Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3

Novel Illustrations

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  Cover

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Opening

One thing remains true in all places and all eras.

Nothing is more frightening than justice.

Prologue: The City of Science is a Godless Place

This late at night, it was pitch black in District 4.

“Found it! In the end, is this the phone you said you dropped?”

“Wow!”

A girl of about 10 looked up at Frenda Seivelun with great respect in her eyes.

But this young girl was a complete stranger.

Since this was private property, none of Academy City’s famous three-bladed wind turbines were in evidence. There was only a vast yard with only the sporadic outdoor lighting to brighten the darkness. The occasional artificial woods only deepened the shadows.

“The GPS location was surprisingly inaccurate. That aside, you really shouldn’t take a shortcut through this unlit area on your way back from cram school just because you want to get home and go to sleep. In the end, even I might secretly be a villain.”

“Hee hee hee. I know you aren’t! Only a good person would be so nice to me.”

“If you say so.”

Frenda wasn’t looking at the child.

Her eyes were focused on something a bit further away.

The blonde girl looked up at a trio of massive silhouettes that supported food-focused District 4. That was the Clone Complex, a tri-tower agricultural building.

“In the end, the real threats are always well disguised.”

Someone was hiding In the artificial woods a mere 20m away.

That dark side pro had a reason for casually stopping the child there. If the girl had taken just one step into the woods blending in with the darkness, Frenda would have had to “silence” her.

(I’m glad it didn’t come to that, but I can’t believe she’s super showing her face to someone and chatting with them during a job.)

“Is this the super emergency standalone alarm?”

Kinuhata Saiai sighed in exasperation and then faced a metal box taller than she was. She used Offense Armor to tear off the door that was kept shut with a complex lock. Then she pulled out a special lipstick-sized device with a number written on the side in permanent marker and inserted it into the mechanical device exposed within.

The windowless multilevel building was an agricultural building which maintained artificial environments for the concentrated growing of crops and raising of livestock. The massive Clone Complex was a cornerstone of food-focused District 4, so the facility’s security was going to be quite strict.

The emergency standalone alarm here was no exception.

The standalone device would automatically alert the authorities even if the entire Clone Complex lost power…but locating it so far from the facility itself had been a mistake.

Since it was linked by underground fiber optic cable, messing with it could be used to mess with the Clone Complex’s own security cameras and sensors. And yet it was located outside without a single guard.

(I hate this precise work, but I think I super took out the cameras and sensors.)

This kind of real-time alteration of data used to be a pipe dream, but nowadays it wasn’t all that difficult using specially trained criminal AI. Kinuhata’s job was to attach a small communication antenna to the standalone device that managed the security data, giving the criminal AI a wireless access point for all that data.

“Okay. I’m super done here.”

Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou hid behind cover in the darkness and counted something on her fingers.

She was hiding in a clearing covered in green grass located around the tri-tower Clone Complex. Specifically, she was seated with her knees up against her chest and her back against the wall of a container shut with a chain and lock. It was probably used to store gardening tools.

(The guards generally patrol in pairs. But what are these other footsteps I’m hearing at more irregular intervals?)

“Takitsubo, are you done yet?”

“Super Takitsubo-san.”

Frenda and Kinuhata were approaching, so Takitsubo waved expressionlessly.

“I think I have the human movement patterns 80% worked out. Since you’re back, Kinuhata, the security cameras must already be compromised. Waiting for me to get a more perfect analysis would only increase the risk of someone noticing the mechanical malfunction and sounding the alarm.”

“Agreed. In the end, we need to get moving and get the job done.”

“Ping, ping, ping, pooong. It is now 1 AM on August 29. Akasaka Minako’s AM party begins anew for another night! Eh? A song? Already!? Oh, god, are you playing the intro already, producer!? Um, today’s first song is Color of the Whip by the Sadistic Dolls.”

Mugino Shizuri opened the rear sliding door of a black van with a late night radio program playing within and stepped out onto the asphalt.

Frenda, Kinuhata, and Takitsubo had rejoined her.

“In the end, make way for the queen of sitting around while everyone else does all the work!”

“Don’t get so upset about my beautiful rock-paper-scissors luck, Frenda. It was a fair game, wasn’t it?”

The chilly night wind that hinted at the end of summer did nothing to help cool Mugino’s simmering irritation.

“Ugh, my joints are all popping… What’s even the point of making money like this? We can’t even spend what we earn.”

“In the end, that’s what happens when we keep getting our apartments blown up.”

Frenda pulled out a special explosive that resembled correction tape. With practiced ease, she blasted a vertical slice through the tall fence, opened it wide, and guided the other three into the very off-limits private property within.

They didn’t need to worry about the stationary security cameras and sensors.

The criminal AI would be rewriting all of the data collected by the security system.

“In the end, they did surreptitiously introduce us to some fancy hideouts while making sure none of the transactions remained in the official records, but even those Criminal Real Estate people would be out of business pretty quick if all their best properties end up burned down with only the pillars and framework left.”

“Super Criminal Real Estate, huh?”

“They’re experts at altering the results of condo lotteries and handling the leases to rewrite all the names and bank accounts, Kinuhata. They know a lot about good properties ordinary people don’t want because someone died there or whatever. And our previous room was leased, not sold, so they would have wanted to continue leasing it out to other shady customers to keep making money after we left.”

The four girls trod on the well-maintained lawn on their way deeper inside the grounds.

Item was usually as self-centered as could be, but they were trying to stay quiet for once.

“Then what’s the super point of risking our lives to earn money? Are we stuck spending the night in karaoke boxes or convenience store eat-in tables like we’re runaways?”

“Kinuhata. It takes longer to rebuild a reputation than it does to lose it, but if we keep working at it, we can regain their trust. And to do that, we need to do our job. ...Oh.”

Pink track suit Takitsubo noticed something before the others did, so she held out a hand to caution them.

She had detected several people other than themselves in the darkness too deep for the outdoor lights to break through.

“…”

The four girls hid behind a transformer panel larger than a vending machine and held their breaths as those other people walked past.

This had to be one of the regular patrols. Girls in navy blue nun habits wore antenna-covered backpacks like a military signaler. The mechanical “kathunk, kathunk” coming from within their long skirts suggested they wore leg-enhancement powered suits supported by multiple actuators.

The lens-covered multipurpose night vision goggles they wore made them look a lot less human.

The long, skinny rifles(?) they held were not made to shoot bullets. They were shaped more like a bigger version of the airbrushes used to precisely paint models. The weapons most likely sprayed a powder mixture of aluminum, iron, and several chemicals at extreme speed so the friction with the air would ignite it. Those clearly weren’t guns meant to be aimed at unprotected human beings. They would reach an estimated temperature of more than 3800 degrees Celsius with a firing range of probably more than 30m. Those portable incendiary weapons could melt away a bank vault’s wall like it was made of sugar.

That was Item’s target this time.

Those high-tech armored nuns were worked in pairs. After confirming they had walked off without sensing anything amiss, Mugino spoke up in mild exasperation.

“How the hell does a cult start up in a city of science?”

“I can super understand why they were made a priority target for elimination.”

We scientists only believe the things we can see for ourselves, so we cannot be duped by talk of imaginary demons or ghosts.

The people who announced that with the utmost confidence were quite easily duped by large scale magic tricks. Saying they only believe the things they see for themselves was as good as announcing the vulnerability in their defenses, so you only had to show them a mythological exorcism hero show with plenty of special effects providing more artificial flavoring than a burger and fries. And when those important scientists would readily defend their own worldview by explaining what they saw using their knowledge of biological weapons made out of killer microbes, infrastructure-destroying computer viruses, or whatever else, their risk of falling for a cult increased dramatically.

And the last thing anyone needed in a city of esper development was a sketchy cult.

“Mugino,” said Takitsubo. “This fight is going to be different.”

“I know.”

“The cult leader is known as Dike Goddess Salvation. Her real name was erased from the Bank without authorization at some point. Her specialty is ‘miraculous escapes’. She has been attacked a few times already, but her spectacular escape artistry only serves to increase her charisma and earn her more believers. She says god’s prophet is protected by an invisible power even as the army of evil pursues her.”

“Again, I know! We can’t cause a commotion out here because it would give her a chance to escape, so we have to sneak deep inside her ‘temple’ and then murder her with a pinpoint strike, right?”

Kinuhata was a little shocked.

Repeatedly cautioning Mugino of all people and living to tell the tale had to require a special talent.

The four girls chatted and jogged toward the enormous building while avoiding the outdoor lights.

“Nothing good comes of letting dumbasses talk about ‘science’. The supposedly ‘scientific doctors’ in the 17th century would seriously tell you making a candle from corpse fat would help you find buried treasure. Ah ha ha,” Mugino laughed woodenly.

“Hm. Mugino, where did the idea of witches really come from?”

“People do keep proposing super sketchy ideas like the weight of the soul or plants responding emotionally to music. They make for good movies, though.”

“In the end, this is my first time taking on religious soldiers. How well can they fight?”

“That depends on their numbers and what kind of tech they have.”

A multicopter surveillance drone flew slowly by overhead, but the four girls trusted in the criminal AI’s data alterations and walked right below it. The wireless control signal was being overwritten by a more powerful illicit signal, but since the authorization code was identical, the drone wouldn’t notice anything was amiss.

Then, all of a sudden, a nun emerged from behind a small hill.

“!”

Light gathered in a palm.

This wasn’t one of the patrols following a predefined route. The nun wore a red armband on her shoulder. She was probably a supervisor who made irregular patrols to make sure the other girls were following their routine (which would have been worked out by a personnel management AI).

Mugino was ready to fire Meltdowner right away, but Takitsubo tugged on her coat to stop her.

The armored nun girl walked right on past with her legs kathunk-ing.

Takitsubo tapped her index finger at her temple.

“She’s wearing multipurpose night vision goggles with an earphone mic. That is linked to the wireless network for support from a larger computer, so the criminal AI’s signal can affect her too.”

That meant Item had been erased from the guard’s view, so she failed to notice them.

Frenda grinned, circled in front of the diligent nun, and waved her hands.

“Pft! She might as well be walking down a back alley blindfolded. Hey, you! You got any idea how careless you’re-”

“Phew, this heat is fogging up my goggles.”

“!!?” “!!?” “!!?” “!!?”

In a surprise move, the nun pushed her odd goggles up to her forehead and removed them, so Mugino snagged Frenda by the arm and hid behind a nearby vending machine.

If they were discovered out here, the cult leader would make another vanishing act. And then she would start saying she had heard the voice of god and miraculously escaped from a Level 5. All because a certain someone had to be an idiot.

“(…)”

“(Ow, ow, Mug- Mugino, I’m sorry, I apologize, I got carried away, but if you want us all to survive here, you need to stop pinching my cheek, because it really is going to tear off soon!)”

“?” The armored nun supervisor girl took a look around and wiped the inside of her goggles clear with quick-drying ethanol-based lens wipes. Unlike the expensive goggles used for airsoft games, her goggles did not have small fans attached to the sides. She put the special goggles back on and trudged off somewhere.

Item resumed walking in a different direction.

They arrived at the glass main entrance. Frenda burned through the electric lock and they all walked in.

The air rapidly cooled.

They found an artificial atmosphere reminiscent of an ultra-clean semiconductor plant. It was a white space with massive pillars lined up at even intervals.

“Just like with concrete utility ducts, do people just naturally sense something mystical about massive artificial structures?”

“There’s more to it than that.”

The wheat production plant did not look like it belonged in late August. Unhealthy bluish-white UV lights shined on the yellow heads of wheat covering the entire floor. Item walked across a metal grate catwalk running along near the ceiling.

(The Mugino family fills the stomachs of 1.4 billion around the world, but these agricultural buildings keep it from making much headway in Academy City.)

Mugino wasn’t sure if she should be impressed or exasperated.

Thin support pillars reached up to the ceiling on either side of the metal grate bridge.

“It’s like walking through a torii tunnel. The regularity and large number are a trick used to artificially make it seem more mystical.”

“But I’m impressed the cult managed to super take over this automatic factory.”

Kinuhata glanced exasperatedly to the side.

No matter how strict the security used to ensure the safety of the food, it was useless if the user privileges were overwritten. This was known to have been a cult temple since at least two years ago.

A portrait larger than a classroom floor hung on one of the smooth walls. The coloring depicted her as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed goddess, but the facial features were those of a snub-nosed Japanese girl. The cult leader called herself Dike Goddess Salvation. She must have received cosmetic surgery to forcibly remove the pigmentation across her body.

Did the combination of armor with a skirt have some special meaning for the cult?

(So is she supposed to be an albino genius?)

Mugino thought on this cult while viewing the portrait of someone from Academy City.

They called themselves the Ark of the Electronic Sea.

Of course they weren’t going to come out and call themselves a dangerous cult.

An artificial young female voice spoke from the indoor speakers, reciting their scriptures.

“People are born in a state where they can only be used by AI. Only the chosen few who boost their humanity to the very limit through daily mental training are in a position to use AI.”

They spoke of an anxiety. Of a mental vulnerability.

“I doubt it actually means anything,” said Takitsubo after seeing Kinuhata nodding along (because she loved movie-scale conspiracy theories). “The cult’s scriptures were apparently made by training generative AI on mythological and religious scripts from around the world. The psychological basis makes it sound meaningful, but it’s actually completely lacking in substance.”

“Our most important job is to show mercy to those who reject the harsh training itself or those who are not chosen no matter how much they train. We must save all mankind without bias.”

Mugino looked disgusted as she walked across the catwalk above the wheat field.

“I thought this was a cult bad enough the higher ups marked it for destruction. Don’t they have a hidden safe somewhere? Full of gold bars or diamonds. Y’know, the things dreams are made of.”

The track suit girl only shrugged.

“Do you really want the dirty money made by people who talk seriously about live sacrifices? Washing off all the unpleasant bloodstains sounds like a pain.”

“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.”

Of course, if the cult hadn’t been doing things like that, Item wouldn’t have been hired to kill their leader.

The four walked along the catwalk and boarded a work lift large enough to raise and lower buses and trucks. They took that to the level above, an area not listed on the maps posted for visitors.

Floor 11.

That was fairly low for this massive agricultural building, but that was because all the big and heavy equipment couldn’t actually be carried to the upper floors. That meant the important facilities and equipment tended to be on the lower floors.

And the female announcer’s tone changed as well.

Were the greater secrets found on the higher levels? So was this the stuff the newer believers couldn’t be told lest it shock them out of their brainwashing?

“The foolish masses who fail to recognize the threat posed by technology are the great mother who will give birth to the Devil. Faithful believers, we must prepare to make ourselves Radiant Knights so we may slay the Devil before it is too late!”

The clean floor was suddenly bent by a width of more than 5mm.

Item found themselves faced with a form so large they had to crane their necks up to see the whole thing. Machines had no human presence. The four-legged mass of composite armor looked a lot like construction equipment. Instead of a head, it had a 360-degree swiveling pod equipped with a Gatling gun, missile canister, and antiaircraft gun.

The heavy combat land drone had to weigh more than 10 tons in all.

“!?”

“Mugino.”

Mugino reflexively held out her right hand, but Takitsubo calmly cautioned her. They were right in front of the thing, but this Devil or whatever walked right on past them.

The criminal AI’s signal had overwritten their presence.

Frenda felt an unpleasant sweat soaking her body despite the chilly air conditioning.

“Y-yikes… Why would they build something like that? In the end, that thing on the front was a plasma cutter made for slicing through barricades. It’s a monstrous weapon that reaches 7000 degrees Celsius.”

“The cult is terrified of things like that popping up around the world as civilization advances. I think we super just saw the cult’s vision of the apocalypse.”

“Kinuhata, what was that part about Radiant Knights?”

“Well, if that thing is super what they call the Devil, then I bet they pump their soldiers full of performance-enhancing drugs, stick them in thick blast-resistance suits, and super arm them with giant chainsaws or welding torches.”

Had the cult built their own Devil so they could practice for the coming apocalypse, or did they find some religious meaning in taming the formidable Devil?

That wasn’t the only one clunking around.

Several Devils were wandering about. If something went wrong and they recovered their ability to see Item, a battle would break out, so the other three girls followed Takitsubo’s directions to avoid the noisy machines while making their way deeper into this area.

When Takitsubo pointed at a door, Kinuhata and Frenda pressed against the wall on either side of it.

After slowly opening the door, they found an especially large space on the other side. That had to be the massive AI control room that manipulated the values controlling all of the Clone Complex’s vegetable plants and clone farms.

The place was larger than a 50m pool drained of water.

Something was evenly spaced in a circular arrangement like flower petals. They were eight humanoid figures down on one knee. Except these were robots with thin tablets for heads and silver belt-like actuators in place of muscles.

The only person standing was the dark figure in the very center.

The leader, the 8 AI disciples, and the general believers.

That summed up the cult’s structure.

But.

“Hey?” said Mugino without really meaning to.

It wasn’t just a lack of light making the figures look dark. They were scorched black. The tablet-head robots were burned into motionlessness in their kneeling positions. Heat had melted their plastic, producing an unhealthy stench.

The leader in the center was the same.

She seemed to crumble away as she broke into a few pieces of scorched charcoal and scattered across the floor.

She was already dead.

Someone had beaten Item to the punch.

“Huhh? Was someone else sent on this job too?”

Someone emerged into the light.

The girls wore heavy makeup, piercings, and clothing that had no place in an ordinary life. Overall, their outfits looked like cheer costumes made of red and black leather. The tank top and miniskirt were designed to show off their bodies and they wore thick collars, belts around their wrists, and leather boots as long as thigh highs.

They also held musical instruments – mic stand, electric guitar, etc. – and they were followed by audio equipment drones made by attaching small feet to amps, speakers, a drum set, etc.

The five girls with hair dyed red and black formed a single group that contrasted heavily with Item.

“Who are you?”

“The Sadistic Dolls. Do we still count as indie, or are we mainstream now? The line is so hard to draw since we primarily do streaming.”

“So you’re a competitor.”

“As a cute girls band, I’d really rather not think of this as our main job, though.”

Brutal electricity sparked out from the end of the girl’s electric guitar.

Electric stun guns might sound like safe, nonlethal weapons, but crank the power up high enough and they could easily kill. And if the power was high enough to trigger electrical breakdown to pierce straight through armor, they could even affect thick drone weapons even more than traditional weapons using gunpowder and bullets.

Were all five of them armed like that?

The girl grinned while toying with her killer guitar.

“At max setting, it sends out 18 million volts. After coming this far, you’d feel silly heading back empty-handed, right? …So we’ll share some of the fun with you.”

The guitarist followed by a multi-legged amp and speaker played a loud note.

The alarm immediately recovered.

In fact, every single speaker within the Clone Complex exploded with loud shouting and a rhythm with the regularity of desktop music. The intro-less vocal track must have had its key changed by computer because it kept jumping unnaturally from low to high and back again.

Pounding footsteps approached from all directions.

By that time, the bassist had already burned a large hole in the building’s outside wall using the oxyacetylene torch fired from the end of her instrument. This was the 11th floor, but the Sadistic Dolls jumped right through the hole and into the empty air beyond.

The guitarist went last, shouting back at Item.

“Ah ha ha!! Color of the Whip just started streaming, so if you morons actually survive this, make sure to give us plenty of electronic purchases and to donate enough for us to climb the rankings! Bye☆”

She vanished outside.

A moment later, the doors on all sides of the room burst open.

“Leader!” “How could you do this to Her Holiness!?”

Mugino Shizuri hung her head and trembled as the voices of the armored nuns and the ordinary believers surrounded her.

“Those…”

She had come this far only to have someone else reach the target ahead of them, meaning no reward, and now she she had to clean up after the job thieves?

That settled it. The Level 5 entirely forgot that her job was to eliminate any dangerous elements disturbing the order in Academy City.

“Those bitches are dead meeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!”

The Level 5’s rage and thick Meltdowner beams were released in 360 degrees around her, turning the Clone Complex to Swiss cheese from within.

These girls were Item.

Their job was to eliminate any dangerous elements disturbing the order in Academy City...in theory, anyway.

Between the Lines 1

Sampling Assessment – Investigated by ■■■■■■.

This time, I will be focusing on the samples relating to Item.

This goes beyond just the four members. A sampling of the branching connections to their enemies and allies can be used to estimate the movements and trends of the unseen dark side as a whole.

I am on no one’s side.

I must not forget my role as an observer.

Mugino Shizuri.

80 points.

Her Meltdowner can produce massively destructive power by firing electrons “as-is” rather than as a wave or a particle, but this makes it difficult for her to control the intensity.

I do feel some sympathy for her as she was born into one of the world’s top organized crime groups.

However, that sympathy is not enough to ignore the crimes and violence she has committed. As one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s, she should be more aware of how much power she possesses.

Takitsubo Rikou.

45 points.

Tends to dissuade the rest of Item from making poor decisions, but she considers violence a valid solution as much as the others do.

Her Level 4 AIM Stalker allows her to accurately record and track others’ AIM Diffusion Fields when she has intentionally enhanced that power beyond her control, but the true nature of that power is still shrouded in mystery. Be very careful if contacting her.

Frenda Seivelun.

53 points.

A Level 0, so unlike the other members, there is no chance the strength of her power is influencing her actions. Her crimes are all the result of her own free will. She is an expert with explosives and martial arts, but the biggest threat she presents (and the greatest contribution she provides to Item) comes from her communication skills which allow her to “make friends with anyone”.

Kinuhata Saiai.

29 points.

Her Level 4 Offense Armor controls the nitrogen in the air to envelop her body. It is supposed to be a passive and defensive power, but she has learned how to wield in in a highly offensive manner. She has not been with Item long and her history before then has been erased, so it is highly likely she has been taught mistaken morals and manners. She likely has the greatest chance of being reformed. But only when compared to the other three.

I cannot give them an overall score.

They do have one member with a low score, but the entire team’s score is well above the threshold, so I will be physically approaching them for an additional test. This test will focus mostly on their leader, Mugino Shizuri.

I will now make contact.

Chapter 1: Public and Private

Part 1

“Room 407 – coming in☆”

After a knock, a young woman employee entered.

She carried a large plate.

“Here is your additional order of cold pork shabu-shabu pasta. Thanks for participating in our summer sesame sauce fair.”

It was early morning on August 29 inside a karaoke box in university-heavy District 5.

The karaoke box was one of the places Item had been using to sleep in since the Criminal Real Estate refused to do business with them. Their poor reputation had spread to the lodging industry, so they couldn’t even use a hotel, meaning they had been moving between establishments with 24-hour service: internet cafes, sports gym nap rooms, family restaurants, etc.

However, the wireless microphone and giant LCD remote were still in their charging stands.

The four girls clearly had no intention of singing and some large bags were sitting unnaturally in the corner of the room.

Plus, they all looked like they had just woken up.

…Anyone would have seen them as girls who had run away from home during the summer and needed somewhere to crash for the night, but apparently the part-time worker wasn’t sympathetic enough to question it. The female employee, who likely had a story of her own since she was working into the early morning, did only what her job demanded and then left the room.

Frenda’s face lit up.

“Oh, yeah, here it is. Check it out, everyone, it’s breakfast. Time to split up and share this cold pasta☆”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Pork shabu-shabu and carbs first thing in the morning? That seems super greasy and heavy.”

Kinuhata looked disgusted.

Bu while a karaoke box would deliver drinks and snacks to your room if you called, their menu was designed for parties. Excepting a light and healthy breakfast here was a mistake.

Without even enough energy to get up from the short sofa, Mugino pulled a wet tissue from the cylindrical bottle she had brought in with her and wiped herself around the neck.

“Ugh, my skin is all sticky… The spa near here doesn’t open until 10, right? Dammit!!”

None of them were time-control espers, so Kinuhata didn’t respond to that.

But she was curious about one thing.

“Takitsubo-san, super when does our laundromat stuff get done?”

“In another 50 minutes, so we don’t need to rush. I had them dry it too, so it’ll take time.”

On the other hand, if they took too long after the laundry was done, the employee would unlock the door and their laundry would be stolen. It was a necessary penalty to keep the limited number of industrial washing machines running efficiently.

Everything came with a time cost with this temporary lifestyle.

It was a common issue for runaways, but…

“Damn, and we wouldn’t have to deal with any of this if we could just get a new apartment… We have the money! Bathing and laundry aren’t supposed to be this much trouble. Go to hell, Criminal Real Estaaaaaaaate!!”

“In the end, I’m more worried about managing my explosives. I just shoved them in that bag over there and now they’re all rolling around together. The sunlight reflecting of the asphalt might melt the plastic explosives.”

But none of their complaining was going to change anything.

Their top priority was regaining trust within their industry, but then their job had been stolen from them.

A change came over the large screen on the wall.

“Yawwn. Another screw up on the job? It’s always like this with you. I do so wish I could pay you for a successful job, but it is what it is. Bitching about it isn’t going to help. You said it was the Sadistic Dolls that got there ahead of you? I’ll look into these competitors.”

The screen displayed pure black, but a young female woman’s voice played from it.

This was “the voice on the phone” who gave Item their jobs.

Mugino slowly sat up on the sofa and spoke in a low, unsteady voice that had more to do with annoyance than lack of sleep.

“You didn’t set up this double booking yourself, did you?”

“Why would I? Just sending Item in would have been enough to take out that cult leader. Just so you know, my superiors have already chewed me out over this. It’s always like this with them.”

The voice on the phone claimed she had been “chewed out”, but it didn’t sound like she was preparing to skip town.

Her shield wouldn’t be so thin that a mistake or two was enough to get her killed …Of course, that shield of hers wouldn’t necessary protect Item as well.

“Anyway, at least that cult leader did end up dead. That’s better than having her escape while you were fighting her troops. Far, far better.”

The four girls’ silence made it very clear they didn’t see what was so good about it, but the voice on the phone wasn’t going to let that faze her.

“Also, this should be a major setback for the AI development race. We might even see the age of smartphones revert to the old feature phones, so if there are any accessories you like, I recommend stocking up now.”

“So the city’s higher ups were super competing over all that?”

The cult had used AI and Item had used a criminal AI to rewrite their security cameras, sensors, surveillance drones, etc. in real time. Looking back, both sides of that conflict would have left a bad impression. Of course, this was all about convincing the VIPs at the top of the city, not about changing public opinion.

(Super based on this, I wonder if the lipstick-sized antenna used to connect to the criminal AI was left behind instead of being collected by our support organization.)

It might come back eventually, but it sounded like they would have to live without AI for a while.

Instead of being fully stopped, this had created a gap where development came to a standstill. Maybe you had to be in the position of the higher ups to understand who benefited from that.

“Anyway, I’ll find another job for you to make up for your mistakes. To us and to the Criminal Real Estate.”

“And you want us to sit around until then? Not happening.”

“It’s always like this with you. From what I’ve heard, the Sadistic Dolls have especially strong criminal infrastructure. The city’s higher ups are definitely involved. Just like with you. Do you want to go fight them without knowing who they are and end up in even more trouble? Don’t try anything until you know how exactly it benefits you.”

The connection ended.

The large karaoke screen resumed playing the stereotypical free footage of tropical ocean scenery.

Mugino Shizuri made a suggestion not three seconds later.

“I say we kill the Sadistic Dolls.”

“If you want,” readily agreed Frenda. “But in the end, if we don’t get rid of this competitor, they’ll keep stealing our jobs no matter how many we get from the voice on the phone. I’m sick of spending my nights in burger shops and gyudon shops like I’m a runaway. I miss futons. Can’t someone – anyone – show me to a bed!? We have to prove ourselves again to convince that Criminal Real Estate – the sooner the better. So if anyone gets in our way, my vote is for killing them.”

Kinuhata shrugged and Takitsubo stared into space while munching on the end of a carrot stick. Neither of them appeared to have an opposing argument.

That settled it.

Item was one of the villains infesting the dark side of Academy City, so they had no reason to show mercy here. Just because they were up against other brutal criminals was no reason for them to start working with the police, detectives, bounty hunters, scientists, reporters, or maids. When two criminal turfs collided, one side had to be destroyed.

“Academy City is a walled city, so there’s only so much room. No matter how prosperous it might be,” spat Mugino. She stated the inviolable rule she had learned from her family. “So the people of the city’s dark side always need to be focused on the limited amount of shares and turf available there. We’re all fighting for our piece of the pie. If we fall from the top of our field, only tragedy awaits us. Allowing one group to intervene will only lead to more and more trying the same.”

They had been stolen from.

So they had to pay the thieves back. Threefold? Ten-thousand-fold? There was no upper limit.

“Huh. In the end, This place has their song.”

Frenda operated the LCD remote to bring a new image onto the big screen.

It was the Sadistic Dolls’ new song, Color of the Whip.

Having footage of them in a back alley karaoke box like this probably came from how they existed on the border between major and indies. Using what they had seen last night, this music video, and information found on an online encyclopedia, Item put together a tentative profile of their enemy.

Saki.

Vocalist. Specializes in using her voice, but due to her shy personality, she sticks exclusively to singing. When it comes time for talking between songs during their concerts, she steps back and lets the guitarist take over. She also writes their lyrics.

Weapon: unknown.

Meg.

Guitarist. She handles the main melody and is the leader who gathered the band together. As seen above, she is charismatic and handles the talking during the concerts.

Weapon: killer electric guitar that “fires” ultra-high-voltage electricity.

Suzuran.

Bassist. Also develops their music videos and designs their costumes. As part of this, she runs their official website and social media, so the fans see her as the one they have the most direct communication with.

Weapon: flamethrower bass equipped with an oxyacetylene torch.

Yuami.

Synthesist. Doesn’t stand out much, but because their music is primarily streamed desktop music, there are rumors that she is secretly in charge of the entire band. Also their songwriter.

Weapon: unknown.

Amamo.

Drummer. Has the unusual background of being recruited into the band after working as a bouncer at a live music club. Runs the punishment games involving paper fans, whips, and baseball bat spankings during their concerts and videos.

Weapon: unknown.

Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.

“Mugino, you don’t seem too surprised.”

“Someone at my school was talking about them.”

“Pft. In the end, it’s hard to imagine you of all people putting on a uniform and going to sch- bwah!!?”

Frenda’s ill-advised comment earned her a wordless pummeling from Mugino’s fists.

From the look of things, the Sadistic Dolls used next-gen weapons rather than esper powers. Did that mean they had no high-level espers, or were they hiding their powers?

All of those names were of course stage names and the heavy makeup and color contacts they wore likely kept mechanical face recognition from working. Even with all this footage, tracking down their addresses or common hangouts would be difficult.

They appeared to be classified as something a lot like underground idols.

Of course, if they were super-famous entertainers raking in the dough, they wouldn’t be out killing for the dark side.

Mugino clicked her tongue while watching the music video playing on the big screen.

“The Sadistic Dolls. They’re a goddamn public girls band. Did any of you know they worked as dark side assassins before this?”

No hands went up.

Mugino nodded.

“Neither did I. That leaves two possibilities: 1. Someone considers them extremely valuable and has been keeping them in reserve. 2. They’re such a new team no one’s had a chance to hear about them yet.”

Kinuhata sighed at this.

The answer was obvious.

“That killer guitar and the wall-slicing torch will leave a super ton of evidence they were at a site, so you’d have a hard time keeping all five of those cards hidden for long. I can understand ordinary people not knowing, but it’s super fishy that we’ve never heard a single rumor of them on the dark side.”

“Right.” Frenda crossed her arms and nodded. “But in the end, even if they are newbies with little to no records to go on, there’s no way that cult killing was their first job. The way they got in, killed, and got out tells me they’ve done this before.”

“There are some traces,” said Takitsubo.

She used the glass table to spread out some paper documents she must have printed off somewhere.

They all listed unsolved cases and none of them had any definitive proof of the Sadistic Dolls’ involvement. She had gathered this information from online news articles, sniffing out the truth in a different way from Anti-Skill forensic investigators.

“1. A surface level dark side group calling themselves Revenge For Hire was burned to death in a fire. Acetylene was detected in the burnt remains of the building, so their flamethrower was probably responsible.”

“Have they never heard of being discreet? Not that I’m one to talk when I use bombs.” Frenda sounded somewhat exasperated.

Takitsubo nodded expressionlessly and continued.

“2. The executives of a corrupt company that caused quite a lot of health damage selling phony diet products were found in the trunk of an abandoned car. To be clear, that’s around a dozen people in a single trunk. Linked to that case, a scrapyard employee was found dead with his throat slit. Probably a witness.”

“…”

The air inside the box seemed to electrify.

Maybe they were newcomers still learning the ropes, but it was frowned on for dark side people to take ordinary people’s lives without a very good reason. Enough so that this kind of more indiscriminate criminal was looked down on with contempt.

“3. A money launderer who worked for sketchy companies and organizations was found dead under mysterious circumstances. He apparently laundered the money by using real money trading in online games to frequently trade electronic money for rare items. It also appears that the victim’s wife was abducted. Anti-Skill failed to rescue the hostage and the wife died.”

A tongue click echoed through the room. From Frenda.

Mugino breathed a heavy sigh.

“So they target pros.”

That meant they only attacked criminals to reduce their numbers.

In other words, they had a twisted sense of justice.

“I don’t know how seriously we should take it, but there are hints of that view in the Sadistic Dolls’ lyrics too. Mugino, take a listen to their latest song – Color of the Whip.”

No need.

With people like this, the odds were good they weren’t even aware they were bad people. They were true idiots who believed that the principle of “the enemy of your enemy is your friend” trumped the laws of the land.

Takitsubo tapped her index finger against one of the paper documents on the glass table.

“There was unverified information going around online for all of these cases, but the criminals were always erased just before the mass media picked it up. Of course, it could just be that the Sadistic Dolls operate online instead of on TV, so that’s where they search out their targets too.”

“Yeah, right. They clearly have a client, don’t you think? It’s super obvious that someone wants to silence these people before the story gets too big. So they might super claim to be fighting for good or for justice, but all they’re doing is kill people for money – just like us.”

Takitsubo did not reject that idea.

And…

“I can’t be certain with so few samples to go off of, but there is one thing the Sadistic Dolls seem to do every time.”

“?”

“They intentionally make the case look bigger than it is to gather onlookers. And that means both ordinary people and the dark side.”

“I see. They did trigger the alarm themselves just before they left with the cult, didn’t they?”

“That must be how they draw out the dark side individuals and groups lurking below the surface. Maybe they just enjoy it and maybe it’s a PR stunt meant to get their name out there quickly. I bet they’re fighting with the dark side beyond the scope of their jobs – it just hasn’t shown on the surface yet. Which would mean…”

“In the end, their target is us – Item?” Frenda didn’t sound happy about it.

The Sadistic Dolls didn’t even have the bare minimum of manners. In fact, it looked like they had a bad habit of actively involving ordinary people or even taking their target’s family hostage to achieve their goals. In that sense, they were an especially unpleasant enemy for Frenda.

There was only one real plan here.

These people weren’t going to back off if Item left them alone.

“We’ll just have to kill them before they can kill us,” declared Mugino.

“Okay. In the end, we need to fully uproot this threat.”

That settled it.

The track suit girl did not try to stop them now that they had a plan.

Even that seemingly harmless girl was still a member of the dark side.

“Mugino, where are we going to make the attack?”

“The Sadistic Dolls haven’t been around long, but all newbies are the same. For example, they’ll want to use a special service to quickly strengthen their bonds so their makeshift team doesn’t fall apart from infighting.”

Frenda seemed to know what Mugino meant.

“So in the end, we’re headed to a bond builder?”

Part 2

Their laundry was still spinning round and round inside the industrial washing machine.

The LCD display said it would be a few more minutes until it was done. They had taken travel time into account when deciding when to leave, but they had still arrived at the laundromat a little early.

“Ugh, I’m so bored. It’s these brief moments of downtime that really piss me off,” complained Frenda.

“Hey, if we super don’t do something, the Academy City Bomber is going to start a fireworks show over here.”

Kinuhata’s annoyed comment made Mugino scratch her head with a hand.

“Damn, I hate this too… Okay, how about we play rock-paper-scissors impressions?”

“What’s that? Ooh, I’ve never heard of that party game. In the end, you need to tell me all about it!”

“Hm? Since when do you know about these things, Mugino?” asked Takitsubo.

“I just heard about it at my school is all. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

While the four of them were playing their game, an electronic beeping sounded.

Now their laundry really was done.

“Super whose underwear is this? They’re all see through and there definitely shouldn’t be a hole here.”

“In the end, any of the sexy ones will be from Mugino’s collection.”

“Kinuhata, those are mine,” said Takitsubo.

“!?” “!?”

First, they collected all their dried laundry. Laundromats these days were as bright and shiny as a trendy cafe, so there wasn’t all that much reluctance for girls to use them.

Once done there, they returned to the multi-tenant building containing the karaoke box.

There was a spa in the same building.

It too was kept bright and polished, probably to give it a clean look to draw female customers. That said, the fake marble texture made it all look quite cheap. And based on the layout, it was probably a former sex industry establishment remodeled into a spa. With all its university students, District 5 had a lot of izakayas, smoking bars, and other adult-oriented establishments.

There were several teenage girls gathered there right as the spa opened, but were they all summer break runaways?

Item took a shower first and held a strategy meeting at the same time.

“Ahh, I can finally wash the sleep sweat away…”

“Mugino, stop avoiding the issue.”

Whether robbing a bank or staging a kidnapping, the greatest threat to a crime carried out by a group was infighting. So quickly strengthening the bonds between the group of gathered criminals was an even greater insurance of safety than a counterfeit passport or a getaway car.

Enough so that the dark side had people who specialized in providing that service.

Mugino raised her head to enjoy the warm shower water to its fullest as she spoke.

“They’re known as bond builders. A robbery team might be thrown into a cheap apartment or campsite and forced to live together, eating the same things and going to sleep at the same time every single day…to artificially create the bonds of a family within the group.”

Kinuhata spoke from the adjacent booth.

“Oh, really? And is there any super objective proof this works?”

“Of course not. We’re not Anti-Skill or Judgment.”

That was how it worked with the criminal underworld where there were no compliance rules or reports to be filed.

Since they couldn’t just throw more people at the issue like the government could, your own experience and nose for danger were your lifeline on the dark side.

“Bond builders, huh? Super sounds to me like they’re consensually doing some light brainwashing.”

“Because they are. Supposedly, a week with them and you have so much love and affection between you and your accomplices that you won’t rat each other out even if Anti-Skill captures you.”

If the Sadistic Dolls were using a bond builder to create instant unity within their group, they would be a client and that bond builder would have their personal information.

After drying their hair with driers and putting on fresh clothes, the girls rode the subway.

The subway station had a lot of boys and girls in casual clothing. They appeared to be out trying to make the most of the last few days of summer break. Being forced to study every day and compete in the entrance exams and then having your breaks controlled by the higher ups was definitely not fun.

“Huh? Weren’t we suppose to meet on the upper deck for our patrol?”

Item heard an odd voice from overhead. The speaker was descending the long escalator while Item ascended it. Three girls were wearing their school uniforms even during the break. Mugino gave them an irritated glare before looking away. Annoyingly enough, those girls wore special armbands on their right shoulders. They were from Judgment.

(“Ugh. And we super know one of them. That’s Yamagami Erina.)”

They had happened to run into that girl at the Colosseum and the illegal casino. And she wasn’t alone this time.

That just made this worse.

If their eyes happened to meet here, she might recognize them even in this crowd. And the escalator was a single long path, so they couldn’t slip away into a side route or turn around at this point.

They were going to meet at the center point of the up and down sides of the escalator.

They would be less than a meter from each other.

“It’s so easy to lose your sense of direction in a subway station, so maybe Sarusa-chan is lost on the platform below.”

“She’s not you, Aomi. I doubt that’s it.”

“You can cheat using your power, Mii. Your judgment isn’t reliable on this.”

Frenda and Mugino looked down at their phones to hide their faces as much as possible and Frenda surreptitiously tossed a firecracker down to the bottom of the escalator with her other hand.

The Judgment girls reacted quite sensitively to the harmless “pop!!”

“Whoa!? What was that!?”

“It’s our job to find out. Erina-chan, it might not have been a gunshot or explosion. Summer break is almost over, so some idiot streamer might be setting off fireworks in the station.”

The teacher’s pets rushed down the escalator, so they never even glanced over at the suspicious girls right next to them.

Mugino and Frenda suppressed a chuckle, but…

“Mii, use your Clairvoyance to check all around this area! Did you find anything!?”

Hearing that, the two quickly resumed their act.

Fortunately, the glasses-wearing clairvoyant had never met them and, even if she could see through the walls and ceiling to see Item’s faces, she presumably couldn’t share that information with Yamagami Erina. The lack of objectivity when compared to thoughtography was one weakness of clairvoyance.

Only after reaching the top of the escalator and approaching the ticket gate with a casual gait did Frenda breathe a heavy sigh.

“Honestly… But in the end, we should be safe since clairvoyance can’t pick up voices, right?”

“She might be able to read our lips, so do be careful, Frenda.”

Hearing a short beep, Frenda – who could make friends with anyone – pulled her phone from her pocket, but the message-based social media app notification was for Mugino.

“Shiratori// Ehh? You’ve really completed all your summer homework already? But I was hoping to make an accomplice out of you by suggesting we work on it together. Ugh, now what do I do about this giant pile… Really, it’s all the Sadistic Dolls’ fault. Their latest music video is just that good. Oh, right. Is there a seat you want for the new post-summer seating chart? Class Rep Shiratori Okibi-chan here can use her magic touch to ensure you draw exactly the number you want from the box, so-”

Mugino didn’t bother reading it through to the end before closing the app. There was no way she was reading that wall of text.

Track suit girl Takitsubo tilted her head with a blank stare.

“Who was that from?”

“My phone tree group. For school. What a pain.”

Technically, it had been a hidden message that only showed up for the people designated by the poster. Mugino had brought up her school in the karaoke box too. She was aware herself that a sailor uniform and school bag looked wrong on her. In fact, her large chest tugged up on the top enough to show off her navel.

After climbing the stairs to the surface, they smelled greenery.

They were in District 21. The area had a lot of nature and included Academy City’s only mountain and dam.

“Why’d we come all the way out here? Do we super know that bond builder is stationed here?”

“In the end, they’re specialists who make a bit of cash off of major criminal plans like robberies and kidnappings, right? They must be paranoid of losing everything by having Anti-Skill raid the place before they can get their clients’ bonds built.”

“So lately, bond builders make sure they work somewhere they can’t be located by searching real estate.”

Mugino pointed with her thumb.

Being out in the great outdoors with all its negative ions made them feel a bit cooler than before. Maybe the heat island effect just wasn’t as strong here, though. The leaves hadn’t started changing for autumn yet, so everything was green. And a vehicle the size of a large tour bus was parked on the curb, seeming to encroach on the tunnel of trees overhead. As big as the vehicle was, it was still a personal possession.

“I see. So in the end, they went with an RV.”

That would indeed allow them to provide a living space while also staying on the move so they could slip past Anti-Skill and Judgment. Even if they were caught at a checkpoint, the interior was a lot more complex than an ordinary vehicle, which meant a lot more hiding places. If necessary, the criminal group could hide behind a sofa or under the floor.

Even this mountainous district would have cameras equipped with motion sensors to monitor birds and other wildlife and the drum-shaped cleaning robots were all over the place.

While keeping an eye on any surveillance of that sort, Frenda used a small multi-tool knife to cut through a plastic wrapper and stuck something to the middle of the door. Then she knocked roughly on the RV’s side door. The sound of the knock suggested the RV was bulletproof. The short girl with fluffy blonde hair leaned next to the door.

A voice that sounded like a college girl spoke through the (on the surface) metal door.

“Who is-”

Frenda ignored that and blasted the thick door.

The heavy bulletproof door was blown inwards, knocking over the RV’s owner inside.

Frenda and Kinuhata charged sharply into the smoky interior and made a quick assessment of the entire space. This was a challenge because they weren’t used this kind of space that wasn’t quite a room but not quite a vehicle either.

“Clear.”

“Super clear. Some petty car thieves are having a training camp in here, so what do we do about them?”

The sudden explosion had panicked the occupants too badly to put up much of a resistance. The two girls dragged a few large boys out by the collar.

Mugino spoke to the aproned young woman who was lying half-crushed below the door.

“Cough up your client data, bond builder.”

“A-are you – cough – asking me to retire?”

“You missed your chance to resist a while back, loser.”

Mugino snatched the bond builder’s phone from a table.

“Ah!”

She aimed the camera at the shocked woman’s face to unlock it and then operated the touchscreen one-handed.

“Let’s see. First, I’ll go to Cash Friend’s official site and borrow up to their maximum of 5 million yen...oh, already done. A simple 5-second approval test is a scary thing, huh?”

“Eh? Hey, wait!! What do you think you’re doing with my phone!?”

“Just indulging in my hobby: visiting consumer finance sites. Now to transfer all that money out of your online bank account. Next, I think I’ll borrow as much as they’ll let me from Luxury Celeb, Heaven’s Bank, and Share Chip. Or should I also try some usurious loan sharks while I’m at it?”

“…”

“And to be clear, unlike false billing fraud, the messages demanding payment won’t just go away if you ignore them. Professionalism is all well and good, but do you really want to end up drowning in debt to protect some clients you’ll never meet again? Life has its ups and downs, but I really don’t think that would make for a fun time.”

The bond builder woman poured with a cold sweat.

Mugino continued toying with the borrowed phone in one hand.

“You brought the Sadistic Dolls together here, right? I want all the data you’ve got on them.”

Part 3

Mugino finally felt like things were getting back on track.

After leaving the unnecessarily large RV, she stretched her arms upwards.

“Ahh, feels good to do some real work.”

“My phone’s frozen up trying to read this… Damn. In the end, I connected the storage to my new device, which doesn’t have the usual settings file to speed up data reading. It doesn’t help that these images are huge. And with more than a million in all, it’ll probably take some time before I can open the folder and actually take a look at them. Probably about an hour, I’d say.”

“You should’ve borrowed whatever computer she usually uses, Frenda.”

Frenda was frowning at her phone with a card-sized storage device connected via cable and Takitsubo expressionlessly peered at the small screen from the side. Heading back to get the computer would be a pain at this point. And if that young woman had any sense at all, she would have already gotten as far away from there as possible. Once they could view the data, they would have all the data they wanted on the Sadistic Dolls, so all they needed to do was wait an hour.

Those girls ordinarily wore makeup and color contacts to avoid the mechanical facial recognition in the city’s security cameras and such, but this storage would have photos of them without all that. Once Item had those images, they could track them down.

Frenda sighed.

“In the end, do you think the voice on the phone is intentionally letting us do this? Maybe she wanted us to get impatient and act without permission so we’d do the job for free.”

“The suspicions can wait until after we have solid evidence. Make our move too soon against someone on her level and our names are going straight on an elimination list.”

“I’m sure it’s fine. In the end, she’s probably just too stupid to realize we’d do this.”

So what were they supposed to do for the next hour?

Takitsubo Rikou made a suggestion with emotionless eyes.

“I’m hungry. Isn’t it time we got something to eat?”

There were no objections.

They had collected their laundry at the laundromat, taken a shower at the spa at 10 AM, and then left for this job...so now that they were done, it was indeed about time for lunch.

“I want something cold to eat.”

“You say that, Takitsubo, but you already had somen yesterday.”

“That’s why I want something other than noodles that’s cold.”

“That’s going to make it a lot harder.”

District 21 was all about the great outdoors, so the shops at the foot of the mountain mostly just sold raw meat and solid fuel for cookouts. The only restaurants were a lot like the ones you would find in a rundown rural area, so Item chose to leave the district and go elsewhere.

“Summer is super ending, but it’s still super hot when the sun is high in the sky.”

“There’s an underground path over there, Kinuhata. Let’s use it.”

The four girls descended a long stairway to find chilled air.

The semi-cylindrical tunnel was covered by thick, clear plastic and glowed a bluish-white. The area outside was filled with artificial seawater, so giant mantas and whale sharks swam leisurely by over the girls’ heads.

“This is pretty fancy for a simple underground path. If they were going to go to all this super trouble, they should charge you for using it.”

“In the end, it’s part of a joint class, just like the wall art and sculptures you see around here. Part of the class is to get the students used to having their work seen by a lot of people.”

“?”

“District 21 borders District 9, which is all about arts and crafts☆”

The Item girls chatted like that as they walked through the tunnel aquarium.

Eventually, Mugino began complaining over her phone’s group call app.

Was she speaking with her class rep Shiratori Okibi?

“We have a lot more school events to look forward to once September starts. The most interesting would be the Daihaseisai athletic festival since it involves all the schools in the city. I’m going to be blunt: will you be participating or not?”

“Why do you care? It’s none of your business.”

“You must be joking! We still don’t know if one of only seven Level 5s in the city will be participating! Logically speaking, that will directly affect our placing, so you need to make up your mind sooner rather than later. Of course, I would appreciate it very much if you did participate.”

“You already know I maintain the bare minimum of school attendance needed to avoid being held back. I’ve got it all planned out and I’m not taking one step beyond what’s on that plan.”

With that, Mugino grumpily ended the call.

Kinuhata gave her a puzzled look.

“If school is that much of a pain, why not super cut all ties with it?”

“This is Academy City. I don’t want to stand out that much.”

Mugino’s obvious irritation suggested this was a significant source of stress for her.

Track suit girl Takitsubo smiled a little.

“If that girl can irritate Mugino this much without anyone dying, they must be pretty good friends.”

“Huh?”

“In the end, I could say the same about you, Takitsubo,” muttered Frenda while stealthily removing herself from the line of fire.

Speaking of Frenda, she had a parasol open even though they were indoors.

“Hm, hm♪”

“Frenda-san, super what is that?”

“A personal handheld mist shower☆ Everyone’s talking about them and anyone who’s anyone has one. With one of these, you don’t need to fight for the limited shady parts of the sidewalk. It has a 500mL tank kept cold with a chemical coolant and it keeps plenty of mist drifting down from inside the parasol.”

In other words, it was her usual love of the latest gadgets.

Summer was ending, so what was the point of buying up cooling products now? This was definitely going to end up gathering dust in the closet. And was “everyone talking about them” because the manufacturer was increasing their advertisement to make sure they didn’t have a huge stock left over by the time fall arrived?

The girl who failed to realize she had been duped bent backwards and laughed loud.

“Hwa ha ha! Jealous, ladies!? But if you insist, I would be willing to share this wonderful parasol with you! In the end, happiness should be shared!”

“No thanks, Frenda-san. You’re all damp and it’s super flattened your hair. Not to mention how your skin is showing through your clothes in places.”

After riding a long escalator up and joking about whether they could see each other’s underwear, they arrived directly on the ground floor of a building instead of outside.

Something passed by right in front of Mugino.

That something was a girl wearing a nearly transparent racing swimsuit with a bit of armor added in places. The outfit was apparently what one wore when piloting a giant robot and she was just walking around like it was normal. The additional parts that looked like long gloves and thigh highs apparently made this the “reverse bunny form”. She had a laser gun as long as she was tall resting on her shoulder. It was the classic trope of the cute girl with a brutal weapon.

Of course, this was cosplay and the giant laser gun was made of polyurethane.

Mugino wasn’t used to this sort of thing, so she looked puzzled by this pilot girl that could also fight outside of the cockpit who was max rarity yet was also madly in love with the (male) protagonist.

“Huh? I think we wandered into an anime.”

The large 1st floor lobby also contained a magical girl handing out aluminum-looking helium balloons shaped like stars and hearts and a special stage where extraterrestrial monster costumes were sumo wrestling.

“This is the General Tower for Next-Generation Information and Arts. Although most people call it Moe Bells. In the end, it’s a landmark for art-focused District 9.” Frenda pulled out her phone. “The entire 49-story building is packed full of anime and video game stuff, so you can think of it as a vertical Akihabara. There are shops, movie theaters, event halls, production companies for different media, and even voice acting agencies. There are more than 500 shops open to the public here☆”

Her phone looked hard to operate with the storage device connected by cable, but she appeared to be calling up a fixed point camera on a video site. The small screen displayed a pair of huge towers. Projection mapping on their large walls was used to display humanoid battle robots and giant kaiju at 1:1 scale.

“In the end, the neighboring building is Hot-Blooded Bells. If you prefer to be moved to tears by battles full of punching, killing, kicking, and rescuing, then I recommend going there.”

If Moe Bells wasn’t about battles, then what was with the cosplay girls carrying enormous weapons?

But there was more than just anime and video game merch. There were also sections with smaller junk shops full of complicated-looking computer parts. If you wanted to enjoy games with the best graphics possible, you had to be particular about your video card and processor. And once you started building your own computer, you needed a lot of specialized parts. The line between professional and amateur had blurred a lot of late.

“Frenda-san, are you super into this kind of thing?”

“My sister loves Sunday morning tokusatsu.” Frenda pointed out that the cosplay shop employee was dressed as Magical Powered Kanamin and that the employee out gathering customers for another shop was wearing a Gekota costume. “What about you, Kinuhata? If you want to check out Japanese anime movies, there’s no better place than Moe Bells’s movie theaters. For the short films that artisan directors make while ignoring all the common theater standards, you need a big screen that takes gaming monitor tech to the next level if you want to see all the details in the colors.”

“Huh, so for a super recent example, do they show Momentary Blues?”

“In the end, that’s become a famous benchmark for bringing an entire theater to tears.”

The film buff began jotting down some notes, but the others ignored this.

In this Moe Bells place, miniskirt maids and cosplay magical girls appeared to be a common sight.

Mugino had a fundamental question.

“So do they have any restaurants here?”

“They’ve got everything from maid cafes to dancer cafes and even a Meiji/Taisho cafe☆”

“But is the food any good?”

Mugino’s eyes were pure ice.

Frenda shrugged.

“In the end, I’ve been here a few times because my sister begged me to take her to the hero show. Don’t underestimate Big Sis Frenda’s knowledge of the kid’s menus around here. The maid cafes are hit-and-miss, but you can get food better than at a family restaurant at the good ones.”

“Super how do you know which ones are the good ones?”

“Not from the fliers the smiling maids are handing out or from how cute the decorations are. In the end, maid cafes have obsessive fans, meaning you can’t trust the star rating on restaurant rating apps.” Frenda raised her index finger. “So you need to look at the kitchen ducts. Especially the seams and gap in the cleaning cover. In the end, the cafes that do their own cooking instead of relying on pre-made dishes they can microwave or boil will be covered in oil stains in the back☆”

Since she was the expert, they let Frenda choose where they would eat.

“If the best ones are only better than a family restaurant, is there super any reason to care that much?”

“Kinuhata, don’t these places boost their apparent value by making it feel like part of an event? Like the expensive ramen at a seaside restaurant or movie theater popcorn.”

“Super do not badmouth movies, Takitsubo-san. It’s wrong.”

Apparently the film buff was an advocate for the facilities related to movies and not just the movies themselves.

While Kinuhata and Takitsubo discussed that, Frenda checked out the many available restaurants and then pointed at one of them. Whether or not her nose for this was accurate, she appeared to have some basis for her decision.

A maid dressed in deep blue stood out in front of the cafe. Real maids apparently wore long skirts.

She greeted them with a smile.

“Welcome back☆ Four girls, is it? Let me show you to a tab-”

The maid trailed off, her smile frozen on her face.

Mugino looked puzzled, but then she picked up on something too.

“Y-”

It took a full three seconds, but the Level 5’s thoughts finally started back up.

“You…?”

A quiet beep came from Frenda’s phone.

The card-sized storage device was still connected by a cable, its contents being analyzed. It contained the client list Item had stolen from the bond builder. Automatic creation for a settings file to speed up data reading was complete, so a few photos of faces appeared on the small screen. These were the true faces without the stage makeup and color contacts.

One of them was identical to the maid standing in front of them.

Guitarist Meg, with her natural brown hair, spoke with her face drawn tight.

“What the hell are you doing here, my dumb-as-shit ladies?”

Part 4

The restaurant was a maid cafe.

But instead of a classic restaurant style or an old-fashioned cafe style, for some reason classroom desks were gathered together with table cloths thrown over them. Apparently the true connoisseurs most enjoyed the school festival style.

Despite being a cafe, they only offered a single kind of coffee and tea. The recommended items were curry rice, omurice, spaghetti napolitan, and so on. It all seemed to fall into the category of mysterious Showa-era Western-style foods that didn’t actually exist in America or the UK.

“Ooh, they have pancakes topped with ice cream.”

“Takitsubo-san, are you sure that super sugary thing counts as a cold meal?”

While those two opened their menus and discussed what they saw, Mugino irritably rested her head in her hand as soon as they were shown to their table.

“Maids by day and a band by night? How do people so young become workaholics?”

“Oh, shut up. If you want to create a trend, you need to get it out there in waves so it has time to spread. The idea of making it big after putting out a song or two is nothing but a fantasy. And until we’ve become ‘established’, we still need to make a living.”

Meg looked disgusted at having to do so, but she still replied.

Was that because she was in maid mode, or did she not like having someone take her band so lightly.

“In the end, how long do you expect to wait until you’re ‘established’?”

“It wouldn’t take long at all if we could get in with a major advertiser. It only takes so long because we’re working at it on our own. But our rough estimate says we’ll have what we need in another month’s time. Then we’ll be able to make this our era. We’ve calculated it all out already.”

If that was true, Item could ask for a ton of autographs now as an investment for when they were worth something, but unfortunately they were in no position to do that here.

Guitarist Meg grinned and whispered.

“I don’t want to cause the cafe or the other customers any trouble, so will you come with me?”

“…”

Time froze.

It was like this one table was spatially cut off from everything else.

The cafe’s manager must have been doing the part-timers a favor because the Sadistic Dolls’ new song was playing in the cafe.

The Color of the Whip.

The customers may have only been interested in the rhythm because they didn’t seem bothered by the (fairly crude and dark) lyrics.

Good prevailing over evil might sound nice, but it still meant one side was slaughtering the other. And while evil could respect the shittiness of an evil opponent, good stripped evil of all dignity before slaughtering it.

Instead of pure evil, this was a twisted form of good.

Which of those was really more horrific?

“If we tried anything here, ordinary people will die over dark side business. We don’t want that, which is why we’re just sitting here. And we both know that stacking some cash on the table isn’t going to make this problem go away, right?”

This had been Mugino’s intention from the beginning.

When in enemy territory, eating food cooked in an unseen kitchen was a bad idea. Who knows what they could slip into it. Takitsubo was staring hungrily at the menu, so Mugino stopped her with a glare and then stood up.

Guitarist Meg guided Item through the staff only door. They walked down a narrow corridor and across the industrial kitchen.

Doors silently opened and the number of maids grew. They were gathering.

Five in all.

They were all members of the Sadistic Dolls.

“Walking through the staff only door s-sealed your fates,” nervously said Saki, the vocalist with shoulder length hair.

She seemed aware that a deadly fight was about to break out.

But she should have stopped there.

“The poor things.”

“I-if you really think so, we can spare them. It’s not too late!”

That sounded nice.

But her heart wasn’t in it.

It was obvious she wasn’t really worried about Item. Yuami, the synthesist with a ponytail, just wanted to show off how reasonable she was.

“Saki. And Yuami too. They call themselves Item, choose for themselves to walk the path of evil, and use violence to get their way. They always had an unpleasant end coming, right? It’s what they deserve.”

Was the one with twintails the bassist called Suzuran?

She spoke like it was her job to punish all of humanity’s sins.

Amamo, the drummer with a braid, grinned and assessed Item.

“Huh, you look a lot different in proper lighting. I was expecting more chiseled faces with maybe an old scar or two.”

Mugino clicked her tongue.

It was all so saccharine it made her sick. Her disgust here was of a different sort than when she faced someone truly evil. If Takitsubo hadn’t been expressionlessly glancing around noting the location of the dangerous gas pipes, she might have shot them all to death right here.

“You think you’re the good guys? When you kill people to put food on the table?”

“I’d wondered about that too.” Guitarist Meg’s bright voice seemed out of place here. She sounded like like she was speaking to a classmate. “All we’ve done is complete some jobs, but for some reason, we’ve been placed on the side of justice. Of course, if that comes down to what jobs you choose to do, then maybe we should all be thanking the people who keep society running.”

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“You wanted us out of the cafe, but where exactly do you want to fight? This is the 25th floor of a skyscraper.”

“Yeah, about that.”

Zap!!!

18 million volts of electricity erupted out without warning.

Meg had reached back behind something as they walked along.

And just as she turned toward Item, the thick electric blast shot out at close range.

But Mugino didn’t bat an eye.

She unleashed a Meltdowner beam straight up and an aluminum duct running near the ceiling fell down as a clump. The killer current tore into the closer object with higher conductivity than a human, causing it to rupture from within.

“Saw that one coming,” said the Level 5.

Item intentionally took the side of evil, but these girls carried a twisted form of justice. The Sadistic Dolls were the kind of maggots who hunted as they pleased, not worrying about the ordinary people on the side of the street and even taking villains’ family members hostage.

And yet they had asked to move away from the cafe. The only possible benefit for them was catching Item in a trap.

They wouldn’t care a whit about the customers and workers on this floor.

Several sharp metallic clanking sounds rang out.

The Sadistic Dolls pulled their customized instrument weapons from their hiding places around the kitchen. The cooks appeared to be ordinary people since they paled and foamed at the mouth, so Frenda used a non-fragmentary explosive to knock them out with a concussive blast.

That acted as the starting signal.

Some ran along the floor and others hopped onto the silver countertops as the four and the five clashed.

Something sliced loudly through the air.

Vocalist Saki had drawn a rapier hidden in her mic stand.

Kinuhata blocked that head on and then casually grabbed the blade. With her bare hand.

“?”

But then she furrowed her brow.

She had crushed it with her Offense-Armor-enhanced hand, but she hadn’t heard it break.

Vocalist Saki smiled timidly while holding the mic stand rapier and with small, lightweight speakers attached to her shoulders like angel wings.

“The blade is made by condensing and shaping cellulose nanofiber, s-so it won’t break so easily.”

Kinuhata didn’t have time to respond.

With a dull “crash!!”, her small body was launched sideways. While she failed to deal with Saki’s rapier, Amamo’s drum set had tackled her. To send Kinuhata flying, the drum set, which moved autonomously on mechanical legs, must have weighed more than a ton. A stainless steel sink bent and broke when its silver legs climbed up on top.

“Tch! In the end, I’ll help Kinuhata, so you protect Takitsubo, Mugino!!”

“It’s already too late. We’ll just crush you each in turn. Amplifier: extra charge complete! Move aside, everyone!!”

18 million volts of electricity shot from the end of the electric guitar like an artillery shell.

Frenda knew it was risky, but she reached out a hand to grab Kinuhata from the floor and pulled her behind the counter. If not for that, the electricity would have broken through Kinuhata’s nitrogen barrier with electrical breakdown.

Guitarist Meg roared while accompanied by a giant boxy amp walking on metal legs.

“I’m beginning my extra charge. Don’t let the enemy get close until it’s ready!”

“Got it.”

“O-okay.”

“No, wait. It would be safer in the long run to finish them off now!!”

“The rest of you can do what you want. We’ll be roasting them to speed things up!!”

“?” Mugino frowned.

This enemy was supposed to be the Sadistic Dolls, a killer girls band.

But with close observation, Mugino had noticed a tendency among them.

The vocalist, the guitarist, and the synthesist.

The bassist and the drummer.

They were frequently trading positions, but there were two definite groups there. Furthermore, the different groups sometimes had conflicting plans and strategies.

“Not the best of friends, huh?” Mugino sounded exasperated. “Are you about the break up over ‘creative differences’?”

For one thing, five was too many people for the high level of coordination needed on a single team. With more members, there was a risk of the team splitting into smaller groups and breaking the team’s unity.

And a small fraying like that could change the course of a battle in no time.

“I don’t think they have any decent esper powers,” said blank-faced Takitsubo.

“What makes you so certain?”

Mugino thought maybe Takitsubo had run some kind of scan with AIM Stalker, but…

“They’re a struggling girls band. If any of them was a high-level esper, they would be using that to advertise themselves. Like having a Level 5 idol or something.”

This one hit home, so Meg’s shoulders began to shake. How could she be so mean?

But it was the truth.

(The biggest concern here is igniting the gas and causing a major explosion. So the one we need to take out quick is…)

“Suzuran, the bassist!! The dumbass came to the front line herself. We already saw her flamethrower, so take that out first!!”

Takitsubo expressionlessly opened the big door to an industrial refrigerator and Mugino kicked the bassist in the gut so hard it knocked her through the air.

“? Ugh!”

The door shut.

The biggest fear for anyone using a flamethrower was for the flames to accidentally hit a nearby wall or obstacle and then catch the wielder in the flames. So trapping her in a small space kept her from using her weapon.

A thick beam of light scorched the air.

This was not Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner.

“Tch!!”

“Go to hell! Open up!! Photon Bullet!!!”

This definitely wasn’t a flamethrower or oxyacetylene torch. A red hot beam of light burst sharply from within the silver refrigerator.

Mugino twisted her body to just barely dodge before aiming her palm that way.

This time, it was Meltdowner.

She launched several thick beams to tear through the refrigerator from a variety of angles. It was like the sword box magic trick...just without the trick part.

“Dammit, Takitsubo! Don’t get all smug and then have your plan not work at all! You’re getting punished later!!”

“Ehh?”

“But that’s one down! ...Come to think of it, I just killed a minor celebrity. Don’t these shitheads have a fan at my school?”

“I super got one too.”

The shriek and scream were so shrill it was hard to believe they came from a human being. With Offense Armor boosting her arm strength, Kinuhata grabbed the drummer by the collar and shoved her face-first into the blazing hot industrial oven.

The enemy had been split three and two. So with the bassist killed, her drummer girlfriend had been left all alone. Kinuhata had gone ahead and finished her off before she could recover.

“Got-”

That was when a brutally high-voltage blast of electricity flew through and Mugino had to quickly duck below it.

She didn’t have time for a celebratory “got another one”

Two were dead, but the battle wasn’t over.

“Oh, god!! First the cult and now this girls band! Why does everyone have to use electricity!? I never want to another electricity user as long as I live!!”

Mugino shouted in desperation and reached just her hand from behind cover to return fire with several Meltdowner beams.

Guitarist Meg, Vocalist Saki, and Synthesist Yuami.

More than half the enemy remained.

Item had four, so their numbers weren’t all that different. If they were careless this could easily go the other way.

“Frenda! Fire a barrage of killer skyrockets!! Don’t let them near the rear exit. Once their way out is blocked, Kinuhata and I will charge in!!”

“Got it.”

“Super got it.”

However, the mood on both sides was different. With one side losing two members in quick succession, the other side had the momentum.

“Nothing to do.”

Takitsubo was in charge of targeting support, so she just stood there. That alone showed who had the advantage. The Sadistic Dolls were losing members fast, but Item had a member who could indulge in some idle time on the front line.

With some metallic clanking, powerful stage lights with metal legs gathered by Synthesist Yuami who held a keytar likely installed with modified laser pointers.

“I’ll confuse them to turn this around!! I’ll blind them with my laser strobe lights, so you two use that opening to-”

“Are you stupid?” spat Mugino. She was Meltdowner, one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s. “Did your rotten justice never teach you the villain’s logic that you begin to lose as soon as you let your fear show? And did you really think you could outdo me when it comes to beam power!?”

An explosion overpowered the artificial beams.

Frenda had fired a portable rocket launcher the size of a potato chip tube and Mugino had launched Meltdowner. Steel racks were blown away and a microwave and rice cooker broke apart before their pieces stabbed into the wall.

The human body would not fare well in such a dense concentration of sharp shards flying horizontally like that. Especially when standing upright.

The gray dust cleared away.

The floor was littered with rubble, the ordinary cooks who had been safely knocked out earlier, and the bloody corpses of the villains who had taken the brunt of the razor-sharp rain while standing up.

The cooks could be safely ignored because they could be peacefully silenced by hiring a “negotiator” (whose primary tool was threats).

Track suit girl Takitsubo’s eyes wandered through empty space.

“One’s missing.”

“Tch. That damn guitarist is gone! She must’ve survived by using her bandmates as a shield!!”

Part 5

Mugino tackled the kitchen door with her shoulder and burst out from the cafe.

This was the 25th floor. It was an isolated aerial island with no escape in any horizontal direction. Capture now meant death, so where would Meg go if she really did want to survive?

(If they were working on their own because they weren’t great at teamwork, it’s unlikely she’ll escape from the roof by helicopter. She’ll probably just head for the ground. And she won’t have time to wait for the elevator to arrive, but running down 25 floors’ worth of stairs would take too long too.)

“So she’ll go for the elevator shaft. But instead of waiting for the elevator, she’ll grab the wire and slide down. That’s the fastest way to the surface!!”

An extended warning buzzer sounded. It wasn’t as pressing an alert as the fire alarm, so it probably indicated an emergency stop for an elevator. After a glance over at the map on the wall, Mugino ran toward the nearest elevator hall. That was her only option.

“Outta the away! Get down! Dammit!!”

Mugino ran through the crowd, shoved aside a young man and woman who were chatting in the center of the walkway, belatedly realized there was a baby carriage in front of her, and jumped over it in a superhuman feat of acrobatics. Afterwards, she was surprised to find she still cared enough to do so. Maybe she was getting something out of her school after all.

(I’m supposed to do the dirty work in the shadows. I’m sick of pain-in-the-ass hostage situations. I won’t let it go that way, so I need to kill them all now while I can!!)

As she ran, Mugino focused on her right hand so she could fire Meltdowner at any time. She charged right into the elevator hall. Maybe the arrangement of stores or the layout of the building played a role, but this one elevator hall was especially quiet and deserted.

“Get back here, Meg!! You’re the ones who picked this fight with-”

Mugino didn’t finish her sentence.

Red.

A rusty scent.

Something was lying on the floor. It was a human corpse. It was obviously dead without needing to check for a pulse or breathing.

The elevator’s emergency stop buzzer was still sounding. The metal door was stuck half open. That meant she had been attempting the most sensible escape route.

And yet this had happened.

Before she could even use her killer electric guitar’s 18 million volt current.

Guitarist Meg’s upper body was gouged by several deep wounds. She had likely been stabbed by a sharp blade. Whoever had done it had definitely been trying to kill her. This wasn’t the result of an ordinary person swinging a blade in a terrified panic. Each wound accurately pierced a vital point.

Someone had killed her.

But who?

Mugino felt a draft noticeably different from the air conditioning’s chilly breeze. She crouched down and found the thick tempered glass dividing the buildings exterior and interior had been cut away. In a precise 1m square.

(They used that.)

This was the 25th floor, so it was unlikely the killer had just jumped down to the ground. Had they been wearing a wingsuit, or had they escaped using a large cargo drone?

Either way, tracking them down using traditional methods wouldn’t be possible.

Mugino continued glaring at that hole in the glass until her phone rang.

It was the voice on the phone.

“I did some research into those Sadistic Dolls and it looks like Item doesn’t even need to bother hunting them down. You’d be wasting your time, so just forget about them. You can’t recover the costs.”

“Explain.”

“This city’s justice is on the move.”

That was succinct.

And that word still felt out of place here.

“I know what you’re thinking because it’s always like this with you, but you don’t need to deal with the Sadistic Dolls. Their twisted justice let them harm ordinary people and take hostages, but that hurt their reputation in a different world. So a different set of this city’s gears will eliminate them for us.”

“I see.”

Mugino sighed before continuing.

“But I’m afraid this warning came a little too late.”

“?”

A picture was worth a thousand words, so Mugino snapped a photo of what she saw at her feet.

Something was written quite large in red blood.

You crossed a line.

Chapter 2: The Fourth Estate

Part 1

“It’ll be alright. We took care of the Sadistic Dolls.”

“You say that. But you didn’t. Leave any signs. Pointing back to us. Did you?”

“I promise you I didn’t.”

The boy smiled bitterly while listening to the cheerful artificial voice coming from his phone. It sounded a lot like a female voice actor.

Their discussion was as suspicious as could be, but they weren’t stupid enough to just use the ordinary call feature. They were instead using an avatar clerk app. That was an industrial service that allowed boutiques or cosmetics shops to display a 3D clerk on a tall LCD screen and answer customers’ questions, but it wasn’t well known that anyone could use the service with their phone or tablet as long as they went through the correct process. By using throwaway accounts, it was easy enough for both sides to feign ignorance if the contents of the communications were ever discovered.

A service that let both sides communicate without revealing their real faces or voices was extremely useful.

For members of the press, seeking out a variety of ways to contact people was a part of the job. It let them create an environment where whistleblowers felt comfortable sharing their information and it gave them the means to contact various publishers themselves.

The boy was in District 4.

The district was already unique for its focus on food, but he was in the even more unusual Chinatown.

To help them blend into the scenery, even the three-bladed wind turbines were painted red here.

There were colorful flowers planted in dark soil around him, but the location couldn’t quite be called a small park. He sat inside a roofed gazebo where anyone was free to get some rest. It was chilly there since it was still early in the morning, but sensors would automatically detect the heat during the day and activate the spot cooler on the ceiling.

It was a public facility meant for people to enjoy the flowers, sip on some Chinese tea, and maybe play some go to enjoy a relaxing break. But no one would be using it before the trains even began running for the day.

It was early in the morning of August 30.

Specifically, it was 4:30 AM.

A middle school boy named Kagiyama Sasuke was using the avatar clerk app to communicate with someone while crouched down and performing some kind of work.

He was digging a hole in the dirt.

He held a smooth white blade in his other hand. The blade was more than 30cm long. The nonmetal knife appeared to be ceramic, but it was not.

“Using an esper power. To kill can be tracked back to you. After a search of the Bank. But adding in a weapon. Creates physical evidence.”

“We thought of that, of course. Ah ha ha. There won’t be any evidence left.”

The term “biodegradable plastic” might sound like some kind of cutting-edge technology, but it could even be created from cream.

And as long as you had the material, you could make just about anything out of it.

For example, you could create a large knife with a 3D printer and then hone it with a whetstone. If you killed someone with it, the knife would be the greatest piece of evidence, but if you simply buried it far away from the crime scene in District 9, it would degrade underground as various microbes consumed it.

“We’re on the side of justice, so we aren’t supposed to be resorting to these exceptional measures,” said Kagiyama. “Our specialty is civilly killing people with photos, after all.”

“Civilly?”

“What, do you have a problem with that?”

They called themselves the Frees.

A freelance writer, a freelance photographer, and a freelance drone operator.

The three of them worked together as a no-pressure press group.

They undoubtedly worked on the side of justice.

Ideally, they could capture a decisive enough photograph to eliminate the evils of society. But as proud journalists, they wouldn’t push too hard or pursue their enemy too far. However, in the face of an evil powerful enough to cover up the decisive photograph they presented, “exceptional measures” were necessary.

That meant directly killing that evil themselves to end it.

The photos allowed their target to turn over a new leaf after losing everything. Killing truly took their life. The Frees paid careful attention to that distinction when choosing their target’s fate.

Kagiyama patted the dark soil down and wiped his hands off with a wet tissue. He noticed a bit of soil under his nails, but he figured that wouldn’t be enough to keep him from handling his camera equipment.

Now the evidence was gone.

As time passed, the knife itself would be completely eliminated by soil bacteria, so he could ignore any and all risks, including any fingerprints that may have been left on the knife.

“In that case. You need to continue. Working on the main job.”

“We’ll keep working on the case you were interested in. And I mean supplying information, not killing.”

Kagiyama logged out of the avatar clerk app and stomped down the black soil with the sole of his shoe.

The buried knife would disappear on its own.

And now…

“If we do everything that noble bunch wants us to do, we’ll be out here the rest of the summer. So what’s Item up to?”

“I’m monitoring them.”

He was answered by a girl in a gaudy suit.

Her name was Saetani Melusine.

The blonde high school girl was part French. She held a 30cm plastic tube, but it was not the kind of skinny water bottle that capable businesswomen in tight skirts used to carry around coffee.

It was another tool of their trade: a highly-directional shotgun microphone.

“In the end, the Sadistic Dolls’ guitarist was killed by someone else on their justice side, right? And not even the voice on the phone knows who on the justice side it was?”

The device was meant to get high-quality recordings of bird cries from a distance because wild birds were so cautious. By placing the shotgun microphone on the wooden table and pointing it in the right direction, it could accurately pick up on the voices through the thick tempered glass of the convenience store more than 30m away.

For whatever reason, Item appeared to have no set hideout and instead frequently move between different businesses with 24-hour service. They were behaving like summer break runaways and they were currently occupying a convenience store eat-in section.

The one seated in a stool by the window and resting her cheek against the long counter in obvious boredom was Frenda. She was staring lazily over at her phone which was resting on its side so she could watch something on it. She really did look like a harmless girl who didn’t want summer break to end so she ran away from her strict dorm to spend her time anywhere that had free internet service.

But what she said was far from harmless.

“Do you really think someone could outdo that voice on the phone on the intelligence front? In he end, I feel like she’s manipulating us.”

“Wrong, muttered Saetani with a chuckle.

Kagiyama Sasuke and Saetani Melusine went to different schools, but they were both in their school’s newspaper club.

As was the third member of their group.

“Our funds are drying up.”

“What about our usual uploaders? Fumiaki is getting pretty dull, so what if we send them a few of our stocked photos?”

Newspaper clubs were mostly a thing of the past.

In an age where people could see anything they wanted on their phones, who would bother stopping in the hallway to read a school newspaper on the wall? And even if they tried to force a shift to a digital edition online, there wasn’t much they could do. The new rules meant to prevent students from starting secret school message boards tended to hinder the school reporters too.

But that made the clubs the perfect camouflage.

By creating a secret network of school newspaper clubs, they could use each school’s infrastructure to pursue the scandals of corporate executives and celebrities and deliver the finishing blow by anonymously sending the photos to the editorial department of a weekly photo magazine.

“Any news on recruiting Tokiwadai’s newspaper club?”

“No, but they wouldn’t wait this long to respond if they weren’t seriously considering it. They definitely have some latent rebelliousness at their school. It sounds like things are chaotic there, so who knows if they’ll eventually join with us or not.”

The pursuit of the truth was everything for journalists.

Which meant they couldn’t just report on criminals. They had to dig up everything they could find on the victims as well.

Kagiyama started up the recording app he used to take memos and played a recording of an elderly man’s voice.

That man was the father of the scrapyard worker who was thought to have been caught in the mass murder perpetrated by the Sadistic Dolls.

“Please go away. I don’t know who you are, but we just want to be left alone. I beg you not to use our son’s death as an excuse to justify your own crimes!!”

With the recording app still open, Kagiyama gently shut his eyes.

And reflected on what he heard.

“It hurts us as much as it hurts you.”

“Yes. But if we tell them that, we would be making those parents into our accomplices.”

“That is how the victim’s relatives tell us to do it without openly saying it. True justice knows how to pick up on those hints and act on them.”

The Frees believed in acting on the victims’ behalf.

They would do anything if it would avenge the people who couldn’t take direct vengeance themselves.

They weren’t looking for thanks. In cases of apparent revenge, the relatives were always the top suspects, so it was best if those relatives said nothing at all. It was enough to know they appreciated it deep down where no one could see it.

The Sadistic Dolls task had been completed without incident.

It was time to face the next tragedy.

Saetani adjusted the position of her shotgun microphone.

Her power was Electro Reading.

With it, she could accurately detect the sound of static electricity crackling on the surface of people’s bodies, allowing her to predict the movement of their muscles and joints. While it would allow her to predict someone’s next action with perfect accuracy and set up a cross-counter, the sound of the static electricity was so faint she couldn’t hear it without her ear pressed up against her enemy’s chest. That made her power impractical without a shotgun microphone to support it.

(Of course, my power isn’t much better in that regard.)

“There’s definitely something going on with the rumored #1, Accelerator, but reaching him right away would be difficult.”

“Right.”

“So we need to prove ourselves first. Once we’ve proven we can freely kill a Level 5 with the power of mass media, the adults should be more willing to cooperate with us. Fortunately, the #1 has earned himself a lot of enemies. We can deal with him later.”

Kagiyama peered through the viewfinder of his SLR camera. It was equipped with a telephoto lens so large it looked like it could snap a photo of the footprints on the lunar surface.

“First, we need the upper hand when it comes to information. Specifically, we need to know exactly how much information Item has on us.”

“Then what?”

“If they do have our information already, there’s no point in hiding. We’ll just be assassinated when we least suspect it like a certain someone was.”

“And if they don’t have anything on us, we peacefully go into hiding?”

“Right.”

“Don’t make me laugh. We both know you’ll be spreading their photos and voice recordings online as efficiently as you can. They have no future either way.”

Just then, Kagiyama heard a dull thud and felt a vibration.

(What was that?)

He looked away from Saetani seated next to him and then froze.

“Ugh, that convenience store’s air conditioning is too strong. I can’t get any sleep there. I’ll freeze solid if I don’t get some fresh air first.”

It was Mugino Shizuri.

That extremely dangerous girl was approaching another bench in the gazebo, putting her only a meter away.

Part 2

Mugino was in a bad mood as she plopped herself down on the gazebo bench.

Her phone was the source of that bad mood.

She had a call from the Mugino family outside Academy City.

“Such a wretched state of affairs… How could the daughter of the glorious Mugino family find herself homeless and spending her nights in junk food establishments?”

“Shut up, Mujinayama. What happened to paying me respect?” grumbled Mugino.

While Butler Mujinayama spoke quite gently, she knew better than to take what he said at face value.

He ordinarily did not directly call Mugino’s phone. He must have made this decision after using various indirect methods to finally sense that something was wrong.

There was pity in his voice.

That was not an emotion that a butler should have been directing toward his master.

This was an emergency for a high-class girl.

“If necessary, we can send supplies to support you. We could even send an RV or a large truck along with a kit for building a simple house with 2x4 construction. Academy City keeps itself locked up tight, but there are delivery services using the official routes.”

“You must be kidding. If I accepted a handout from the family, I’d be their laughing stock until the end of time.”

“I am intensely relieved to hear you say that. Even if you must live a miserable life without a roof over your head, I see you have not forgotten that you are a proud member of the Mugino family.”

“Mujinayama.”

She was ready to give him a serious talking to, but discovered he had hung up on her.

He might be the lead butler, but he was only a servant and she was the heiress.

“Damn bastard.”

She just about crushed her phone in her grip but stopped herself at the last second. Mujinayama had been getting around the restrictions on his speech to encourage her. And he had succinctly told her what things were like in the Mugino family at present.

A house was more than just a place to sleep.

For the upper classes, it was as much of a status symbol as a wristwatch or handbag.

(He’s too damn nice. Ugh, we need to find a new hideout sooner rather than later.)

Part 3

Yes, Item had four members.

While the Frees were focused on one of them, they could lose sight of another.

The two guilty journalists were left trembling with a brutal criminal seated across the gazebo table from them.

“(Wh-wh-wh-wh-what is Mugino Shizuri doing here all of a sudden? I thought all four of them were in that convenience store!)”

“(Don’t ask me! I was only in charge of listening. You’re the photographer, so it’s your fault for getting so focused on your phone! I just thought some of the four were more talkative than others!)”

They weren’t speaking out loud, of course.

That wasn’t an option with Mugino only a meter away. Seated side by side, Kagiyama and Melusine pressed an index finger against each other’s back and secretly communicated by tapping out Morse code.

They had chosen this spot because it wasn’t covered by the security cameras and the slightly cracked walkway kept the drum-shaped cleaning and security robots away, but now they wanted all of those things here. Now that villain had no reason to leave.

“Yawwwn…”

Only a meter away, Mugino put away her phone and calmly yawned.

They felt like they were in a strange zoo with no cages or fences and a lion was lying in front of them and opening its great maw in boredom. But at least Mugino didn’t seem cautious.

Did she not know?

It didn’t seem like she had purposefully snuck up on them. She must have left the convenience store without them noticing and then just so happened to spot the gazebo and decided to sit down there.

They were fine.

Everything was alright.

There was nothing directly linking the killing of the Sadistic Dolls with the Frees. The murder weapon was a biodegradable plastic knife which was already degrading underground. Without any damning evidence, Mugino would have no reason to suspect them.

She was dangerous.

But reading people like this didn’t seem like her forte.

She seemed a lot more like a meathead who solved everything in battle!!

It was worrying that she seemed like the type to just kill everyone she thought was remotely suspicious, but not even a dark side team would be allowed to indiscriminately harm ordinary people.

So they were safe. Unless she could somehow prove it.

This was working out in their favor.

Kagiyama searched for every little thing that would make him feel better, but then…

“You came out here, Mugino?”

“Yeah, what of it?”

Another one showed up.

(Takitsubo...Rikou.)

She didn’t directly participate in Item’s battles, but she supposedly provided mental and targeting support.

Which meant her specialty was data analysis.

Part 4

“The days of major vs. indies are over! Now it’s all about general artists who bring music and video sites together! The big name there has got to be the Sadistic Dolls. Their new song The Color of the Whip is just so good and they’re having a streaming event on the last day of summer break!! I can’t wait☆ Oh, I know! How about you watch it with me?”

“Eh?”

Mugino couldn’t exactly tell Class Rep Shiratori-chan that the band was already dead.

Not when the girl was speaking so excitedly and peacefully over the phone.

“With phone culture cutting into their business, internet cafes have started renting out home theaters, so it shouldn’t be too expensive to get ourselves a great live viewing environment. Don’t you want to join me in enjoying the Sadistic Dolls’ streaming event on a big screen?”

“Oh, uh, your breaking up. Hello? I can’t hear you? Damn, I’m losing my signal. (click)”

Hanging up like that was pretty rude, but it was exceptional for the Mugino to feel the need to put on such an obvious act when doing so. Even that deadly beast tried to put on appearances for her public life.

“Mugino.”

Takitsubo waited until the free talk app was closed to speak up.

She was well-behaved for the dark side.

“Are you out here because the convenience store was too cold? Keeping the air conditioning on that strong can’t be ecological.”

“Yeah, and Frenda and Kinuhata have so little fat on them it makes no sense that they’re the ones who can take it.”

“Don’t say that. They can’t help it. And I don’t think chest size has much to do with how well you handle the cold.”

“You’ll make those dumbasses cry tears of blood saying things like that.”

As they chatted, the track suit girl sat down next to Mugino.

Now it was 2 vs. 2.

And the other side was Item, a group that specialized in direct combat.

This had been a safe zone just 5 minutes ago, but now it was a gazebo from hell itself.

Sweat poured down Kagiyama Sasuke’s body.

“(What do we do? Hey, what do we do!? Hey!?)”

He tapped away on the blonde girl’s back to communicate, but then he felt a very dangerous sensation. He must have tapped too hard and unhooked her bra. Yet Saetani didn’t react in the slightest.

Her thoughts must have briefly left her body and begun floating in the ether.

While Mugino pulled her phone back out of her pocket and irritably did something with it, Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.

“Mugino, on the dark side, we’re supposed to retaliate when someone makes a fool of us, right?”

“Butting in on our territory is like declaring war. I don’t know what piece of shit stole our job, but I will make them pay. ...Oh, right. Gather up all the cleanup delinquents! As many as we can get! It’ll take a lot of people to collect all the scattered fragments and clean everything up!!”

Mugino kicked the table with her phone in hand, making the media pair shrink down even more than before.

They began a sweaty strategy meeting only a meter away.

“(Wait, hold on. We can call Anti-Skill over what they’ve said here, right?)”

“(No, she hasn’t said exactly what they’re cleaning up. She’s just barely talking around it.)”

But Kagiyama wanted help regardless.

Was there no way of reporting this to Anti-Skill or Judgment so they could handle everything instead?

He operated his phone under the table in what felt like a prayer, but it had no signal. No signal? In Academy City, a city of cutting-edge science in the middle of Tokyo?

“Shut up! I said all of them!! Have the outside workers on standby too. Yeah, all of them!! Including that expert called Hanatsuyu Kuchikusa or whatever!!”

Yet Mugino was somehow yelling into her phone just fine.

Her own signal was getting through. Unnaturally so.

Was she jamming the ordinary phone signals!?

“Phew. Calling people is always such a pain.”

“I feel bad for the delinquents when you yell at them like that.”

“Yeah, and we were the ones who screwed up this time. Maybe I should buy them something to eat later. ...I need to direct this anger at the pieces of shit who stole our job.”

“Mugino.”

At this rate, all four members of Item could end up in this gazebo. The Frees were experts at gathering information, but they couldn’t launch a direct attack using a microphone. Especially with someone so terrifying. They preferred to make waves without revealing their own identities.

That meant they needed to leave this gazebo of death and go elsewhere. If they managed that, there was no way-

“Hey, you.”

“!”

Kagiyama’s shoulders jumped.

He was an expert journalist who made sure to always get the devastating photo, so having his target within arm’s reach was never ideal. He sensed trouble – big trouble.

“We’ll pay, so help us out. You do media work, right? And I can tell you’re not some major newspaper employees who get to take part in some fancy press club.”

She’d noticed.

And her instincts were serving her pretty well here!?

“Let me guess – freelancers who use that freedom to take a step into the dark side where you package up people’s misfortune to sell unconfirmed stories to sports papers and weekly photo magazines? Or maybe unethical journalists who prefer making money by threatening company executives and celebrities with photos of the skeletons in their closet?”

“…”

Kagiyama Sasuke and Saetani Melusine couldn’t come up with a response.

Track suit girl Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.

“How can you tell, Mugino?”

“The expensive shotgun mic I could see a video streaming freak carrying around, but you don’t see many amateurs using one of those along with an SLR camera that can only take still photographs. And I doubt they’re birdwatching in this restaurant district with nothing but crows to see.” Mugino looked bored. “I don’t know their exact ages, but even freelance students who’ve signed an exclusive contract with a major newspaper will use equipment lent to them by the paper. And kids especially will rely on borrowed equipment if they can. And those would have waterproof labels with an asset management number on them. A camera lens alone normally costs a fair bit of cash.”

“You mean like the women in suits on the train whose phones and laptops have a weird number on the back?”

“More or less.”

Takitsubo blinked twice.

And then took a look around.

“Is there a celebrity around here? Maybe on a secret date in Chinatown?”

“Frenda seems to know everyone, so maybe she’d know.”

Mugino and Takitsubo discussed it casually before both turning to face the other two.

Sweat poured down Kagiyama’s back, but he did his best to keep it off his face.

He remembered the time he was trying to get a photo of a celebrity’s affair during the middle of the night, but the celebrity discovered him and tried to run him down with a giant four-wheel-drive vehicle. He was reminded of the headlights and overly thick bumpers rushing toward him like death itself.

But this was worse.

He wasn’t going to escape Mugino Shizuri by running into a park with bollards guarding the entrance.

“Ha ha… Um, our photos are more important than our lives, so we can’t comment until they’ve actually been published. We just finished a job and were performing maintenance on our equipment.”

(Damn. We could take them out right now if we could only contact Amekawa!!)

Kagiyama smiled while thinking of their third member and just about clicked his tongue.

Amekawa Souji had played the most important role when it came to finishing off the final member of the Sadistic Dolls. His power was Remote Murder and it was perfect for settling conflicts.

But right now, Kagiyama was too scared to even pull out his phone. If he so much as glanced at the small screen, those two might get suspicious. And that could have devastating consequences.

“Does Frenda know anyone on TV?” asked the track suit girl, her gaze wandering through empty space.

“She muttered something about having no need for a has-been movie star when she was cleaning out her phone. Y’know, when she starts unfriending people on social media like crazy.”

“We probably shouldn’t let Kinuhata know about that. They might get into a fight.”

Saetani’s Electro Reading alone didn’t seem like enough to overpower the combo of Meltdowner and AIM Stalker.

Kagiyama’s power wasn’t any better.

Bind Scoop.

It was a mental power based on “the fear of being found out”. When he took a photo of someone, they were hit with an invisible psychological pressure that let him remotely control them as he wished. However, not just any photo would do. He wasn’t so talented that a single surveillance drone would let him conquer a country in record time.

The photo had to meet a few different conditions.

1. The target must be unaware they were being photographed.

2. The target had to be looking right at him.

3. The target had to be caught in the act of some personal scandal which they believed would be devastating if it got out.

So it was nearly impossible for him to control Mugino or Takitsubo now that they were right here with him. Aiming his enormous SLR camera at them from this close without them noticing but also with them looking at him was asking too much. Plus, he would have to be catching them in some kind of devastating personal scandal.

Saetani and Kagiyama (forcefully) poked at each other’s back with their index fingers.

“(This is why I keep telling you to carry around a pen camera just in case!)”

“(Those take a video after you press the button, so they don’t work with my power!)”

And so.

There was no doubting it.

If they thoughtlessly fled from the gazebo or shouted and attacked those two, they would simply be Meltdownered by a yawning Mugino.

(But it’s not over yet. I can still bind and control Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai in the convenience store. Then Item can tear themselves apart!)

Takitsubo expressionlessly but curiously viewed the camera sitting on the table.

“Wow. You still use a big SLR even though phone cameras have gotten so good?”

“Since everyone uses the same phones, that’s become the new average, so you have to work hard to stand out from the crowd. That means you need specialized equipment for any professional work.”

Mugino gave the camera bag, big battery, and directional shotgun microphone on the table an exasperated look.

“Even if it’s the end of August, it’s still summer. Why bother sitting around waiting for the perfect moment with that huge camera and shotgun mic? You can fake all the photos and voice clips you want nowadays.”

“Yes, it’s true computers can even create fake articles and photographs.”

Kagiyama smiled a little and shook his finger.

He noticed some dark filth under his nail, which depressed him a little.

“Most deductions and opinions can always be buried along with the truth when a terrified politician scatters fake articles around and points to them as proof they’re being targeted by a smear campaign.”

“Yeah, I have heard the authenticity of real videos can be called into question by injecting them with codes and artifacts associated with generative AI.”

“Right. We’re approaching a world where credibility is nothing but a popularity contest.”

That might make it sound like reporters and photographers would no longer be necessary.

That may have been a dying occupation.

But…

“That only makes a real photo all the more powerful.”

“Oh, really?”

“The real deal acquired the old fashioned way carries the unique power to break through all the fakes. The more over-the-top tricks powerful people with skeletons in their closet try, the more powerful a cross counter formed from the truth. That’s what we believe.”

Still seated on the bench, Mugino threw her upper body onto the table, squashing her large chest below herself. She used her own arms as a cushion and grinned.

“Interesting.”

Uh, oh. Making himself sound valuable only made it harder to escape.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed high school girl gave up on Morse code and just plain pinched his back. And too strongly for him to consider it a reward.

Then she again spoke with him by firmly rubbing her index finger against his back.

“(You use your power to help them out. In the meantime, I’m going to feign illness and go home!!)”

“(Are you stupid? If you leave like that, you’ll make those monsters suspicious and then it’s all over! You know my power is no good in direct confrontations!!)”

“Anyway, Takitsubo, I say we get their help if they can be useful.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“It doesn’t matter what photos they get as long as it isn’t being livestreamed or sent to the cloud. We’re safe as long as we check their devices and destroy them if we find they’ve recorded anything we don’t like.”

Bull’s eye.

That would explain the powerful jamming. Which meant it was already far too late!

“Besides, unethical journalists who aren’t sure whether they’ll deal with a magazine or the actual celebrity they photographed are part of the dark side. They’re the same as us.”

“But, Mugino, they’re part of the media, which means you could also say they’re on the side of justice. Doesn’t that scare you?”

“Rumors fade.” Mugino whispered to Takitsubo who was expressionlessly tugging on her coat. “But when a scandal that was all over mass media and personal blogs suddenly vanishes one day, it isn’t because people stopped caring. It’s because someone drew a line and said no one was to cross it.

“And I’m not talking about a press club,” added Mugino with a grin. “The big companies aren’t going to protect them, so the smaller media people can always sniff out when to back off. The ones who can’t are weeded out. By which I mean, they mysteriously drive their car into a dam or somehow wind up inside a giant jet engine at the airport.”

“Does that mean what I think it does, Mugino?”

“You two are supposed to get your photos in secret, but now we know what you look like. I know you know what kind of retaliation you’ll suffer if we were to let that information slip.”

“Ha ha ha ha ha...ha…”

Saetani laughed stiffly.

Kagiyama had known her for a long time, but he couldn’t tell if she was acting or not.

It didn’t matter how much Mugino threatened them. They could launch a surprise attack as long as they got away from this gazebo safely.

“So how much are you planning to pay them? Use too much money and Frenda will be upset again,” said Takitsubo, exasperated.

“That’s not an issue. We have money – we just don’t have anywhere to spend it,” replied Mugino, sticking her tongue out a bit.

Then Mugino whispered into the phone she had left on the table.

“Hey, voice on the phone.”

“Don’t expect me to answer at all times of day. It’s always like this with you. We! Have! Our! Roles! Here! I am the one who sends you jobs and controls everything from above. Or did you forget?”

Mugino looked annoyed as she spoke into her phone.

“Did you get the security camera footage from that building?”

The Frees had of course planned for that much.

And it would seem unnatural if they didn’t say anything for too long.

They didn’t want to give the impression they were cautiously listening in, so the two of them exchanged a glance and Saetani spoke first.

“Could you start by explaining what kind of case you’re investigating?”

They started off carefully.

Intentional or not, Mugino and Takitsubo hadn’t mentioned any specifics about the case.

If Kagiyama or Saetani carelessly mentioned the Moe Bells, a knife, or a murder, they were dead for sure.

“There are different kinds of crimes. If security cameras were all anyone ever needed, the media would be out of a job.”

“That’s true. You can’t track the criminal from camera to camera to locate their home if they’re cognizant of the cameras’ positions, hide their face, and frequently change coats while hidden behind pillars,” added Kagiyama.

That set up a continuing conversation.

They were putting on a bit of an act, but they could safely mix in some accurate but safely revealed information. In fact, that would seem more natural.

However…

“It’s a murder. ...Anyway, a big entertainment commerce building like that will have more than just the obvious cameras on the ceiling, right? To catch streamers making prank videos. Like 2mm cameras hidden in the gaps in the wall.”

“!”

(We didn’t know about those cameras!?)

Part 5

“Mugino, your clothes are all sweaty.”

“Damn this demanding body. And after the convenience store was too cold.”

“Hee hee hee. Your bra strap is showing through. This is why you shouldn’t wear a single layer of white in the summer.”

Kagiyama Sasuke was too panicked to focus on that.

He nearly gasped out loud. What was that about 2mm cameras in the walls!? Saetani Melusine kept trying to catch his eye. She was clearly confused and seeking instruction.

The woman’s voice coming from the phone was loud enough to reach the two of them as well.

“No luck there. It was in the Moe Bells, remember? All the life-size cardboard characters and giant balloons block the security cameras a lot. The elevator hall in question had this huge model airplane hanging from the ceiling by wires, so we can’t see a thing. Keeping those cameras a secret from the ordinary workers backfired because they end up covering them up accidentally. It’s always like this, I swear.”

(D-don’t scare me like that.)

“What about fingerprints?”

“Mugino, the victim was stabbed 19 times, but no one saw a bloody figure flee from the scene. They must have been prepared, so I doubt they would have been careless enough to leave any prints.”

Takitsubo answered before the voice on the phone could.

She was acting like a pet cat trying to take its owner’s attention away from the video they were watching.

And she was right, of course.

Fingerprints were the most basic thing to think of. Kagiyama and Saetani were both relieved, but…

“Hey, voice on the phone, then did they leave any hairs on the floor? Or footprints? If we check the shoe print, we can figure out the manufacturer and size. Tracking down the store where the shoes were bought could help narrow down who did it.”

…Had they been that thorough?

Anxiety slowly grew within the Frees.

Kagiyama knew it was dangerous, but he asked a probing question despite Melusine pinching his back.

He tried to be careful.

“Um, but, even if there were hairs on the floor of this...did you say it was an elevator hall? Anyway, that wouldn’t be enough to identify the killer. A lot of people would pass through there in a day and the air conditioning could have blown the hairs in from somewhere else.”

“If we end up with a list of 100 or even 1000, we can just investigate them all. Of course, it’d be our support team that did it.”

“Mugino, it wouldn’t be that many. The cleaning robots would pass through periodically, so we wouldn’t find anything from more than an hour before the killing.”

Kagiyama nodded with a smile.

“A-and how many people would that mean?”

‘Who knows. It’s not like we’ve taken exact statistics or anything, but if we assume not too many balding people were using the elevator, I’d guess ten at the most.”

“Ha ha. Oh, that’s good. Sounds like you can narrow it down a lot…”

The shotgun microphone on the table was still switched on. Saetani’s wireless earphone was still playing the distant conversation within the convenience store.

“Super by the way, what are we going to do about the support team’s equipment?”

“For now, put in an online order with this Armory person who 3D prints weapons. We’re in no position to make them ourselves right now.”

“Are guns made with craft plastic actually reliable? Are they sturdy enough?”

“Oh? So in the end, you’re worried about those delinquents now? You’ve grown. Then only order blades and blunt weapons from the Armory and order the more explosive toys from Wartime Arsenal.”

Frenda Seivelun was smiling with her laptop open in the convenience store’s eat-in section.

Kinuhata’s glum look changed to one of confusion.

“Why don’t you super order them?”

“Because I have a higher priority job to take care of.”

“?”

“In the end, it’s about you.” Frenda pointed straight at Kinuhata. “School starts after August, right? But in the end, you were trapped in a secret lab for so long you don’t have an academic history.”

“Now that you super mention it.”

“Your record will stand out as is, which could hinder your work on the dark side. It would be safer to rewrite some documents to make it look like you attend some school or another.”

“Even Mugino can’t super avoid stuff with her school, right?”

And so Frenda was writing a job order for some other sketchy worker.

“Kinuhata, I’ll have them make an ID for you, but in the end, is there a specific elementary school you want to go to?”

“I don’t care about the specifics, just super make it a middle school!!”

While those two were shouting in the convenience store, the voice on the phone was speaking calmly.

“Nineteen stab wounds makes for a fairly vigorous killing, but the culprit didn’t leave any sweat or saliva splattered on the floor. We can’t expect any hair either. If they were wearing a thin, foldable raincoat or windbreaker to keep the blood off, they would have had the hood over their head.”

No.

That wasn’t true at all, but Kagiyama had no reason to correct them.

Just knowing they hadn’t collected any hair from the floor was good enough.

“I wouldn’t expect any footprints either. Since this was right in front of an elevator, even with the cleaning robots, there would be far more footprints than fallen hairs.”

“And,” softly interjected Saetani. She knew the risks, but it was worth directing this conversation away from the truth. “Even if you did find some, shoe prints aren’t as decisive as fingerprints or DNA. You might not be able to track down the individual who bought the shoes if they were some cheap, mass-produced kind.”

“True,” said Kagiyama, trying to look helpful.

He had to resist striking a triumphant pose, but Item didn’t seem all that shocked.

They had only been reviewing the basics.

Mugino and Takitsubo looked like they were only now getting to the main thrust of the conversation.

Mugino glanced down at her phone.

Everything focused in on a single point.

“So the key is the murder weapon.”

“Exactly,” said the voice on the phone. “Find that and everything standing in our way falls apart. It’s always like that. And once we know their identity, we can pursue them as much as we like. Since we do have the corpse, we can investigate the wounds and the knife to quickly determine if it was the one used.”

Quickly.

Determine.

“B-but wouldn’t the killer have been wearing gloves?” asked Kagiyama with a smile.

“So what if they were?” coldly replied the voice on the phone. She spoke more firmly than expected, preventing his interruption from guiding the conversation. “Gloves would only prevent us from getting fingerprints or a palm print. We could still tell where their hand touched it. ...Also, Mugino, if you’re going to recruit on-site help, you need to support them yourself. It’s always like this with you.”

Her tone was light, but that was a fairly stern warning.

“I’m only in charge of Item itself. Just like with the delinquents in your support team, it’s not my job to protect their information.”

“As if some evil-hearted member of the privileged class is going to protect anyone at all.”

A dangerous tension filled the air, but that wasn’t enough to make a Level 5 flinch.

Mugino rested her head in a hand, looking only half-convinced.

“Gloves, huh?”

“There were some pieces of leather less than a millimeter thick on the floor, so they probably wore cheap leather gloves,” said the voice on the phone. “And it was apparently the real stuff, not synthetic. With that kind, the surface cracks in no time at all. Now, since they were cheap, there are probably tons just like them around, so tracking down the killer through purchase records probably isn’t possible.”

“So we can’t get direct fingerprints and we can’t track the purchase of the gloves. Does that mean we’re looking for DNA? Like getting genetic information from sweat that soaked through the glove and onto the knife’s grip?”

Takitsubo used the corner of a neatly folded handkerchief to dab beads of sweat from Mugino’s cheek, leading to those two fighting over the handkerchief.

“Is that really possible?”

Kagiyama was trying to put on an act to draw out information, but this question was mostly a completely honest one.

He couldn’t be certain one way or the other.

Not when Academy City tech advanced far too quickly. Especially on the dark side.

Yesterday’s safe zone might not be so safe tomorrow.

“Probably not,” said the voice on the phone. “Extracting DNA from no more than sweat isn’t happening. What we would actually want are skin cells from more than a millimeter deep. Those would come comes off with the sweat, but the glove in the way would act like a filter to block it. Plus, leather repels water.”

“…”

This relief was like violence.

Melusine’s tear ducts nearly loosened. Even though she knew crying would give away the game.

But…

“Camera check, camera check.”

It wasn’t Mugino who jumped in surprise – it was Saetani.

She could see him, but she had ignored him. She must not have expected him to use it on her.

The target had to be looking at him without noticing what he was doing and the camera had to catch them in a compromising situation. If those conditions were met, the target’s body would be physically bound. Including on the level of pulse rate and perspiration.

That was Kagiyama Sasuke’s Bind Scoop.

For Saetani, tapping out Morse code on her companion’s back to communicate without Mugino and Takitsubo noticing counted as a compromising situation. Which meant Kagiyama was in position to threaten her.

“(Hey, what are you-?)”

“(You should thank me for being so cautious.)”

If he could keep Saetani’s tears from escaping, they could survive this.

But…

“Which is why the dark side’s video hunters use the bones.”

The voice on the phone sent the conversation in another odd direction.

Kagiyama could feel the skin of his face going cold.

Blonde Saetani tried to recover her composure too quickly and failed.

“Bone- what?”

“I said we could find traces of the glove, right? We’ll check for those on the knife’s grip and use the distribution of the grip pressure to determine the shape of the culprit’s hand bones. That’s common practice in Academy City. Investigations are always like this.”

“Mugino, don’t the hand bones and joints have an especially complex structure for the human body?”

“Yeah, enough so that delinquents who don’t know what they’re doing will break their own fingers when they throw a punch.”

“Exactly,” said the voice on the phone. “Hand identification isn’t just done with the veins. With so much complexity in one place, it’s as possible to identify an individual from their hand bones as it is from their teeth☆”

After listening to all this and organizing her thoughts, Mugino spoke with her voice low.

“So that’s even more reason the murder weapon is our top priority.”

“What we’re looking for is pretty sharp and also heavy,” said the voice on the phone. “Maybe something like a big machete used to cut through the underbrush when hiking through the mountains, or a cleaver used to crush cow bones while chopping the meat? Whether it’s stainless steel or ceramic, it’ll be a sturdy, heat-resistant material, so it can’t be quickly eliminated in a fire like paper or plastic can be.”

“Academy City is a walled city, so it should still be somewhere in here. So would the best plan be a thorough search of trash dumps, rivers, and so on? Taking your time is the best shortcut to finding solid evidence,” said Saetani, praying it would turn out all right.

Item was close, but they were a little bit off-base.

Following this line of investigation would not lead them to the Frees. They wouldn’t expect for the murder weapon to be made from biodegradable plastic and to be slowly vanishing as they spoke.

Saetani had to calm them down.

She had to convince them they had plenty of time and then have them waste their time. As proven by the countless free-to-play online services, you could get people to waste any amount of time if you developed the right logic.

“Huh, they super sell nikuman at the end of August here? Is that cause this is Chinatown?”

“Munch, munch. In the end, I wonder if this really contains Hokkaido brand-name pork? Luckily, Frenda-chan has the forensic investigation kit needed to check its DNA map!!”

“Super cut it out.”

The convenience store conversation was still playing from Saetani’s wireless earphone thanks to the shotgun microphone.

Nothing she heard there seemed like it would lead to a solution.

But the lazy flow of time there could come in handy. With the scent of death so powerful in the gazebo, every little thing tended to make her panic and focus a little too hard. She did her best to feign normalcy and, when she couldn’t anymore, focused on those two chatting to help tap the brakes.

Takitsubo tilted her head.

“But we could be at a dead end if the knife has already been disposed of.”

“How would they do that with a metal knife? If they had the Meltdowner-level firepower needed to melt steel, they could have just used their power to kill her. I don’t get why they’d use some lame knife instead.”

“Mugino, no one said the knife had to be made of metal.”

Kagiyama’s heart leaped into his throat.

All of a sudden, they were approaching the truth.

These kinds of coincidences meant you could never relax when dealing with the dark side.

Kagiyama was soaked with sweat, but then something rested her head on his shoulder.

It was Saetani.

She tapped out a message on his back.

“(Calm down and suppress you emotions.)”

“…”

“(Take deep breaths. And focus on how often you blink. The stiffening in your cheeks isn’t worth worrying about. As long as you keep your eyes from wandering and your breath from catching, it shouldn’t be noticeable.)”

Her counseling was always perfect.

Because she could instantly scan the physical state of the target’s body and perceive their mental state.

Her Electro Reading let her “hear” the static electricity running along their skin to accurately detect the movement of their muscles and joints. And as long as she could hold her ear to their bare skin without rousing suspicion, she didn’t need the shotgun microphone.

And she was right.

This wasn’t over yet.

(They might suddenly get closer to the truth in theory, but we can still distance them from us. This isn’t over. We have nothing to fear as long as Item doesn’t discover anything definitive. As long as we can get through this and leave the gazebo, we’ll have a chance to take them by surprise.)

Mugino still didn’t understand, so she pouted her lips like a small child.

Kagiyama couldn’t have her getting any closer to the truth, so he chose to speak up here. That way he could direct their thoughts away from the truth. He couldn’t give them an answer – he could only give them a hint. It was important they were convinced they had thought it up themselves.

“So if it isn’t metal, could it be made of rock or glass?”

“Those have a melting point between 1400 and 1500 degrees, so there wouldn’t be much point.”

“Ehh? Then is there something else?”

Sulking Mugino was growing more childish by the second.

She rested her head on Takitsubo’s shoulder and pushed against the girl while giving her own thoughts.

“A knife carved from wood probably couldn’t slash, but it could be used to stab. And it could be easily disposed of in a fire. But that would only be a toy.”

“It could also be biodegradable plastic, Mugino. That might sound fancy, but you can use cream to make one in your kitchen. And that would be able to slash and stab.”

“…”

They were screwed.

If Kagiyama tried to say anything here, they were screwed for sure.

“But even if the knife is buried so it can degrade underground, the bloodstains won’t go away. So maybe the blade doesn’t have any blood on it? So maybe, Mugino, this was a remote attack that could damage the target by harming a doll or a picture?”

…How good was this track suit girl’s intuition!?

Had she really arrived at the biodegradable plastic and the remote attack without any hints to guide her!?

Whether she was guessing or had some kind of power helping her, now that the idea was on the table, it couldn’t be ignored.

It took all of Kagiyama’s willpower to avoid glaring at her with bloodshot eyes. Once they were in position to attack from a safe position, she would be the first one they silenced.

Remote Murder.

The third member of the Frees was a freelance drone operator named Amekawa Souji. His power made it so striking or stabbing a target’s shadow with a weapon would apply the same damage to the target themselves. It technically used the idea that “the mind rules the body” to produce physical injury through the placebo effect or hypnotic suggestion. Once it was in effect, it would still work even if Kagiyama or someone else was the one doing the stabbing. It was easy to avoid once you knew how it worked, but no one would be expecting it the very first time. It was especially useful that no blood or flesh that could be used as evidence ended up on the murder weapon used to attack the shadow.

If only they could contact Amekawa Souji wherever he had gotten off to.

If only they could scatter the screws and nail in his box across the ground so the downpour of sharp weapons contacted Mugino Shizuri’s shadow.

Even that violent Level 5 would be killed instantly.

If they could only do that, it would be over all at once, so where was that guy right now!?

“(He might have seen what was going on in this gazebo from a distance and gone right back home. He does use drones, after all.)”

“(If he did, I am so killing him later.)”

Without speaking aloud, Kagiyama and Melusine conversed using their fingers on each other’s back. Knowing that freelance drone operator, that was a distinct possibility. Then again, maybe it was better for one of them to be hiding somewhere than for all three of them to be trapped here.

Across the table, Mugino frowned and lifted her head from Takitsubo’s shoulder.

The track suit girl looked a bit disappointed as she turned to face her.

“A biodegradable weapon, huh? I don’t like the sound of that. If they buried it, it’d slowly disappear on its own.”

Uh, oh.

They were gradually moving in the right direction.

“B-but.”

Kagiyama leaned forward.

He wanted to direct them to a different set of rails before they settled on this one. He wanted to guide them in the wrong direction.

“While this is a walled city, you might not find it even if you dug all through the city. It could be on private property, it could be in the sewers, or it could even be in a building if they used a potted plant. And if you are going to dig up everything, you’ll need some kind of paperwork giving a justification. I don’t know, maybe disposing of unexploded ordnance or repairing aging plumbing.”

“Not necessarily,” said the track suit girl, expressionlessly pointing somewhere nearby.

At the ground.

A few objects the size of tennis balls were scurrying around.

They were rodents. And not hamsters either. These were the uncute variety.

“Wah!?”

“They aren’t all that unusual in areas that serve food.”

Mugino jumped in uncharacteristic surprise, but Takitsubo didn’t seem to mind their presence.

In fact, she looked a little happy.

“Hee hee. I just found one of your weaknesses, Mugino. It can be our little secret.”

“Shut up. My Class Rep has told me way too many scary stories about rats. Like that they spread the plague and that they carry so many germs their bites are really dangerous. Apparently they even used to chew through the wiring in tanks, bringing them to a standstill. And if that Class Rep says so, it must be true!!”

“…”

Takitsubo used two sticks to pick up a filthy rat and tossed it at the Level 5. Mugino screamed.

She seemed annoyed her partner would trust anything her Class Rep said.

Then Takitsubo expressionlessly continued the conversation.

“There are different kinds of biodegradable plastic, but it can be made by chemically altering cream. And if it was made from that, it wouldn’t surprise me to find small animals can sniff it out. They can apparently dig up tissues and drink bottle lids from the bushes on the side of the road. And District 4 is far enough from the scene of the crime that the culprit might try to use a public space here to let the knife quickly degrade without creating any connection leading back to themselves.”

Mugino didn’t react at all to this explanation (because she had her feet pulled up onto the bench to keep herself as far away from the ground as possible), so Takitsubo tilted her head and used a stick to shoo the rats away.

Saetani spoke to the track suit girl bent over toward the ground.

“A-a stray dog might have buried some kitchen garbage. You might find something gross. And even if the killer did use biodegradable plastic, we don’t know if they used cream.”

“Any non-dairy ingredient would be hard to come by. And they wouldn’t have any reason to not use it.”

Takitsubo stuck the end of the stick into the ground and began digging.

Were the sounds of thin threads snapping coming from hair-thin grassroots?

Mugino looked puzzled, her feet still up on the bench.

“Wait, you’re really going to dig here? We don’t even know how deep the killer would have buried it.”

“It can’t be too deep if the rats could smell it.”

Mugino had nothing to do but didn’t want to stick her hand where the rats had been gathering, so she spoke as if to just fill time.

“So what, did they 3D print a knife using biodegradable plastic made from cream? Damn, anyone could acquire all of that, so it’ll be hard to track them down.”

“But, Mugino, what would they gain from killing the guitarist?”

“If they were professionals, they wouldn’t have cared who it was. There’s no point in taking a job that puts you up against someone else in your business because that only leads to unnecessary trouble.”

“If the killer themselves didn’t have a motive, maybe they were doing it for someone else,” softly suggested Saetani.

“You mean it was a hired killing?” asked Mugino and blonde Saetani nodded.

“But it might not have been spelled out so clearly. It’s possible the killer was moved to do something after seeing the poor people whose family members were killed,” added Saetani with a chuckle.

“Hm.” Mugino nodded (her feet still pulled up on the bench). “But if that’s why they killed the guitarist, they were pretty damn stupid.”

“?”

“I mean, think about it. No one asked them to do that and even the surviving family members told them not to, but the killer refused to listen. I’m not going to deny the fake news flooding the world is a problem, but dumbasses who can only view accurate information in a distorted light are an even bigger problem.”

Saetani poured all her willpower into keeping a straight face.

Kagiyama wondered if he had managed the same.

And eventually, Takitsubo came to a stop while using her stick to dig into the dark soil.

Kagiyama and Saetani had a very bad feeling about this, so they started to reach for their SLR camera and shotgun microphone on the table. Their hands collided.

“(Now is not the time to try for a bittersweet romance! And I haven’t forgotten you unhooked my bra earlier! Are you in love with me or something!?)”

“(Can’t you just let bygones be bygo- oh, no! We lost our chance!!)”

Her feet still pulled up onto the bench, Mugino peered down into the hole dug in the dark soil.

“I’ll be damned. There it is.”

Part 6

This was bad.

It could hardly be worse.

Kagiyama Sasuke understood this intellectually, but he still couldn’t make himself move.

He could only watch as the track suit girl wrapped a handkerchief around her hand and stuck her hand into the hole.

Takitsubo Rikou grabbed the grip and lifted an object up to eye level.

It was a weapon with one-sided blade measuring more than 30cm. It wasn’t made of metal, but it was still quite heavy. Because it was 3D printed, it was all one piece, from the tip of the blade to the bottom of the grip. It wasn’t multiple pieces held together with screws.

The white plastic knife had already started to crack.

It looked ready to fall apart at any moment.

“Whoa.”

“Tch. Don’t hurt yourself, Takitsubo. Having your DNA on it would only complicate matters.”

(That’s right. This isn’t over yet.)

Kagiyama did his best to catch Saetani Melusine’s eye.

(Don’t give it away! They haven’t completely identified their enemy yet!!)

The voice on the phone, who was apparently watching through the phone camera, sounded exasperated.

“Wait, really? I know the blade is the thinnest and most fragile part, but why does it have to be like this? If the bacteria eat away too much of it, we can’t compare it to the body’s wounds.”

“What about the glove marks? Y’know, how you said we could identify someone from the distribution of their hand bones.”

“We can try, but I’m not sure it’ll work. Since District 4 works with food, garbage-eating soil microbes are artificially disseminated there. If the surface of the grip’s been eaten away, the glove marks won’t be there anymore.”

“God, you’re useless.”

“Why is it always like this with you!?”

If no one were watching, Kagiyama might have high-fived his partner.

They’d won.

They’d escaped.

On instinct, Kagiyama reached for his SLR camera on the table. Not yet. Don’t smile yet. Once they were away from the gazebo, it would finally be their turn to attack.

(Top priority has to be Takitsubo Rikou since she’s too clever by half. Next would be Mugino Shizuri since she’s the most powerful. The other two I’ll kill using Amekawa’s power! I’ll stab them so many goddamn times for giving us so much trouble. We’re justice. We’re on the right side here. The Frees know when to use photos and when to use violence, so how could we ever lose to some villains who only know how to use violence!?)

Just then…

“The person who buried this knife is the one who killed the guitarist, right?”

“?”

Matching the knife to the body’s wounds and identifying the wielder’s hand bones from the glove marks on the grip would both be difficult.

But Takitsubo was looking at something else.

And she made it sound so simple and obvious.

“Then that settles it. We’ve caught the dark side killer.”

Part 7

“Super tah-dah! It’s a super dangerous criminal psychology quiz☆”

“Huh!? In the end, don’t just buy whatever magazines they have just cause you’re bored. The trick is to see how far you can get with the free services they offer, but here you are falling for the convenience store’s tricks!”

“How you answer these questions determines how much of a criminal you are. Super let’s see…”

“In the end, you need to listen to me…”

“Let’s go!! Question 1: Someone was murdered at an izakaya. But for some reason, a man who wasn’t even at the izakaya was arrested at his distant home. Now, why did Anti-Skill make this mistake?”

“Hmm?”

“Oh, should I super set a time limit for these questions?”

“In the end, it’s cause that man ate yakiniku.”

“…”

“Hey, what it is?”

“Um, uhh… I’m super not sure what to say…”

“Just give me the answer already. How much of a criminal am I, Kinuhat- hey, don’t just avert your eyes without saying anything!!”

Part 8

Takitsubo twirled her stick.

That was the one she had used to dig up the dark soil to reveal the white knife.

She poked at the knife’s grip with it.

And…

“Mugino, do you see this black stuff here? I think it’s pieces of the leather glove.”

“Oh.”

Without meaning to, Kagiyama made a sound instead of Mugino.

“You can get DNA from animal cells the same as with human ones.”

Hadn’t Frenda Seivelun made a fuss about that in the convenience store?

Something about using a forensic investigation kit to get the DNA map of the meat in her nikuman and see if it was really the advertised Hokkaido brand-name pork?

And the voice on the phone had said the DNA had to be taken from pieces of skin, not from the sweat itself. And what was leather?

“The biodegradable plastic itself will break down on its own while buried, but this stuff on the grip won’t. It will stay.”

The shotgun microphone left on the table sent the distant convenience store voices into Saetani’s ear through her wireless earphone.

“Pressure me all you want, that answer super isn’t in the magazine! It only gives things like he owed the victim money, he had a twin, or Anti-Skill is incompetent. How twisted a criminal are you if not even expert psychologists can measure your criminality!?”

“My answer was completely normal! In the end, you get hundreds of kilograms of meat from a single cow. All meat taken from the same cow will have the same DNA, so while the man was getting drunk at home, Anti-Skill assumed he had been at the izakaya!”

Whether or not she knew about this other conversation, Takitsubo expressionlessly spoke on much the same topic.

“I don’t know exactly how leather gloves are made, but I assume they use leather from the same animal for the outside and inside. So if anyone has pieces of leather with the same DNA as the pieces on the knife’s grip, we can conclude they were wearing the exact same glove.”

Kagiyama looked down at his hands.

The ends of his nails were a bit dark.

No, there was something underneath the very ends of his nails. Caught where washing his hands with soap wasn’t enough to get it out.

Mugino’s face went blank.

There was no smile in her eyes.

Not even a hint of one.

“Oh, really?”

Their eyes met.

Kagiyama averted his eyes. His face was covered in uncontrollable perspiration.

They didn’t even need to check the DNA.

Part 9

The dark side beasts climbed over the table to immediately attack.

Part 10

Mugino called the support team and had them clean up the bodies and bloodstains left around the gazebo.

“Ehh? In the end, you should’ve called me to join you if all that was going on.”

“Isn’t it a bad sign that the media was super sniffing around?”

Frenda and Kinuhata weren’t happy about being excluded.

“You seem to be acting like this over,” said the voice on the phone. “But weren’t there supposed to be three of them?”

“Hey. The last one was a drone operator, right? If they’ve vanished, they’ll probably start attacking us remotely, so where the hell did they get off to!?”

“He’s right here.”

Mugino was answered by someone to the side.

This was clearly an outsider.

A large object was tossed over. It was the upper half of a boy, which hit the top of the gazebo table and fell down to the ground, splattering red and black stains across the scene the support team had just worked so hard to clean.

Mugino glared over at whoever had done this and then froze.

This was unusual for her.

“What...are you doing here?”

“Grr.”

The low bestial growl sounded like a stray dog, but that was no dog. The partner accompanying the newcomer was a supposedly-extinct Japanese wolf.

“(Super what do you think about that?)”

“(You aren’t going to find a mysterious animal in this city of steel and concrete. In the end, it’s better to assume a stray dog’s DNA was messed with to force some atavism.)”

This person could toy with technology to that level.

They were undoubtedly part of the dark side.

The Japanese wolf’s master was a girl with long black hair. She looked to be high school age. Her busty body was contained by a white and blue short-sleeve sailor uniform with a pleated miniskirt. That was likely the uniform to some school or another. On her feet and legs, she wore white boots, special sock garters attached below the knee, and short black stockings. Above it all, she wore a thin coat and a hunting cap.

While it had cooled down a lot, it was still only late August. The inside of her coat had to be filled with electric cooling products and tools that violated anti-weapon laws.

“Mugino. Do you know her?” calmly asked Takitsubo.

The track suit girl may have been asking if this girl provided a service on the dark side, like an unlicensed doctor or a weapons dealer.

But looking back at Frenda and Kinuhata’s earlier conversation, there was another possibility.

Even if it was only to avoid having their records stand out, the Item girls were all enrolled in a school somewhere.

So…

“Shiratori Okibi. But you’re supposed to be the Class Rep at my ordinary school!?”

And in response, the girl accompanied by a Japanese wolf laughed.

Shiratori Okibi.

She was indeed the Class Rep with excellent grades.

“I am a detective.”

That was another stereotypical identifier.

It was another name for the justice that opposed all villains.

“And I’m also the loser who had her target – the Frees – stolen right before her eyes☆”

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.

Chapter 4: The Violent Gears Known as Justice

Part 1

“Fox I // Sigh. Another job? But we’re only just finishing up the last one.”

This was one of the countless games available in the app store.

Specifically, it was the simple chat on the home screen of a puzzle game.

The text from these cheap message services was not automatically indexed by the major search engines. Plus, if the management staff had very little focus on crisis management, they wouldn’t even check for suspicious messages. That meant so much could get through without question, so a throwaway account was all you needed to use the chat as a contact point for some fairly dangerous transactions. And if it was discovered, you only had to move on to another game and another account.

The person frowning at their horizontally-oriented phone was a high school girl in a white miniskirt military uniform. The pale-skinned girl wore her long flaxen hair in a single braid…which people often said looked like a fried shrimp.

Her name was Inoue Fox.

In her other hand, she casually held someone by the collar. That person had some clear plastic wrap wrapped all around him, but that was to prevent his blood and guts from spilling out of the many sharp lacerations covering his body.

“(Hidden Name) // You mean you’re not done yet?”

“Fox I // We’re finishing it now. I did tell you luring out a hacker would take some doing. He’s the one that hacked into the Bank to check through the students’ DNA maps.”

After dumping the person in a plastic container, she focused on typing on her phone. I’d really prefer a layout that let me type one-handed, she complained, pouting her lips.

“Fox I // Number 000 demands we execute every single person responsible for a Judgment death. This guy took a job from that science cult leader to search out sacrifices who met whatever her conditions were, right? Without this hacker, Minamioki Sarusa wouldn’t have-”

“Fox I // That was too long, so it got cut off. Oops. *wouldn’t have died. We need to give him a proper ‘reward’ for that.”

“(Hidden Name) // Be quick about it. That is your job.”

“Fox I // Yeah, yeah.”

With that complete, the girl fought the temptation of the campaign guaranteeing an LR ticket and closed the app. While that sounded like a good deal at first, actually doing the math showed it was more expensive than testing your luck with 100 rolls.

A short distance away more girls in white miniskirt military uniforms were passing the time leaning against the wall or seated at a table.

The four of them were a team.

Yamada Coyote, who had short chestnut hair, held a hand to her forehead.

“I feel like we’ve had a lot of work recently. Does no one respect Judgment anymore?”

“It is concerning,” said Satou Lycaon, a brown-skinned and busty girl with silver ringlets who was massaging her shoulder.

Tanaka Jackal, a flat-chested girl with wavy black hair, nodded in agreement.

“We need to inject some violence into the city to restore Judgment’s reputation.”

That was their job.

They couldn’t let the criminals have the last laugh. If they allowed it to happen even once, the criminals would grow arrogant, resistance would grow, and victims out on patrol would become more common.

So they had to strike back before that happened.

Judgment was actually prioritized above Anti-Skill.

Ignorance of this fact was no excuse.

If anyone was foolish enough to take a Judgment life, they would be taught quite thoroughly how foolish that had been. By others from the same organization.

“Number 000 is a code indicating a special emergency. But if it becomes the new status quo, it loses all meaning.”

Inoue Fox duplicated a document camouflaged as a meaningless corrupted file before opening it on her phone.

The plastic container next to her was filled with red and black. The number of arms and legs matched up, but none of them were intact. They had been slashed to pieces. Letting it all stay in the general shape of a person was only meant to increase the pain as much as possible.

And despite all this, the bloody mouth was moving.

He was alive.

The extreme sharpness of the cutting edge had been a bad thing for the victim in this case.

“Ah…”

She slammed the lid shut.

Without even looking in that direction. Inoue Fox used her entire palm to paste a shipping label on top as if to seal it shut.

“Where did we decide to send this eyesore again?”

“District 9’s Moe Bells.”

Yamada Coyote frowned at Inoue Fox’s answer.

“Oh, the poor people there. It’s not like they had anything to do with it.”

“Making the most use out of a corpse is proper etiquette for a killer, remember? We can’t achieve our goal in this case unless we scare the geeks lurking below the surface. And if you want to silence the hackers in this city, there’s no better place.”

Inoue Fox explained while pressing a large button on the wall.

With a heavy metallic rumble, the entire wall began to move. No, that was a metal shutter. They were currently inside a garage.

And a mass of composite armor weighing more than 30 tons sat in the center.

That was a HsAAt-07 Matchlock. It was equipped with thick rubber panels to avoid damaging the pavement, but it was in fact an anti-drone tank with a giant gun and continuous tracks.

“Who’d ever guess a prestigious school had something like this hidden away?” said Yamada Coyote with a smile.

The thick metal shutter opened to reveal Nagatenjouki Academy in the middle of the night. The school was relatively new, but it was an elite prep school that rivaled Tokiwadai and Kirigaoka in the field of esper power development. This garage was located in the athletic club building.

The leader, Inoue Fox, clapped her hands twice.

“Okay, everyone. Hop on!”

“Dammit, I’m improving my score this time!!”

The other girls used the hatches on the gun and tank itself to board the tank. They did so with a practiced ease. They were accustomed to driving this thing across Academy City.

Satou Lycaon sighed inside the thick vehicle.

“I knew we couldn’t trust those outsiders.”

“You mean those journalists? The Frees, was it?”

“All they had to do was gather the personal information and common gathering places of the Sadistic Dolls and Item. They weren’t even fighters, so of course they got burned when they tried to attack. If only they hadn’t gotten themselves killed before they could send us what info they’d gathered.”

By leaving the plastic container outside, a cargo transport drone would fly in, read the packing slip’s barcode, and then carry it off into the night sky.

“It’s already the 31st, the last day of summer break. Judgment needs to set an example, so we can’t afford to oversleep, forget our textbooks, or otherwise embarrass ourselves once September starts. If you don’t want us to end up on the kill list, then we need to get this job done with enough time left to prepare for the new term!”

“Understood.”

“Will do.”

“Roger☆ Score, score, I am so getting a high score!!”

These four were Judgment Branch 000, aka the Special Exception Cleanup Team.

Judgment had no official records of their existence and they handled only Number 000s. These monsters existed to physically prevent justice from becoming inoperable.

The girls in white military uniforms tore noisily out into the night, but to them, the anti-drone tank was no more than a toy to set the stage.

Judgment relied on esper powers more than next-gen weapons to deal with criminals.

“Do we know their general location?”

“if the data we received is accurate, they are at District 16’s landmark. There shouldn’t be any decent people there at this hour on the 31st. And anyone who isn’t decent is none of our concern.”

An anti-tank drone required a few different things to function.

1. The accuracy to track a drone flying a complex path at more than Mach 1.7.

2. The ability to set up a barrage capable of shooting down a swarm of attacking drones with 100% accuracy.

3. Cheap enough ammunition to shoot down enemy drones for far less money than the drones cost.

…#3 was surprisingly difficult. For example, surface-to-air missiles packed full of ultra-precise equipment would mean paying a ton for each cheap drone destroyed, which would mean a financial blow for only the defending side. However, being too cheap for anything more than a peashooter of a machinegun was meaningless if drones managed to breach your defenses.

Thus, the Matchlock used large explosions that covered a wide area.

Specifically, it used thermobaric shells.

These were derived from fuel-air explosives, but if the explosion happened in the empty sky, there was no concern of accidentally bombing civilians. When striking a wall rather than aiming at a point, precise targeting and a large number of shells became unnecessary. That allowed for a high interception rate along with an overwhelming reduction in cost. The tank only needed the bare minimum of a radar and each disposable warhead didn’t need a small computer loaded in it.

But what happened if this weapon’s intended usage was ignored and it was fired at an altitude of 0m – that is, on the surface where so many people and buildings were located?

Inoue Fox actually sounded bored.

“Okay, fire the first leveling round.”

“If this first wave was enough to kill any of them, I really doubt we’d have been called in. And it doesn’t improve my score.”

“Following procedures is best. For justice, anyway. Fire.”

The HsAAT-07’s gun borrowed the design of a warship’s quick-firing gun, so it could launch more than 20 thermobaric shells a minute even while the tank was in motion.

And they would soar through the air like a long throw in baseball.

Part 2

The shrill sound was a lot like someone filling their lungs with air and then blowing into a whistle.

Takitsubo and Frenda looked up almost simultaneously within District 16’s Bulweiser Icicle Theater ice palace.

“Mugino.”

“Oh, no. In the end, that’s the reaper’s flute! Get down, everyone!! Something’s falling this way!!”

How many of them managed to follow those instructions?

Light flashed.

All sound was drowned out.

The flames were a lot like those caused by a car explosion. Which meant small particles in the air had been ignited. But it covered an abnormally large area. Each blast caused an explosion more than 100m across and they just kept happening.

The support team delinquents waiting outside were enveloped in flames and blasted into the air along with the bulletproof car. Even if they got down or dived behind an ice pillar, the waves of heat and shockwaves would circle around and take their lives.

The tremendous explosions were too loud to even hear their death cries.

A nearby concrete building was scorched black and the heat was so great the asphalt melted.

Kinuhata used Offense Armor to smash the ice floor below her and then Item slipped underground.

Without advance knowledge of the enemy, they would have been caught completely by surprise and killed.

The detective had given them the clue they needed.

Takitsubo reached a hand out toward a delinquent being left behind, but Mugino grabbed her wrist and dragged her down.

An especially large explosion followed.

Even with a thick ice roof over their heads, they had to shout to be heard by the people right next to them.

“It looks like we at least managed to deflect the heat, but if I could smash these ice blocks with my fists, then they super aren’t going to be much of a shield. I don’t know what idiot is behind this, but if they’re serious about this bombardment, they’ll break through soon enough!!”

There was no one here but the four of them. They hadn’t had time to save anyone else.

The girls crouched down and ran through the narrow space.

“So is this Number 000? They’re killing everyone involved in the death of a Judgment member?”

Paling, Frenda bit her thumbnail.

This proved none of that had been a bluff.

This city’s justice could easily cover up even a thermobaric carpet bombing.

“In the end, this is absurd. Why do we have to die because they were careless!?”

Absurd

They could be so certain of that assessment because they were villains who existed outside the rules of justice.

The people who could do something like this were different.

Generally, anyone who was immersed in justice never even questioned their actions.

(You call this justice?)

Mugino thought this while clenching her teeth hard.

These people were abusing their official authority to cover up evidence of a mistake and kill anyone who got in their way. And these were the people who reigned above the detective who had risked her life for a classmate?

Kinuhata kept her voice low. “If they kill everyone who was involved in a case where a Judgment member died, then they won’t just target the dark side. They would do this to an ordinary person who happened to witness it too.”

“What’s your point?”

“It super pisses me off, so I want to tear that fucking system down!”

“Then the best way is to attack the dumbasses doing the attacking and cause so much damage it becomes clear they’ll get burned even if they try to keep their system going. But that’s a lesson for the execution squad’s higher ups, not the squad themselves,” responded Mugino with a brutal smile.

She only had her life now thanks to the detective, but this was her way of doing things. Asking Mugino to become a good person right away was simply impossible. She had to choose what Item could realistically do right now.

“Violence isn’t a toy to play with for fun. It’s a professional’s tool. That’s a lesson the purity-obsessed justice needs to learn.”

The four of them emerged from below the floor.

They heard more whistling overhead.

It seemed unlikely they could escape the downpour of flames on foot, but they fortunately found themselves in a parking lot. And a few snowmobiles were parked there in place of motorcycles.

“Hurry!!”

Mugino and Kinuhata boarded one snowmobile and Frenda and Takitsubo boarded another. They started the engines in a less-than-legal way.

A suggestion came from the snowmobile moving alongside Mugino’s.

“Mugino, can you shoot down those things falling from the sky?”

“What good would it do? I’d just be telling the enemy where we are. We can make our counterattack after escaping their targeting and losing them!!”

More and more shells struck the city behind them. The white snow reflected the red light and giant ice sculptures were scorched and shattered before they could even melt.

Trying to escape based on speed alone would only get Item caught in the explosions. To survive, they had to drive in sharp curves while focusing in what would act as cover.

Fortunately, there weren’t many people out tonight. Since it was late at night on August 31, people were staying in to prepare for the new school term in September.

“Mugino, does that mean we don’t have to worry about ordinary people getting hurt?”

“All this and zero deaths? That’s too much to chalk up to coincidence. We may be playing right into Number 000’s hands.”

Frenda clenched her teeth while operating the one snowmobile, but she was also rationally analyzing the situation.

Explosives that didn’t rely on esper powers were her specialty.

“In the end, there are a lot of shells, but they’re all coming from the same direction. They might be launching them while on the move, but there is probably only one launch point. The enemy can’t be too large!!”

“How about we make a u-turn and super go in for the attack!?”

“In the end, it’d be a real pain if they’d set up a bunch of landmines and then built up a thick wall. It’s better to let them shoot all they can and aim for the moment they approach to see if they got us!”

A blue road sign passed by overhead.

Mugino clicked her tongue.

“That ain’t good.”

Fleeing on snowmobiles was all well and good, but it was late August. The snow on the ground had all been created by snow machines.

So once they left District 16 where the campaign was being run, the winter wonderland would vanish.

And if they escaped District 16 to the south, they would run into District 1.

That was the symbol of the sketchy justice. That inhuman district contained all the administrative and government agencies, so it was the most distant part of the city for anyone on the dark side.

The snowmobiles sent sparks into the air as they scraped across the asphalt. Mugino hopped off before hers had even come to a complete stop.

“Mugino, another shell is coming.”

“Super what do we do!? There’s no way we can escape on foot!!”

“In the end, this way!!”

Part 3

The Special Exception Cleanup Team accurately closed in on their target while driving the HsAAT-07 Matchlock anti-drone tank through the late-night city.

They showed great familiarity with this work.

The driving was done by Yamada Coyote down in the tank proper while Inoue Fox and the other two were up in the turret operating the gun with a flat touch screen. The Matchlock’s advanced datalink functionality meant it contained as much communications equipment as a small communications base.

“Where’s that data on the targets?”

“It’s coming up now.”

No matter how dangerous their mission, these four were officially-recognized members of Judgment.

Thus, they could legitimately access the Bank.

Revealing the details of their opponents’ powers before the fight began gave them an overwhelming advantage. Attacking their target’s weak point and going for the kill before their own identities were revealed allowed them to win without taking any damage themselves.

“Let’s see, based on our mission request list, I have confirmed the eyesores who have survived this long are Item: Mugino Shizuri, Takitsubo Rikou, Frenda Seivelun, and Kinuhata Saiai.”

“They’re not here,” said Tanaka Jackal in surprise.

Impossibly, her search of the Bank had found zero results. Were they supposed to believe Item was incorporeal ghosts?

“They do dark side work, right? Maybe they’re being protected,” suggested Yamada Coyote over the radio.

Inoue Fox gave a snort of laughter at that.

It happened a lot.

Hiding someone’s data from the Bank wasn’t enough to conceal their existence. They would still leave evidence where they lived their lives.

“Besides, Mugino Shizuri is a Level 5. They’re famous. Hide her official ID as much as you want, you can’t hide her at her school.”

They had gathered enough data on Takitsubo Rikou and Kinuhata Saiai to make some good guesses about those two as well.

Satou Lycaon stared at the screen.

“Who is the most dangerous eyesore?”

“Frenda Seivelun. That she’s a Level 0 means she’s trouble. Searching through the locked internet isn’t going to tell us what kind of toys she’s hiding.”

That was how the Special Exception Cleanup Team ranked things.

Nothing more than a high-level esper was business as usual for them. It was always the mysterious nobodies who they had no data on who threw off their plans.

With a general target priority in mind, the girls kept the Matchlock moving.

The anti-drone tank had been loaded up with thermobaric shells, but they would still run out if they kept firing for 10 minutes straight without reloading.

The Special Exception Cleanup Team burned the city of snow and ice until it was red and black, but they didn’t think this toy could actually eliminate their target.

That wouldn’t be any fun.

“Which way did they go?”

“Any way but south and they’ve already been carbonized.”

“Then the eyesores must be in District 1. Check the map and locate a spot near the border where they could have escaped the thermobaric shells.”

“Here,” said Yamada Coyote over the radio while driving the tank. “District 1’s cold storage warehouse. The building is surrounded by thick insulated walls, so it could have protected them from the walls of fire.”

Part 4

The place was large for a cold storage warehouse. It was the size of a stadium.

“Get back!!”

They didn’t have time to slowly pick the lock. Mugino blew away the staff entrance door with Meltdowner.

As soon as the four of them rushed inside, several explosions erupted outside. Each shell produced burning flames for 100m in all directions and the outdoor space was engulfed by several of these at once.

The chill seemed to cling to their skin.

It wasn’t August in here. They could see their breath. They had avoided the downpour of thermobaric shells, but they didn’t get the liberating feeling that comes with outsmarting an enemy.

“Mugino.”

Takitsubo held her body, shivered expressionlessly, and looked to the wall. The digital display there said -40. That meant it was 40 degrees below freezing. Mugino shouted, her breath coming out in white puffs.

“Frenda! What about our phones!?”

“Mine’s working fine. In the end, they are Academy City products☆”

Circuit boards and batteries could fail in extreme environments, but that apparently wasn’t an issue.

Still, they had stumbled into a world where a towel would freeze instantly if you wet it with water and swung it around. Without appropriate cold weather gear, there was only so long humans could operate in here.

Frenda stared intently at a metal wall panel that had half-fused with white frost.

“Damn, it’s cold. Argh, isn’t there a map posted somewhere? Liquid nitrogen support coolant tanks, emergency generators, ceiling crane… In the end, is that all the equipment in here!?”

Trying to hole up inside this giant cold storage warehouse would only put Item at a disadvantage. The thick insulated walls might be able to protect them from the walls of fire caused by the thermobaric shells, but they biologically couldn’t ignore the extreme temperature of -40 degrees.

Eyeballing it, the ceiling appeared to be five or six floors up. But the containers and boxes were stacked up like pyramids, so Item still felt cramped down on the floor. They may have gotten a different impression if they were looking down from the catwalks quite high up on the walls, though.

Just like in a gym, a lot of metal beams were set up near the ceiling, but there were also some special rails laid out there. Were those for the ceiling crane that could move containers heavier than a ton in and out of the warehouse?

“What if we blasted a hole in the wall? Letting the outside air in might help with this cold.”

It was fortunate the warehouse’s design had been based on a capsule-shaped indoor soccer stadium. That meant the enormous ceiling was supported by countless metal beams distributing the weight. With a domed stadium that used the power of the air to remain intact, a large hole would have caused it to collapse.

However…

“When we don’t where the enemy will attack from? We managed to hide in a fairly large and complex building, so we don’t want to give away our position with all that loud destruction.”

Battle Freak Mugino applied the brakes.

Which showed just how formidable an enemy she was expecting.

Kinuhata covered herself with a nitrogen barrier, perhaps hoping it would have an insulating effect.

“So super what is this place?”

It was much too big to be a simple cold storage warehouse.

It was the size of an indoor soccer stadium, after all.

Not to mention that an ugly warehouse felt out of place in clean District 1.

“It’s probably Reserve Meal,” spat Mugino.

Frenda sighed and explained.

“That’s Academy City’s largest disaster-response food vault. But only the Board and a limited number of VIPs get to use it. The general public isn’t even told it exists.”

The place was like Academy City in miniature.

The elites would monopolize all this food and refuse to part with any of it, but as soon as it was close to expiring, they would donate it to the Child Errors so they could look benevolent. It really just demonstrated that they were hoarding more food than they could eat themselves, but they took the act of shoving it onto others and wrapped it up with the pretty image of heartfelt charity. And the recipients’ thanks for the food really was heartfelt.

As a rule, a villain like Mugino did not trust philanthropy that asked for nothing in return.

People did things either because it benefited them in some way or because it let them feel superior to the others around them. Her dark side nose, which tended to view all things in an uncharitable light, told her that much.

Just rationally view the structure here.

No matter how much they tried to pretty it up with their words, the food supply route visualized the difference between the upper class and the lower class.

(Not that I’m one to talk when I’m the prodigal daughter of the Mugino Family, a grain production company that feeds 1.4 billion people.)

Or maybe that was why it irritated her so much.

Meanwhile…

“In the end, this isn’t over. The execution squad is made up of Judgment elites, right? That means they fight with their powers, not those toys. The enemy is coming and soon. They’ll be breaking through a door or using that big hole we made, so be as read as possible by then!”

Blue in the face, Frenda dumped something out from her thin poncho: explosives and detonators of all sizes.

“What are you going to do with that?”

“There’s no point in thinking too hard. If you attach them to the door and press the big button, then they’re all ready to be detonated! But do it in the reverse order and they’ll blow up in your hands, so be careful. I’ll cover the hole with IR and milli-wave!!” Frenda rudely stuck a hand into her short skirt. “Also, you take this, Takitsubo! That’s better than me holding onto it, so be ready just in case.”

“Kay.”

Takitsubo expressionlessly reached out a hand and caught the small automatic handgun soaring through the air toward her. It was unclear how well she could fight on her own, but this would be better than nothing. And that kind of destructive power in the hands of a targeting-support power like AIM Stalker could scare the enemy with the possibility it presented if nothing else.

The warehouse was the size of an indoor soccer stadium. They didn’t have time for Frenda to set up the explosives herself. Mugino, Takitsubo, and Kinuhata carried as many explosives as they could and ran to different parts of the facility.

They set them up on the large main entrance meant to allow forklifts, loaders, and other equipment to pass through, on the side entrance meant for people, and…

“The walls are thick, but since the place is like a giant freezer, there must be a super huge fan leading outside. There should also be an outside door on the second or third floor for firefighters to get in. That’s how it worked with the lab I was in. Someone super take care of those!”

“Okay, Kinuhata. I can get those,” Kinuhata replied using the group call feature on their phones.

Mugino was blocking up all the main entrances on the first floor. Kinuhata was attaching explosives to the center of the doors on the same level. Kinuhata couldn’t see where Takitsubo and Frenda had gone.

Without warning, a rectangle was cut out of the wall right next to Kinuhata.

As if the thick insulated wall that had endured the thermobaric shells had been silently melted through.

Since the enemy wasn’t using the doors, all of the explosive traps were rendered meaningless.

A girl in a white military uniform, her long flaxen hair worn in a fried shrimp, stepped inside.

“Hello, you reckless Number 000 targets☆ The Special Exception Cleanup Team has arrived.”

Mugino didn’t bother listening.

She immediately raised her palm and fired a Meltdowner beam. The beam was sharply deflected to the side right in front of the white uniform girl and then dispersed into particles.

“!?”

“Super keep back, Mugino! We still don’t know what kind of power the enemy has!!”

Mugino and Kinuhata backed up toward the main floor of the warehouse where containers and boxes were stacked like pyramids. They couldn’t force the enemy back, so more and more white uniform girls got in.

“Nice to meet you. I am Inoue Fox.”

The fried shrimp uniform girl gave a mock bow in the presence of Mugino Shizuri of all people.

Even though she had to know how dangerous it was to take her eyes off of Mugino and unbalance her center of gravity.

Were these four, who wielded justice mostly for fun, really ranked higher than the detective who bet her life on her actions?

“And these are Satou Lycaon, Yamada Coyote, and Tanaka Jackal. I am sure we will never meet again after tonight, but all the same.”

“So you’re the execution squad, huh? You seem to understand why so many people on the dark side like to use fake names.”

“Ha ha. Please refer to us as Judgment Branch 000 or the Special Exception Cleanup Team. We are the odd jobs team that works to preserve the definition of justice☆”

She must not have cared if that information got out.

What did she care about?

Inoue Fox grinned.

“That look on your face says you wish it hadn’t been Judgment who died, thus sparing you this mess.” She lowered her voice and spat out the next words. “But that’s where you’re wrong. Judgment or not, everyone has their own lives. You can’t choose to kill them for your own selfish purposes and then complain when the result is inconvenient for you.”

“Oh, and are you justice people spared that problem because when you do it it’s an authorized execution?”

“Not at all.”

The white uniform girl was not fazed by Mugino’s glare.

Justice would not falter in the face of evil.

“No matter the reason or circumstances, killing someone will earn resentment. I am merely asking you to understand that basic rule. You have become an enemy of justice and face this punishment because you chose to wield violence without considering the consequences first.”

“…”

“We, on the other hand, know what we are doing. It will be inconvenient for us and a great many people will resent us, but this is necessary to protect Judgment from violent criminals, so we will carry out our deadly duty with full awareness of what it will mean. We work within a fundamentally different system than you villains whose standards change depending on how much you are being paid. We can remain on the side of justice because we limit ourselves to more restricted methods.”

They dedicated themselves to justice.

If anyone couldn’t do the same, they looked down on them, labeled them villains, and attacked them fiercely.

Inoue Fox sneered as Mugino assessed her.

“Well, it all began as an old Judgment tradition. We just transformed it more to our liking. I do apologize if you stumbled into this unaware of what it meant, but you must prepare yourselves now. Because justice demands it.”

Takitsubo must have whispered into her phone while she watched from a higher floor.

“I’ve never heard of this.”

“It is already underway below the surface. Word of it will reach someone eventually. In pieces and as baseless rumors that distort the truth almost beyond recognition,” a busty brown-skinned girl with silver ringlets said with a grin.

Was she basking in the superiority of knowing more than someone else?

Mugino responded with a snort of laughter.

“Your Number 000 exists because your law enforcement groups are done if the criminals don’t respect your strength. So to avoid future victims, you take a zero tolerance policy when it comes to one of your own being killed, is that it?”

“What of it?”

“That’s identical to how gangs retaliate. When you get down to it, Judgment is just another form of organized violence. The only difference is you have official recognition and have the right to steal people’s tax money to fund yourselves.”

Inoue Fox had been so unflappable, but this caused a slight twitch around her eyes.

For the first time.

“What, was that an unforgivable insult for you justice people?” Mugino snorted in laughter. “C’mon, now. You use your weapons and powers to scare the city’s people into obeying your rules. It’s exactly the same. The mafia that started in Sicily don’t call themselves evil either. They say they represent justice and provide a more perfect order than the flawed legal system does. Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like someone we know?”

“…”

“Ha ha!! What, had you seriously not noticed, you villain?”

A deadly attack approached with no advance warning.

Light surged out, Mugino took a step back, and the pile of containers next to her was sliced through at the bottom, causing the rest to come tumbling down.

But Mugino reacted with a brutal smile.

“You idiot! You’ve already shown your hand! I thought maybe our cutting power had some more complex conditions – hwa ha ha! – but it’s just a regular old light sword!?”

“We’re super done provoking them into reducing their effectiveness. Everyone, to your positions!!”

They had no choice but to start the battle now.

Item had been completely on the run, so they considered themselves lucky enough to make this a direct clash with no tricks.

But that only made it 50-50.

They still had a chance of dying. A big one, even.

The detective had given them this chance at survival.

Mugino would prove that her Class Rep had been a superior form of justice. No matter what.

(I want something unexpected. This is still part of their plan, so I want something so unexpected their plan falls apart!!)

Part 5

On the labyrinthine ground floor of the warehouse, there was no predicting when a surprise attack might come.

But if you tried to climb up to the narrow catwalk to take a look down from above, there was nowhere to run or hide. Which meant you could become the target of concentrated fire from anywhere.

Kinuhata thought as she fell back through the stadium-sized cold storage warehouse.

(I guess it would be a good idea to hide behind the piles of containers. But that’s only “good”. I super hate that I can’t come up with a great pla-)

The wall next to her suddenly exploded.

She was thrown a few meters through the air. She would have died right then if not for Offense Armor.

“Ugh!? Did the wall’s wiring super burst!?”

“Oh? Are you the sacrificial pawn who gathers information the hard way? This is a big city full of electronics, so my Pumping Bomb will have no trouble killing such an eyesore of a villain.”

Several fiery orange explosions erupted out at once.

A stack of frozen containers swayed unsteadily, throwing white ice particles everywhere.

Frenda was responsible.

She ignored her thin poncho and her short skirt blowing in the blast and she launched all of the small missiles and rockets she had. But…

“Nee hee hee.”

Tanaka Jackal didn’t even try to hide.

Frenda clenched her teeth.

This was why she hated high level espers. But only when they were her enemy.

“In the end, it didn’t work at all? But I used a ton of directional chemical rounds and armor-piercing rounds!!”

“Kee hee. What, are these physical brute force attacks all you’ve got? Then you can’t hope to get through my barrier. I do hate how hard it is to improve my personal score when I’m always doing my job as a defender. Anyway, let’s get this game started. You’re powerless in the face of my Swing Shield!!”

Another part of the warehouse was entirely empty.

At five or six floors up, track suit girl Takitsubo stood on one of the countless metal beams supporting the ceiling.

She held a handgun like she didn’t know what to do with it and her eyes raced around her surroundings.

There they were.

“You poor villain. Aren’t you at least going to use that Body Crystal stuff?”

“Yamada Coyote, right?”

“Pretty sure my power’s the more useful one when it comes to targeting. If you aren’t going to try, I’ll shoot you in the vitals before you have time to regret your decision. No one can escape my Perfection Hit.”

The white uniform girl readied something like a thick cane by pressing it against her shoulder. No, that was no cane. A grip and a stock had been forcibly attached to a small shotgun ordinarily meant for breaking down doors. It could hold at most three rounds, but that must have been enough for Yamada Coyote.

With three shots, she could drive any enemy into a dead end and then kill them.

She was an esper who used that sort of information warfare.

“I, Yamada Coyote, shall serve as your opponent so you might meet a swift death at the hands of my benevolent strike.”

“Is justice part of the drama club?”

Part 6

Pure white explosions pursued Kinuhata in quick succession.

Sharp welding-bright flashes of light implanted pain in her retinas.

The frozen floor and the electronically-locked container doors were all rupturing from within.

Kinuhata could stop a bullet, but she couldn’t ignore an explosion.

And electric ones were a bad match for her.

She had only just learned that the hard way against the ground combat drones commanded by the Japanese wolf.

She jumped back while working to find a common point in what she was seeing.

(The electric wiring is exploding! But this warehouse is super big. If I move to the center where there isn’t any electronic equipment…)

Something suddenly emerged from behind a pile of containers.

It was an AGV used to move around containers weighing more than a ton.

“!?”

It exploded.

A metal-melting white flash erupted right in front of her.

Without her excellent physical defense, Kinuhata would have been killed instantly.

“Kah...ah!? It isn’t just the stationary wiring!?”

“Hee hee. You have to get creative if you want to use your power more effectively.”

The brown-skinned girl with silver ringlets spread her arms wide.

Satou Lycaon gave a roar with an ecstatic smile.

“The world is flooded with electronics. Humanity has remade the world in that way! And all I must do is supply just a bit of external energy to it all. That is all it takes for any powered device or cable to be reborn as a bomb!!”

With the forklifts and loaders, there were still plenty of unmanned vehicles taller than a human that transported large containers and boxes. The quiet sound of their motors running was mildly painful. Focusing only on the range of the blasts made it all the harder to predict when the bombs themselves might be sneaking up on her.

There could always be an electronic lurking out there that Kinuhata was unaware of.

It didn’t help that she knew very little about this massive cold storage warehouse.

“Now, then, villainous eyesore☆ Just let me know when you are tired of living. I have a caring and compassionate heart, so I will immediately stop stretching this out and kill you with a single explosion before you can feel any pain or fear!!”

Part 7

Frenda viewed the dungeon from atop the frozen pile of containers.

(Oh, Kinuhata might be in trouble soon. In the end, her Offense Armor is convenient, but it runs into compatibility issues a lot.)

“Do you think I’ll let you go help?”

Tanaka Jackal must have read Frenda’s thoughts based on the movement of her eyes, so she grinned and took a pose similar to a boxing guard.

Frenda brushed up her bangs in annoyance.

“This is why I hate you justice roleplayers with the maturity of a 7-year-old. Did you really think I was going to ask permission for every little thing?”

“We actually see you as the most dangerous member of Item. Unlike with high-level espers, a Bank search won’t tell us what we’re up against with a Level 0.”

“I’m honored.”

Frenda was being treated as superior even to Level 5 Mugino, but her response was dripping with sarcasm.

“But none of that matters to my Swing Shield. No heat or shockwaves can reach me. And if I can stop the unpredictable irregular factor here, the others can take out the boring, ordinary espers one after another. I’ll have to settle for only adding you to my score.”

“Pft.”

“?”

“Oh, excuse me.”

Frenda honestly apologized for her rudeness.

But had that girl just called Mugino Shizuri and Takitsubo Rikou “ordinary”? While Kinuhata was new to the team, even she had a portion of the #1’s thought patterns implanted in her and not even the researchers had figured out how far she could take that, but she was still considered “boring”?

Frenda tried and failed to suppress laughter, ending up chuckling in her throat.

“This is basically a 200m freezer. In the end, ordinary chemical coolants aren’t enough at that size, so they apparently need something more to cool the heat-producing areas and preserve the overall balance. I mean, of course, the liquid nitrogen I’m sure you’ve seen on trivia variety shows.”

“What about it?”

“Oh, you don’t know? Liquid nitrogen is stable at -196 degrees and it has some interesting traits. One of those is that it rapidly expands in volume if you heat it.”

Tanaka Jackal gasped in sudden realization, but it was too late.

Frenda gave a devilish smile and continued speaking.

As the expert.

“In the end, liquid nitrogen can be used as a bomb.”

Part 8

A muffled white explosion erupted.

“?”

Satou Lycaon looked up for a moment, but now wasn’t the time to be inquisitive.

Something fell from the containers stacked up like a pyramid.

That something was Frenda Seivelun.

“In the end, I don’t think your defender likes being flash frozen. But I’d have to do some more testing to know if the cold’s the problem or if it’s an attack from the side or behind that does it.”

This conflict had been four against four.

But if anyone flinched and let their target escape, a two against one situation was possible!

“You let yourself get hurt, Kinuhata? If you’re having trouble, I can help you out.”

“That super won’t be necessary!!”

Kinuhata snapped back at Frenda’s grinning comment, but they still both attacked Satou Lycaon at once.

“Wh-what!? Now there’s two eyesores!”

“In the end, I don’t want to hear you complaining about this not being fair. We openly told you we’re villains, remember!?”

The enemy had suddenly received support.

And Frenda was an expert at using all kinds of explosions, not just electronic ones.

Part 9

Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou and white military uniform Yamada Coyote were glaring at each other from atop the metal beams near the ceiling.

One held an automatic handgun and the other carried a shotgun, but their trigger fingers remained motionless. If they fired and the recoil caused them to freeze up even for a moment, they knew exactly what kind of counterattack awaited them.

They were both targeting support espers.

“So it comes down to our concentration,” whispered Yamada Coyote. “That means the real deciding factor will be how well we can adapt to this environment. My uniform is made to help me endure harsh conditions, but what about you? Poor thing. With so much skin showing, you can’t last long in this -40-degree space.”

They were feeling the extreme tension of a confrontation where not even a single careless movement was allowed.

Or so the white uniform girl thought. However…

“To sum up…”

“?”

“Their leader Inoue Fox specializes in martial arts and she can manipulate and condense light. Satou Lycaon makes bombs, but she isn’t as skilled or adaptable as Frenda. Most likely, she simply boosts the electrical resistance to make electronics burst. Yamada Coyote provides targeting support like me and Tanaka Jackal provides defense. But since she moves around a lot to match the enemy’s location, she must not be able to protect her entire body like Kinuhata can. An attack from a blind spot is probably enough to take her out.”

“No, it can’t be… Are you saying you haven’t been focusing on me at all!?”

Takitsubo had climbed to these dangerous heights despite the risk of being fired on from below because she wanted to observe the entire battlefield as quickly as possible.

And she held a phone in her hand.

She used a group call to swiftly share this information with the rest of Item.

“Mugino, the one with me isn’t a threat. I can keep her busy by continuing to stare her down. What matters is I have all the information. It would be best if you acted quickly to take care of the remaining two who can wield direct deadly force and take out their defender as well.”

Part 10

Satou Lycaon clicked her tongue as she realized what the information-sharing via group call meant. She kept up her quick movements to make sure she was never caught between Frenda and Kinuhata.

“Eyesores. I should have blown up your phones right at the start instead of saving them for the perfect moment!!”

“Whoops.”

In addition to her phone, Frenda removed and tossed away the pouch that contained all her electronic detonators. They didn’t even have a chance to reach the frozen floor. Half a second later, a white light erupted from within them.

“Can a bomber like you really super throw out all your detonators like that?”

“You must be joking. There are plenty of other ways to do it. Every explosive has its own method. Some are ignited by impacts and others detonate when two chemicals react. Or you could just light a fuse the old fashioned way.”

Whatever pocket you kept your phone in, it was always in close contact to the body, so most people would suffer some broken bones or organ damage if theirs exploded. That made it Satou Lycaon’s greatest trump card, but she also only had one chance at it. Frenda could understand why she would want to wait until the ideal time to use it.

Of course, none of that mattered if she missed her chance.

It was an unscientific way of thinking, but invisible tides and winds were the deciding factor in dark side battles.

Frenda spoke as casually as she did when greeting her 7-year-old sister.

“In the end, she’s all attack and doesn’t have any defensive moves, so I say we rush in and beat her to death.”

“Super got it.”

“You will regret underestimating me, eyesores. Reactive armor – set up!!”

“Do you really know what that means? In the end, I know it sounds cool, but I just have to steal your oxygen away with a fuel-air bomb.”

Without any warning at all, the metal container to the side was turned to Swiss cheese by fearsome beams of light and the giant pile collapsed with its support missing.

“!?”

Tiny ice particles flew into the air like a cloud of dust as something approached Frenda and Kinuhata.

Inoue Fox fled this way wielding a sword of light.

More of Mugino’s Meltdowner beams shot in after her.

Inoue Fox swung her light sword while falling back, but she couldn’t actually deflect or cut down the beams. The most she could do was slice through the piles of boxes and containers in the area so Meltdowner would pierce them and be diverted ever-so-slightly off course.

“Hey, what’s the matter!? Out of tricks already, execution squad!? The detective was better than this. Show me something I’m not expecting here. You carry this city’s justice on your shoulders, don’t you!?”

Swing Shield could apparently deflect even Meltdowner, but on the other hand, that was all it could do.

Since that girl couldn’t actually attack, they could ignore her for now.

Item would first kill the other three and deal with Tanaka Jackal once she was on her own. Then they could take their time seeing what kind of attacks worked, like freezing her or burying her alive.

Mugino aimed her palm straight ahead and fired more brutal Meltdowner beams while sneering. Her battle freak side was on full display.

“Are you all Level 3? Or maybe Level 4? …Don’t make me laugh, you wannabe elites. Did you really think that was enough to defeat a Level 5!?”

While Mugino had Inoue Fox and Satou Lycaon stopped, Frenda was free to launch some explosives straight up.

More container piles collapsed and even the steel beams up by the ceiling were damaged.

A tongue click echoed loudly down from there.

Yamada Coyote and Tanaka Jackal skillfully jumped down from the containers and boxes to reach the frozen floor.

Which put them at risk of being targeted by Meltdowner.

The execution squad was gradually gathering in a single location.

Were they planning to use Tanaka Jackal’s Swing Shield for protection?

But if Tanaka Jackal moved out ahead to guard the others, she would be pinned in that location. Then Frenda or Kinuhata could attack from the side to eliminate a member of the Judgment execution squad.

And just as Mugino prepared to step forward while firing further, Takitsubo shouted down from the ceiling, sounding panicked.

“Wait, Mugino!!”

More than that, the track suit girl, who was supposedly unathletic and not a fighter, jumped down from the metal beams to a pyramid of containers and then down to the frozen floor.

But she was a moment too late.

“Illuminate Fencer – light source active. Pumping Bomb – external energy received. Perfection Hit – target locked. Swing Shield – heat and shockwave protection established. Sequence complete – final check complete.”

By then, Inoue Fox was already speaking under her breath. And she finished.

She raised her head and her voice.

“Get ready!! Commence Asteroid Destruction Strategic Defense Laser Attack!!!”

Part 11

Light filled the world.

Part 12

This damaged more than just the piles of containers.

A massive beam tore through the entire Reserve Meal warehouse, melted a round hole in the outside wall, and blew away two or three government buildings in the administrative district. Unless the government workers had all closed up shop to avoid working overtime, there was no telling how many people had just died.

The scent wasn’t quite the usual rusty one.

The stench of even the metal scorching filled the frozen air.

Mugino must have just barely dodged it.

But she was still sent soaring through the air, slammed back-first into a collapsed container, fell to the frozen floor…and didn’t move.

This was all without a direct hit.

“There are only so many Level 5s and none of us are one. On our own, maybe none of us could defeat Mugino Shizuri.”

Inoue Fox, wearing the white uniform that symbolized justice, displayed her bloody teeth with a sneer.

She was the leader of the Special Exception Cleanup Team that made a living doing this.

“But that changes if we work together. Our combined power is far greater!!”

Their comeback had come together with disturbing grace.

The heroes had joined forces for a group attack.

Just like in a children’s morality tale.

“Pwa ha. Item isn’t half bad, but you can’t work together. It all amounts to no more than some eyesores fighting on their own. Ah ha ha ha! But that’s what you get with the morons who chose the path of evil. You can never defeat us when we combine our powers with love and courage!!”

“!”

“You all need to be working toward a just goal. Anyway, I guess we won’t be seeing any more teamwork out of you.”

“Tch! In the end, I don’t care what you professional killers have to say. We’ll find a way to turn this around. Takitsubo!!”

They had lost Mugino.

They didn’t want to imagine how much that reduced Item’s firepower.

And losing their Level 5 leader did not mean the fight was over.

Even in the -40-degree temperature, Kinuhata felt a sharp chill down her spine. But Takitsubo remained calm even now.

She suddenly spoke up.

“Why aren’t they firing a second laser?”

“!?”

If they had a trump card greater than Mugino’s Meltdowner, they could simply fire it repeatedly. Item wouldn’t have stood a chance if they had stayed outside of Reserve Meal and filled it with holes.

Yet they hadn’t done that.

Why not?

Did justice find value in a direct confrontation with a villain?

Did they need to kill their target in some way that left enough of a body to confirm the kill?

No…

“There’s a reason why they want to hold that in reserve and why they can’t fire it repeatedly.”

Takitsubo was confident. She wasn’t going to accept defeat.

“At least one of them needs some time between shots, maybe to charge up or to cool down. Whoever that is is the true core of the execution squad.”

The tongue click didn’t come from Item.

The benevolent execution squad took action.

“Lycaon, they’re onto us! Now how am I supposed to get a high score!?”

“It doesn’t matter. Once I control my breathing, expel the filthy carbon dioxide from my blood, and manage to focus again, we can finish them off with a second shot. Support me until I’m done charging.”

One of the white uniformed girls, Yamada Coyote, took position to guard Satou Lycaon while she charged up and she aimed her exceptionally light shotgun at one person in particular.

At collapsed and unmoving Mugino.

A direct hit now would kill her instantly.

(This is super bad!!)

“Don’t worry, Kinuhata.”

Satou Lycaon, who could turn electronics into bombs, noticed before their targeting supporter did and looked up with a gasp.

“Fox! Get back!!”

It was too late.

In fact, the result would be the same even if she detonated it right away.

Takitsubo was already done.

A great roar burst out.

A container fell from the ceiling crane five or six floors up, separating unconscious Mugino from the execution squad.

It ruptured from within and a white explosion spread out.

The frost covering the floor rose up into the air all at once.

The surrounding piles of boxes all collapsed this way.

“Kinuhata!”

“Drag Mugino to safety and stop her bleeding. In the end, her wound isn’t going to freeze shut on its own!!”

“Super really!? Dammit!”

Kinuhata cursed, but she couldn’t abandon unconscious Mugino. She activated Offense Armor, reached her arms below Mugino’s arms from behind, and dragged her back.

She wasn’t quick enough.

Bright lights flashed out in several straight lines.

Inoue Fox’s Illuminate Fencer had sliced through the obstacle.

Frenda and Takitsubo’s attempt to recover hadn’t even lasted 10 seconds.

“Tch.”

Frenda clicked her tongue and took a step forward.

Her thin poncho whipped at the -40-degree air and she tossed a grenade without its pin.

“Kinuhata, continue on back. In the end, I’ll buy you the time!!”

The white uniform girls’ leader, Inoue Fox, actually smiled as she whispered a name.

“Lycaon.”

“Understood.”

The brown-skinned girl with silver ringlets kissed a phone battery and tossed it into the air.

The two explosives collided at the midpoint.

And detonated.

“Gyah!?”

The unexpectedly close explosion made Frenda scream.

She was also knocked down.

Her skin had to be freezing to the cold floor, but she didn’t move.

Kinuhata knew she couldn’t let her concern show, but she felt it clutching at her heart.

“Kh!!”

Mugino Shizuri and Frenda Seivelun.

As inhumanly strong as Kinuhata was, she couldn’t protect both unconscious girls at the same time. The two of them were located too far apart.

And…

“Excuse me.”

In the brief moment Item flinched, Inoue Fox moved right up to Takitsubo and held her Illuminate Fencer right against the girl’s throat.

They were 10m away – too far for Kinuhata to arrive in a single step even with Offense Armor. If she boosted her leg strength too far, her foot would break through the floor.

“Malicious or accidental, any involvement in a Judgment death must not be tolerated. If you were there and capable of making your own choices, you should have saved her. No matter what.”

Inoue Fox spoke quietly, but with an earnest voice that rang with fearsome purity.

“Then we would have used our lives and justice to repay your kindness.”

That was their way of life.

Their goodness.

While their job was to kill, they must have unofficially wielded their powers to save lives as well. And they had ultimately increased their strength to the point they could hunt down villains like this.

The justice leader laughed as she spoke.

“Now! Mugino Shizuri or Takitsubo Rikou!? Which one do your villain’s rules tell you to save!?”

“Kh.”

Kinuhata could move more nimbly if she let Mugino go.

If the execution squad was assuming Kinuhata couldn’t move very quickly while dragging the unconscious girl and thus assumed they were at a safe distance, she might be able to make a counterattack.

She doubted she could defeat the entire execution squad at once.

But if she could take just one of them hostage, then they could possibly negotiate from equal footing. With even one of the four missing, they wouldn’t be able to fire a second Asteroid Destruction Strategic Defense Laser Attack.

(Don’t think about it.)

Mugino Shizuri.

Takitsubo Rikou.

Frenda Seivelun.

(Super don’t think about it!! Don’t think about the possibility of losing one of them! You have to stop the second shot no matter what!! If you don’t, all four of us will be obliterated with no chance to negotiate!!!)

She knew that.

She understood it all.

And yet…

“…can’t.”

A soft voice spilled from her trembling lips.

She was still holding Mugino’s limp form.

And she spoke words she herself hadn’t expected.

“I can’t… I can’t betray anyone in Item.”

She owed Item for taking her in.

If they hadn’t attacked that lab for a job and messed with the cold sleep device on a whim, Kinuhata never would have experienced life on the outside.

That had led to everything she took for granted now.

She understood Item had their own selfish reasons for what they had done. They had wanted a high-level defensive esper to protect Takitsubo who couldn’t fight on her own. That was probably the only reason they had taken her in.

But that didn’t change the fact that they had saved her.

“Foolish.”

Yamada Coyote rejected the idea with a single word.

The disinterested white uniform girl spat out her words.

“You poor thing. If you aren’t going to save any of them, you could at least betray them all and escape on your own. You villains can make those decisions that we can’t.”

“One final good deed does not cancel out all the eyesores you’ve done in the past.”

“In fact, this isn’t even a good deed. Your score’s still zero. I don’t know why you’re getting all emotional about it, but protecting a criminal is called ‘harboring’ and it’s a crime.”

(Dammit.)

Kinuhata wished she could have been the hostage.

(Dammit! Dammit!! Super dammit!!!)

Then the original three Item members could have betrayed her and gotten away. She could have repaid their kindness that way, so how had it all gotten backwards!?

“So how do you like your first taste of freedom?”

After freeing Kinuhata from that shitty lab, Mugino had asked that with a wicked smile.

Item had a calculated reason for needing her. She understood that, but they had wanted her all the same.

“Kinuhata. In the end, are you hurt anywhere?”

After destroying the illegal casino, Frenda had spoken to her and they had laughed together.

She had felt invincible.

But she wasn’t.

When the time came, it could all be taken from her so easily.

Justice would trample over evil to a refreshing degree.

(They let me out and this is how it has to end? Is this the most freedom a villain can hope for? Are we doomed to be trampled and exploited by justice?)

“You criminals ignore the laws created to keep us all safe, so we all know you can’t keep your promises and rules. If you could do that, you wouldn’t have broken the law in the first place.” Inoue Fox scoffed. “You will die.”

Kinuhata’s vision blurred.

She didn’t understand.

She only noticed the tears running down her cheeks after she had already shouted at the top of her lungs.

“Why the hell should that matter!? I won’t betray the people I super decided are like family to me. That’s the one thing I will never do!!!”

Even with the light sword touching her throat, Takitsubo smiled a little.

She smiled for Kinuhata.

Even though, in a way, Kinuhata’s indecision was dooming her to die.

But she did it anyway.

“Illuminate Fencer – light source active. Pumping Bomb – external energy received. Perfection Hit – target locked. Swing Shield – heat and shockwave protection established. Sequence complete – final check complete.”

The light sword vanished from Takitsubo’s throat.

No, now that palm was directed toward Kinuhata.

“Asteroid Destruction Strategic Defense Laser Attack is ready. Ah ha ha! You idiot!! You couldn’t even make a choice. That’s a crime, just like how this all began! So to protect justice, we will fire a second shot to eliminate you and Mugino Shizuri. With no one left to oppose us, we’ll crush the two leftovers easily enough!! Justice will always exterminate our enemies!! That is our job as Judgment Branch 000 – the Special Exception Cleanup Team!!!”

Light flashed.

The cleanup found after a mistaken decision had begun.

(Oh, damn. I super never managed to rewatch Momentary Blues in a theater.)

Kinuhata needlessly held her leader close while that thought rose in the back of her mind.

And in that final moment, Takitsubo’s lips moved slightly.

She spoke with a definite smile.

“Here it comes.”

No.

One of Item’s oldest members wasn’t smiling out of resignation.

“Ha…”

Kinuhata heard an impossible laugh.

It came from within her arms.

Along with some movement.

“I like the way you think, sister.”

Mugino Shizuri.

She still couldn’t get up, but Item’s leader did raise her hand with a belligerent smile.

The clear drops scattered from Kinuhata’s eyes.

And a moment later…

Part 13

Asteroid Destruction Strategic Defense Laser Attack vs. Meltdowner.

Good and evil collided head on.

Part 14

The explosive boom was compressed and the flash of light twisted around.

For only a moment, Kinuhata sensed complete nothingness.

It was a strange floating sensation.

But time was still passing just the same.

She heard a dry sizzling sound.

And she wasn’t imagining it.

It was the sound of the skin burning off the surface of an outstretched palm.

The Judgment execution squad’s Asteroid Destruction Strategic Defense Laser Attack was not responsible. Mugino’s Meltdowner was so powerful it had started to destroy her own body.

In other words, she was losing control.

“Super Mugi-”

“Interesting.”

In a complete contrast to Kinuhata’s pale face, battle freak Mugino had a brutal smile on her face.

She had to be feeling pain.

She had to be feeling a fear different from being blown away all at once.

But.

She didn’t care.

“You attacked my sister and made her cry. I hope you aren’t expecting a quick and painless death. You’d better be ready to experience hellllllllllllll!!!”

Mugino’s perfectly maintained nails split and peeled back.

The intensity of the light grew.

“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!”

Mugino suddenly remembered those words.

The words of another girl she might have called her sister if only they hadn’t encountered each other in the city’s darkness.

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

Mugino roared more from her gut than her lungs.

She was sick of this.

She never again wanted to see a familiar face lose its color while the light faded from the eyes.

And she chose to believe.

She was a Level 5. She was Meltdowner.

That detective must have already discovered that Mugino held the power necessary to avoid that worst possible ending.

“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.”

A sharp explosion erupted.

From directly behind Kinuhata.

Light and electrons. They both entered an intensely excited state that grew uncontrollably. As if avoiding a great pressure, the Asteroid Destruction Strategic Defense Laser Attack veered off in the wrong direction, blasting through a pyramid of containers and out through Reserve Meal’s outer wall.

Meanwhile, the massive beam was pushed straight ahead.

Takitsubo twisted around and got down on the frozen floor. Removing the Illuminate Fencer blade from the track suit girl’s throat had been a definite mistake. Inoue Fox could have at least prepared to fire after slitting her throat. Or maybe that was a villain’s idea that wouldn’t occur to justice.

The beam shot out and scorched the air.

The one attack didn’t obliterate Inoue Fox’s upper body, but probably only because Mugino had intentionally diverted it away.

Still, the intense heat caused the air to expand and the shockwave slammed into the white uniform girl.

She was sent spinning through the air.

This was Meltdowner.

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

Satou Lycaon reached out her arms to try and catch Inoue Fox before she hit the frozen floor, so she was knocked down along with her. Tanaka Jackal was struck by the splinters of a broken box, knocking her out. Yamada Coyote looked between her collapsed teammates and the exit before crumbling to the floor with the simple shotgun still in her grasp.

At some point, Frenda had gotten back on her feet.

She was badly beaten up, but she could still stand.

She had struck the girl on the back of the head with the bottom of a detonator that had to be heavier than a phone.

“Heh. In the end, give me a chance to participate.”

Takitsubo got up from the frozen floor.

Frenda grinned and joined Takitsubo as they approached Kinuhata.

Kinuhata wondered what look she had on her face.

She didn’t bother searching for a mirror.

Mugino, who was still in her small arms, was refusing to look her in the eye for some reason.

Then the leader girl turned around and raised her palm.

“…”

It was the science cult that had killed the Judgment girl.

(You’re…)

It was Item and the Frees that had killed the Sadistic Dolls.

(…dead…)

And it was Item that had exterminated the Frees.

(…mea-)

And.

It was also Item that had killed Detective Shiratori Okibi who had discovered the truth of the case and revealed the presence of the execution squad.

“Tch.”

Mugino clicked her tongue and the light slowly vanished from her palm.

“Malicious or accidental, any involvement in a Judgment death must not be tolerated. If you were there and capable of making your own choices, you should have saved her. No matter what.”

She recalled Inoue Fox’s words.

Like with so many other cases, it came down to this.

“Then we would have used our lives and justice to repay your kindness.”

Had she made this choice because Kinuhata had gently grabbed her wrist just before she fired?

Or was it her memory of the Class Rep?

The leader girl irritably spat out her words.

“Then we’ve got no reason to kill you. We’ve got nothing to do with you and your pain-in-the-ass justice.”

Between the Lines 3

No one knew that Judgment Branch 000 existed and the existence of the Special Exception Cleanup Team was thoroughly hidden.

But thanks to that they were only considered ordinary Judgment members in the official records.

Word of their defeat was quickly spread over Judgment radios.

Yamagami Erina and the two Judgment upperclassmen were forced up in the middle of the night.

That meant there was a culprit behind this.

“Let’s go, Erina-chan and Aomi!!”

“Wait,” someone said.

But instead of the usual timid Yamagami Erina, this came from Yanagisako Aomi who was always running around on the front line.

Facts and scenes no ordinary student would know bounced around in the back of her mind.

That was enough for her.

Her friend had been ruthlessly killed by a science cult and her upstanding colleagues who had been sent out in the middle of the night for an emergency assignment had been mercilessly defeated. The culprit was entirely unknown.

Was this reality?

What had happened to this city’s justice?

“Has Judgment always been such an unrewarding job?” asked Yanagisako Aomi, trembling and pale-faced. And wholly ignorant of the truth. “Mii. I can’t keep doing this. I’m done with this job.”

Epilogue: The Cry of True Evil

Summer was ending. It was late at night in District 23.

After the last trains had come and gone, the vast international airport took on a unique aspect. This was, after all, an industry where a single screw or 5mm piece of rubber tire on the runway could lead to a tragic accident. Various types of pavement cleaners were busily driving back and forth, the guide lights embedded in a straight line flashed unnaturally, and any high luminance light found to have the slightest electrical deficiency was immediately swapped out by the workers.

Among all that, a woman in a suit pressed her palm against the top of her head and tapped a few times to see how her wig was doing as she walked down the asphalt runway. The summer caused a lot of problems.

She was Hanano Choubi.

Or more accurately, she was the voice on the phone who sometimes used that fake name.

She puffed on a cheap cigarette packed full of menthol flavor and she was not alone.

“So are cigars actually any good?”

She was one of the higher ups, but she spoke to the dog next to her with respect.

And the golden retriever with a thick cigar in his mouth responded in human language.

“I prefer them, but if you aren’t already hooked, I would recommend staying away. They are really strong, so once you’re used to them, you can never go back to the ordinary cigarettes sold in convenience stores and vending machines.”

“Ah ha ha. Every smoker tells non-smokers not to start☆”

“Also, they cost around 200 times as much. And you won’t be able to stop smoking them all day long.”

“Then I’m definitely not trying them. It’s always like this. Too many things will ruin your life once you learn to like them.”

“Financial hardship is another problem common to all smokers.”

“Yeah, and I can imagine those top-quality Cubans are worse than I can even imagine there.”

“Yuiitsu-kun' can’t stand the smell of smoke. And I don’t mean the smoke itself – just the smell. It’s been too long since I met someone who understands this kind of romance.”

They each had an orange dot of light slowly rising and falling at the corner of their mouth.

The human and canine walked through the darkness at a steady pace.

Almost like those lights were slicing sharply through the shadows.

“Anyway, I’m surprised someone like you bothered to visit me here,” she said.

“This time, I have the same goal as you. It’s only by chance, but our interests are aligned. So I can watch your back here if you like.”

“Oh, really? I thought you preferred to stay neutral.”

“Neutrality can refer to a noncommittal bastard who doesn’t really care if it’s his enemies or his allies who fall. You need to start viewing the neutral as even more trouble than simple good or evil.”

The dog was Kihara Noukan.

He was a member of the Kihara family, a group of infamous researchers on the dark side, including Amata, Kagun, Byouri, Enshuu, Yuiitsu, Therestina, and Gensei.

At the same time, he was rumored to be a confidant to the Board Chairman, making him a highly unusual being.

When the talking golden retriever made a move, it meant something had happened that not even the top of the city could ignore (even though he usually left the dark side to its own devices to advance his own goals). At the same time, it indicated a moment when the entire structure of the dark side was cut open by the ruler’s hand so it could be transformed in some way.

Now, was that really aligned with what the voice on the phone wanted?

She could only pray she wasn’t marked to be eliminated along with Item.

The suit woman held her cigarette between two fingers and exhaled smoke.

“Well, it’s not like I can fight on my own. After letting you get this close to me, I can only hope heaven is smiling on me.”

“Don’t lie to me, Miss Immortal. I could kill you as many times as I liked and I’m sure you would escape it all by faking your death.”

The voice on the phone had survived that way at least once already, so she only stuck out her tongue a little.

They were walking toward one corner of the airport while passing by a tanker truck of fuel and a work truck loaded with ultrasonic equipment to keep birds away (which the canceler device in the juvenile prison was based on).

They arrived at a row of airplanes smaller than the large passenger planes people ordinarily thought of.

The private jets and charter planes were stored here.

But anyone with knowledge of such things would recognize that these were not ordinary jets. The engines had been customized for lengthy flights by prioritizing fuel economy over speed and the roof of the slender fuselage was lined with special antenna lines that resembled fish bones.

These were miniature strategic AWACS planes. Academy City’s VIPs had paid a lot of money for the peace of mind that came with owning a flying hideout that could keep them alive even if the entire surface of the earth were polluted by nuclear war. …Whether or not the planes would work as advertised was questionable, but the rich tended to make a hobby out of buying safety.

One of the planes had artificial light spilling from within. The light wasn’t coming from the windows because all the plastic shades were kept shut. The entrance hatch was opened outwards and transformed into a small set of stairs.

The flavor of her cigarette vanished from the woman’s mind.

“…”

“Stand back, miss.”

“No, thanks. I can take care of myself.”

“You’re strong, I’ll give you that. But I do wish you would let an old man like me indulge in his romance.”

The voice on the phone didn’t want to be indebted to a Kihara, so she ignored his advice and climbed the narrow stairs into danger.

She peeked inside.

The powerful stench of death instantly overpowered the cigarette in her mouth.

“I think we can rule out a faked death,” said Noukan, entering the plane as if sliding by at her feet.

Having the dog right alongside her with the lit cigar in his mouth was mildly concerning. She was wearing synthetic stockings, after all.

The plane wasn’t exactly spacious, but the interior was so luxurious just one of the sofas could have bought an entire house in the city. And it was all ruined. Splattered blood stained the floor and walls, coloring all the furnishings red. A young man’s corpse sat in the sofa. He had been decapitated, but not to hide his identity. The head was right there in the small trash can next to the sofa.

He was another voice on the phone.

He was one of the colleagues she had recently shared a table with at a yakiniku place.

“So he was from the company, Hanano Choubi muttered under her breath.

The foolish severed head stared back up at her from the Chanel trashcan it barely fit in.

Her report on the Sadistic Dolls had been delayed because she had trouble identifying this man.

If the enemy was another voice on the phone, it made sense her privileges hadn’t been sufficient to break into the data he had locked down.

The suit woman tossed her cigarette butt into the filled trash can. It produced a quiet sizzling. The can was filled with gruesome blood and flesh, so it was a lot like dunking a firework in a bucket of water.

She shook the package to pull out a fresh cigarette and the golden retriever used a mechanical arm to light it with an oil lighter. She gladly accepted the offer.

“So did he go too far and draw you-know-who’s attention?”

“The opposite, I’d imagine. He realized you-know-who was after him, so he needed to set up some emergency defenses. That is the truth behind those justice groups. But in the end, it would seem he failed to defend himself, failed to even identify you-know-who, and ended up slaughtered.”

“The Sadistic Dolls, the Frees, that detective, and Judgment’s Special Exception Cleanup Team execution squad.” The woman calling herself Hanano Choubi scratched her head. “A team of justice elites. That makes them the polar opposite of a collection of dark side villains like Item. I thought we were dealing with competitors – sigh – not this.”

“Does this conclude your business here?”

“I guess. I get the feeling you aren’t done, though. So are you after the person who did this?”

“Yes.”

Kihara Noukan readily admitted it, his thick luxury cigar waggling in his mouth.

Even though knowledge of this bombshell could bring all kinds of trouble.

“This isn’t like those imitators. My target is the true symbol of justice lurking in the deepest depths of this city.”

“The Dark Side’s Bane. The #6,” spat Hanano Choubi.

Then she scratched her head again. She could tell her wig had slipped to the side.

It wasn’t often something hit her so hard the flavor of the cigarette felt like an intrusion.

“That bastard really knows how to get the job done. It’s always like this with them.”

Afterword

Item has reached three volumes!

This is Kamachi Kazuma!!

Volumes 1 and 2 depicted villains fighting each other, but this one is about the villains wandering into the world of justice and going on a rampage there. The enemies started with a killer girls band who weren’t all that much different from villains, but I had the level of heroism grow with each new enemy. Of course, all of you already know what the true form of justice is in this story. You often hear stories (whether not they’re true) of the police taking special measures when a police officer is attacked, but am I the only one that wishes they would also go to that much trouble when a normal person is the victim? Anyway, the main theme this time was special modes. There were a lot of characters this time, but the structure was a lot simpler than with, for example, OT15, so I don’t think you should have gotten lost.

While it looked disturbing and dangerous from the view of the villains being targeted, that special mode could have been written as a hot-blooded and moving story of vengeance if written from the perspective of Anti-Skill or Judgment (such as Yomikawa or Shirai). Makes you wonder what good and evil really are.

Before, I showed off the wealthy lifestyle of Item, but I changed that up a bit this time. The moe theme for Volume 3 was runaway girls. Imagine a girl in a chain cafe late at night with a travel bag at her feet while she lazily messes with her phone. …Human imagination is a frightening thing because I’ve never actually seen that yet we all share that image quite vividly. Could UFOs and Nessie be the result of this kind of thing?

Also, I focused on the end of summer in Volume 3, so I used cold and chilly locations and situations. I had the temperature drop with each consecutive chapter, culminating in a battle within a cold storage warehouse.

Even though the end of August would actually be as blazing hot as a bath! Just like with the imagined runaway girl, I think we all share that image in our heads!! Can’t the Japanese summer let us enjoy some cool evenings on the porch!?

Mugino is one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s, so it’s difficult to find something from her past that can cause her trouble. Volume 1 was a direct confrontation with a rival group also called Item, Volume 2 had a surprise attack from the gyaru-style little girl who was like her teacher, and Volume 3 had the execution squad use a group attack. That kind of attack isn’t possible for Item because its members are too strong as individuals, but did you find that as exciting as I did? If a team claims to be fighting for justice, they have to work together, right!?

I give my thanks to my illustrator Nilitsu-san and to my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. With District 9’s Moe Bells, District 16’s Bulweiser Icicle Theater ice palace, and the other parts of Academy City seen in this one, illustrating it couldn’t have been easy. Thank you as always.

And I give my thanks to the readers. Since this is a prequel series, I’m sure you have been carefully reviewing all the information, but you couldn’t have predicted the Bul Girls briefly seen in Volume 1 would be connected to the scene of a deadly battle! This kind of fun is something you can only do with more novels. Thank you so much for continuing to read them!!

And I will end this here.

As a delinquent with a rich family, would Mugino count as a princess gyaru?

-Kamachi Kazuma

Ending

“Memo, memo. I can just convert my voice to text for my report.”

That would lead to a festival of mistakes, so instead of relying on the automatic speech recognition, I would prefer you typed out your report by hand.

Please do not make reading your unfortunate grasp of Japanese any harder than it already is.

“Oh, shut up. You’re not the top of this city – you’re just just the Board Chairman’s secretary. So stop trying to boss me around. Fuck, you’re not even human.”

My speech algorithm has applied your usage of the word “fuck” to my deep learning.

And just so you know, you foolish drunk with a beer in hand, word of this will reach the Board Chairman.

“Wait, wait, wait! I’m sorry!! Eek! I’ll sober up real quick and get my prostration on in front of the webcam, so anything but that, you superhumanly perfect AI secretary!!!”

So you view the Board Chairman as someone who warrants tears over a minor infraction like this? Then I recommend creating your report in the proper format. Strongly recommend.

“I’m doing it now, okay!? ...Huh? I’m trying to transmit my report, but it’s being rejected. First the higher ups ask for it and now this?”

Warning!

The Windowless Building’s security level has just been increased.

The Windowless Building will no longer allow access from this sloppy and unstable communications route. Please use the official process going through Spark Signal.

“Wait, does that mean the higher ups are still on alert?”

I do not possess the authority to answer that question. Also, I do not recommend a fucking agent like you attempt any valueless and reckless speculation. Fuck you.

“Does this mean it isn’t over yet? …It’s always like this, I swear.”

It was the middle of the night.

More specifically, this was an empty street in District 1.

“Hey, Mugino. In the end, the Criminal Real Estate just contacted us. Our runaway lives are finally over. We should be able to find a place to sleep.”

“It’s 3 in the morning. Does the real estate industry really operate that late?”

“Website forms are scary things. They completely eliminate the concept of business hours,” said track suit girl Takitsubo with no noticeable expression.

It was just business for the Criminal Real Estate. They hadn’t been able to do business with Item before due to an unnatural warning icon appearing on their account, but Item had originally been excellent customers who rented plenty of ultra-pricey apartments and resorts. Now that Item had done enough work to get that warning icon removed, there were plenty of recommended locations for them.

“Super what should we do for our next hideout?”

“I want somewhere convenient for shopping,” said Takitsubo. “We should be able to get most anything in District 7.”

“Ehh? In the end, can’t we just use online shopping and bike delivery services for all that? Keep in mind it’s nearly September and fall. I want a district with plenty of good food!! By which I mean District 4!!”

“Academy City is a densely-populated walled city, so if you need something, you can easily head out and go there. Isn’t there anywhere quiet we can stay?” said Mugino.

Item had lost most of their support team delinquents during the execution squad’s thermobaric bombardment. No one had died at the Reserve Meal cold storage warehouse, but there was still plenty of evidence they had to cover up.

(It’s going to be expensive, but I guess we can hire an outside cleanup crew. There was that corpse specialist Hanatsuyu Kuchikusa. It’ll probably be fastest to contact her first and have her introduce us to other people she knows.)

Mugino was working out some calculations in her head, which caused her to lag behind the others.

Frenda waved from a bit up ahead.

“Mugino! In the end, can I come up with a schedule for viewing possible new hideouts?”

“Go ahead.”

With that, Mugino looked up into the night sky.

(Hey.)

She didn’t say anything out loud, but she was speaking to someone in her head.

She pictured someone who wasn’t here right now.

(I managed to survive, you shitty Class Rep. Is that what you wanted?)

Mugino sighed.

And the very next moment, her right knee went limp and her vision dropped straight down.

This was not a case of the accumulated damage catching up to her or some bleeding inside her skull.

Something had clearly happened right this instant.

And despite all her experience as a Level 5, Mugino couldn’t figure out what had happened.

The threat wasn’t over yet. In fact, the true threat had only just arrived.

“Kah…”

She couldn’t even get out a shout. Her eyes were the only thing she could still move.

She spotted a strange silhouette. It had the outlines of a small child, but those outlines were wavering and distorting, never staying put for long. She tried staring at it but could only see darkness.

Was there really something there?

There hadn’t been any footsteps. She hadn’t even sensed anyone’s presence until right before it happened.

How had they gotten so close? Had they used a teleportation power? Or a psychological power capable of messing with perception or memories?

They hadn’t touched her and nothing had flown in from long distance. Mugino had simply fallen to her knee. Something was wrong with her equilibrium. Was the change in the outside world or deep within her brain?

But aside from all that…

(It’s them…)

“Are you the Dark Side’s Bane!? The #6!!??”

“I did not approach you.”

They spoke with a voice of disinterest.

Was that shadow really even looking at Mugino?

“You came to me. Mugino Shizuri, you thoughtlessly entered a territory you should have stayed out of. I am the Dark Side’s Bane. You knew that, so you should have kept your distance. This tragedy is the natural result of your actions.”

“Gahh!!!” roared Mugino.

Violent beams of light surged from her wounded palm.

That was all.

Meltdowner veered off course shortly before reaching the strange shadow and burst into particles.

This was not the imitation justice she had fought before.

Evil’s attacks could not even reach true good.

“Wha-?”

“You are the strongest when it comes to simple destructive force, but that also means you only have one card in your deck.”

They did not brag.

Others might bow before the Level 5s, but as another Level 5, the #6 was not cowed.

“You have no surprising tricks or clever applications. So once someone breaks free of the initial fear, they only need to learn that one attack. You are the most tedious of the Level 5s. Even the Railgun and Mental Out scare me more than you.”

“Kh.”

“Which is why you will be destroyed by betrayal from one of your own.”

That was a dangerous prophecy.

It had no basis, but when it came from the #6, it did bring some fear.

“Humans can adapt to any stimulus. One-note, unchanging fear cannot mentally bind people forever. The time will come when it all unravels. The only question is whether it will happen sooner or later.”

What was their power?

Mugino doubted it was only some kind of defensive power. That had only been an uninteresting sliver of their power. But in that case, what did the #6 see right now?

This was the fear they had mentioned.

A bottomless fear.

“Do you see now why you are taken lightly and will one day be betrayed?” asked the #6. It wasn’t even clear where that small shadow’s mouth was. “Traitors will themselves be betrayed. You are ruling everything around you with fear, but there is no trust there. No one sees enough value and weight in it to keep their promises.”

“…”

She wasn’t able to respond to these accusations. The #6’s attack was probably already complete. Otherwise, she doubted the #6 would so readily appear before a target, even as this indistinct shadow.

Their appearance and name were unknown. The #6 had always been so careful that they had practically become a legend.

So when they showed up, it was best to assume this was checkmate.

“Now, after I crush you, what should I do with the rest of Item?”

Takitsubo, Frenda, and Kinuhata were nowhere to be seen.

She had fired so many beams and torn away pieces of the city, yet no one seemed to have noticed. Not even Takitsubo who excelled at searching out enemies and gathering intel.

Was it a strange coincidence?

Or was this an application of the #6’s power?

“Are you entirely to blame for this case growing to the point that I had to make an appearance, or is Item as a whole to blame?”

Mugino’s focus rapidly grew to a boil.

“Do I need to wait for the next case to make a decision? But letting innocent people come to harm for that would violate my justice. In that case, it would be safest for the world as a whole if I eliminated all four of you now.”

“Go…”

Mugino clenched her teeth.

And she finally got out a roar.

“…to helllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!”

Thick beams flooded not just from her palm but from her entire body. They melted asphalt, cut down a wind turbine at the base, and flew right past the #6.

That small shadow could not react.

She was prepared to lose control.

She was willing to obliterate her own body if necessary.

“Justice? Is that what you call it when you choose whose lives to take? Good and evil don’t matter to you! You just care about your peace of mind!! I’m not about to call myself one of the good guys. That’s never happening. But because I’m on the bad side, there’s one thing I’m certain of: you’re nothing but a killer!”

“Hm.”

“Billions of people might love you and history might praise your name, but that fact will never change. I’m not letting someone like you get at my teammates!!”

The #6 responded with great interest.

“Come to think of it, you chose not to kill at the very end this time. Meltdowner is a tedious Level 5 power that relies entirely on the initial impact, but perhaps you still have a minuscule chance of receiving an unexpected blessing.”

This result may have been a possibility left to her by someone who was now dead.

The detective.

No, the Class Rep. Shiratori Okibi.

A possibility Mugino had killed herself.

“Foster that feeling. With great care.”

The #6 said something strange.

Almost like they sympathized with Mugino.

“If you do, something could possibly change. Meltdowner, you possess an incredible amount of energy. You only need make good use of it. The odds are extremely poor and it may be easier on you if I did not present you with this hope that will almost certainly amount to nothing.”

To put it another way, their emotion of disappointment had shifted for just a moment.

“The path you four walk is far too dangerous to be relying on luck and asking for a miracle. If you do that, you all could lose your lives at an even earlier point. But on the other hand, there is a chance…”

“Shut your trap, you killer who doesn’t even have the decency to be a villain!!”

This time, Meltdowner directly struck the #6’s small shadow.

She broke through the mysterious defenses without actually understanding them.

The shadow spiraled around.

And that was it.

It vanished into thin air.

Mugino could tell the beam hadn’t actually burned through or destroyed anything.

There was no questioning it.

They were clearly better than her.

“I’ll fight back.”

So the loser howled alone in the darkness.

It didn’t matter what was awaiting her.

It didn’t matter what the #6 – the Dark Side’s Bane – was after.

It didn’t matter what kind of cruel tracks Academy City had laid out for her.

“Railgun!? Mental Out!? Who gives a shit about those rankings and hierarchies!? Maybe it means turning my back on the changing times and going down in history as an irredeemable villain! But I’m Meltdowner, one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s! Whatever you might try, Item will use our own power to protect our hoooooooooome!!!”

Her statement was entirely meaningless.

Quantum theory said an individual human’s observations could influence microscopic physics and the macroscopic world was composed of such things.

Academy City could freely wield that theory, but the result here had already been determined.

Everyone already knows how it ends.

Prev	[v d e]Toaru Majutsu no Index: Genesis Testament GT Volume 1 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword GT Volume 2 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 3 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 4 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 5 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 6 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword GT Volume 7 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 8 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 9 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 10 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 11 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 12 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending [v d e]Side Stories Volume SP Illustrations - Stiyl Magnus - Mark Space - Kamijou Touma - Uiharu Kazari - Afterword Railgun SS1 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Kanzaki SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Railgun SS2 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Road to Endymion Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 Necessarius SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Virtual-On Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword Railgun SS3 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Biohacker SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 Agnese SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Railgun LN Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword Item LN Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending Item LN 2 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending Item LN 3 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game Toaru Jihanki no Fanfare Toaru Majutsu No Index: Love Letter SS Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS: A Superfluous Story, or A Certain Incident’s End Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament SS Toaru Majutsu no Index: Shokuhou Misaki Figurine SS Toaru Majutsu no Index: A Certain Midsummer Return to the Starting Point Toaru Majutsu no Index: Using Final Bosses to Determine a Sociological Threat Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament Bonus Short Story Toaru Majutsu no Index: Thus Spoke the Kumokawa Sisters Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On: Vooster's Cup, The Day Before Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On: Misaka Mikoto's Dangerous Tea Party Toaru Majutsu no Index: Birthday Through the Glass Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament 20 Bonus Short Story Toaru Majutsu no Index: Misaka Mikoto’s Teamwork A Certain Magical Index: Genesis Testament SS [v d e]Official Parody Stories A Certain Prophecy Index A Certain Academy Index A Certain Gift Exchange A Certain March 201st Novel I Don't Want This First Story of A Certain Magical Index!! or I Don't Want This Final Story An All-In "World" Tour of Academy City, the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, and Ground's Nir Kamijou-san, Two Idiots, Jinnai Shinobu, Gray Pig, and Freedom Award 903, Listen Up! …Fall Asleep and You Die, But Not From the Cold☆ We Tried Having a Group Blind Date, but It was an All Stars Affair and a World Crisis Will the Spiky-Haired Idiot See a Piping Hot Dream of His Wife? Dengeki Island: A Girl’s Battle (Still Growing) Kamijou Touma Visits Another World Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch Crossover SS Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch X Heavy Object Crossover SS I Still Want to Do a Summer Fair A Certain Collaboration Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 Kamachi Crossover Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - A.E. 02 - Afterword Durarara Crossover Preface - Academy City Chapter - Ikebukuro Chapter	Next NA