen...oh, already done. A simple 5-second approval test is a scary thing, huh?”
“Eh? Hey, wait!! What do you think you’re doing with my phone!?”
“Just indulging in my hobby: visiting consumer finance sites. Now to transfer all that money out of your online bank account. Next, I think I’ll borrow as much as they’ll let me from Luxury Celeb, Heaven’s Bank, and Share Chip. Or should I also try some usurious loan sharks while I’m at it?”
“…”
“And to be clear, unlike false billing fraud, the messages demanding payment won’t just go away if you ignore them. Professionalism is all well and good, but do you really want to end up drowning in debt to protect some clients you’ll never meet again? Life has its ups and downs, but I really don’t think that would make for a fun time.”
The bond builder woman poured with a cold sweat.
Mugino continued toying with the borrowed phone in one hand.
“You brought the Sadistic Dolls together here, right? I want all the data you’ve got on them.”
Part 3
Mugino finally felt like things were getting back on track.
After leaving the unnecessarily large RV, she stretched her arms upwards.
“Ahh, feels good to do some real work.”
“My phone’s frozen up trying to read this… Damn. In the end, I connected the storage to my new device, which doesn’t have the usual settings file to speed up data reading. It doesn’t help that these images are huge. And with more than a million in all, it’ll probably take some time before I can open the folder and actually take a look at them. Probably about an hour, I’d say.”
“You should’ve borrowed whatever computer she usually uses, Frenda.”
Frenda was frowning at her phone with a card-sized storage device connected via cable and Takitsubo expressionlessly peered at the small screen from the side. Heading back to get the computer would be a pain at this point. And if that young woman had any sense at all, she would have already gotten as far away from there as possible. Once they could view the data, they would have all the data they wanted on the Sadistic Dolls, so all they needed to do was wait an hour.
Those girls ordinarily wore makeup and color contacts to avoid the mechanical facial recognition in the city’s security cameras and such, but this storage would have photos of them without all that. Once Item had those images, they could track them down.
Frenda sighed.
“In the end, do you think the voice on the phone is intentionally letting us do this? Maybe she wanted us to get impatient and act without permission so we’d do the job for free.”
“The suspicions can wait until after we have solid evidence. Make our move too soon against someone on her level and our names are going straight on an elimination list.”
“I’m sure it’s fine. In the end, she’s probably just too stupid to realize we’d do this.”
So what were they supposed to do for the next hour?
Takitsubo Rikou made a suggestion with emotionless eyes.
“I’m hungry. Isn’t it time we got something to eat?”
There were no objections.
They had collected their laundry at the laundromat, taken a shower at the spa at 10 AM, and then left for this job...so now that they were done, it was indeed about time for lunch.
“I want something cold to eat.”
“You say that, Takitsubo, but you already had somen yesterday.”
“That’s why I want something other than noodles that’s cold.”
“That’s going to make it a lot harder.”
District 21 was all about the great outdoors, so the shops at the foot of the mountain mostly just sold raw meat and solid fuel for cookouts. The only restaurants were a lot like the ones you would find in a rundown rural area, so Item chose to leave the district and go elsewhere.
“Summer is super ending, but it’s still super hot when the sun is high in the sky.”
“There’s an underground path over there, Kinuhata. Let’s use it.”
The four girls descended a long stairway to find chilled air.
The semi-cylindrical tunnel was covered by thick, clear plastic and glowed a bluish-white. The area outside was filled with artificial seawater, so giant mantas and whale sharks swam leisurely by over the girls’ heads.
“This is pretty fancy for a simple underground path. If they were going to go to all this super trouble, they should charge you for using it.”
“In the end, it’s part of a joint class, just like the wall art and sculptures you see around here. Part of the class is to get the students used to having their work seen by a lot of people.”
“?”
“District 21 borders District 9, which is all about arts and crafts☆”
The Item girls chatted like that as they walked through the tunnel aquarium.
Eventually, Mugino began complaining over her phone’s group call app.
Was she speaking with her class rep Shiratori Okibi?
“We have a lot more school events to look forward to once September starts. The most interesting would be the Daihaseisai athletic festival since it involves all the schools in the city. I’m going to be blunt: will you be participating or not?”
“Why do you care? It’s none of your business.”
“You must be joking! We still don’t know if one of only seven Level 5s in the city will be participating! Logically speaking, that will directly affect our placing, so you need to make up your mind sooner rather than later. Of course, I would appreciate it very much if you did participate.”
“You already know I maintain the bare minimum of school attendance needed to avoid being held back. I’ve got it all planned out and I’m not taking one step beyond what’s on that plan.”
With that, Mugino grumpily ended the call.
Kinuhata gave her a puzzled look.
“If school is that much of a pain, why not super cut all ties with it?”
“This is Academy City. I don’t want to stand out that much.”
Mugino’s obvious irritation suggested this was a significant source of stress for her.
Track suit girl Takitsubo smiled a little.
“If that girl can irritate Mugino this much without anyone dying, they must be pretty good friends.”
“Huh?”
“In the end, I could say the same about you, Takitsubo,” muttered Frenda while stealthily removing herself from the line of fire.
Speaking of Frenda, she had a parasol open even though they were indoors.
“Hm, hm♪”
“Frenda-san, super what is that?”
“A personal handheld mist shower☆ Everyone’s talking about them and anyone who’s anyone has one. With one of these, you don’t need to fight for the limited shady parts of the sidewalk. It has a 500mL tank kept cold with a chemical coolant and it keeps plenty of mist drifting down from inside the parasol.”
In other words, it was her usual love of the latest gadgets.
Summer was ending, so what was the point of buying up cooling products now? This was definitely going to end up gathering dust in the closet. And was “everyone talking about them” because the manufacturer was increasing their advertisement to make sure they didn’t have a huge stock left over by the time fall arrived?
The girl who failed to realize she had been duped bent backwards and laughed loud.
“Hwa ha ha! Jealous, ladies!? But if you insist, I would be willing to share this wonderful parasol with you! In the end, happiness should be shared!”
“No thanks, Frenda-san. You’re all damp and it’s super flattened your hair. Not to mention how your skin is showing through your clothes in places.”
After riding a long escalator up and joking about whether they could see each other’s underwear, they arrived directly on the ground floor of a building instead of outside.
Something passed by right in front of Mugino.
That something was a girl wearing a nearly transparent racing swimsuit with a bit of armor added in places. The outfit was apparently what one wore when piloting a giant robot and she was just walking around like it was normal. The additional parts that looked like long gloves and thigh highs apparently made this the “reverse bunny form”. She had a laser gun as long as she was tall resting on her shoulder. It was the classic trope of the cute girl with a brutal weapon.
Of course, this was cosplay and the giant laser gun was made of polyurethane.
Mugino wasn’t used to this sort of thing, so she looked puzzled by this pilot girl that could also fight outside of the cockpit who was max rarity yet was also madly in love with the (male) protagonist.
“Huh? I think we wandered into an anime.”
The large 1st floor lobby also contained a magical girl handing out aluminum-looking helium balloons shaped like stars and hearts and a special stage where extraterrestrial monster costumes were sumo wrestling.
“This is the General Tower for Next-Generation Information and Arts. Although most people call it Moe Bells. In the end, it’s a landmark for art-focused District 9.” Frenda pulled out her phone. “The entire 49-story building is packed full of anime and video game stuff, so you can think of it as a vertical Akihabara. There are shops, movie theaters, event halls, production companies for different media, and even voice acting agencies. There are more than 500 shops open to the public here☆”
Her phone looked hard to operate with the storage device connected by cable, but she appeared to be calling up a fixed point camera on a video site. The small screen displayed a pair of huge towers. Projection mapping on their large walls was used to display humanoid battle robots and giant kaiju at 1:1 scale.
“In the end, the neighboring building is Hot-Blooded Bells. If you prefer to be moved to tears by battles full of punching, killing, kicking, and rescuing, then I recommend going there.”
If Moe Bells wasn’t about battles, then what was with the cosplay girls carrying enormous weapons?
But there was more than just anime and video game merch. There were also sections with smaller junk shops full of complicated-looking computer parts. If you wanted to enjoy games with the best graphics possible, you had to be particular about your video card and processor. And once you started building your own computer, you needed a lot of specialized parts. The line between professional and amateur had blurred a lot of late.
“Frenda-san, are you super into this kind of thing?”
“My sister loves Sunday morning tokusatsu.” Frenda pointed out that the cosplay shop employee was dressed as Magical Powered Kanamin and that the employee out gathering customers for another shop was wearing a Gekota costume. “What about you, Kinuhata? If you want to check out Japanese anime movies, there’s no better place than Moe Bells’s movie theaters. For the short films that artisan directors make while ignoring all the common theater standards, you need a big screen that takes gaming monitor tech to the next level if you want to see all the details in the colors.”
“Huh, so for a super recent example, do they show Momentary Blues?”
“In the end, that’s become a famous benchmark for bringing an entire theater to tears.”
The film buff began jotting down some notes, but the others ignored this.
In this Moe Bells place, miniskirt maids and cosplay magical girls appeared to be a common sight.
Mugino had a fundamental question.
“So do they have any restaurants here?”
“They’ve got everything from maid cafes to dancer cafes and even a Meiji/Taisho cafe☆”
“But is the food any good?”
Mugino’s eyes were pure ice.
Frenda shrugged.
“In the end, I’ve been here a few times because my sister begged me to take her to the hero show. Don’t underestimate Big Sis Frenda’s knowledge of the kid’s menus around here. The maid cafes are hit-and-miss, but you can get food better than at a family restaurant at the good ones.”
“Super how do you know which ones are the good ones?”
“Not from the fliers the smiling maids are handing out or from how cute the decorations are. In the end, maid cafes have obsessive fans, meaning you can’t trust the star rating on restaurant rating apps.” Frenda raised her index finger. “So you need to look at the kitchen ducts. Especially the seams and gap in the cleaning cover. In the end, the cafes that do their own cooking instead of relying on pre-made dishes they can microwave or boil will be covered in oil stains in the back☆”
Since she was the expert, they let Frenda choose where they would eat.
“If the best ones are only better than a family restaurant, is there super any reason to care that much?”
“Kinuhata, don’t these places boost their apparent value by making it feel like part of an event? Like the expensive ramen at a seaside restaurant or movie theater popcorn.”
“Super do not badmouth movies, Takitsubo-san. It’s wrong.”
Apparently the film buff was an advocate for the facilities related to movies and not just the movies themselves.
While Kinuhata and Takitsubo discussed that, Frenda checked out the many available restaurants and then pointed at one of them. Whether or not her nose for this was accurate, she appeared to have some basis for her decision.
A maid dressed in deep blue stood out in front of the cafe. Real maids apparently wore long skirts.
She greeted them with a smile.
“Welcome back☆ Four girls, is it? Let me show you to a tab-”
The maid trailed off, her smile frozen on her face.
Mugino looked puzzled, but then she picked up on something too.
“Y-”
It took a full three seconds, but the Level 5’s thoughts finally started back up.
“You…?”
A quiet beep came from Frenda’s phone.
The card-sized storage device was still connected by a cable, its contents being analyzed. It contained the client list Item had stolen from the bond builder. Automatic creation for a settings file to speed up data reading was complete, so a few photos of faces appeared on the small screen. These were the true faces without the stage makeup and color contacts.
One of them was identical to the maid standing in front of them.
Guitarist Meg, with her natural brown hair, spoke with her face drawn tight.
“What the hell are you doing here, my dumb-as-shit ladies?”
Part 4
The restaurant was a maid cafe.
But instead of a classic restaurant style or an old-fashioned cafe style, for some reason classroom desks were gathered together with table cloths thrown over them. Apparently the true connoisseurs most enjoyed the school festival style.
Despite being a cafe, they only offered a single kind of coffee and tea. The recommended items were curry rice, omurice, spaghetti napolitan, and so on. It all seemed to fall into the category of mysterious Showa-era Western-style foods that didn’t actually exist in America or the UK.
“Ooh, they have pancakes topped with ice cream.”
“Takitsubo-san, are you sure that super sugary thing counts as a cold meal?”
While those two opened their menus and discussed what they saw, Mugino irritably rested her head in her hand as soon as they were shown to their table.
“Maids by day and a band by night? How do people so young become workaholics?”
“Oh, shut up. If you want to create a trend, you need to get it out there in waves so it has time to spread. The idea of making it big after putting out a song or two is nothing but a fantasy. And until we’ve become ‘established’, we still need to make a living.”
Meg looked disgusted at having to do so, but she still replied.
Was that because she was in maid mode, or did she not like having someone take her band so lightly.
“In the end, how long do you expect to wait until you’re ‘established’?”
“It wouldn’t take long at all if we could get in with a major advertiser. It only takes so long because we’re working at it on our own. But our rough estimate says we’ll have what we need in another month’s time. Then we’ll be able to make this our era. We’ve calculated it all out already.”
If that was true, Item could ask for a ton of autographs now as an investment for when they were worth something, but unfortunately they were in no position to do that here.
Guitarist Meg grinned and whispered.
“I don’t want to cause the cafe or the other customers any trouble, so will you come with me?”
“…”
Time froze.
It was like this one table was spatially cut off from everything else.
The cafe’s manager must have been doing the part-timers a favor because the Sadistic Dolls’ new song was playing in the cafe.
The Color of the Whip.
The customers may have only been interested in the rhythm because they didn’t seem bothered by the (fairly crude and dark) lyrics.
Good prevailing over evil might sound nice, but it still meant one side was slaughtering the other. And while evil could respect the shittiness of an evil opponent, good stripped evil of all dignity before slaughtering it.
Instead of pure evil, this was a twisted form of good.
Which of those was really more horrific?
“If we tried anything here, ordinary people will die over dark side business. We don’t want that, which is why we’re just sitting here. And we both know that stacking some cash on the table isn’t going to make this problem go away, right?”
This had been Mugino’s intention from the beginning.
When in enemy territory, eating food cooked in an unseen kitchen was a bad idea. Who knows what they could slip into it. Takitsubo was staring hungrily at the menu, so Mugino stopped her with a glare and then stood up.
Guitarist Meg guided Item through the staff only door. They walked down a narrow corridor and across the industrial kitchen.
Doors silently opened and the number of maids grew. They were gathering.
Five in all.
They were all members of the Sadistic Dolls.
“Walking through the staff only door s-sealed your fates,” nervously said Saki, the vocalist with shoulder length hair.
She seemed aware that a deadly fight was about to break out.
But she should have stopped there.
“The poor things.”
“I-if you really think so, we can spare them. It’s not too late!”
That sounded nice.
But her heart wasn’t in it.
It was obvious she wasn’t really worried about Item. Yuami, the synthesist with a ponytail, just wanted to show off how reasonable she was.
“Saki. And Yuami too. They call themselves Item, choose for themselves to walk the path of evil, and use violence to get their way. They always had an unpleasant end coming, right? It’s what they deserve.”
Was the one with twintails the bassist called Suzuran?
She spoke like it was her job to punish all of humanity’s sins.
Amamo, the drummer with a braid, grinned and assessed Item.
“Huh, you look a lot different in proper lighting. I was expecting more chiseled faces with maybe an old scar or two.”
Mugino clicked her tongue.
It was all so saccharine it made her sick. Her disgust here was of a different sort than when she faced someone truly evil. If Takitsubo hadn’t been expressionlessly glancing around noting the location of the dangerous gas pipes, she might have shot them all to death right here.
“You think you’re the good guys? When you kill people to put food on the table?”
“I’d wondered about that too.” Guitarist Meg’s bright voice seemed out of place here. She sounded like like she was speaking to a classmate. “All we’ve done is complete some jobs, but for some reason, we’ve been placed on the side of justice. Of course, if that comes down to what jobs you choose to do, then maybe we should all be thanking the people who keep society running.”
Takitsubo tilted her head.
“You wanted us out of the cafe, but where exactly do you want to fight? This is the 25th floor of a skyscraper.”
“Yeah, about that.”
Zap!!!
18 million volts of electricity erupted out without warning.
Meg had reached back behind something as they walked along.
And just as she turned toward Item, the thick electric blast shot out at close range.
But Mugino didn’t bat an eye.
She unleashed a Meltdowner beam straight up and an aluminum duct running near the ceiling fell down as a clump. The killer current tore into the closer object with higher conductivity than a human, causing it to rupture from within.
“Saw that one coming,” said the Level 5.
Item intentionally took the side of evil, but these girls carried a twisted form of justice. The Sadistic Dolls were the kind of maggots who hunted as they pleased, not worrying about the ordinary people on the side of the street and even taking villains’ family members hostage.
And yet they had asked to move away from the cafe. The only possible benefit for them was catching Item in a trap.
They wouldn’t care a whit about the customers and workers on this floor.
Several sharp metallic clanking sounds rang out.
The Sadistic Dolls pulled their customized instrument weapons from their hiding places around the kitchen. The cooks appeared to be ordinary people since they paled and foamed at the mouth, so Frenda used a non-fragmentary explosive to knock them out with a concussive blast.
That acted as the starting signal.
Some ran along the floor and others hopped onto the silver countertops as the four and the five clashed.
Something sliced loudly through the air.
Vocalist Saki had drawn a rapier hidden in her mic stand.
Kinuhata blocked that head on and then casually grabbed the blade. With her bare hand.
“?”
But then she furrowed her brow.
She had crushed it with her Offense-Armor-enhanced hand, but she hadn’t heard it break.
Vocalist Saki smiled timidly while holding the mic stand rapier and with small, lightweight speakers attached to her shoulders like angel wings.
“The blade is made by condensing and shaping cellulose nanofiber, s-so it won’t break so easily.”
Kinuhata didn’t have time to respond.
With a dull “crash!!”, her small body was launched sideways. While she failed to deal with Saki’s rapier, Amamo’s drum set had tackled her. To send Kinuhata flying, the drum set, which moved autonomously on mechanical legs, must have weighed more than a ton. A stainless steel sink bent and broke when its silver legs climbed up on top.
“Tch! In the end, I’ll help Kinuhata, so you protect Takitsubo, Mugino!!”
“It’s already too late. We’ll just crush you each in turn. Amplifier: extra charge complete! Move aside, everyone!!”
18 million volts of electricity shot from the end of the electric guitar like an artillery shell.
Frenda knew it was risky, but she reached out a hand to grab Kinuhata from the floor and pulled her behind the counter. If not for that, the electricity would have broken through Kinuhata’s nitrogen barrier with electrical breakdown.
Guitarist Meg roared while accompanied by a giant boxy amp walking on metal legs.
“I’m beginning my extra charge. Don’t let the enemy get close until it’s ready!”
“Got it.”
“O-okay.”
“No, wait. It would be safer in the long run to finish them off now!!”
“The rest of you can do what you want. We’ll be roasting them to speed things up!!”
“?” Mugino frowned.
This enemy was supposed to be the Sadistic Dolls, a killer girls band.
But with close observation, Mugino had noticed a tendency among them.
The vocalist, the guitarist, and the synthesist.
The bassist and the drummer.
They were frequently trading positions, but there were two definite groups there. Furthermore, the different groups sometimes had conflicting plans and strategies.
“Not the best of friends, huh?” Mugino sounded exasperated. “Are you about the break up over ‘creative differences’?”
For one thing, five was too many people for the high level of coordination needed on a single team. With more members, there was a risk of the team splitting into smaller groups and breaking the team’s unity.
And a small fraying like that could change the course of a battle in no time.
“I don’t think they have any decent esper powers,” said blank-faced Takitsubo.
“What makes you so certain?”
Mugino thought maybe Takitsubo had run some kind of scan with AIM Stalker, but…
“They’re a struggling girls band. If any of them was a high-level esper, they would be using that to advertise themselves. Like having a Level 5 idol or something.”
This one hit home, so Meg’s shoulders began to shake. How could she be so mean?
But it was the truth.
(The biggest concern here is igniting the gas and causing a major explosion. So the one we need to take out quick is…)
“Suzuran, the bassist!! The dumbass came to the front line herself. We already saw her flamethrower, so take that out first!!”
Takitsubo expressionlessly opened the big door to an industrial refrigerator and Mugino kicked the bassist in the gut so hard it knocked her through the air.
“? Ugh!”
The door shut.
The biggest fear for anyone using a flamethrower was for the flames to accidentally hit a nearby wall or obstacle and then catch the wielder in the flames. So trapping her in a small space kept her from using her weapon.
A thick beam of light scorched the air.
This was not Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner.
“Tch!!”
“Go to hell! Open up!! Photon Bullet!!!”
This definitely wasn’t a flamethrower or oxyacetylene torch. A red hot beam of light burst sharply from within the silver refrigerator.
Mugino twisted her body to just barely dodge before aiming her palm that way.
This time, it was Meltdowner.
She launched several thick beams to tear through the refrigerator from a variety of angles. It was like the sword box magic trick...just without the trick part.
“Dammit, Takitsubo! Don’t get all smug and then have your plan not work at all! You’re getting punished later!!”
“Ehh?”
“But that’s one down! ...Come to think of it, I just killed a minor celebrity. Don’t these shitheads have a fan at my school?”
“I super got one too.”
The shriek and scream were so shrill it was hard to believe they came from a human being. With Offense Armor boosting her arm strength, Kinuhata grabbed the drummer by the collar and shoved her face-first into the blazing hot industrial oven.
The enemy had been split three and two. So with the bassist killed, her drummer girlfriend had been left all alone. Kinuhata had gone ahead and finished her off before she could recover.
“Got-”
That was when a brutally high-voltage blast of electricity flew through and Mugino had to quickly duck below it.
She didn’t have time for a celebratory “got another one”
Two were dead, but the battle wasn’t over.
“Oh, god!! Firstt he cult and now this girls band! Why does everyone have to use electricity!? I never want to another electricity user as long as I live!!”
Mugino shouted in desperation and reached just her hand from behind cover to return fire with several Meltdowner beams.
Guitarist Meg, Vocalist Saki, and Synthesist Yuami.
More than half the enemy remained.
Item had four, so their numbers weren’t all that different. If they were careless this could easily go the other way.
“Frenda! Fire a barrage of killer skyrockets!! Don’t let them near the rear exit. Once their way out is blocked, Kinuhata and I will charge in!!”
“Got it.”
“Super got it.”
However, the mood on both sides was different. With one side losing two members in quick succession, the other side had the momentum.
“Nothing to do.”
Takitsubo was in charge of targeting support, so she just stood there. That alone showed who had the advantage. The Sadistic Dolls were losing members fast, but Item had a member who could indulge in some idle time on the front line.
With some metallic clanking, powerful stage lights with metal legs gathered by Synthesist Yuami who held a keytar likely installed with modified laser pointers.
“I’ll confuse them to turn this around!! I’ll blind them with my laser strobe lights, so you two use that opening to-”
“Are you stupid?” spat Mugino. She was Meltdowner, one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s. “Did your rotten justice never teach you the villain’s logic that you begin to lose as soon as you let your fear show? And did you really think you could outdo me when it comes to beam power!?”
An explosion overpowered the artificial beams.
Frenda had fired a portable rocket launcher the size of a potato chip tube and Mugino had launched Meltdowner. Steel racks were blown away and a microwave and rice cooker broke apart before their pieces stabbed into the wall.
The human body would not fare well in such a dense concentration of sharp shards flying horizontally like that. Especially when standing upright.
The gray dust cleared away.
The floor was littered with rubble, the ordinary cooks who had been safely knocked out earlier, and the bloody corpses of the villains who had taken the brunt of the razor-sharp rain while standing up.
The cooks could be safely ignored because they could be peacefully silenced by hiring a “negotiator” (whose primary tool was threats).
Track suit girl Takitsubo’s eyes wandered through empty space.
“One’s missing.”
“Tch. That damn guitarist is gone! She must’ve survived by using her bandmates as a shield!!”
Part 5
Mugino tackled the kitchen door with her shoulder and burst out from the cafe.
This was the 25th floor. It was an isolated aerial island with no escape in any horizontal direction. Capture now meant death, so where would Meg go if she really did want to survive?
(If they were working on their own because they weren’t great at teamwork, it’s unlikely she’ll escape from the roof by helicopter. She’ll probably just head for the ground. And she won’t have time to wait for the elevator to arrive, but running down 25 floors’ worth of stairs would take too long too.)
“So she’ll go for the elevator shaft. But instead of waiting for the elevator, she’ll grab the wire and slide down. That’s the fastest way to the surface!!”
An extended warning buzzer sounded. It wasn’t as pressing an alert as the fire alarm, so it probably indicated an emergency stop for an elevator. After a glance over at the map on the wall, Mugino ran toward the nearest elevator hall. That was her only option.
“Outta the away! Get down! Dammit!!”
Mugino ran through the crowd, shoved aside a young man and woman who were chatting in the center of the walkway, belatedly realized there was a baby carriage in front of her, and jumped over it in a superhuman feat of acrobatics. Afterwards, she was surprised to find she still cared enough to do so. Maybe she was getting something out of her school after all.
(I’m supposed to do the dirty work in the shadows. I’m sick of pain-in-the-ass hostage situations. I won’t let it go that way, so I need to kill them all now while I can!!)
As she ran, Mugino focused on her right hand so she could fire Meltdowner at any time. She charged right into the elevator hall. Maybe the arrangement of stores or the layout of the building played a role, but this one elevator hall was especially quiet and deserted.
“Get back here, Meg!! You’re the ones who picked this fight with-”
Mugino didn’t finish her sentence.
Red.
A rusty scent.
Something was lying on the floor. It was a human corpse. It was obviously dead without needing to check for a pulse or breathing.
The elevator’s emergency stop buzzer was still sounding. The metal door was stuck half open. That meant she had been attempting the most sensible escape route.
And yet this had happened.
Before she could even use her killer electric guitar’s 18 million volt current.
Guitarist Meg’s upper body was gouged by several deep wounds. She had likely been stabbed by a sharp blade. Whoever had done it had definitely been trying to kill her. This wasn’t the result of an ordinary person swinging a blade in a terrified panic. Each wound accurately pierced a vital point.
Someone had killed her.
But who?
Mugino felt a draft noticeably different from the air conditioning’s chilly breeze. She crouched down and found the thick tempered glass dividing the buildings exterior and interior had been cut away. In a precise 1m square.
(They used that.)
This was the 25th floor, so it was unlikely the killer had just jumped down to the ground. Had they been wearing a wingsuit, or had they escaped using a large cargo drone?
Either way, tracking them down using traditional methods wouldn’t be possible.
Mugino continued glaring at that hole in the glass until her phone rang.
It was the voice on the phone.
“I did some research into those Sadistic Dolls and it looks like Item doesn’t even need to bother hunting them down. You’d be wasting your time, so just forget about them. You can’t recover the costs.”
“Explain.”
“This city’s justice is on the move.”
That was succinct.
And that word still felt out of place here.
“I know what you’re thinking because it’s always like this with you, but you don’t need to deal with the Sadistic Dolls. Their twisted justice let them harm ordinary people and take hostages, but that hurt their reputation in a different world. So a different set of this city’s gears will eliminate them for us.”
“I see.”
Mugino sighed before continuing.
“But I’m afraid this warning came a little too late.”
“?”
A picture was worth a thousand words, so Mugino snapped a photo of what she saw at her feet.
Something was written quite large in red blood.
You crossed a line.
