Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item3 Chapter4
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 you’re 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.”
