Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item2 Chapter3
Status: Incomplete
6/13 parts completed
Chapter 3: Project Angelica
Part 1
It was August 6.
The weather lady had a shocking report that morning.
“The large and powerful Typhoon 11 has finally made landfall in Tokyo!! Current windspeeds have surpassed 40m/s and we’re measuring around 250mm of rain every hour. Ugh, as you can see, Academy City is already experiencing plenty of rain with winds so powerful I need to hold onto something to stay on my fee- eek!? D-did you see that? Something just flew by. Yikes, a wind turbine’s blades just broke off and went spinning through the air before stabbing into the 3rd story of that building! The typhoon is moving a lot slower than predicted yesterday, so if you don’t have any urgent need, you should stay indoors all day today!!”
“Here, you need to water the morning glories we took in out of the storm. And in the end, you need to use this blacklight. The flower will wilt if you don’t give it UV light to replace the sunlight it needs.”
A lazy mood had set in at the shared living space in the elementary school dorm hallway.
Invincible Big Sis Frenda was helping with the potted morning glories brought in from the storm, but the adorable 7-year-old princess in a beret, a baggy T-shirt dress with a belt around the waist, and red leggings wasn’t listening. Even though those flowers were for her summer homework.
The summer homework was apparently to color a white T-shirt with a dye made from the morning glories. During the 2nd term, her class would then go on a field trip to a lab with too much time on its hands and view the fabric under an electron microscope to see how the dye had changed it.
The ordinary program had been interrupted by an emergency news program on the small screen of her children’s phone (which had been ultra upgraded with surveillance functions courtesy of her dark side big sister). She listened to that while standing up on her tippy-toes to excitedly look out of the tightly shut window.
“Ohh! In the first place, this is so cool… It’s a typhoon! Look, look, Onee-chan, I’ve never seen the wind turbines spin so fast!! Hoorayyyy! The world is coming to an eeeend!!”
“R-right. We need to stay in our rooms all day today. Wow…”
Her friend, a glasses girl named Azumi, was looking out the window next to her.
Frenda wondered why little kids got so excited about typhoons. It was still summer break, so it wasn’t like they would get off school.
The rain was coming down so hard it looked white outside, but since the dorm was located on a hill, there was no concern of flooding. Maybe the city was careful about where it put the dorms for small children.
“In the end, did you feed your rhino beetles today?”
“In the first place, Michelangelo and Geraldine are both doing great! All I have to do is swap out their package of sap every day, so it’s kind of boring.”
The younger sister was relatively fine with bugs. From what Frenda had heard, she had trouble with reptiles instead. She said she hated their slimy skin. Instead of being afraid, she was apparently afraid their skin would burst if she touched it. Even though crocodile skin and snake skin were both so tough.
“Thank you for coming today,” the dorm manager said to Frenda. “I told them to bring the morning glories in yesterday, but a lot of the children put it off and never did it. Honestly, even the security and cleaning robots are being kept inside so they aren’t blown over by a gust of wind, but those kids don’t listen. This should really all be my job, so thank you so much for helping out. I know those clay pots are heavy, so moving so many couldn’t have been easy.”
“In the end, it was nothing.”
Dark side people always felt a little guilty when someone from the light side thanked them.
The dorm manager was a weird woman who wore a miniskirt Santa outfit even though it was August. She was the kind of person who had no problem wearing a Halloween witch costume or a New Year’s furisode any time of year. She said she hated how clothing ended up smelling like mothballs if you only wore it once a year.
“Oh, do you want to take a shower? I can wash and dry your wet clothes while you do.”
“Ah ha ha. In the end, there’s no need.”
Frenda’s phone rang.
She checked the email, and…
“Oh, looks like things are happening now. In the end, I’ve got to go.”
“Oh? But it’s storming outside. Feel free to wait here until it dies down.”
If Frenda took the super-sweet elementary school dorm manager up on that offer, she would find herself ensnared in the inescapable trap that was a dorm manager’s lap pillow. Resist. I refuse to become someone who let’s other people feed her instead of picking up her own chopsticks.
“I’ll be fine. In the end, if I chug an energy drink and take off running, I’ll be back in no time. I can’t take up space in this elementary school dorm. And my friends will worry about me if I don’t show up.”
“Oh? Do you live in a District 14 dorm like most of the foreign transfer students? But isn’t that nearly on the other side of the city?”
Frenda smiled ambiguously and didn’t respond.
An umbrella would be meaningless in this storm, so the blonde-haired, blue-eyed big sister pulled her raincoat up over her head and looked back at her little sister.
She pulled the pull tab for her skinny energy drink and spoke with a mischievous smile.
“Root for the typhoon too much and it’ll stay here in Academy City. In the end, then they might cancel the festival.”
“Eh!? I-in the first place, they can’t do that!!”
“Then you’d better start being thankful for the sunny days. Do that and I’ll go to the festival with you. See you later☆”
Frenda smiled and threw herself out into the storm.
The email had been from Item. The next phase was already beginning.
Part 2
A luxurious cottage stood on a mountain.
A full slice of an enormous aromatic tree sat in the living room as a table. Five tablet computers were arranged in a C-shape on the table.
“Is that the UAV Frenda was talking about?” asked Mugino.
“It is,” flatly said Takitsubo, a video game joystick in her right hand.
The five screens provided a 180-degree view from the front of the UAV, along with status information. A different window could be opened to access the view from behind or below.
Long ago, a computer the size of a storage container had been used to control UAVs, but with modern parallel processing, ordinary household machines were enough. Apparently. All this information came from a girl who was currently out and Takitsubo wasn’t too confident on her own.
The UAV she was operating had been custom built by Frenda.
It was about 2m long and had a sharp silhouette resembling a gardening spade or a double-edged sword. It did have small wings spread on either side, but it mostly stayed airborne with the brute force of its ramjet engine’s thrust. It reminded Takitsubo of a bottle rocket with the bare minimum of wings.
“Isn’t this more like a remote-controlled surface-to-surface missile than a UAV?” asked Mugino.
“She said an ordinary UAV would be flipped over by the crosswinds if you tried to fly it in this typhoon,” explained Takitsubo.
Of course, this toy was built by a bomb expert like Frenda, so it probably could perform a precise bombing of a surface target or crash into an enemy fighter and explode.
“Won’t they send out a Six Wings when they detect this thing flying around?”
“The typhoon has bicycles, signs, and other large pieces of metal flying through the air, so Frenda said the airport radars and programmed alerts will be set to overlook a lot.”
That must have been true since the UAV was flying between the skyscrapers without getting shot down.
The UAV was flying through District 14.
That was a strange district where the high-tech skyscrapers were mixed together with short Italian-style buildings with orange roofs and white walls. If they moved the camera, they would have seen a Chinese block, a Korean block, an Indian block, and other small blocks with entirely different designs. The district had more foreign transfer students than any other. It was a lot like a single park with each flower bed containing a different type of flower.
And all of the roads were flooded.
“Hey, Mugino, didn’t the emergency alert say the areas with poor drainage had more than a meter of flooding?”
“Sounds like Venice. It floods every year there, like it’s a seasonal event.”
They could also see broken and toppled wind turbines here and there. Academy City’s power generation was distributed between all the many wind turbines instead of done at a giant centralized power station, so there was supposedly no concern of a power outage…but this made them wonder.
“Anyway, Mugino, does it look like we’ll make it on time?”
“I haven’t seen any non-typhoon alerts, so we should be good.” Mugino Shizuri sighed softly. “Ainame Caroline got my skin…which means she has my DNA map, but that isn’t enough to use for esper development. I’m one of the seven Level 5s, remember? To keep my information secret, all the medical equipment used to develop my power was special-made at my lab. No other equipment will do, so if she wants to cause trouble with my DNA map, she’ll have to attack that lab.”
If it was all used within a secure lab and never left the premises, they could ignore all the safety standards when designing the equipment. That meant Ainame Caroline would have a hard time acquiring the same thing elsewhere.
“I see. That would explain why she spent so much time gathering research data using her online marriage scams. She must have wanted plans for that equipment, or at least enough secret data to create replacement machines for what’s too difficult to get out of the lab.”
“But that tells us she would have a hard time getting into the lab. She’s having trouble. So if we attack the lab first, we can hide inside and set up an ambush. If she could get everything she needs with those marriage scams, she would have finished by now. Which means she can’t get it all. She’ll eventually get impatient and take more forceful measures. And if we know Honey Queen will attack there, I want us in control there first.”
But like she had said, that secret lab was secure enough that even Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary wanted to avoid attacking without a plan. On the surface and in secret, it was no ordinary lab.
“Hula Hoop,” said Mugino Shizuri. “That’s the world’s most powerful particle accelerator buried deep below Academy City’s outer wall. Hah. What better place to develop an electron beam Level 5?”
“Hm? But isn’t Hula Hoop’s control center located below District 23?”
“Officially. But most every facility that large has a higher-level lab hidden within it. The official side gets all the responsibility on paper, but the hidden side gets priority on using it in secret.”
One building looked out of place in the district of international transfer students.
Its vast grounds were surrounded by a tall wall and the building itself had a futuristic design similar to an airport terminal. Its purely functional beauty was a blot on the scenery. And the giant facility sat right smack in the middle of a residential area with no explanation of its purpose.
Takitsubo’s mouth formed a small triangle while she held the joystick.
“That’s the most lab-y building I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s perfect camouflage. Nothing could be more uninterestingly common in Academy City.”
But the UAV controlled by Takitsubo failed to reach the space above the lab.
Something happened as soon as it moved out from between two glass-covered skyscrapers.
With a sizzling sound, the 5-tablet 180-degree view suddenly went dark.
Mugino leaned forward a bit.
“Something just happened.”
“Isn’t this your lab, Mugino? Don’t you have information on its defenses?”
“Defending the lab isn’t my job.”
“Also, this isn’t a problem.”
The five tablets instantly switched to the view of a different UAV. They had more than one in flight. It may have been similar to a soccer video game where a single person controlled the entire team.
“UAV-CAM-02 – manual mode. This one was flying along with the first one, so it should have seen everything.”
With the wide view still in place, Takitsubo opened a smaller window and quickly rewound the footage to the moment UAV-CAM-01 was destroyed. But that didn’t tell her much. After a light like a camera’s flash or welding, the UAV suddenly exploded.
“That was a laser weapon,” concluded Mugino. “And not a single, straight-line optical weapon. I thought there was an unusual number of skyscrapers in the area when they’re guarding their secrets with a tall wall. They must have sprayed a special coating on the glass without permission. Now those skyscraper windows act as mirrors, bending the invisible beam any number of times.”
“That would mean they can hit us even if we approach between the buildings or below the pedestrian bridges.”
“In the worst case, even if we’re inside the manholes.”
That was when a dark shadow appeared on the footage from the upper left corner, static ran through the footage, and UAV-CAM-02 ceased responding.
“UAV-CAM-03…no response. I’ll send UAV-CAM-04 out ahead as bait and switch UAV-CAM-05 to manual mode.”
Takitsubo sacrificed another UAV to give herself some freedom of movement.
The mystery UFO was flying through the air along with their UAVs. It resembled a weather satellite. Solar panels and jets were attached all around the sides of a cylinder with a combination of three long metal rods sticking out of the rear. It looked to be around 5m long in all. It had no wings or propeller, but it managed reach a complete standstill at an altitude of 100m by precisely switching between its jets. It also flew around in small, irregular bursts. Overall, it moved like a small, cowardly fish.
“Is it a ramming weapon?”
“UAV-CAM-05 lost. Switching UAV-CAM-06 to manual mode.”
“It didn’t ram that one.”
“The noise in the footage is getting worse. And the UAVs stop responding to the joystick before they’re shot down.”
“There must be another EM weapon that sends out a beam of powerful microwaves… The EM waves would explain the strange burst of orange sparks just before they’re shot down.”
Their UAVs were more like rockets than airplanes and they had sent them in from multiple directions, but they were still losing them fast. It went without saying what would happen if they tried to approach by foot on the flooded ground. It was starting to make sense why even that arrogant Ainame Caroline had wanted to avoid a direct attack on this place.
Part 3
“Repurposed SDI.”
Frenda Seivelun spoke that term into her phone in the middle of an exceptionally large warehouse in District 11.
The relay mirror experiment used multiple mirrors to bend a strategic laser weapon.
Brilliant Pebbles used a heavy metal satellite for a ramming attack.
They had already seen an EM weapon, but at this rate, there could also be a linear gun that launched a metal shell with electromagnets or an IR weapon designed to destroy mechanical cameras and sensors
Or to sum it all up…
“You’ve at least heard of SDI, right? That was an American defense program during the Cold War, meant to use lasers and ramming satellites to intercept ballistic missiles in space. As their ally, Japan – and thus, Academy City as well – helped develop the technology. In the end, it was never actually implemented because the costs were too high. But they wanted something to show for the money they had spent, so there are a number of ‘legends’ about trying to use that space tech back here on Earth. That became known as Repurposed SDI.”
“That’s a satellite? But this isn’t outer space, so how the hell is it flying all over the place!?” demanded Mugino over the phone.
“That doesn’t really matter. In the end, the jetpack I created works similarly. It’s not hard to find experiments that keep a hunk of metal afloat by precisely switching between different jets. It’s just never mass-produced because the fuel costs are too high. My toy made up for that by supporting the buoyancy with an incombustible lighter-than-air gas.”
The strategic military technology designed to shoot down ultra-high-speed ballistic missiles in space with 100% accuracy had been secretly improved by multiple generations over the course of several decades. If any human or vehicle were to approach, it could be torn to shreds by the multiple layers of that defense network.
This violated anti-weapon and aviation laws, but what did that matter?
After all, this was the secret lab that specialized in one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s. Something like Repurposed SDI should be expected there.
“That building has the A/C units covered, unlike with ordinary skyscrapers where they’re exposed on the roof like they want someone to shove some poison gas in there. If the designer was that security conscious, a few secret weapons is hardly surprising. In the end, if this system is built to the same standards as the one protecting that Antarctic base run by a cooperative institute, then the interception rate should be around 99.99%, I think.”
“What are we supposed to do about that? Not one of those flying drones made it above the lab.”
“Dammit, Takitsubo. Don’t just waste those toys even if they are unmanned. In the end, do you have any idea how much each one costs!? Not to mention that each one of them is a handmade Frenda-chan masterpiece!!”
“Is there anything we can do?”
“In the end, yes.”
With a dull metallic clunk, Kinuhata Saiai pulled something in from the shadows.
It was a 7m piece of metal weighing more than 25 tons. Kinuhata didn’t even bother with the excavator-style treads – she forcibly dragged it using the physical boost provided by Offense Armor.
“Oh, god. This thing’s super heavy! This had better be what you wanted, Frenda-san!!”
“It’s perfect☆ In the end, load it into the support organization’s truck.”
Frenda nodded in satisfaction as she looked at a military vehicle with a humongous container on its back.
“So, Frenda-san, do you spend super all your time in here making bombs?”
“This is just where I store things. I do the mixing and construction in a proper container lab. Different types of bombs are created using different devices and follow different rules, so in the end, it’s easier for the lab to be a cheap space where I can swap out everything inside rather than have a giant space with everything I could ever need inside. I need to adapt quickly like that if I’m going to keep up with the latest trends.”
“Why can a bomber like you move around so super freely?”
“How do you propose they ban it? In the end, you can make jet fuel by purifying the algae you can find floating in the water just about everywhere. And if you abuse that, you can make a pretty nasty explosion.”
Frenda seemed unusually high energy, but that wasn’t just from the new flavor of energy drink. Frenda, the Academy City Bomber, was the kind of weirdo who got excited when she smelled explosives.
“Also, sorry about this. In the end, I had the item, but I can’t drive☆”
“Super what’s the point of collecting things you can’t use?”
“Hm. I normally use an AGV to move things in and out of storage, but I can’t do that thanks to the typhoon and the lightning. There’s too much electrical interference for the EM vehicle guidance markers on the floor to work right.”
Kinuhata had dragged out what was known as a multiple rocket launcher.
If the launch container was raised and its 12 giant rockets were fired, that strategic weapon could scatter 700 bomblets per rocket. That meant a single button was enough to obliterate an enemy ground force with more than 8000 bombs spread out over a wide area.
“No matter how accurately the Repurposed SDI can attack intruders before they arrive, it can only shoot down so many at once. So if we saturate the sky with dangerous targets, their precious interception weapon won’t be able to spare us any attention. Because if they miss even one of those bombs, their own lives are at risk.”
“You mean if we run along the ground during that time, we’ll be super safe?”
“Well, in the end, this tech is simple enough that it was supplied to external cooperative institutes. Its accuracy is 99.99%, remember? That means we can overload it as long as we launch at least 10,000 targets at once.”
That rocket launcher was the HsMLR-05, aka Meteor Shower.
And everything inside, from the solid fuel to the warheads, were Frenda originals.
Frenda Seivelun grinned as she viewed the device designed to launch a meteor shower of explosives and metal balls.
“In the end, you never want to underestimate the Academy City Bomber.”
Part 4
Their saturation attack began.
A pair of personal watercraft with sleek, futuristic designs bounced over the choppy waves in the muddy water and cut across Academy City District 14. Mugino and Takitsubo had met with Frenda and Kinuhata and now they rode alongside each other.
The journey wasn’t easy thanks to the typhoon.
“Wow! In the end, I can barely keep in control!”
“Don’t just focus on the current, Frenda! Focus on the wind too! If that powerful crosswind hits you, you’ll capsize!”
The wind had torn the blades off of a wind turbine and they flew spinning toward Item. Just as Frenda instinctually ducked down, the water nearby burst upwards in a splash of muddy water more than 10m tall. If that had splashed up directly below them, they would have capsized for sure. The rainwater infrastructure must have been overtaxed and a manhole cover had shot off from the pressure, but with the streets flooded, it was impossible to tell where the danger was.
The pair in the back seats weren’t having much more fun.
“Takitsubo-san! With all this rain, you need to hold on tight or you’ll super slip off!!”
“No using Offense Armor, Kinuhata. You would break Frenda’s hips and tear her in half.”
Meanwhile, a single thin trail of smoke shot out ahead of them overhead.
That was a jamming missile that would emit jamming signals to neutralize the enemy radar. It wasn’t clear how effective that would be and it would be shot down eventually. Once they recovered from their confusion, the lab would realize they only had to launch an anti-radar missile that would automatically fly right toward the source of the jamming. Still, it would be worth it if it confused the lab’s interception control system and made them doubt their own equipment’s specs.
Then a gray group passed by above the two personal watercraft.
That was the multiple rocket launcher meteor shower launched on a timer and aimed at a fixed target. The 12 large rockets came apart midflight, releasing the explosives packed inside like fish eggs. There were more than 8000 of the explosives shaped like bowling pins. Their unbalanced center of gravity would give them a stable flight while they rained accurately down in a tightly-packed pattern across the area.
“Good, good, good! We’ll be fine as long as they aren’t shot down before they release the bomblets. In the end, I was a little worried about the typhoon, but their course corrections are working just fine. I don’t think the crosswinds are going to blow them into any student dorms or anything!!”
After several bright flashes of light, orange explosions overlapped overhead. The lab had started making full use of their Repurposed SDI, including the relay mirror laser weapon. But the 8000 bomblets couldn’t all be shot down right away.
The system had an accuracy rate of 99.99%, so more than 10 thousand targets would overload its capacity and targets would start to get through. However, Item’s ambush plan wouldn’t work if they really bombed the lab into dust. The 8000 was about right to keep the enemy busy for the time being.
Takitsubo looked expressionlessly up into the sky while holding onto Mugino’s back.
“Wow.”
“Mugino, we need to get in there before the fireworks show is over!! In the end, we’ll be sliced apart by that glass laser if we don’t!!”
The roaring of the wind was changing from moment to moment like it was alive, but fighting it wasn’t going to speed up their progress. Slicing through the winds with Mugino’s Meltdowner would only have a minimal effect. They had to use building walls, large signs, truck trailers, and anything else that would shield them from the wind as they kept their personal watercraft moving.
“Whoa,” cried Takitsubo without thinking.
A Brilliant Pebble shaped like a weather satellite or transistor had fallen nearby, but it had to be one that failed to shoot down part of the rocket rain. Still, it was packed full of rocket fuel and an oxidant. The two personal watercraft skillfully gave the makeshift mine a wide berth and used the hood and windshield of cars parked on the curb as ramps to jump high into the air. An instantaneous tailwind caught their backs at just the right moment.
“Also, Mugino, lend me your anti-recording device,” said Takitsubo. “The one that also disguises your location and number.”
“?”
“I’m picking up signals to the south-southwest and the northeast. Look, there are students stranded on the roofs. I’m going to report them to the fire department with my phone, so I need that accessory to boost my defenses.”
“So what if they’re stranded? It’s not like Frenda’s missiles are going to hit them.”
“But if they’re still there, they must have left their phones downstairs, so the floodwaters will have damaged them. They might go entirely unnoticed up there if we don’t tell the fire department.”
“Maybe, but why should we bother? It’s not like they’re drowning. If they’re on the roof, they aren’t going to die right away. All you’ll do is leave an unnecessary record that could come back to bite us.”
With a metallic click, Takitsubo Rikou pressed a handgun into Mugino Shizuri’s back.
She was as expressionless as always.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I picked it up in the Plinius yesterday. I think it was Kinuhata’s or Frenda’s.”
Takitsubo was seated right against Mugino’s back, so none of this was visible from the other watercraft bouncing along the muddy water.
Takitsubo whispered right into Mugino’s ear.
“No one can defeat your Meltdowner, but you have no defense against an ordinary bullet from point-blank range. Because there’s no room for you to create a Meltdowner shield. …I am your supporter, so I know your weaknesses. Better than anyone.”
“…”
Some dangerous electrification crackled from Mugino’s back as it leaped between drops of water, but Takitsubo still didn’t show any emotion on her face.
“Your Meltdowner can defeat most any enemy in one shot. I won’t deny that.”
With the watercraft shaking so much, the track suit girl pressed the handgun into that dangerous back all the harder.
“But I will not miss. And if all you want to do is destroy a human body, you don’t need very much destructive force. You get what I mean, don’t you? The key to victory is a contextual thing.”
“Why are you so intent on saving those people? …You even used Body Crystal to search them out. What do gain from this that’s worth shortening your lifespan?”
“Nothing really. Like I said, I am only your supporter. My job is to do the things you can’t. So this isn’t a betrayal. Deep down, you want to do this too, don’t you? You don’t want to abandon those people in need, even if it is meaningless and doesn’t benefit us in the slightest. Because those people have nothing to do with our fight against Honey Queen.”
Mugino didn’t bother turning around as she clicked her tongue and raised her middle finger.
But she didn’t self-destructively move her arm behind her back and launch a Meltdowner blast backwards, which Takitsubo took as permission. Takitsubo held tightly to her teammate’s back again while she attached the borrowed device to her phone’s bottom port and called someone.
They were approaching the tall wall.
They weren’t even close to the main gate, but…
“In the end, I’ll go in first. Kinuhata, I need you on standby!!”
“Super yeah, yeah.”
Kinuhata removed her arms from around Frenda and instead placed her hands on Frenda’s shoulders. Then she moved out in front of Frenda like a game of leapfrog.
Kinuhata placed her butt on the vehicle’s front hood, activated Offense Armor, and kicked the thick wall with both feet the instant they collided with it.
They broke through.
The two watercraft passed through the large hole, entering the lab’s grounds.
The fireworks show began to lose steam. They had filled the sky with so many explosives, but it looked like the defense system really was going to shoot them all down.
If they didn’t make it in time, it was all over.
Once all the decoy rockets were used up, the defense system could focus on Item instead. Then the lasers, linear guns, and ramming satellites of the Repurposed SDI defense network would wear them down and kill them.
Item approached the futuristic building that resembled an airport terminal. They didn’t expect the sturdy front door to open if they rang the bell, but…
“Mugino, I recommend aiming a bit left of the front door,” said Takitsubo.
“You got it!!”
With a deafening sizzling sound, a 2m hole was melted in a thick bulletproof glass window. Mugino Shizuri had created a new entrance for them.
Once inside, the watercraft skidded along the polished floor before coming to a stop.
The intellectual scientists in lab coats were shocked at first, but they paled and put their hands in the air as soon as they saw Mugino Shizuri.
“Yikes! I-isn’t that Lady Mugino!?”
“Are you kidding me? If we’d known it was her, we wouldn’t have even bothered resisting… There’s no way we can beat a monster like her!!”
Mugino chuckled and brushed her wet hair back with a hand, but the rest of Item had small triangles for mouths.
So this was Mugino’s lab.
She appeared to have the staff well trained.
“I only want one thing: give me full authority over the lab’s security right this instant. If we could get in, so could someone else. Does the name Ainame Caroline ring any bells? You there, the one looking awkwardly away, you didn’t let a 10-year-old trick you into an online romance, did you? But she’s through stealing bits and pieces through those marriage scams. At this rate, Honey Queen is going to try to take over this lab in person! So hurry!!”
Part 5
The typhoon had directly hit the city.
On this of all days, the Voice on the Phone with flaxen hair and a tight skirt suit had ordered Muber to one of her hideouts – a rundown apartment in District 7. Muber was an app that let you order food from any restaurant and have it delivered by bicycle.
“Oh, yes. Eating Menya Ikeda’s extra rich tonkotsu ramen on a rainy day like this is my idea of paradise. It only it were always like this for me☆ And the mentaiko rice side is to die for too.”
“…”
The soaking-wet bicycle delivery boy gave her a deeply resentful look, but the entire point of the delivery service was to get people food on days where going out was difficult. And the Voice on the Phone, being who she was, probably thought forcing the poor delivery boy out into the storm was half the fun.
After getting the college-aged delivery boy to leave quickly by giving him a 5-star rating, she carried the noodle bowl and rice bowl to the small room’s tea table. It was mealtime, which meant setting all her work aside. She also made sure to grab an ice-cold can of beer. She lit the menthol-flavored cigarette in her mouth and switched on the TV to hear the familiar intense-but-somehow-also-relaxed voices of the shopping channel. She had no interest in buying a new microwave, but she always ended up watching anyway.
She settled in to watch when an emergency alert appeared at the top of the screen: A cluster bomb terror attack in District 14? Possible connection to a lab in the district.
The Voice on the Phone’s face silently paled. The intoxication of the long 500mL can vanished instantly. That was the secret lab for Meltdowner, one of the Level 5s. It was meant to blend into its surroundings, so the media shouldn’t be discussing it in any capacity.
Not to mention…
(Wait. Don’t tell me… Uh, oh. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m in charge of Item, so does that mean I’m responsible for keeping Mugino’s data secure!? Why is it always like this for me!?)
Her phone rang.
It was from the great Director Nakimoto (who was a known gourmet and had inspired some unconfirmed rumors regarding cannibalism).
He was brief.
“What are you going to do?”
Hanano Choubi was just one of her disguises. It was only a preset face meant to get people to drop their guard, so she didn’t normally use that identity’s timid way of speaking.
Nevertheless, the tearful and trembling girl(?)’s instinct was to use that puppy dog voice here.
Her body knew she was dead if she couldn’t curry his favor.
“I-I will do everything in my p-power to solve this problem.”
Part 6
Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary of Honey Queen would be arriving soon. And yet…
“Where are they?”
While this was a lab, not all of it was dangerous experiment rooms with warning signs and icons on the doors. Item was currently speaking in the staff recreation room.
Takitsubo Rikou expressionlessly asked that question while drying her hair and track suit with a towel.
Mugino Shizuri didn’t even bother hiding her irritation as she repeated the question herself.
“Where are Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary? Where are Honey Queen?”
“Maybe they’re big fans of Miyamoto Musashi. Besides, they never super said when they would be showing up. And even if they know we’re here, they’re still going to attack in case we destroy the data they need.”
“Hey, hey, Mugino,” said soaking-wet Frenda, ignoring how her striped bra showed through her top. “What do they research here? You only called them ‘Meltdowner projects’, but that doesn’t tell us anything. This big building couldn’t have been cheap, but it’s not like Honey Queen needs everything in it. If we knew what Former Head Researcher Ainame Caroline’s top priority target is, defending would be a lot easier.”
Frenda’s idea of “defense” here was to set up a ton of bombs and traps in the areas they knew their enemy would be going.
“And what’s your real reason?”
“In the end, I want to know all your secrets☆”
At a glance from Mugino, the female researcher checking on the espresso machine by the wall made a quick 180 and left the room. It was written plain on Mugino’s face she didn’t want anyone getting close.
She probably saw this as her territory.
“You can look into it if you want,” she said casually, squeezing a dried towel between her hands to wipe the moisture from her hair.
“So even you super don’t know what they do here?”
“You were produced by the Dark May Project, but do you know what that project was ultimately designed to accomplish? It’s the same here. What my power does is entirely separate from what they’re trying to accomplish by researching it.”
With that, it was time to get moving.
“Huh? I didn’t expect to see the security robots super patrolling a secret lab like this.”
“These probably belong to the lab, not Anti-Skill, so they won’t automatically alert the authorities if something happens. And we count as Mugino’s visitors, so I don’t think we need to worry,” expressionlessly explained Takitsubo before looking to the side. “Mugino, is it just me or does that robot have a rocket launcher? And a shotgun too.”
“You field this one, Frenda.”
“In the end, I bet they’re adapted from a killer satellite. America officially claimed they never made any killer satellites – satellites designed to destroy other satellites – but they work the same as the SDI anti-missile satellites.”
They checked the computers in a few of the rooms, but they weren’t just going to find secret data on Meltdowner just sitting out, either in document or data form. They would need to give the researchers a major talking to if they had.
But that wasn’t what they were looking for.
“Here.” Takitsubo pointed at the screen Mugino was operating. “I saw this error before too. We’ve tried three computers with different access levels and from different sections, but none of them have been able to log into this one server. That means it has the strictest security. This says it’s a parallel machine for use during heavy network traffic, but that can’t be true.”
“In the end, doesn’t it look like no one here is able to get into that server? It’s like a special box that none of the staff’s passwords or access privileges can get open.”
“So is it a personal server that only Ainame Caroline can access?”
If so, then the lab’s overall project would have been effectively stalled since that head researcher had been driven out half a year ago. It also meant Ainame Caroline couldn’t get the data she wanted through her online marriage scams. Not when none of her victims could get at the data she needed.
It was sounding all the more certain that Honey Queen would directly attack the lab. Even if Ainame Caroline’s Thoughtography had foretold Item’s ambush, Honey Queen would have no choice but to go for it.
“That would make this secret server the lab’s super final boss.”
If it had been set up from the beginning to prevent access, no amount of messing with it would let Item view the data. Not when they didn’t have a hacker on the team.
But if they could bypass that basic set up, they could break through that thick wall.
“Hm, hm♪”
Frenda hummed as she removed a wall panel and connected a few cables to her phone. Her work with precise time bombs and UAV bombers had given her solid electronic and hardware skills. She must have needed to learn a variety of skills to survive on the dark side as a Level 0.
“I’ve located the signal relay control point based on where the error response cuts off my access. But in the end, a physical bypass should circumvent it. Operating a manual switch should do the trick.”
“Care to dumb that down for the rest of us?”
“There’s a special gatekeeper that checks the username and blocks the way if it’s the wrong person. But if we rewire the cables to go around that device, the signals can get through without needing the gatekeeper’s approval. Which means we can view all the secret data we want.”
Then it was time to do just that.
…Or so Mugino thought, but Frenda wasn’t moving from the spot.
“What’s the holdup?”
“Um, where the work needs to happen is a problem.” Frenda scratched her cheek with her index finger. “In the end, someone needs to dive into the pool of supercomputer coolant and work underwater.”
“Can you super not swim, Frenda-san?”
“This isn’t ordinary water. It has a higher relative density. See, it’s a liquid of coolant particles. Dive in there clothed and the heavy particles will catch in the fibers like they’re a filter and you won’t be able to float back up again.”
They all exchanged a glance.
Except for Takitsubo who tilted her head with her usual empty look and made a suggestion.
“Then can’t you just strip down naked before diving into the coolant pool?”
They all fell silent again.
They had ridden personal watercraft over muddy water in the pouring rain of the typhoon. They were already so soaked their skin and underwear were showing through their clothes, but Item still had the exact same thought at the exact same time.
“I’m still not stripping down in here.” “I’m still not stripping down in here.” “I’m still not stripping down in here.”
“?”
The track suit girl was the odd one out, but they still knew what they needed to do.
Only one of them needed to do the work, so they only had to choose a single sacrifice and strip off all her clothes.
So…
“How about we wrestle over it?”
“Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no!! Muuugiiinooo! In the end, you can’t just knock me down out of nowhere and perform a giant swiiiiiiiiiing!!!”
While Frenda was spun around by her ankles, her miniskirt looked a lot like an umbrella in a typhoon, but that wasn’t enough to settle it. How wild was that demon lord if she could outshine Kinuhata Saiai and her Offense Armor when it came to martial arts?
Takitsubo Rikou tilted her head again.
“Mugino. I think no one would complain if you chose a fairer way of deciding.”
“What, like our intelligence? Or our femininity? That wouldn’t be fair for Kinuhata when she’s so short and scrawny. Here, Kinuhata, you can use my handkerchief.”
“Are you super picking a fight with me? If you wanna wrestle, then let’s fucking wrestle, you little…”
The casual barb made Kinuhata lower her head and mutter something (in her murderous #1 mode), but that wasn’t what Takitsubo had meant. Not that she said anything to comfort Kinuhata.
Takitsubo pulled out a deck of cards she had picked up in the recreation room.
“How about we play cards? Everyone knows how to play old maid and I think that game is more about luck than strategy.”
