Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter3

Chapter 3: The Dark Side Can Find a New Toy Among the Classics

Part 1

Mugino Shizuri did have a school.

It was a cold and inhumane prep school.

She was an extremely poor fit for that school, but Academy City was a city of students and the esper development was only done for students. Even when operating on the dark side, it was worth being enrolled in a school and achieving the bare minimum of attendance so your official records didn’t stand out.

And there were only so many schools at which a Level 5 could be enrolled without “standing out”.

But she really did only complete the bare minimum.

She didn’t show up most days in any given week and it wasn’t uncommon for her to be out for the full week. She barely ever returned to the poorly-managed school dorm. Not even her own classmates knew what she looked like. At the most, they would be jealous of the privileges that came with being a Level 5. Mugino wasn’t going to approach them, obviously. Her black stockings clearly didn’t match the fresh look of her white short-sleeved sailor uniform. Anyone could tell she wasn’t even trying to make it look good. She didn’t even bother getting the right size of uniform. She had simply ordered one with the right waist measurement, so her large chest pulled it up enough to provide glimpses of her navel.

However, there was one exception.

One girl would rush over and speak to Mugino every time she saw her.

That girl was Shiratori Okibi.

“I am the Class Rep, after all. Of course I’m going to be interested in what’s going on with a student who almost never shows up.”

“Look at it logically. The care you take with your hair and nails tells me you aren’t hurting for money. By the way, what do you do on the days you aren’t at school?”

“Ehh!? You can’t carry such expensive perfume with you! It’d be a tragedy if the teachers confiscated it!”

She couldn’t have been more of a nuisance. Anyone on the dark side would only see a risk when someone got nosy about how they lived their lives. Even if they were only a worrier or curious.

Why did she have to get involved?

“To be honest, I’m something of a detective,” Shiratori Okibi had said with a grin.

Asking for advice could be a shortcut to a solution to all your problems, but it could also act as an Achilles heel.

Someone on the dark side would never even think of hiring such a talkative detective, but were ordinary people different?

“As Class Rep, I end up hearing a lot of people’s problems. So if you’re ever in real trouble, you can come to me. I’ll do anything to help you out!”

But something occurred to Mugino.

In her limited time at that school, where she couldn’t match a name to a face for any of the teachers or students, the one exception would be Shiratori Okibi.

She had a lot of useful acquaintances on the dark side.

But when she thought about it, that girl may have been her one and only “friend” outside of the dark side.

Part 2

It was early morning in the District 4 Chinatown.

Item and the detective were facing each other from opposite sides of the bloody gazebo.

“You might think deduction has no place in a world of DNA testing, security camera networks, and forensic investigation, but you would be wrong.” The detective girl laughed with a ferocious Japanese wolf by her side. “It comes in handy when shadier groups, who can’t make use of those public services, have to track down who killed one of their own or identify a traitor among them. Even this high-tech city has a lot of isolated places where the laws and regulations of the outside world have no power. As long as the demand remains, I’ll never be out of a job. It is kind of ironic that deduction has become a toy for the dark side though, isn’t it?”

This girl should not have been here.

Mugino was used to being at dark side crime scenes and she was used to seeing this Class Rep at school, but the combination of the two felt so wrong it rattled her.

“Surprised?”

Shiratori spoke in the exact same way she always did.

She sounded just like the usual Class Rep refusing to mind her own business in the sunny classroom.

“It’s not really that surprising you failed to notice who I am before. We belong to different worlds. We both work in the dark side, but logically speaking, I’m on the side of justice.”

“…”

“My job is to do the things that Anti-Skill and Judgment can’t. So I make sure I can’t be detected by the villains I track. As a detective who unilaterally pursues villains and brings a swift end to their criminal lives, I’d be out of business pretty quick if I let them pursue me instead.”

“In the end, why are you even here?”

“A detective is always pursuing a case.” Shiratori smiled confidently and glanced around the bloodstained gazebo table. “I can imagine this case is especially difficult for you. First the Sadistic Dolls assassins, then the Frees who kill with photos, and now me, a detective. We all belong to a different category than Item.”

Shiratori laughed a little and patted the faithful wolf’s head.

“I mean, of course, the category of justice.”

Something changed.

It was strange no sound at all came from Mugino’s face.

“Ha ha. Just hearing the word made you cringe. But whether you’re aware of it or not, I can tell that Item can never survive in that field no matter how many villains you kill.”

“You sound super confident in the strength of your justice. Seems odd for someone who killed the third member without turning herself in. Not to mention how you keep picking up and moving around the pieces of flesh lying around here.”

“I don’t want to hear that from the team that killed the first two.”

The detective seemed amazed they would even bring that up.

Her refusal to even make an argument for why she was right did sound like something an advocate of justice would do.

“But really, Item wasn’t supposed to even get involved in this one. Eliminating the Sadistic Dolls and their incomplete justice should have been a case of justice killing justice. Since that didn’t happen…hm, I wonder if there’s more to this.”

Detective Shiratori Okibi spoke to herself for a moment and then looked up again.

“Anyway, there really isn’t much for me to do at this point. The Frees...oh, that’s the three corpses packed in plastic over there. I had hoped to speak with their leader, but you were a step ahead of me.”

The detective looked troubled. But her regret was on the level of finding the eggs on sale at the supermarket were sold out.

“So I’m done here. But if you will give this detective some time, I can logically organize the data on this case you’ve been caught up in.”

“Hold on.”

Sounding exasperated, Mugino took a step forward.

She didn’t know Shiratori’s situation here, but if she was in the same business, Mugino had no reason to hold back. She could tear apart and eliminate this girl with Meltdowner at any time.

Yes, she could do it.

As long as she cast aside the humanity she was meant to direct toward the Class Rep at her ordinary school.

“Do you really think we’re just gonna wait here until you’re gone? You’re not some ninja who can throw a smoke or flash bomb to escape. In real battle, the hardest thing to do is safely escape when you’re at the disadvantage.”

“Oh, right. You seem to be coming up with some conspiracies related to the Sadistic Dolls, but your voice on the phone wasn’t hiding their personal information just to be mean or anything. She really did look it into and really didn’t find anything.”

Mugino’s silence grew more piercing.

Several points here kept her from laughing it all off.

That Shiratori knew Item had been pursuing the Sadistic Dolls.

The mention of the voice on the phone.

And a claim to understand what the voice on the phone had been doing when even Item wasn’t aware of that.

Shiratori put on an innocent smile.

She saw right through Mugino’s thoughts.

“Ah ha ha. You think I’m bluffing? I guess I can’t prove any of it while you’re trapped in that labyrinthine case.”

“You bitch.”

“Oh, trying to provoke me?”

The black-haired detective girl laughed and muttered something under her breath.

A moment later, a massive wall of flames rushed toward Item.

The first to react was Kinuhata with Offense Armor. She kicked one of the pillars supporting the gazebo, breaking it and causing the entire roof to collapse.

That acted as a shield to protect the four of them.

The flame wall split to the sides because explosive blasts took the path of least resistance.

But that was all Kinuhata managed. They detected the sounds and smells of their support team being roasted.

A smiling voice arrived from beyond the thick orange wall.

“Don’t assume all I can do is create fire anywhere I want with pyrokinesis. Rush in with that shallow an understanding and you will die.”

“Kh.”

Meltdowner could not deflect a wall of fire.

Mugino could shoot right through the wall, but was Shiratori really where her voice was coming from? It was possible she had threatened some innocent person to hold a speaker or mobile device there.

“(Takitsubo, where is she? Can you sense anything at all!?)”

“(Can I use Body Crystal?)”

“You don’t need to do that. It’s a real burden on your body, isn’t it?” interrupted Shiratori.

Did she have good ears, or had she predicted what they would be thinking and doing?

“Don’t contact me – I’ll contact you. I said I would logically organize the data on this case if you gave me time, didn’t I? I am a detective, after all.”

Her presence grew more distant.

Mugino clicked her tongue, aimed her palm toward the wall of fire, and then stopped.

She heard something like a train’s metal wheels slotting into the rails.

“Like I said, I’m done here. It might be summer break, but that doesn’t mean anything to those businessmen in suits. Rush hour will be starting soon and I can’t exactly say I’m working for justice if I get ordinary people caught up in this. What about you on the villain side?”

Shiratori’s playful tone said she really was leaving.

Item still hadn’t discovered the details of her power. Which meant she may have been able to reduce Item’s numbers by catching them by surprise.

“Where should we meet up!?” shouted Mugino.

“Use some deduction. Start by investigating me.”

Part 3

The four members of Item moved to District 7.

Their support team had been completely wiped out, but they had needed to move away from the scene. So now they were gathered in a laundromat. However, this was not a cheap place full of industrial washing machines meant for baseball uniforms stained by sweat and dirt. It was a new rest spot that included a clean and trendy cafe.

Item was in the cafe space that had a thick glass wall between it and the laundromat space lined with industrial washing machines. The only thing that really differentiated it form an ordinary cafe was the LCD monitors hanging from the ceiling displaying the customer numbers whose laundry had recently finished.

The “women only” sign out front may have helped explain the sweet aroma filling the cafe-style waiting area as well as the fairly risque underwear and negligees spinning within the industrial washing machines. Some people were even washing a maid uniform with an exceptionally short skirt (perhaps for handing out tissues on the street corner) and a strange combination of a school swimsuit and an apron.

However…

“Mugino, no falling asleep.”

“Why the hell not!? What, do you want attention!? I’m sleeping! It takes 80 minutes for the full washing and drying cycle!”

Thanks to dealing with the overtime stalkers known as the Frees, Item had been out working at four in the morning. The dark side wasn’t supposed to be so hard working. It didn’t take a Mugino to be sleepy and irritable and she was even more irritable than that.

August 30 had still only just begun.

Kinuhata was resting her head on a makeshift pillow made by balling up a track suit she borrowed from Takitsubo. Mugino wasn’t wearing any shoes as her legs swayed below the table. The girls were more than ready to get some sleep.

But.

“If we don’t collect our laundry within half an hour after it’s done, the people in charge will take it out to free up the limited number of machines. If we all oversleep, we could lose the rest of our clothes.”

Silence fell.

A new source of conflict had presented itself.

“Sounds to me like one of us needs to stay awake.”

“Yeah, but which one?”

The girls at the table glared at each other. They all wanted some sleep. They might as well have been choosing their human sacrifice.

“I say we decide based on how much help we were today! Takitsubo and I fought the Frees outside that convenience store. Now, Kinuhata, what were you doing then? Oh, right. You were wasting your time at the eat-in section, so you’re it. I’m sleeping!!”

“Super wait! This District 7 laundromat was my hideout to begin with. If we’re talking about being helpful, you should be super thanking me!!”

“Kinuhata, I took the number up and carried the curry rice back from the counter.”

“In what world is that equivalent!? Besides, that was super your own curry, Takitsubo-san! Super why are you eating curry so early in the morning anyway!?”

“Hm? It’s standard fare for hotel breakfasts.”

With that expressionless comment, Takitsubo got to work with her silver spoon. And she had a reason for that choice. While this was a cafe, they couldn’t pass the time drinking coffee or tea. They all wanted to get some sleep right away, so ingesting anything with caffeine would be like a death sentence.

“I-I’m going to fall asleep like this! My head feels so heavy! Super someone talk to me! If you don’t give me an endless topic to focus on, our laundry is doomed!”

“Shut up. You and Takitsubo can play that rock-paper-scissors impressions game or…oh.”

“Mugino?”

Mugino had trailed off oddly.

She must have remembered who had taught her that game. And that girl being from her school was no longer a reason to trust her.

Detective Shiratori Okibi.

After some silence with an unreadable expression, Mugino collapsed down onto the table.

“…I’m sleeping.”

“This tyrant just super changed the rules on us.”

“Mugino is conflicted about a lot of things.”

“That solemn mood super isn’t fooling me. You don’t get to just declare the rules don’t apply to you!”

Item had no choice but to choose from the overpriced orange juice and light meals on the menu. The cafe didn’t even try to hide the 2-liter paper packages in the freezer behind the counter. Mugino had expensive tastes but wasn’t the type to spend money on just anything, so her bitter mood was only getting worse. And at this point, she just wanted to go to sleep.

Suddenly, Kinuhata realized one person hadn’t been a part of all this commotion.

“Huh? Super where is Frenda-san?”

“She’s probably experiencing her own hell in the sunny side of the world.”

Part 4

Frenda Seivelun’s soul had partially left through her mouth.

That was no exaggeration. Her eyes really had rolled back in her head.

She was in an elementary school dorm in District 13. Were all the stuffed animals and character products her little sister’s taste, or were they all things Frenda and others had bought her because they thought that was what little kids liked? A goldfish and a rhino beetle lived in the room too and the study desk contained a notebook, math drills, a textbook, and a morning glory observation journal.

That was all summer homework.

However, Frenda’s homework did not include a morning glory observation journal. It all belonged to her first grade sister.

“See, in the end, I told you this would happen. And I even told you I wouldn’t be helping you.”

“In the first place, you told me not to go crying to you when August 31 rolls around. Today’s the 30th, so I haven’t broken my promise yet!”

This little sister was awfully clever for a 7-year-old.

The dark side older sister was mildly worried.

The younger sister tilted her head.

“In the first place, why are you holding me from behind?”

“Because I know you’ll make a getaway if I don’t have you in my lap like this. In the end, I don’t like the look of those outdoor shoes you have ready to go over there.”

“Heh heh. Today I get the best seat in the house☆”

And so Frenda had her arms around her little sister’s hips to hold her in place like a thrill ride’s safety bars. This was a sign of mistrust because she assumed the younger sister would try to escape from the balcony given half a chance, yet the younger sister leaned back against her and kicked her legs like she was seated in the most comfortable throne.

“I notice you’ve barely even started on it. Why didn’t you do any homework until today?”

“I meant to.” The 7-year-old princess pouted her lips in her sister’s lap. “But there were so many days when I didn’t have time to do that day’s amount. So my plans to do it little by little kept falling apart.”

So she had a plan but had overestimated how much she could do in a day.

Frenda was exasperated as her little sister continued.

“But, but! I kept my Sundays open as a catch-up day, so I should have been able to make up for all of that.”

Choosing Sunday for that kind of insurance had been a mistake. Even during summer break, the school schedule had imprinted her with the idea that Sunday was a day off. It was rare to be able to stay focused on work on that day.

“And the next thing I knew, it was hopeless.”

The younger sister had tears in her eyes.

Then she extended her legs and shouted in desperation.

“In the first place, it’s not my fault!! It’s summer break’s fault for being so much fun!!”

“In the end, I can tell you’re racing down a path everyone has to go down eventually.”

At any rate, she had to get that homework done.

That she had called on her big sister now had to be a sign of trust. Frenda reached her arms under her little sister’s to divide up the mountain of homework and textbooks on the desk.

“Okay, I’ll do this arithmetic for you, so you write out these kanji.”

“ ‘Write your name in kanji.’ ...In the first place, how am I supposed to do that?”

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with an all-alphabet name was at a loss.

Elementary school arithmetic problems weren’t actually all that difficult, but there were a lot of them. And as she went through doing those ultra-simple calculations over and over again, Frenda grew less and less certain of the Japanese she was looking at. She was experiencing some real gestaltzerfall. She was also under a lot of pressure because getting even one first grade problem wrong would damage her honor as the big sister.

(Oh, no, no, no. In the end, doing this over and over is like packing parts in boxes on a factory conveyor belt. I’m feeling dizzy already.)

Then a new stimulus arrived. The little princess pulled out a tape measure. To make sure the 7-year-old didn’t cut her fingertips, the school had given her a cloth one rather than a metal one.

“I have to measure my body too!”

“?”

“For the summer break growth chart.”

…Had that 7-year-old really grown as much as the morning glory vine?

Frenda wasn’t certain, but it was too late now. She decided to measure the younger sister’s current height and then make up weekly numbers going back to the start of the break. As long as it didn’t end with the girl being shorter than she was during the 1st term, no one would know the difference.

The little sister was released from the “throne” so she could stand by the wall to be measured.

“Okay, in the end, stand tall and I’ll get you measured. Stay right there.”

“Nhh.”

“No, don’t stand on your toes.”

Frenda had thought only the athletic boys thought being taller was better, but was she wrong about that? She couldn’t remember what life had been like back when she was 7.

“In the first place, I’m as slim as a supermodel.”

“If you say so.”

Where had she learned that term?

Then the 7-year-old began playing with the cloth tape measure. She wrapped it around and around herself.

“In the end, what are you doing?”

“This is what grownups do. It’s called taking your measurements!”

Frenda decided to just watch as her 7-year-old sister had her fun.

She knew there was nothing grownup about that measuring tape mummy.

Part 5

When Frenda returned to the laundromat before lunch, it was finally time for a strategy meeting.

Mugino was holding a bowl of cold miso soup that seemed out of place at a Western-style cafe. It may have been part of a fair or collab. Frenda had recommended the grilled mackerel pieces as a topping, but that hadn’t appealed to Mugino.

“Now we need to decide what to do.”

“You super mean about that detective?”

Kinuhata was staring at her phone, which was tilted on its side, but this didn’t meant she had traded her love of movies for playing mobile games. She was apparently watching a VRTuber who specialized in recommending minor films.

Kinuhata made a suggestion to the rest while viewing the screen.

“She said to use deduction, right? But if we just do what she tells us to, I feel like we’ll fall right into a trap even if we do run into her again.”

Of course, contacting her public phone number or visiting her official address probably wouldn’t help.

The situation with that detective wasn’t quite the same as with the Sadistic Dolls and the Frees. Because she hadn’t killed someone in front of Item or stolen one of their targets from them.

That said, it was unknown how many lives she had taken in secret and that she didn’t kill anyone yesterday was no guarantee she wouldn’t do so tomorrow.

Besides, they couldn’t ignore her as long as she had information on Item.

“In the end, are we really going to meet with her?” asked Frenda, looking skeptical. She seemed to be saying this was the main topic here. “What was the name of that third Frees member?”

“It was Amekawa Souji, Frenda.”

“Right, that’s it, Takitsubo. In the end, we had asked our support team to dispose of him, but then that detective comes in and throws his corpse at us. So how exactly did Shiratori Okibi steal that corpse from our support team?”

“According to the support team, they were loading it into a van parked on the curb when a bunch of water rushed in and swept them and the van away.”

“That’s different from the wall of fire we saw,” noted Mugino.

Her head was lowered and her voice was even lower than usual.

“Don’t assume all I can do is create fire anywhere I want with pyrokinesis. Rush in with that shallow an understanding and you will die.”

That hadn’t been a simple bluff.

Mugino didn’t recall seeing that kind of power at school either. Shiratori Okibi’s power was supposed to be Level 3 Impact Compressor. It should have only let her manipulate the air to hammer in nails without the use of an actual hammer.

Had she been hiding it?

Had she intentionally fooled Mugino. While smiling and calling herself a harmless Class Rep?

Had she been looking down on Mugino while knowing she was from the dark side?

“In the end, that isn’t the worst part about that demonstration.”

Mugino had been fooled during the school life she had thought was only camouflage.

What did Frenda think of seeing Mugino so out of sorts? There was a hint of exasperation in her gaze as she shrugged and spoke.

“That she only had the top half of the corpse is fine. Mugino’s Meltdowner isn’t the only source of high firepower. But in the end, we checked and found that idiot’s right thumb had been cut off. That sounds pretty intentional, don’t you think? We’d be in a lot of trouble if she sent that to Anti-Skill. That detective’s the one who killed Amekawa, but an investigation of that will mean more people looking into the two Mugino killed.”

The members of Item were not jidaigeki samurai or western gunmen, so to stay safe they had to retrieve the bodies of those they killed and keep them from ever being discovered. Having a body meant to be disposed of stolen and then having a part removed wasn’t an immediate threat, but it did mean trouble.

Justice.

Detective Shiratori Okibi.

She knew the last thing a dark side criminal would want.

Takitsubo emotionlessly tilted her head.

“But she didn’t threaten us, did she?”

“She’s not that stupid. She seemed aware of the voice on the phone, remember? She knows there would be pressure on Anti-Skill to stop an investigation if she did try to send them after us. And no matter how well she disguises the route she uses to send in the evidence, there’s always a risk of it being traced back to her, so she can’t be careless.”

“So is she still super thinking up a way to use it?”

Once her various calculations were complete, that detective probably wouldn’t hesitate to act. And whatever she did would be so much trouble for the voice on the phone that she might stop protecting Item.

Mugino breathed a heavy sigh.

“I don’t know how long we have, but we should come up with a decision fast. We’re dead if we give that detective time to work with.”

“In the end, what would happen if Shiratori Okibi got desperate and just sent the thumb in?”

“It’s no problem for us if it fails. We’d owe the voice on the phone a big favor, but it’s better than making an enemy of all the higher ups.”

That settled it.

It wasn’t like Item to flee from the darkness for fear of a scandal.

Their style was to make the enemy rue the day she acquired any information on them.

And they did have some information to work off of.

Shiratori Okibi was enrolled in the same school as Mugino, so the detective had to see September 1 as a deadline. If she hadn’t left the school or dealt with Mugino by then, she would have no way of keeping herself safe.

Just like Mugino.

(So something will happen before then.)

Today was the 30th. Mugino thought for a bit.

“First, I want to know who this detective really is.”

“Hm? Isn’t she your classmate Shiratori Okibi?” asked Takitsubo.

“Have you forgotten how many times we’ve been fooled by special makeup? I want an expert to confirm it.”

So after making some arrangements by phone, they walked to District 9. It was blazing hot outside, so Frenda was in an especially smug mood thanks to her personal mist shower parasol. The strange atmosphere of this district was a lot more obvious when walking outside than when they took the subway before.

“This heat is making me sweat.”

“Mugino. In the end, your bra’s showing through☆”

Three Judgment girls were gathered together in that district of anime-style primary colors. They were attaching fliers to the wind turbine supports. Was that part of their official duties? Frenda glanced over and, to her surprise, discovered they were missing person posters.

They must not have been having much luck because the girls huddled together to discuss something.

“Hey, Erina-chan. Can’t you find the answer real quick with your Precognition?”

“Hwehh? I-it’s not that simple. If I could choose what to see with my power, I wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble at that colosseum or that casino.”

“Right, didn’t you say you had predicted a giant meteor crashing into the Earth thirty thousand years from now? And some small thing you did changed the future to avoid it, so now there’s no way of knowing if the original prediction was even accurate? Sigh, not often I come across an ESP power even less convenient than my Clairvoyance.”

Item’s destination was the General Tower for Next-Generation Information and Arts at the center of the cityscape.

That was the Moe Bells they had visited before.

Takitsubo gave an expressionless look to the girl holding a parasol indoors.

“Frenda, people don’t like your parasol. You’re gathering a lot of attention.”

“?”

“Didn’t you say it’s a personal mist shower? They’re super putting up posters and life-size cardboard ads in front of the stores, so they probably don’t like moisture much. Even though their usual clientele are so sweaty.”

At one end of a floor full of anime and game production companies was a VRTuber streaming studio. It contained a classroom-sized studio, an A/V mixing room of the same size located beyond thick soundproof glass, and a refrigerated room full of computers the size of vending machines.

That was the stronghold for a certain video investigator.

“Whaddya want?”

Item was greeted by a stubbly young man wearing an obscene T-shirt and well-worn jeans. He held a nearly-used-up cigarette in the corner of his mouth.

As the newest member, Kinuhata must have been the only one to never meet him before. She stared in shock at the giant poster on the wall and at the stubbly man.

“Eh!? Isn’t this the super VRTuber streaming studio? Don’t tell me Natsuno Cacao from the minor movie recommendation channel is actually you…”

“Ha ha. No, I’m just the choreographer. This here’s a recycling plant for idol voice actors who’ve screwed up so bad it’s best not to mention their stage name anymore.”

Maybe it came with being from the dark side, but the young man smiled and described the place in a very uncharitable way.

“You used to work out of District 15, since all the TV stuff is there.” Mugino sounded displeased. “You should’ve contacted us if you were going to move.”

“TV isn’t the center of the moe world anymore, you see. But if you’re this pissed off, you must have a rush job for me as a video investigator.”

The way the man in the obscene T-shirt and jeans grinned made Mugino click her tongue and toss him a flash memory the size of a lipstick tube. Her crisis management skills weren’t so bad she would give a data expert her phone.

The video investigator caught it in one hand and shoved a younger video staff member aside.

“I’ll be using this console. ...Wait, you idiot!? Why are you making little adjustments here!? The jiggle needs to come from the spine, not the chest! Our job is to adjust the values when the raw motion data actually looks more fake. The key to popularity is whether the girl on the screen’s flirting looks natural or not. If you can’t sense any weight behind the movement, then everyone just sees it as a bunch of data no matter how much money we spent on a high-quality model!!”

Some nonsensical complaints echoed through the room.

“This sounds silly now, but we might be in trouble if AI takes over one of these, declares itself a superhuman god, and gets really popular,” said Takitsubo with a sigh.

“Eh? I thought the AI MO was to attack with a rebel army full of super machos. I super haven’t seen any movies about the apocalypse happening because the machines were so cute humanity just let them take over.”

The man inserted the flash memory into the filming equipment console, extracted the video on it, and looked to one of the many LCD monitors.

“Hm. You have her face and voice, but you still can’t tell who she is? And so you decided to rely on me?”

“Can you tell anything from her bones?”

In addition to their face and fingerprints, people could be identified by how they stood and their stride.

VRTuber motion capturing was a technology involving human movements. If the skeleton and joints didn’t behave properly, the models couldn’t behave cutely and their dancing would just look creepy.

However…

“There are signs of alterations.”

“…”

“I’m not finding anything searching dental records and I have no matches from the random facial recognition at automatic registers. Either she takes great care of her teeth and avoids sugary drinks, or she periodically randomly updates her teeth and bone structure.”

There were stories of a runaway criminal intentionally removing one of their back teeth in a desperate attempt to avoid this kind of search, but frequently remaking your entire body was rare even for the dark side.

An unlicensed doctor they knew had the following to say when they contacted her through a social media counseling service: “Well, you did say she’s skilled enough to mess with a dog’s genes enough to make a Japanese wolf out of it, so I could see her messing with her own teeth and bones to avoid having her personal information tracked.”

Frenda frowned.

“In the end, she attends a normal school, right? Then she must be in the Bank.”

“Mugino. If the same ID had its skeletal structure change that many times, it would trigger a data alteration alert. Since that hasn’t happened, could she have the technology to return her bones to normal when she gets her official measurements taken?”

Then who was she really?

Was the Class Rep frequently altering her bones, or had a complete stranger taken on the Class Rep’s skeletal pattern as a disguise?

The video investigator shrugged.

“If the trail goes cold tracking down the individual, you can always search their base. You can gather up all the paper and data in her room and follow the money, such as how she’s renting the room.”

“…”

“There must be something. You have this video, so there could be something she says or does that hints at where she’s from.”

Part 6

“Come to think of it, what is your dream?”

Shiratori Okibi had asked that question in an afterschool classroom dyed orange by the setting sun.

Mugino had calculated out the bare minimum number of days she had to show up at school, so she didn’t know her classmates’ names, or even her teacher’s name. That wasn’t a problem if they didn’t care about her either, but unfortunately the Level 5 brand name held a lot of weight at this ordinary school.

“Um, you actually take having a dream seriously?” asked Mugino, looking exasperated.

“My point is you have to write one down on your future plans form.”

So the problem was with the school. This was supposed to be a prep school, so Mugino felt like they should be gathering some more valuable data on their students.

Shiratori grinned.

“To give you an example, my dream is to become an even better detective. I don’t want to be a novice or a hobbyist. I want to use my logic as an actual job.”

“A professional detective, huh? Do you actually know what that job would entail?”

“Ah ha ha. I know it probably wouldn’t mean dramatically solving locked room and timetable mysteries.”

Shiratori laughed bashfully and dropped the topic. She appeared to know that the most common job for Academy City detectives was to tail spouses and romantic partners suspected of infidelity.

“But I’d be able to do so much more if I had a real title. Some things are out of reach when you’re only a hobbyist, but that would change if I was a pro.”

“Such as?”

“One day, I will rescue you from the darkness.”

“…”

“I don’t know what kind of world you’ve gotten yourself involved in! But I can tell you have something going on outside of school and I can guess that it isn’t anything as peaceful as working part-time at a convenience store after school.”

If she had really known, it all would have ended back then.

That dream was only valuable because it was so awkward and unrealistic.

In a peaceful school classroom with no connection to the dark side, Shiratori laughed.

“Hee hee. So I will bring you back into the light of the sun and make an honest person out of you!”

Part 7

“Oh? And so you decided to visit my classroom?”

That statement was enough to bring a dangerous tension to the air.

It came from a woman in her 20s wearing a kimono. If she were seated in a tearoom making matcha with a tea whisk, she would have looked graceful.

Instead, she stank of death.

Frenda was a battle-loving bomber, but even she straightened her spine.

Mugino looked exasperated.

“You do know she’s a murder virgin, right?”

“I do intellectually, but in the end…”

“She’s just giving off that aura with her mannerisms and breathing. But if she can fool a pro, maybe she deserves to be a manners teacher.”

The “manners classroom” was contained in an old-fashioned house just like tea ceremony and flower arrangement classrooms tended to be. It was about creating an image and that had to be the most convenient image for gathering clients.

They were actually in a high-tech skyscraper in District 3 that stood well above the many wind turbines.

More accurately, an entire old-fashioned house, complete with garden, had been transferred to the roof of the skyscraper.

The beautiful woman in a kimono gave off a dangerous air.

…Although Mugino actually found herself relaxing because it felt so much like home. The Mugino family was a gang with a mixture of Japanese and Western styles, like something out of a romanticized look into the Meiji or Taisho era. It was a strange universe where fancy doll dresses and kimonos could be worn side by side without feeling odd.

“Look here.”

Mugino had handed over the same flash memory she had given the VRTuber video investigator, so the woman indicated a point on her tablet.

“Do you see how she takes a step back and moves her fingertips when she nods? Ordinarily, you focus on someone’s face when they lower their head, but this uses that fact to send a signal to anyone who understands that.”

This manners classroom was in fact a place for revealing the signs used by criminal organizations.

If you paid enough, she would apparently even design signs for you to use. She may have been something like the professionals who designed celebrity signatures.

“There are also times while she talks where she switches from her normal nose breathing to mouth breathing. That is another sign. By using the switching points as a dividing line like with Morse code, she is including a completely different text into her conversation.”

Mugino frowned.

“And who exactly uses that kind of sign?”

“The Human Bike Delivery Service.”

That answer came easily.

“The sign to their office is so bland it’s easy to overlook, but they are actually a go-between for illegal part-time work. They also act as a collection service that brings together multiple loan sharks and handles the cases that are in over their head in debt. They’re experts at dealing with the people who are stuck without any money to pay back. They do this by keeping their distance and ordering those people to go and rob a jewelry or watch store.”

As a fellow dark side worker, Mugino had recognized the name.

“That would mean our detective’s base is in District 16.”

Part 8

Just like bike shops tended to be near elementary and middle schools, like florists tended to be near hospitals, and like ramen shops and other restaurants that used their large serving sizes as a selling point tended to be near schools strong in athletics, there was an ideal location for every business.

Detectives tended to deal with the more unseemly side of humanity, such as infidelity and inheritance issues, so if they wanted customers, they would naturally set up shop in a district closely related to human desires.

Academy City’s entertainment district in District 16 was the most obvious example there.

The office contained a large potted plant, a business desk, a glass reception table, a leather sofa, and a fairly expensive coffee maker.

The image of a detective’s office must not have changed much since the time of old dramas. It had ended up like this by asking the interior decorator to “make it look like a detective’s office”. On the other hand, it also looked a lot like a collection of the unsold office supplies in a wholesaler’s warehouse.

Who could have predicted the sofa would have a blanket rolled up on it because it had been more or less turned into a bed? The silver metal bag on the floor was a simple forensics kit and there was a surveillance drone too. But if you wanted to use those toys at the scene of the mystery, it was better to hire an expert.

The calendar on the wall indicated plans to rent a consumer electronics accident investigation lab. That would be for reproducing large-scale physical tricks.

Although with a detective, that was less about using a specific gimmick yourself and more about understanding exactly how all of the devices worked to simulate malicious ways a criminal might use them.

However, none of that was the office’s most notable trait.

Everything was covered.

Photos and handwritten memos weren’t just pasted all over a wall – they covered the floor and ceiling too. They were all linked by colorful string, to visualize how it was all connected.

One clump was formed from photos of the five members of the Sadistic Dolls and a memo written by someone at their company.

Another clump included photos of the science cult leader and the Clone Complex agricultural building.

Photos of the four Item members were located between those two clumps.

A short distance away were the three Frees.

A few colorful strings extended from there, but were not yet connected to anything.

(My deadline is probably September 1. Logically speaking, it’s just not possible for us to pretend to be friends in class now that we both know each other’s identity. We need to settle this one way or another during August.)

…Oddly enough, Mugino organized information in much the same way when she was pursuing a case. It was unclear which one took after the other, though.

“Hm, hm♪”

The detective was nude. She had just taken a bath. There was a door leading to all the rooms with running water: kitchen, bathroom, and bath. She took a sip of the cold coffee left on the table and then searched for a snack to help settle her stomach.

Sensing food, the Japanese wolf looked up from the cushion on the floor she had been boredly lying on.

The first to solve a mystery left by a wealthy old man would receive his full inheritance, but instead of a giant pile of cash, that inheritance turned out to be a Japanese wolf and some atavism research notes. The romantic of an old man apparently thought something that couldn’t be converted into a pile of cash was a much greater treasure. The family members who had been fighting so ruthlessly before were suddenly in complete agreement that they didn’t want the wolf, so the hired detective had taken it.

The black-haired girl wearing only the towel over her wet hair opened the fridge and bent over to look inside.

“Ugh, someone ate all my food. Was the culprit me? No, I could never keep this lovely figure if I’d eaten all that ham and bacon. Which can only mean...hmm.”

Shiratori Okibi muttered to herself while directing a magnifying glass toward the fridge.

Technically, that was a multipurpose scanner with the rim packed full of 2mm cameras and sensors. It could zoom in and out and it could also visualize all sorts of data: fingerprints, bloodstains, footprints, sweat and saliva spray, and more.

She started by setting the wavelength to 385 and 455 nanometers. This revealed a trail of something being dragged out of the fridge.

There were signs of plastic wrappers being torn open on the floor.

Following the trail further led Shiratori to peer between the large potted plant and the wall where the ham and bacon wrappers had been roughly shoved.

The towel-head girl gave a single large nod.

The culprit was her assistant.

The truths revealed by a detective were always a source of sorrow.

“Rozeki! Dammit, you can try to hide it, but I can still see what you did with the ALS!!”

The Japanese wolf tried to play it dumb, so Shiratori hugged her in the nude and rubbed her cheek against her, making her yelp pitifully. Not only was Shiratori’s skin and hair wet, but the wolf didn’t like the overly sweet scent of the body soap and shampoo.

In the world of deduction, you could never say never.

Dogs and cats could operate doors and faucets with surprising skill and they could even press a button on a TV or AC remote. Of course, it was impossible to say what Japanese wolves were capable of due to the extremely limited sample size.

After completing the wolf’s punishment with a smile, (naked) Shiratori Okibi removed her face from the fluffiness.

“Okay, Rozeki, let’s head out and buy some food at the cheap place.”

“Woof!” happily barked the wolf. Rozeki preferred discount stores to convenience stores and supermarkets because of all the pet food and toys available there. One enormous store in particular had practically become a landmark in this entertainment district.

Shiratori tossed the towel from her head and changed into the bare minimum of going-out clothes. The combination of the special below-the-knee sock garters and short black stockings was stylish and cute, but it was a pain to put on. If she wasn’t careful, she would end up with runs in the stockings. She hesitated on the choice between leather shoes or boots but chose the boots.

“Staying stylish as a girl costs so much money, time, and work.”

She grabbed her phone and accessed the school phone tree group on social media. That she remained in good standing at school showed she was better than Mugino Shizuri at maintaining both sides of her life.

Summer was ending soon. She had to really start thinking about September 1 now.

(I’ll be busy again once the break ends. Then again, school is a treasure trove of jobs people can’t go to anyone else with.)

Shiratori left her detective office with Rozeki the Japanese wolf.

The detective office was located in a filthy multi-tenant building in the entertainment district full of neon and LCD signs. It had a sex establishment and a consumer finance office as neighbors. Other establishments in the building were a pawn shop that primarily bought furniture and tools off of debt-collectors and a mobile phone shop that used phone repairs as a cover for stealing people’s personal information. All the strange additions to the building made it hard to navigate.

“Yawwn. Mornin’, Miss Detective.”

A busty young woman wearing a thin camisole rubbed her eyes sleepily while staggering down the narrow hallway. How busty was she exactly? Over 100cm. While Shiratori hadn’t lifted the camisole to check, she suspected there was no underwear underneath.

The woman was a sex worker who worked in this building.

“Huh? I didn’t realize you started work this early.”

“There’s a space to take naps in the back. It’s too cold outside.”

The sex worker staggering around in only a camisole was much more interested in the wolf walking beside the detective than the detective herself. The woman’s face lit up as soon as she saw Rozeki because Rozeki had in fact become something like the building’s mascot.

“Your assistant’s with you☆ Oh, she’s so cute!”

A detective’s job was to resolve a wide variety of problems, but the majority of those problems came from human relationships: investigating suspected infidelity, searching for a runaway girl, finding people who were avoiding paying loan sharks, etc. Whatever the case, a detective primarily handled tracking jobs that Anti-Skill and Judgment wouldn’t touch, so the Japanese wolf’s sharp sense of smell was a powerful weapon. At times, that was even more useful than a special ALS light that revealed fingerprints or bloodstains.

Her sleepiness gone, the sex worker smiled bright.

“Can I pet Rozeki-chan?”

“Go right ahead.”

With shrieks about how cute the wolf was, hands reached in from all sides to pet her. As soon as one was given permission, a crowd of women emerged from the nearby doors. The wolf would be given all sorts of food, snacks, and toys if Shiratori let her out of her sight for even a moment, but she was even more popular right now after driving out a particularly nasty drunk. Although it wasn’t quite clear if the women viewed Rozeki as a knight in shining armor or a maneki-neko.

The animal’s pleading eyes said, “I will let you draw eyebrows on me with permanent marker, just rescue me from this.” She had her tail tucked between her legs.

(Sigh, she’s all scared of them. And yet a human would have to pay them a lot of money to get this kind of treatment.)

But it wasn’t fair to animals to expect them to see things like humans did.

The detective searched for some way to help out her poor assistant.

“Oh? I hear a lot of noise coming from over there. Rozeki.”

Shiratori made up an excuse and whistled with her fingers. The wolf left the sex workers’ petting hands and ran to Shiratori. Ran quite quickly. Her round eyes expressed thanks.

Shiratori visited another tenant in the same building.

The Human Bike Delivery Service.

The sign was so bland it would be easy to overlook, but it was really a go-between for illegal part-time work. Instead of delivering objects, their service let people use their phones to easily have the person on the bike delivered.

The detective stuck her head in through the door.

“What’s going on? Got another job for me?”

“No. I’m busy breaking that man the ladies discovered.”

“Ewahhhhhhhh!! Ohhraghhhhhhhhhhh!!”

A neighborhood nuisance of a scream pierced through the building’s wall. Apparently loan sharks these days no longer demanded their poor victims sell their organs.

Of course, not all loan shark “customers” ended up like this.

Or rather, loan sharks worked best when the leader remained hidden on the other side of a phone call and threatened disposable lackeys to do the real work. So even if this captured lackey talked, it wouldn’t reveal who was behind it all.

One detective job was to search out the lackeys who ignored their orders and ran off in the middle of the night.

There were specialists who would drag them into a dark room and thoroughly break the reckless disobedience out of them.

Runaways like that weren’t exactly common, but if word of a single one getting away safely were to spread, a lot more would risk it.

There was no real sympathy in the detective’s voice.

There was only one reason that man had fallen this far.

“Home schooling, huh?”

That referred to back alley brain modifications done with electrodes and suggestion. As opposed to the official Curriculum administered at a school. Shiratori didn’t know if it was more like an illegal drug trip or like an advanced form of doping.

“Apparently he screwed up his own head so bad he couldn’t earn the money needed to pay the illegal lab built into a modified van, so he resorted to purse snatching on the streets.”

“He was so used to stealing, but he was still that opposed to robbing a jewelry store like he was ordered to?” asked Shiratori, sounding almost impressed.

And then…

“Have you decided on a plan yet?”

“Honestly, I’m going with your suggestion, young lady.”

“Good idea. That’s apparently an illegal store that buys stolen jewelry off of people. Stealing all their jewelry to get Anti-Skill’s attention might get them to give the place a closer look.”

“And that purse snatcher will be caught again too.”

A detective knew the last thing criminals would want.

Was that because they were on the side of justice?

Probably so, concluded Shiratori.

The detective business was all about taking a different approach to solve the cases that slipped through Anti-Skill’s fingers and handing the criminals over to the authorities. They were like fixers that used every trick in the book to fill in the dark gaps left in the peaceful world.

And so Shiratori Okibi, Detective of Justice, would solve all sorts of mysteries and cases, but she carried no responsibility for what happened as a result.

The detective working on a mysterious serial killing, the journalists, and the famous maids didn’t worry themselves over the fact that whoever they identified as the killer would definitely be given the death penalty.

The threatening-looking guy in a gaudy suit, probably part of some support team or another, sighed in exasperation.

“Well, it’s not like we could get much money for organs ruined from years of smoking, drinking, and drugs. Sending them after jewelry and watch stores is a lot more cost-effective.”

“Really? Filthy, damaged organs might be rarer and thus more in demand as research specimens. You know, like the lungs black with nicotine and tar you see on posters in infirmaries.”

“Speaking of, I don’t know where they get the photos from, but Academy City does update the posters every year for some reason. If all they want to do is scare people off smoking with a photo of a gross lung, they could just reuse the same photo they were using a decade ago.”

“I wonder if the board of directors holds an audition for that. To see who has the dirtiest lungs of the year.”

Just then…

“Oh.”

One of the other thugs in the back of the room spoke up.

The young man (literally) bit one of the men in gaudy suits, shook free, and ran for the office’s exit.

Which meant he was approaching Shiratori since she was near the door.

“Outta the way!!”

“Nah.”

The man reached into his sleeve and pulled out something like a relay baton.

With a sound of springs and gears operating, it extended to more than 60cm. A close look would show it had a thin metal wire drawn tight like a violin bow.

The ultra-thin blade glowed orange and burned the air.

Was it an electrothermic machete?

It had the unique look of 3D-printed craft plastic, so it may have been ordered online from the Armory.

“I’m not doing your illegal jobs. Why should I follow your ‘rules’? You’re just a bunch of criminals!! I’m going home! And I won’t let any of you stop m-”

“Bow wow!!!!”

An explosive roar from Rozeki made the criminal drop his weapon.

Time froze and he fell onto his rear.

Tears formed in the corners of his eyes.

This was very different from a dog bought at a pet shop. Even if you didn’t know this dog had been genetically modified into a Japanese wolf, your instincts as a living being would recognize the true intimidation of a beast that had become a legend of its own.

That instinctual understanding was crucial.

Police in a gun culture did not use laser sights because it would improve their accuracy. By shining the red dot on a suspect’s chest or gut, they could convince the suspect to surrender without having to fire a shot.

(Because with my power, I could turn the criminal to mincemeat before they even have time to threaten me.)

A detective’s assistant had to do two things.

To be a mascot with the interpersonal skills to smooth things over in place of the unsociable detective and to physically suppress a criminal who didn’t know when to give up.

As long as they could do those two things, they didn’t even need to be human.

“And the most important skills for a detective are keen observation and a sharp memory.”

Shiratori smiled as she gently patted the wolf’s head.

Smiled thinly and cruelly.

“The difference between a detective and a hapless victim who stumbled onto the truth is the ability to maintain a safe zone where they cannot be killed even after arriving at the correct answer. Real cases do not end when you solve the mystery. That is in fact the starting line. You aren’t a real detective unless you can take control and safely suppress the killer. Directly questioning the killer one-on-one is out of the question☆”

The young man was dragged into the back of the room and the door was shut.

The sex worker in a thin camisole poked her head out of the neighboring door.

“Is the scary stuff over? Then let me see the good girl. Oh, now this is therapeutic. Look, Rozeki-chan, I brought you some bone gum☆”

The Japanese wolf tried to flee.

The smiling young woman’s danger-sensing instinct appeared to be badly broken.

Part 9

“Really?” said Kinuhata Saiai sounding exasperated.

The late-August entertainment district was blanketed with white snow.

A bunch of snow machines resembling giant fans had been set up to make sure everything was covered. It was apparently a vast conspiracy by a major beer brand. They had remade District 16 as a whole into a giant beer garden and were running a sales promotion event. Scantily-clad young women they were calling “Bul Girls” were handing out cans of their new beer on the street. It was apparently the 3rd or 4th event, but Kinuhata wasn’t paying enough attention to get the exact number.

“Ugh. In the end, it’s freezing.”

Frenda was shivering and had closed her special mist shower parasol.

The small snowflakes scattering in the wind had stolen away all the heat, so it was a little chilly even in the direct midday sunlight.

“That’s just dangerous. They have people drinking beer and walking around in artificial snow. You don’t need banana peels lying around to get people slipping and falling here.”

“Mugino, the security robots probably can’t get through this snow either.”

“This district is all about alcohol and the nightlife, right? If it’s this bad during the day, super what do they do at night?”

District 16 was full of mysteriously high-paying part-time work, so it’s true nature did not come out until all the neon and LCD signs were lit up.

It was chaotic in a different way from the source of trends that was District 15.

No attempt was made to hide the gaudy signs of desire here.

In this entertainment district where there were plenty of drunks out even during the day, Yamagami Erina of Judgment was handing out fliers on the snowy street corner. They had seen her earlier, so she must have been moving around a lot.

“Excuse me. This girl’s name is Minamioki Sarusa-chan. Has anyone seen her?”

“For now, we need to get her information out there. That means getting the posters up in all 23 districts by the end of the day.”

“People’s routines will change once the break ends, so we need to get some useful witness information before then.”

A fair number of people were using skis on the flat sidewalk like they were alpine skiing or walking around with modern snowshoes. In fact, there were even snowmobiles and snowcats driving back and forth on the street. Apparently they were being used like sightseeing carts.

“That all looks really expensive,” commented Takitsubo as she blankly watched it all.

“It’s super scary how excited people get about events.”

“Kinuhata, this is the same as movie theater popcorn. Just like fan merch at major soccer matches, you never know how much the value will drop as soon as the moment passes.”

“It’s a super bad idea to use movies as your negative example, Takitsubo-san. You don’t want to make a habit of it!”

While Item walked as a group, Frenda was much more steady on her feet than the other three. She had more experience walking on snow. The trick was apparently to firmly step directly on top of it.

“In the end, I might have worked with that detective before somewhere.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve told you I do forensics work separate from Item, right? We work separately and never directly meet, but I might have occasionally sent her forensic data over the internet while hunting down traitors on the dark side.”

It didn’t sound like Frenda had any intention of going easy on her because of this.

To Frenda, the detective was just another person she had passed by on the dark side.

In fact, it was more unusual for Mugino, the battle freak who would kill anyone, to seem so uncertain.

When they were waiting for the light at an intersection, some smiling Bul Girls approached and Mugino shooed them away with a hand as she spoke.

“It was the Human Bike Delivery Service, right?”

“In the end, I say we go after the thug in a gaudy suit at the information desk. He could probably introduce us to a number of shady businesses other than the sex stuff.”

Item continued toward their destination while passing by a giant palace and a kaiju made by carving stacks of ice blocks.

They arrived at a filthy multi-tenant building.

“Mugino.”

“I know. The whole building isn’t a dark side toy.”

With some (technically) innocent people (who were really just drunks walking through the entertainment district) passing by, Mugino couldn’t just blast the building from the outside.

So instead, they entered through the main 1st floor entrance and forced their way into the manager’s office.

“Okay, okay. In the end, we need to check their security cameras and air conditioning AI. Okay, lining up footage from all the floors and…these look like the lines that are clear of people.”

Frenda connected the computer to her phone and nodded. Takitsubo peered in from the side and pointed out a few corrections. Simple intuition won out over precise data.

“Yikes. I feel like super Takitsubo-san is the one I actually least want as an enemy.”

“What, only figuring that out now?”

They chose to ignore the track suit girl’s offended look.

Mugino aimed her palm straight up.

She launched several Meltdowner beams in quick succession.

The thick beams pierced vertically through the building, but it didn’t seem anyone had died.

While the Human whatever-they-were-called panicked, Kinuhata climbed the outside of the building with arms buffed by Offense Armor and slipped into the office (which was already full of holes) through the window.

A kick to sweep him off his feet brought down the threatening-looking guy in charge.

Kinuhata placed her foot on the man’s chest over his heart as he lay on his back.

If she placed her weight on that foot with Offense Armor active, it would smash right through to the floor.

“I’ve got a super message for you to deliver. Get it to the detective and I’ll let you live.”

“The young lady? Wh-what’s the message?”

“A time and place for us to meet. Tell her we know where she lives, so we’re super in control here.”

Part 10

It was 10PM on August 30. Time to get started.

Item had rested in the trendy laundromat until closing time and now they were finally on the move.

“Mugino, what do we do about Shiratori Okibi’s power?”

“…”

Mugino hadn’t been napping the entire time.

She alone had spent the entire time agonizing over this.

“We know she can create a wall of fire and a flash flood. She must also be able to hammer in a nail with air since that’s her camouflage power.”

“Wait. In the end, the rule is one power per person.”

“But we discussed this so much and we still haven’t found an answer.”

They were heading into battle without identifying the enemy’s power.

That brutal power had gotten the better of them once before and now they were challenging it again.

That was like choosing to dive into a deadly labyrinth. It was possible a member of Item wouldn’t be returning from this alive.

“We’ll spread out around Takitsubo. It’s a pain in the ass, but we need her to gather information!”

“In the end, I guess that is the only option.”

Frenda smiled half in exasperation and stuck a skinny arm into her thin poncho. They were in for a wild fight where they would have to defend themselves, so she may have wanted to double check her number and variety of explosives to reassure herself.

Mugino pointed at the others while walking toward a support team four-wheel-drive vehicle waiting on the curb.

“Frenda and I will move out in front to get the detective to attack, so, Takitsubo, you focus on analyzing her power. Kinuhata, you focus on protecting Takitsubo. Don’t let anyone close to our analyst.”

“Understood.”

“Super got it.”

The meeting point was the ice palace in District 16.

It was classified as a multipurpose event hall.

It was the size of a school building and designed like a Greek temple. It was entirely made by stacking ice blocks larger than vending machines and smoothly carving them away.

The security wasn’t exactly strict, which was why they were using it for their shady meeting. As long as there was no event that day, the ice palace remained quiet. There were no lights on inside and the darkness was deserted. The pathway was lit up by the bare minimum of nighttime lightning and the green of emergency exit signs and the red of fire alarm lights dyed the walls and floor in places. The video ads projected onto the occasional thick ice pillar or flat wall may have been part of the equipment’s automatic maintenance routine.

One of the ads projected on a round pillar was for an upcoming idol concert.

The ice palace was called the Bulweiser Icicle Theater.

“Why’d they have to ruin such a lovely name by tacking a beer brand on the front? It ruins the charm.”

“Shows how much money they’re making through advertising, Kinuhata. They get paid tons of money and all they have to do is let the company name the place.”

Item had made sure to arrive before their opponent.

They took a look around the ice palace. They were checking for traps, bombs, hidden cameras, or even hidden attackers or snipers, but they didn’t find anything.

After around half an hour of searching, Takitsubo looked up.

“Mugino.”

All the lights went out without warning.

The bare minimum of nighttime lighting, the ads projected on the pillars, the emergency exit signs, the fire alarm lights – all of it.

The cameras, sensors, and other security equipment were likely down too.

They heard solid footsteps.

There were two sets, but one set didn’t seem human.

“Hi, hi.”

A black-haired girl wore a thin coat over a white and blue short-sleeved sailor uniform from some school or another. But she probably didn’t have any cooling products hidden inside the coat this time. She grinned over at them while poking and playing with the Japanese wolf walking alongside her legs covered by white boots and short black stockings held up by special below-the-knee sock garters.

Justice.

Detective Shiratori Okibi knew the last thing a criminal would want to happen.

“You’re here early. Didn’t we agree on 12? Weird showing up an hour early when you set the time yourself.”

“Do we look like punctual teacher’s pets?”

“Not a bit☆”

“In the end, you know the last thing criminals want, right? If we showed up right on time, who knows what kind of traps or ambushes we’d find springing on us.”

There was a hint of exasperation in the detective’s smile.

Like an expert investigator had just been forced to listen to an amateur sleuth’s evidence-void guesswork.

Shiratori Okibi said, “That aside, I told you I’d contact you.”

“You really expected us to wait around?”

The detective answered Mugino by smiling and reaching into her pocket.

Tension ran through Item, but she didn’t pull out a gun or a knife. She pulled out a locked notebook.

“I said I could organize the information on the case you’d gotten yourselves involved in if you gave me time, remember?”

Apparently that really was all this was.

Next, a strange emotion formed on her face.

Pity.

“But it looks like Item’s facing a fate worse than death. Ah ha ha. You’re past the point of a simple death sentence. And if you’d realized what’s going on yourself, I doubt you’d be here wasting your time chatting with me. If it was me, I’d be trying to escape over the city’s wall even though I know it’s suicide. Because that’d be the more logical choice.”

A few thoughts popped into Mugino’s head.

While she had no hard proof, she had been sensing that things were trending in a dangerous direction around Item. But which side was their enemy on? The villains? Justice? Or the higher ups like the voice on the phone who transcended that kind of morality?

The detective had the answer.

“Okay, you can make it sound important, but what exactly have you discovered?”

“Yes, that’s the thing.” The detective flicked the cover of her locked notebook. “Since you gave me time, I was able to do a lot of detective work. So I have discovered the full truth of the case you’ve gotten yourselves caught up in.”

At that point, Shiratori Okibi asked a basic question.

“But when did I say I would give it to you?”

“…”

A quiet metallic jangle came from the Japanese wolf’s collar. Something was attached to the loop that would normally hold a leash. It was a small key.

The detective made a show of putting the locked notebook back in her pocket.

This wasn’t a failed negotiation.

Shiratori wasn’t negotiating in the first place.

This was only a challenge and a declaration of war.

“Now wait just a minute! I super don’t get why you’re even picking a fight with us! If you had to look into everything happening here, doesn’t that mean you aren’t a part of it!?”

“Ah ha ha. I’m a detective, remember? I know better than anyone the kinds of logic criminals hate. You’re the ones who are in trouble if you spend too much time on this.”

“You mean the September 1 deadline?”

“Right. Our school lives are in jeopardy☆”

That meant neither Mugino Shizuri nor Shiratori Okibi could back down.

If your neighbor transformed into falling sparks, then they were your enemy. If you didn’t brush them off, they would burn you and you would lose everything in the ignited conflagration.

Mugino had to accept that this girl was a deadly enemy.

This enemy was a detective and she would cling to this one hint to the end even if it meant giving up on her school life and going into hiding. The villain had only one way of staying safe: cutting her away.

Things were only this bad because Mugino was a villain.

If she were a normal person or a hero, it never would have ended up like this.

“Also, a detective doesn’t need a reason to pursue a villain. It’s like instinct to me.”

Shiratori smiled.

But this smile was different. Almost like she had seen deep inside Mugino, whose world was falling apart at an accelerated rate.

The Class Rep spoke plainly through that cruel smile.

“Just try and take it from me, villain.”

Part 11

For a brief moment, Mugino Shizuri forgot where she was.

She heard a voice in the back of her mind.

“As Class Rep, I end up hearing a lot of people’s problems. So if you’re ever in real trouble, you can come to me. I’ll do anything to help you out!”

That was from school.

She really did only need to keep the bare minimum level of attendance. So she hadn’t known the names of the students or teacher. With one exception.

The Class Rep.

From Mugino’s perspective, she was a harmless and uninteresting girl who was walking down a path Mugino could never reach.

“To give you an example, my dream is to become an even better detective. I don’t want to be a novice or a hobbyist. I want to use my logic as an actual job.”

Or so she had thought.

Then what was this?

What was this she was seeing now?

“But I’d be able to do so much more if I had a real title. Some things are out of reach when you’re only a hobbyist, but that would change if I was a pro.”

Villains had their own form of pride.

Or so she thought.

“One day, I will rescue you from the darkness.”

Then.

Could she really attack someone from the sunlit world?

Was that really something she could let herself do?

“I don’t know what kind of world you’ve gotten yourself involved in! But I can tell you have something going on outside of school and I can guess that it isn’t anything as peaceful as working part-time at a convenience store after school.”

And.

What if this girl was lost?

What if the one tiny thread still connecting her to the ordinary world was gone?

“Hee hee. So I will bring you back into the light of the sun and make an honest person out of you!”

“Mugino!!”

Frenda slapped her leader on the back and stepped forward with Kinuhata.

It had already begun.

Detective Shiratori Okibi’s cruelly smiling voice reached Mugino’s ears with a delay.

“Rozeki, go!”

The Japanese wolf opened her maw wide, scattering sticky slaver around. She raced out, her feet skipping across the floor like a flat stone on a river, and she leaped for Mugino’s throat.

They didn’t have time to check what Mugino wanted.

“!!”

Kinuhata immediately raised her arms horizontally and shoved herself between Mugino and the wolf.

The fangs chomped down with tremendous force.

A normal human may have had their thick nerves torn through before they were dragged to the ground, but Kinuhata had Offense Armor.

She instead lifted the wolf with her bitten arm.

“Frenda, super use some gun or bomb to get rid of-!!”

She didn’t get to finish.

She had relaxed too soon.

The black-haired detective gave a twirl of her finger. The thing spinning around on a keychain loop looked a lot like a young child’s security buzzer, but it was in fact a mini stun gun.

All hell broke loose.

The thick ice below Mugino’s feet suddenly shattered. Flames and a shockwave exploded out and the Level 5 girl was sent spinning through the air.

“Super Mugi-”

Kinuhata shouted and reached out a hand, but her small body was stopped by a powerful sensation.

Solid cracking sounds rang out.

She had no idea what had happened. But without Offense Armor, she might have shattered like a rose dunked in liquid nitrogen.

“~ ~ ~! You super froze me!?”

“Watch out.”

The track suit girl’s warning came too late.

Or so Frenda thought, but a moment later she regretted taking Takitsubo’s words too lightly.

She had plenty of experience telling her that bad things happened if you didn’t immediately obey Takitsubo’s sixth sense at times like this.

The detective tossed aside her stun gun and grabbed something else instead. She reached into her thin coat and pulled out a giant monkey wrench.

But she did not try to hit Item with it.

Frenda’s feet rose up from the ice floor.

Even though she was a decent distance away.

She slammed back-first into an ice pillar.

“Bh!?”

For just an instant, Frenda thought she had been grabbed and thrown by powerful telekinesis, but that wasn’t it.

“Inertia? In the end, did you throw me by sliding the entire ice palace!?”

“Ah ha ha. A little thing like that is enough to surprise you? What do you think my power is?”

Shiratori Okibi.

She had no trouble taking on all four members of Item at once.

Even though that included Mugino Shizuri, one of only seven Level 5s in the city!?

“Gahh!?” shouted Kinuhata.

Before she had time to investigate the mysterious freezing phenomenon, an invisible pressure hit her from all sides. She had trouble breathing even with Offense Armor active, so this pressure had to be enough to crush a light vehicle.

It was so much she released the wolf she had captured.

Frenda forgot all about getting up from the ice floor and stared wide-eyed.

“In the end, is she using multiple powers at once!? Gah! And these are all AoE attacks that cover this entire event hall!!”

“I can hire support team assault troops and snipers if I want to. So didn’t logic tell you it was odd I had still chosen to meet you while alone?”

Without even glancing over at the wolf rejoining her, Shiratori tossed the monkey wrench to the wolf like it was a toy bone.

And she summed up her point.

“If I did bring others with me, I’d just end up destroying all of them with my power.”

“!?”

Level 0 Frenda felt her throat go dry.

So much power. Deadly power.

The detective held her palms together in front of her face and smiled bashfully.

“Ah ha ha. I do claim to be on the side of justice, so it would be a bad look if I destroyed all my allies with friendly fire, right? So this is the best and most optimal number of fighters for me. When I charge in on my own, I can actually wield my full power☆”

Unlike the police or Anti-Skill, detectives generally faced the villain on their own. Organizational power wouldn’t help them and could even get in their way.

Shiratori took that to the extreme.

Attempting a direct confrontation without knowing her power had been a mistake.

The props like the mini stun gun and the monkey wrench were suspicious, but Item knew nothing for certain. Those could just have been red herrings meant to draw their attention.

So Mugino didn’t hesitate to shout.

“Spread out! Follow the plan!!”

“Mugi-”

“Super got it!!”

Takitsubo started to say something, but Kinuhata grabbed her wrist and tugged hard.

They still didn’t know Detective Shiratori’s power, so Mugino and Frenda would move out to front to get her to attack while Takitsubo focused on analysis and Kinuhata guarded Takitsubo. Item had decided on this plan before arriving in the Bulweiser Icicle Theater.

If Takitsubo was only analyzing the enemy and providing targeting support, she didn’t need to be on the front line.

She could stay back where it was safe and contact the others by phone.

Part 12

“Super over here, Takitsubo-san!!”

“Lead the way.”

Several more explosions erupted behind Kinuhata and Takitsubo as they rushed away. It wasn’t clear if those were due to Frenda’s bombs or the detective’s unidentified power. Cracks ran through the thick ice pillars and chunks of ice heavier than human beings dropped from the ceiling.

Nevertheless, they heard an amused response.

But instead of Battle Freak Mugino, this came from Detective Shiratori Okibi.

“Rozeki, go!”

A deep roar followed. Mugino and Frenda must have had their hands full dealing with Shiratori’s vicious onslaught. The Japanese wolf had breached their defensive line.

She was speeding toward Kinuhata and Takitsubo.

Kinuhata spun around and prepared to intercept.

With a single sharp, whistling breath, she suppressed the instinctual fear of the enormous creature.

“Takitsubo-san, super stay behind me!!”

“No, Kinuhata.”

For some reason, that girl wasn’t obeying her guard’s instructions.

Feeling overwhelmed, Kinuhata nearly snapped at the older girl, but…

“Time is a limited resource. If we waste it dealing with that wolf, Mugino and Frenda will be defeated. We need to figure out that detective’s power as soon as possible.”

Kinuhata heard a wet bursting sound.

It came from the plastic bottle of lemon soda Takitsubo had thrown.

With their extremely sharp sense of smell, wolves disliked the strongly sour scent of citrus. This was an instinctual way of avoiding spoiled food and the chemicals used to keep wild animals away from campsites and mountain cabins made use of this reaction.

“Train them all you want, an animal is still an animal,” expressionlessly stated Takitsubo as she pulled out something else: a bottle of hand cream.

This time it wasn’t the smell. Wild animals also disliked unnaturally sticky surfaces. That may have been an instinct to avoid bogs that would kill them once they were caught.

“That thing was genetically modified into a Japanese wolf, so we need to use that fact against it.”

With a distorted yelp, the wolf fled into the shadows.

“Kinuhata, keep an eye on our surroundings just in case. I doubt it will be after us until it gets that sticky stuff of its paws, but be careful.”

Instead of focusing on the wolf, Takitsubo pulled out a small pair of opera glasses.

She had a good view of Mugino, Frenda, and Detective Shiratori fighting a decent distance away. Which meant it was finally time to do her job.

“Mugino, Frenda. Can you two hear me?” she said into her phone.

“In the end, I’m reading you loud and clear!”

“Just hurry up and get us that data!!”

They were already aware that Shiratori could create a wall of fire, produce a flash flood, hammer a nail with nothing more than air, and cause several other supernatural phenomena. From that alone, she appeared to be a Dual Skill who ignored the rule about one power per person.

However.

Some things came into view now that Takitsubo was a step removed and could remain calm.

“Shiratori Okibi claims she could have brought plenty of assault troops and snipers with her, but she came alone because her power is so strong she couldn’t avoid friendly fire, right?”

“What of it!?” shouted Mugino.

“Then why isn’t that wolf of hers affected by her power?”

That had bothered Takitsubo.

Detective Shiratori had claimed it was best for her to fight alone, so did her wolf assistant not count?

It was obvious she was willing to entrust her life in the wolf in this dark palace. And yet was she really willing to kill the wolf along with her enemy just because the wolf wasn’t human?

“That means Shiratori Okibi knew from the beginning that her wolf partner would never be harmed by her power no matter how many big, roughly-aimed attacks she launches across this entire area.”

“In the end, are you saying what I think you are?”

“The detective’s power only affects human brains, so it can’t harm a nonhuman wolf.”

“You mean the flame wall, the flood, and the nailing were – in the end – all psychological? Oh, I get it! If her power just shows us illusions, then this all can be explained with a single power!!”

“So is the damage we receive just a negative form of the placebo effect? Dammit!!” cursed Mugino.

Shiratori’s power was ultimately psychological. Had she driven nails into a board at school by hiding a small tool in her palm? There was a weirdly thriving market for miniaturized tools like multi-tool knives and glasses screwdrivers.

This would turn the tides a little.

But it was only the bare minimum.

Takitsubo could not rest until Detective Shiratori had been defeated and all of Item was safe.

“But this should super help us-”

Feeling optimistic, Kinuhata began speaking, but then she stopped.

She heard a solid scraping sound. It was a footstep. But not a human one.

But also not a Japanese wolf one.

The ice floor was being torn into by short, thick claws resembling tungsten steel can openers. They belonged to a four-legged ground combat drone about the size of the wolf. More scraping sounds joined the first as 5, 10, 15, 20 of the metal beasts emerged. They gathered around the wolf, evidently to serve it.

The detective’s voice spoke from all of their internal speakers.

Even after everything she had done, she still wasn’t done.

The mocking laughter came from an expert in the last thing a criminal would want to happen.

“Ah ha ha. People get this wrong a lot thanks to the term ‘lone wolf’, but wolves are highly social animals that operate in packs. So this ability exists in some corner of Rozeki’s head.”

“…”

“Unfortunately, Rozeki is the only Japanese wolf that’s been created through genetically engineered atavism. A shame, right? Logically speaking, I didn’t want to let that ability go to waste and I’m not that great at operating drones myself.”

Her voice carried a sticky grinning tone.

“So I hooked some wiring up to Rozeki’s brain letting her control a pack of ground combat drones using both ultrasound and the gigahertz band. You’re about to experience firsthand a mechanized version of a wolf pack’s highly organized hunting routine. There is no escape. Just remember that this is going to be a lot worse than being attacked by a simple program.”

“Super get behind me, Takitsubo-san! Hurry!”

“I have a hunch some nitrogen armor won’t be enough to protect your teammate when wolves are attacking from every direction.”

They had no choice but to put some distance between themselves and the pack, even if that meant running. But…

“!”

“Takitsubo-san?”

Kinuhata looked puzzled, but Takitsubo didn’t have time to answer. The track suit girl was not in charge of athletics or direct combat.

Of course, their opponent wasn’t going to honor that kind of line.

A few of the bestial ground combat drones wandered out in front of them and one lunged in. It stretched up from low to the ground, targeting Takitsubo’s throat.

It moved exactly like a Japanese wolf.

Kinuhata prepared to counterattack with an Offense Armor fist, but her small body stiffened.

A brutal “zap!!” came from a high-voltage current.

Offense Armor was made by solidly compressing the nitrogen in the air, but it was only a few millimeters thick. So if, for example, electrical breakdown were triggered and a powerful current pierced through that air, she was powerless to stop it.

“Kinuhata!?”

There was no response.

Kinuhata crumpled to the ice floor. Takitsubo propped her up from behind, but couldn’t do any more than that.

She was out of options.

As an expert in battle analysis and targeting support, Takitsubo understood her own situation quite vividly. The nitrogen barrier was gone. And even as small as Kinuhata was, Takitsubo doubted she could carry the limp girl and escape the 20 or so ground combat drones organized by a Japanese wolf’s instincts.

Explosions and tremors were still occurring in the distance, so she knew Mugino and Frenda were in no position to come to their aid right away.

She dragged her teammate with both arms and forcibly lifted her. By placing Kinuhata’s limp body atop a boxy vending machine located inside the ice palace, she hoped the wolves wouldn’t be able to reach her.

But that was the most she could do.

Takitsubo had an uncharacteristic grimace on her face as she slumped down to the floor.

Something felt wrong in her right calf. This was why professional baseball players did not play in the winter. As someone who didn’t get much exercise, she shouldn’t have run so much while chilled by the ice palace.

Her leg had been cramping for a bit now.

She doubted the wolves would give her time to reach down to stretch her ankle.

The track suit girl quietly thought to herself.

(Is this the end?)

They weren’t coming for her right away.

Were the beasts coordinating to cut off all possible escape routes before delivering the finishing blow, or was this the unique “pause” or “compromise” found in pack hunters?

Her last moments stretched out at a horribly leisurely pace.

She did not shut her eyes.

Kinuhata was the newest member of Item. If Takitsubo let her die and survived, she could never look Mugino in the eye again. But maybe it was also unfair to force Kinuhata to live with the pain of having survived when her older teammate died.

“Oh, but.”

Takitsubo sighed softly.

And she smiled with her cramped right leg still sprawled out uselessly.

“Villains are selfish beings.”

And.

A fearsome beam of light pierced through several of the bestial ground combat drones at once.

“Eh?”

The sound left Takitsubo’s mouth unbidden.

And apparently she wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand.

Mugino hadn’t done that. She couldn’t have.

Then why?

Why was that battle freak of a girl, who wielded violent beams of light, standing right there?

Shiratori’s voice came from the drones’ internal speakers.

“What?”

She sounded flustered.

That detective acted like she could read their minds, but that act had slipped here.

“What is Mugino Shizuri doing over there? Ksh. She’s still over- dammit, you’re right here fighting me! Kssssshhhhhh!!!”

A powerful beam shot from a palm and silenced the ground combat drones.

“It’s simple.”

That was one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s.

Meltdowner.

Mugino Shizuri…except it wasn’t?

“You just need another of that monster, right? It’s always like this with people like you.”

A close inspection showed some differences.

Instead of the girl’s outstretched palm, the beam had come from a bit lower, in her sleeve.

And the deadly attack was actually a plasma cutter used to slice through steel panels.

More beams shot out. The giant batteries and capacitors within the unmanned weapons were ruptured, causing internal explosions. Takitsubo didn’t manage to catch what happened to the real wolf. Her specialty was humans, not animals. Although she wasn’t sure what would happen if an animal’s brain was developed to the point it radiated a weak AIM diffusion field.

She was specialized for reading her target’s AIM diffusion field, so she could sense something off without even taking any Body Crystal.

That was not Mugino Shizuri.

And she knew someone who could transform her appearance without relying on an esper power.

“Ha-” Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou spoke in a daze. “Hanano?”

The color white filled her view.

It came from an explosive flash. More accurately, it came from a stun grenade dropped to the floor.

But just before her senses were taken from her, Takitsubo caught a distinct look of someone removing her wig, throwing out her eyebrows and eyelashes, and exposing a smooth, doll-like face.

The mouth on that face was bent into a small smile.

The dazzling flash produced by aluminum and magnesium didn’t even last for 10 seconds. It wouldn’t even take 180 seconds to be rid of the afterimage burned into Takitsubo’s eyes.

By then, no one was there.

No one except Takitsubo standing in a position to protect limp Kinuhata.

Part 13

Shiratori clicked her tongue.

The wolf must have been a special assistant for that ever-composed detective. Enough so that she wanted to go help now that something unexpected had happened.

“Trick Lab,” she said.

That one term trapped enemy and ally into a shared view of their surroundings.

Yes, even herself.

For a psychological power, announcing the effect must have made it easier to take hold.

“Fire x Death = Diesel 25. The spot coolers used to maintain the ice palace are powered by a generator and that generator’s fuel can trigger a major explosion!!”

The murder tricks ruled her immediate world.

Her free form attack had begun.

But Takitsubo had already mostly revealed how it worked.

Battle Freak Mugino unleashed a bestial roar.

“A timetable, a mysterious figure in the window, and an alibi? It’s all psychological, meaning there’s a psychogenic source for this pain we’re convinced we’re feeling. Once I understand how it works, I’ve got nothing more to fear!!”

“Hee hee. You say that, but you’ve already taken significant damage while it still had you convinced.”

The detective’s confidence remained intact.

Even if her murder plan was only a plan, her deadly force remained for now.

“With my power, persuasiveness and effectiveness are one and the same. Misjudgment x Human = Mirror 03. If I use a big mirror, you are guaranteed to misjudge your target’s location. Movement x Remote Control = Wire 19. With a thin wire, I can alter the location of a small key or knife. The simpler and larger-scale the logic, the harder it is to shake. For example…”

“Ah!?” shouted Frenda.

Something must have happened because the explosives expert frantically stuck a hand into her thin poncho.

The detective now held a grenade.

“This. For tricks that don’t even require any props, I don’t even need to set anything up in advance. I can pickpocket or grope you with no chance of failure. Keh heh heh. And both of those can be surprisingly useful when it comes to destroying a suspect’s interpersonal relationships as a way of laying on the pressure until they make a mistake.”

Shiratori laughed and kissed the round explosive.

As if she were toying with the forbidden fruit.

“And now I have the persuasiveness I need. This gives me a new trick to use. I have everything necessary for Fire x Death = Diesel 25. No matter how sturdy the generator’s design, a bomb is enough to blast through it.”

So, in reality, the gas pipe running below Mugino’s feet had not actually ruptured.

The ice palace’s spot coolers had not frozen Kinuhata with their icy air, nor had a hunk of ice been instantly melted to create crushing pressure with its steam.

And the entire ice palace had not moved to throw Frenda around.

“So you hijack and alter the tricks yourself, detective?”

With a mini stun gun, she could apply an electric shock and detonate the gas without actually digging up the gas pipe buried in the ice.

With a monkey wrench, she could remove the bolts holding the steel frame to the ground so the entire ice palace could slide around.

By producing props like that, the detective increased the options available to her. She wanted to end this as quickly as possible, so she had remade the battleground into a more dangerous place.

This may have been similar to a detective loudly announcing an explanation that wasn’t entirely wrong but not entirely right either to rattle the killer who was the only person who knew how the trick really worked.

Mugino glared and the Class Rep gave her a calm look.

“So what if I do?”

“What kind of detective brings her own props? Your job is to explain what happened using only what’s already there. You narrow down what tricks would’ve been possible and then identify the one person who could’ve done it. I thought your job was to stop the deadly train racing down the track laid out by the villain.”

“In real cases, any number of tricks could’ve been used at the scene. And there’s no simple list of suspects to work with. A perfect alibi? There’s no such thing when people’s memories are unreliable and camera records can be easily faked in this day and age.”

“Still, the villain’s supposed to lay out the track, not you. Detectives are meant to stand opposed to whoever caused the case. The mystery solver isn’t supposed to notice the malicious trick and decide to hijack it for your own purposes.”

“Oh, really? But when a detective shows up, it means someone’s going to die, doesn’t it?” Shiratori chuckled. “The detective’s role is to judge the killer and hold the killer’s fate in their hands. Just like the killer holds everyone else’s lives in their hands. And while the killer is in a bind where the only way out is to kill for the insurance money or to satisfy their grudge, the detective has two options: identify the killer and send them off to be executed, or to not do that.”

“Damn you…”

“Because no matter how unprecedented the case, it’s only another job for the detective. Just like a firefighter who couldn’t put out a fire, it’s not like professionals lose their lives when they fail in a job. So indirectly, I hold the lives of everyone on the scene in my hands. All those issues of good and evil are right here in my hands.”

Real cases didn’t end when the detective identified the killer with an impressive feat of reasoning. Especially in an isolated location where the public institutions couldn’t intervene or when dealing with dark side criminals.

What if no one believed the detective’s reasoning because the killer was more popular?

What if the criminal was so afraid of being arrested they bet it all on wielding a deadly weapon to slaughter everyone there?

What if the criminal outargued the detective in a meaningless debate that left the issue of evidence behind?

“Even when the detective gathers everyone in one place, there are plenty of ways to break free of that ‘safe discussion’.”

“…”

“In the extreme, the killer can start shouting about how it’s an insult to the people who’ve already died and that anyone would be angry about this treatment and then punch the detective in the face before they can name the killer. And silencing the detective won’t necessarily make the others suspicious right away. In real cases, the killer isn’t the only one who will rely on violence in a tricky situation. And if everyone feels that the detective had it coming, then they’ve lost the right to present any shocking truth they might have discovered. These unpleasant situations can always happen in the real world because it is in fact the real word.”

There was a more efficient method.

A more efficient way to stop the case from progressing and protect everyone’s lives.

“So there’s no need to announce the trick even if you do discover it. The detective should overwrite and redesign the existing trick so the killer who laid out that track in the first place is no longer in control. Then everyone there – including the killer – is bound by the fear of death and can’t do anything. There’s no need to resolve everything on your own. If you don’t want anyone else to die, your top priority is to forcibly stop the case from progressing further. Identifying the killer can wait until you’re free of the closed environment and plenty of Anti-Skill officers have flooded the scene.”

“Let me guess: and if the killer isn’t stopped by the fear, the detective can keep everyone safe by secretly killing the killer and have them ‘leave behind their will’ or whatever? Then the detective has solved the case and won’t be arrested for it?”

“Right.”

Shiratori gave her open and immediate agreement, making Mugino click her tongue.

“You missed something important there. To overwrite the trick that had already been used once and bind everyone, killer included, with the fear of death, the killer’s death will be at least the third one. Which means you’d be killing some innocent person in the second killing that you use to advertise what you’ve done.”

“No one’s truly innocent. Besides, someone there might be even more deserving of death than the poor killer. That’s especially common when searching for dark side criminals.”

That was her form of justice.

So the Class Rep had trained herself into a detective who could do that.

Even the Personal Reality that produced her power had been twisted into that shape.

“Hee hee. What really matters is persuasiveness. Even material evidence is just one more way of bolstering that.”

“So even if the original trick was something as simple as strangling the victim with a wire, the detective would damage the window frame to upgrade that to the wire being used to send a key into the room through a small gap, creating a locked room? You add your own branch to the story when the case has already begun?”

“Ta ha ha. My power isn’t as convenient as you seem to think it is.”

Shiratori didn’t hide it.

Did she think explaining the details of her power would actually keep Item from trying anything against her?

“It doesn’t work well if you simply think it could happen or that it’s possible. It’s a case of innocent until proven guilty, unfortunately. So I need to do things like this.”

The detective removed the grenade’s pin.

Even hearing Mugino’s low voice didn’t remove the smile from Shiratori’s lips.

“I need to bring it up to the level of certainty. I need to show off definite evidence so we can share the same information.”

Would justice not flinch from evil’s threats?

In a way, this made her even more unusual than the villains of the dark side.

An explosion erupted out.

But Shiratori remained untouched despite having held the grenade.

Her trick had taken precedence.

As announced, the detective grinned and raised a clump of fire that looked like sticky fuel.

“But the damage you take from it is very real. Persuasiveness is effectiveness, so I can strengthen my trick as much as necessary by spreading more props around. If these flames reach you, you will be burned to a crisp!!”

Her Trick Lab created a psychological effect by sharing the same information between enemy and ally.

Detective Shiratori’s greatest skill was not her memory or her calculating mind. Was it in fact the verbal skills that allowed her to gather a group in a single place and hold their attention in her one-girl killer-identification show?

Mugino held her palm straight out.

“But your Trick Lab is only psychological! It can’t create a physical wall to block this!!”

The beam was faster.

In the last moment before it hit, the detective melted into a blur of lines. She may have moved even faster than the wolf.

The next thing Mugino knew, Shiratori was holding a short, thick pipe in her mouth.

“Tch. Are you smoking something!?”

“Of course not. I care too much about my health to turn myself into a doped-up soldier. But by making you think there was something to it and gathering your attention, it created a logic in which your attack could miss if your focus slipped. I don’t know about elsewhere, but it could happen here in Academy City. You yourself decided so. I just had to make it persuasive enough to convince both of us that’s what would happen.”

Trick Lab.

Did that power allow for tricks meant to keep her alive in addition to the tricks meant to kill? So instead of Shiratori dodging that, had she tricked Mugino into missing just like she claimed?

It would only work if Mugino believed it, but it still pissed her off to accept it.

“Now, how about more Trick Lab? …I can kill using the big fan used to regulate the ice palace’s temperature. In other words, I can control the vaporized fuel using the artificial wind. And once it fills this enclosed space, my target can’t escape no matter how fast they can move!!”

Frenda was more familiar with explosives, so it was her eyes that opened wide.

Knowing the psychological effect at play wasn’t enough to immediately eliminate your mental reactions. At times, trying hard to forget something would only make it stick in your head even longer.

And Mugino didn’t hesitate to fire Meltdowner.

To the side. Casually.

That was enough to instantly eliminate the vapor explosion with perfect accuracy.

“Wha-!?”

“It’s a psychological power. Persuasiveness is effectiveness and that comes from the info shared between enemy and ally. That grenade you used before didn’t actually explode. It’s simpler than that. You scatter some props around the scene to give completely fictional killer tricks 100% real deadly force, right?”

Mugino grinned in a villainous way.

“So all I have to do is destroy the location or situation your scenario relies on. That can mean blowing a hole in the wall or bringing down a bridge to throw off your timetable.”

“…I see.”

“You’re not the only one who can play that game. Whether you’re in a villa deep in the mountains or on a sleeper train following a strict timetable, your initial plan means nothing if some unrelated person happened to have a flamethrower in their bag. No matter how intricate a trick you’ve planned out, your locked room isn’t so locked if the door’s missing and your false alibi falls apart if the train is stopped. The greatest enemy of the clever sleuth is the macho construction worker. That’s all it takes to eliminate the very foundation of your preposterous trick!!”

Mugino aimed her palm straight ahead.

Shiratori responded by swiftly moving both her hands and, with the prestidigitation of a stage magician, producing a candle that could be used as a timer and a phone book that could act as a blunt weapon and then be burned away.

Several beams flashed out and more and more deadly tricks were released.

But the world did not react.

Because Frenda had used her bombs to break down the ice palace’s pillars, blast holes in its walls, and otherwise transform the location those tricks were reliant on.

It was pure chance.

If Shiratori’s imagination had outdone Frenda’s, it was Item who would have been killed.

Flesh was loudly torn through.

With none of her attacks working, the detective’s flank was burned through.

An impossible voice rang in Mugino’s head.

“Hee hee. So I will bring you back into the light of the sun and make an honest person out of you!”

Perhaps this meant something ended within the Class Rep.

Part 14

The battle was over.

Kinuhata walked back on unsteady feet to rejoin the others while supported by Takitsubo.

Mugino and Frenda were looking down at the detective lying on the ice floor.

Red and black spread around her.

“Did you...super kill her? She might have been able to tell us what happened.”

“Like we had a choice. If we’d gone easy on her, she’d’ve killed us,” spat Mugino.

A voice responded to her.

It came from the Class Rep with a large chunk gone from her side.

She laughed.

“Ah ha ha. Should I take that…as a compliment?”

Frenda had plenty of friends in the light and the dark, so she could tell Shiratori Okibi was speaking as the ordinary Class Rep here. Which meant this was what existed at her deepest level – not the detective.

This was justice. The opposite of the villains who sought meaning in the darkness and found superiority in their knowledge of the special behind-the-scenes information ordinary people were ignorant of.

“Wh-what’d you do with the finger?”

But Frenda still had to check. As a villain.

“In the end, what did you do about the right thumb you cut off of Amekawa Souji, the third member of the Frees?”

“I smashed it up with a hammer and fed it to Rozeki, so there’s nothing left.”

“…”

“Because I know the last thing criminals want to happen. If I sent it to Anti-Skill, you’d know where it is, for better or for worse. But logically speaking, it would scare you a lot more if you couldn’t find it no matter where you looked. And it’s not like you can 100% take my word for it here. Ah ha ha. Cough.”

Something whined weakly.

It was the wolf. Unlike her earlier ferocity, she was now behaving like a puppy with her mother. She may have only cared about being with the detective and nothing else mattered. Not even the human concept of morality.

“Rozeki...give them the key.”

The detective smiled and pet the wolf nudging her with her nose.

She touched the wolf with a bloody hand.

The wolf remained seated and tilted her head up to reveal her collar to Item. That meant exposing her throat, the most vulnerable part of her body.

After watching Mugino remove the key from the collar, Shiratori nodded from the floor.

“This means goodbye for you too… Rozeki, live free. You don’t have to accompany me in death too.”

The wolf did not obey Shiratori’s quiet words.

Shiratori brought her fingertips to her eyes.

She had tears there.

She carried those tears to the wolf’s mouth.

She placed the tears on the wolf’s tongue and had her swallow them.

“Now the two of us will always be together. We can walk together forever. So you need to go.”

And.

This time, the supposedly-extinct Japanese wolf went off somewhere.

She vanished into the mysterious darkness of Academy City.

After watching the wolf go, the detective coughed up a clump of blood. A big one. But she still managed to pull out her locked notebook with a trembling hand and toss it toward Mugino.

As if she had never actually intended to keep this a secret.

“In the end, why did you do any of this?”

“Because I am a detective of justice,” said Shiratori.

Was that why she couldn’t forgive Mugino Shizuri and the collection of villains that was Item?

That was Mugino’s assumption, but…

“So I envied you.”

She said this quite clearly.

“I’d been working for justice as a detective for so long, but, well, villainy doesn’t taste so bad. It was even better than I’d imagined.”

“…”

“It’s not like I chose this with my own logic.”

Her bloody lips displayed a hint of self-deprecation.

The true side of the Class Rep refused to hide her ugly side even on the verge of death.

“You see, both my parents are so strict… As a coward who lost her chance to even have a rebellious phase, I had no choice but to side with justice. If I’m being honest, I chose to fight villains as a detective because it was so much fun getting that peak of the world of villainy while remaining on the side of justice.”

“This world’s nothing to aspire to.”

“Oh, but it is. …You can choose to walk the path of villainy of your own free will. I wanted the freedom I saw in you.”

Mugino inserted the key taken from the wolf’s collar.

The pages inside had a space carved out and that space held a flash memory the size of a lipstick tube.

“What’s this?”

“Number 000.”

A dark red liquid spilled from the corner of the detective’s mouth.

But she still smiled.

“They are coming. You’ve been looking at the world of justice this time, so now the very top of that world is coming.”

Mugino had the flash memory now.

But she wasn’t going to directly insert it into any of Item’s phones. They would have to procure a computer from somewhere. More than that, she wasn’t in the mood to look away from the reality before her to view a rectangular screen.

The detective.

Or the Class Rep.

Shiratori Okibi wasn’t going to last. And Mugino had done it to her.

“But, well, I am sorry I made you deal with my selfishness here. I’m satisfied with this ending since I’d always wanted to join the world of the villains, but it’s probably going to mean trouble for you.”

“How so?”

“Because now you’ve lost your last connection to the ordinary world.”

Shiratori sounded troubled.

As if that was a bigger deal to her than the blood hemorrhaging from her body.

Mugino had no response for her.

“But don’t close yourself up in the world you know. That might seem the most cost-effective choice at first, but all you’ll be doing is restricting your own possibilities. The longer you keep at it, the more set in your ways you’ll be and the harder it will be to start on anything new.”

Lying unmoving in a pool of her own blood, the Class Rep moved her eyes to look at someone else.

At Frenda and the others.

“This one thing isn’t about logic. She’s an important classmate of mine...can I trust you to take care of her?”

“Of course.”

That was all.

She didn’t complain, curse them, or beg for her life.

Perhaps someone who died truly satisfied had no need for such things.

Part 15

Justice smiled as she drew her last breath. She was the opposite of the villains. When someone trusted the path they walked and always looked to the future, was their true value only revealed upon their death?

Item could not die like that.

The four left behind all knew it.

“…”

This was a first.

Mugino had killed pure justice with her own hands.

That girl had been a detective.

As well as the nonthreatening Class Rep from Mugino’s ordinary school.

Mugino had already thought she was going to hell.

But this had to be a crossroads. She had gone past the depths of hell. She hadn’t ever imagined there were further depths to reach, but she felt like she had found them.

“Number 000.”

The far too heavy silence was broken by track suit girl Takitsubo.

Only she could do this because she had known Mugino for just as long as the dead girl.

“I think Shiratori Okibi had planned to tell us no matter how this turned out. And as a detective, I don’t think she cared if she died in the process.”

“You mean this came from a spirit of self-sacrifice? How can you be so sure after how hard she fought?”

“Because if all she cared about was surviving, she had no reason to reveal her presence to you at all. She prioritized investigating the truth of this case over her own survival. Because she wanted to inform you of the danger so you could be prepared.”

Mugino fell silent for a moment.

August was ending soon. On September 1, school would start back up whether she liked it or not.

But ultimately, only the villains had been taking the fight seriously. Hadn’t Shiratori said that detectives held good and evil in their grasp and could decide who died? That meant they could also decide who lived.

“One day, I will rescue you from the darkness.”

Was this her answer?

She couldn’t bring herself to survive at the cost of a friend’s life, but she had forced someone else to experience that instead.

(You good guys can be real pieces of shit.)

“Mugino, let’s check that flash memory. I doubt we’ll like what we find, but not looking would mean betraying that detective’s expectations.”

“…You’re right. Dammit,” spat Mugino as she switched gears.

While deeply disgusted with her own wickedness for letting her do that so easily.

She flagged down a support team delinquent when they arrived to clean up the body and took a thin laptop from him.

The lipstick-size flash memory was filled with a large quantity of files.

The files were linked together by a text the detective had written.

“Number 000: One of many codes used over the radio by Anti-Skill and Judgment.”

Digital signals tended to rely on complex and advanced encryption, but emergency radio still used special abbreviations and codes to prevent the content of the message from being intercepted.

However, Anti-Skill and Judgment felt like such distant groups to Item.

Insignificant even.

And they would be if that was all it was.

“To understand the importance of Number 000, you must first understand how Academy City’s law enforcement groups work.

“There are two groups: the adults in Anti-Skill and the children in Judgment.

“Everyone knows that much. Judgment resolves problems within the school and Anti-Skill deals with crimes across the city. From that, it might seem like Anti-Skill has more power and is more closely protected.

“But that is not the case.”

That final statement overturned all the assumptions.

The text continued.

“As its name suggests, Academy City is a city of students.

“In fact, students make up 80% of the population. The Board of Directors takes people’s children into their care and uses them for esper development research while also keeping the city economy running.

“This is kept secret to keep the students from getting big heads, but Judgment is actually given higher priority than Anti-Skill.

“If both groups are present at the scene of a violent crime, Anti-Skill will risk their lives to protect Judgment.

“But the opposite will never happen.

“That is how the justice side works.”

“?”

Takitsubo tilted her head while reading the text.

It may have been hard to believe for someone who had false charges forced upon her to make an experimental guinea pig out of her. Kinuhata seemed equally skeptical.

“So is that how it super works on the justice side? It super doesn’t among the villains.”

“The above must be kept in mind when considering the meaning of Number 000.

“Number 000 is the code for the confirmed death of a Judgment member.

“It is used to convey that and that alone.

“It means that something that must not happen in this city has in fact happened. So Anti-Skill and Judgment will both operate under emergency response shifts to capture the culprit at all costs. The case is not allowed to go unsolved. That is the general understanding of the code.

“But that isn’t actually accurate.

“Most likely, the rest of this isn’t known to the Anti-Skill or Judgment members calling in the code over the radio.

“The code’s true meaning is send in Judgment’s elite execution squad. All laws and regulations may be ignored as every single person involved in the incident leading to a Judgment death – on either side of the conflict – has been killed, or a majority of the Board have given their authorization to cancel the Number 000.

“The attackers, the witnesses, and even anyone who tried to rescue the killed Judgment member are to be treated as suspects. No one involved must be left alive, even if if their connection was hidden behind the scenes. Thus, they must all be killed to swiftly and surely restore order.

“Those are the rules on which justice operates.”

“In the end...an execution squad?”

Frenda frowned at the overly direct phrasing.

As they were, Judgment was insignificant. But the enemy must have seen it the same way too. Just like Item lurked in the city’s shadows, this new enemy was a powerful force that had remained hidden within that benevolent organization.

This wasn’t an assassin, the media, or a detective.

Shiratori Okibi had said the “very top” of the world of justice was coming. Was this what she had meant?

“Whether she lived or died, that detective wanted to show us that Item was a part of this.”

“A Number 000 has been issued.” This part of the text carried great meaning. “The unethical journalists known as the Frees were only hired by the Judgment execution squad to gather information on those marked for death. Their job should have only been to gather information, but the Frees caused it all start to unravel when they directly executed one of the Sadistic Dolls.”

“The Sadistic Dolls,” muttered Takitsubo.

Item had directly fought with the five members of that girls band.

If they had been a target of the Number 000, then had a hapless member of Judgment been caught in the crossfire somewhere? Was that how Item had been dragged into this mess? But they didn’t recall anyone else being hurt back at the Moe Bells in District 9.

In that case…

Could it be?

“It all began in District 4’s Clone Complex.”

It had happened at the very beginning.

All the way back in that science cult’s headquarters.

But had Item really been completely unaware? The information had always been there in their peripheral vision.

A few scenes replayed in Mugino’s mind.

“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.

Three Judgment girls were gathered together in that district of anime-style primary colors. They were attaching fliers to the wind turbine supports. Was that part of their official duties? Frenda glanced over and, to her surprise, discovered they were missing person posters.

In this entertainment district where there were plenty of drunks out even during the day, Yamagami Erina of Judgment was handing out fliers on the snowy street corner. They had seen her earlier, so she must have been moving around a lot.

“Excuse me. This girl’s name is Minamioki Sarusa-chan. Has anyone seen her?”

“For now, we need to get her information out there. That means getting the posters up in all 23 districts by the end of the day.”

“People’s routines will change once the break ends, so we need to get some useful witness information before then.”

So what had happened to this girl who still hadn’t been found?

Mugino could make a pretty good guess.

Item had mentioned it themselves.

What had they so casually said within the headquarters of the Ark of the Electronic Sea science cult?

“Live sacrifices, huh?”

“Ugh… Super how do they go about scientifically justifying that?”

“Kinuhata, there are people out there who call little grays and ancestral memory ‘scientific’. ‘Science’ is just a word, so people can define it however they want.”

“I don’t believe it.” Frenda was dumbfounded. “So in the end, someone else was in that agricultural building?”

“…”

There were parts of the Clone Complex Item hadn’t investigated thanks to the interruption by the Sadistic Dolls.

For example, through the metal door leading further back from the area where the cult leader had died.

Item hadn’t set foot in there, but what if that room had been littered with pieces of a girl’s corpse?

They had the answer.

This had been over from the beginning.

The text continued: “I discovered that the leader of that immoral science cult would prove her special status by carrying out a live sacrifice ritual she invented herself.

“The Sadistic Dolls and Item broke into the Clone Complex at about the same time, but the sacrifice had already been made.

“Minamioki Sarusa of Judgment was killed.

“And ‘everyone involved in the incident’ was defined to include the cult itself as well as the two groups who hadn’t arrived in time to stop the cult or save the girl.

“Both groups had already been officially registered as targets of Number 000.”

Unfair didn’t even begin to describe it.

This was probably why Detective Shiratori Okibi had investigated the case.

And even though they both knew each other’s lies now, she still let Mugino keep her ordinary school life. Even if it cost her her life.

The truth was revealed.

These were the rules of justice.

“Number 000 demands that anyone involved in a Judgment death be executed in retaliation with no exception.

“Whether or not these people meant any harm is considered irrelevant.”

Between the Lines 2

“I-it’s too dangerous, Sarusa-chan.”

“It’ll be fine. I’m in Judgment too, remember? I have a lead pointing me to District 4’s Clone Complex. Someone needs to go in there and check it out.”

“But that’s a job for the grownups in Anti-Skill…”

“You know several kids from our school have stopped showing up to school, right? That science cult has started working its way into our school. That makes this Judgment territory.”

“But, but.”

“You went undercover into that illegal casino. On a request from Anti-Skill.”

“Uh.”

“And, Erina, I hear you’ve been hanging out with high school Judgment lately. Makes me sad as a kiddie middle schooler. But I’m not letting you leave me behind. I need to do something big to prove I have what it takes.”

“J-Judgment isn’t that kind of job!”

“You wouldn’t understand, Erina! Not when you get to do real work even though you look like a little puppy!”

“Hey, Erina.”

“Yes?”

“Your Precog isn’t telling you anything, is it?”

“Um, no.”

“Then I’ll be fine! You didn’t have any scary predictions about your casino job, right? That’s why you got out alright. So I won’t have any trouble either!!”

“Wait, but, my Precognition isn’t that convenient. And I was really a step away from disaster at the casino!! Ahh…”

“Ah ha ha! Maybe you don’t, but I trust in your Precog, Erina.”

Not long afterwards, the girl who was left behind received a painful lesson.

Apparently her power could not protect anyone other than herself.

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