Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item4 Chapter4

Chapter 4: Blood Against Blood

Part 1

Mugino Shizuri.

Academy City’s #4 Level 5, Meltdowner.

If you lived in that city and took even a step into its darker side, you would know you must not challenge her to a fight, no matter what. It was an inviolable rule. Before even considering how you could win, you had to search for a way to avoid conflict with that monster. That city was crawling with espers who could break the rules of Newtonian physics, but this was one rule even they had to follow.

These girls knew that better than anyone.

But they still chose of their own free will to step past it.

“(In the end, do you know what you’re doing here?)”

“(Yes, I super do.)”

“(We charge at Mugino together on my signal. She won’t be able to defend against us all in time, so one of our attacks should reach her.)”

Item wasn’t an easygoing enough group to hold a lengthy strategy meeting right in front of their target who had a deadly projectile attack. They compressed the information in something similar to shorthand and instantly conveyed their general intentions with only their eyes and fingers.

Since she was a Level 4 who specialized in defense, Kinuhata managed to keep up despite being new to the team.

“(The one thing we have going for us is that Mugino’s power is super offense-oriented. Which means it isn’t good for defense. No matter how deadly her attacks are, her body is the same as anyone else’s!! She’s a super normal human who will pass out if we rattle her brain or compress her hear-”

It came without warning.

She didn’t even use her palm. Mugino Shizuri sent a storm of fearsome beams shooting from all across her body.

They didn’t have time to wait for the signal. Takitsubo and Frenda leaped toward Kinuhata, who was standing still in shock, and forcibly knocked her to the ground.

It no longer mattered that they were with Item.

The primary target of Mugino Shizuri’s rage was Sakuya alone.

But she would also use her full power to fry anyone – even the tiniest bug – that sheltered that woman or got in the way.

Meltdowner bisected a large Mugino Family vehicle.

Fortunately, it was a truck.

The rear container was sliced away and the American multiple rocket launcher contained there exploded, but the driver’s compartment remained intact.

Not even Level 4 Offense Armor could stop that.

A direct hit would mean instant death.

“Damn!!”

“We need to block Mugino’s view.”

Avoiding the first attack wasn’t enough to relax.

Frenda had no trouble propping small Kinuhata up on her shoulder (possibly because she so frequently carried around explosives and other things) and she rushed behind a nearby villa. As soon as they practically rolled there, a beam swept by at about a meter up. It sliced right through the former luxury villa’s thick soundproofed walls. If they hadn’t gotten on the ground when they did, everything from their hips to their chests would have been vaporized.

“Where’s the super villain!? Y’know, that woman who looks like Mugino if she used makeup to look younger.”

“Huh? Kinuhata, I think you have that backwards.”

“In the end, it doesn’t matter which one’s older! Sakuya, if you’re alive, go hide somewhere!! If she locates you, she’ll concentrate her fire on you!”

Dark soil fell onto their heads as they yelled back and forth.

Their ears weren’t working right.

They had to raise their voices to hear their teammates who were right in front of them.

The nearly ruined building wasn’t going to help much.

Not up against Academy City’s #4.

A tunnel running deep through the mountain might not even provide effective cover.

Their half-baked plan was already falling apart.

You could say this had rid them of their wishful thinking and optimism, but they would be killed if they didn’t quickly rework their thoughts to deal with reality. They didn’t have time to waste on panicking.

“In the end, there’s no way we can get close!! What do we do!? Throw a bomb from a distance to knock her out with the shockwave!?”

“She’d just blast it before it reached her. And when you leaned out from behind cover to throw it, she’d blast you. In fact, even if you did duck back behind cover, she could shoot right through that cover as soon as she knew where you were.”

“Enough smug contrarianism! In the end, do you have a better idea of how we can defeat Mugino!?”

“…”

“No!? You’ve got nothing!? Oh, no. And now she’s circling around toward us!!”

Not from the right or the left.

The unpleasant creaking sound came from above.

From the roof.

Mugino Shizuri was not a stationary cannon.

She was athletic enough to silence a white tiger with her bare palm.

“You’re…”

The #4 was persistent.

She had decided she was killing Sakuya. And she would fry anyone – even the tiniest bug – that sheltered the woman or got in the way.

“…dead mea-”

Frenda and Kinuhata shouted at about the same time.

“Here she…”

“…comes!!”

Mugino herself dropped sharply toward the ground.

From the two-story roof. If she simply landed on them, she could easily break all the bones in their bodies.

They had to avoid this. Even if it meant rolling.

But if they carelessly fled in any direction, they would be skewered by Meltdowner.

“Split up!!”

Takitsubo didn’t shout that because it gave them a chance of winning.

It was more about keeping their losses to a minimum by not bunching together.

The only reason they weren’t bisected regardless was because Kinuhata (still lying on her stomach) slammed her small fist into the ground just before Mugino landed.

It was only 5cm.

But the ground there did sink down. Mugino misjudged the moment she would land and failed to absorb the force of the fall with her knees, causing a slight error in her aim.

The second blast was coming.

The briefest of moments before she could aim the light compressed in her palm, Frenda chucked an explosive.

And detonated it.

As soon as the light and the explosive came in contact, an explosion erupted right in front of Mugino, but there was no need to check to see if she had survived.

If Frenda hadn’t immediately scattered bombs across the ground and blasted the soil into the air – and if she had been satisfied with that and not ducked down and raised her guard – the third beam would have blasted off her head.

“In the end, it didn’t even scratch her!?”

“I told you. Bombs won’t work on Mugino.”

“Why do you look kind of pleased about that!?”

They had scattered in different directions, so Frenda, Takitsubo, and Kinuhata were hiding in different abandoned buildings.

(Tch. In the end, Mugino knows how to defend too. She really is a thorough pain in the ass as an enemy!!)

On the dark side, that was the greatest possible compliment.

An explosion was really just an expansion of gas. When an explosive reacted, the gas would instantly expand hundreds of times over, creating a thick wall of pressure. An explosive was really no more than an object that would rapidly expand from only a small stimulus. So even water, which was about as far from fire as you could get, could be used to create steam explosions. Even liquid nitrogen would burst on its own if left at room temperature.

On the other hand.

It was an extremely rough way of phrasing it, but if you struck back with a surface of even greater pressure, a bomb’s blast could be overpowered. As long as it was an expanding gas, all explosive blasts would behave like air in a balloon: they would naturally take the path of least resistance.

Mugino’s fighting style was a lot like a bullfighter.

She did not have full-body armor like Kinuhata did.

Because the #4 herself lacked armor (and because she wanted to avoid a longer battle in which she was driven by fear and forced into a state of extreme tension), she would charge in, parry all else with her own attacks, and pierce her enemy with a merciless blast once they were defenseless.

But of course, if the others just waited to see what she would do, they would be filled with holes by wild Meltdowner blasts. In fact, they could end up with their entire bodies – down to the very last toe – vaporized as they stood.

7m. Kinuhata’s breathing was unnaturally shallow. That was enough distance to get a fresh start in a barehanded grapple, but against Mugino the tension was so great she thought her heart would stop.

“Searching out a more solid wall will only mean super delaying the inevitable, won’t it?”

“It would be better to reduce her cards first. The idea that she’s just a normal human wasn’t wrong. A blow to her jaw will rattle her brain and knock her out like it would with anyone else.”

But even if she was normal in that way, actually pulling that off in reality was the challenge.

Mugino turned her head.

(!? In the end, this is too much for those two to handle!!)

Frenda’s action was far from a big one.

At 10m away, she slowly circled around upwind of Mugino. The fireworks-like smell of explosives would trigger the part of Mugino’s brain developed on the dark side.

It would draw her attention toward Frenda. It was time for Frenda to show her resolve.

Although she might end up with her torso sliced through a moment later since she didn’t actually have a plan.

A voice spoke from a different direction.

“Frenda.”

“Idiot! Why are you trying to super show off!?”

Something was tossed her way.

They were rectangular bottles meant to contain a strong drink. The many heavy bottles shattered on the ground, a sticky flame spread around them, and an unnaturally white smoke billowed out.

After a quick test breath, Frenda immediately held her breath.

The tip of her tongue and her right cheek were already feeling numb.

This was bad news.

(Hexachloroethane​!? It is technically flammable, but in the end, it’s not a good choice for an incendiary round. So why use it?)

“Hold your breath and come this way!! Hexachloroethane​ has a mild anesthetic effect, but I do not know how effective it will be against Shizuri-sama with her ultra-high temperature beams. There is a good chance she will burn it away before she inhales it!!”

Frenda felt woozy even upwind of it, so it had to be a lot worse for Mugino downwind.

Several beams tore through the anesthetic smoke while Frenda ducked low and approached the voice.

It was the Molotov cocktail maid.

Wasn’t her name Hanagai?

“Hm? In the end, why are you taking our side!?”

“The Mugino Family Bloodline has many members, but it is obvious the competition will come down to Shizuri-sama and Sakuya-sama in the end. The worst possible option is for both of them to be killed here. We serve the Mugino Family as a whole, so we cannot allow the most likely heirs to be lost here!!”

A large motorcycle roared.

Bakyaku was there with his 12.7mm heavy machinegun held like a lance. So was Ougigumo with his nunchaku shotgun made by attaching two shotguns with a short chain.

“Tch. If we let Shizuri-sama continue like this, our Sakuya-sama will be at risk. Prepare yourself, Ougigumo. I know you’ve been polishing your skills so you can overpower one of those Academy City espers!!”

“Are you serious!? You want me to battle that ultimate monster head on!? Hah hah! Sounds like a dream come true!!”

Mugino Sakuya’s condition was unknown, but she had been torn up on the inside when she shot Mujinayama in the back. It was doubtful she was acting based on anything resembling rational thought.

The best bet for the Sakuya faction butlers and maids may have been to get Sakuya into hiding while gathering attention to themselves.

A deafening roar shook the air.

That was the deep sound of a propeller slicing through the air. Something massive passed by over their heads. It was an American transport plane that had to be at least 40m long. With Meltdowner beams flying around, flying through this airspace was tantamount to suicide.

And it didn’t just pass by.

A row of large parachutes formed as it dropped something. More than 300 somethings. That was more than an entire school’s worth of students.

People were dropping down.

A lot of them.

The mountains were different than the plains, but the transport plane was still quite close.

It may have been reducing the drop time for the parachutes to reduce the odds of them taking anti-air fire, but that also increased the risk of them failing their landing and breaking their legs.

They did it anyway.

The transport plane spat out all the parachutes, just barely made it over the summit, and disappeared on the other side of the mountain.

“What? In the end, has the cavalry arrived!?”

“That’s not the Sakuya faction,” said Takitsubo.

No, it wouldn’t be. Sakuya’s troops and Management had already been deployed across the mountain. She couldn’t call in this many reinforcements.

In that case, were these the troops and Management loyal to some other Bloodline member?

“It super couldn’t be.”

“Shizuri-sama!!”

They said it.

The maids clearly said it.

“Forgive us for arriving late and leaving you in such a crisis.”

“But we have still sworn to share your fate. No matter what your situation, we will never abandon you!!”

They did exist.

Mugino Shizuri herself had thought of herself as the lonely one at the top, but there were butlers and maids in the Mugino Family mansion who were secretly rooting for her.

Frenda’s eyes widened.

“Argh, showing up in big numbers now will only mean more deaths as they get blown away!! Do they really think Mugino can tell friend from foe right now!?”

“So what?” calmly asked a classic maid as she unfastened her parachute harness.

She may not have been so calm on the inside.

The generic 7.62mm machinegun in her hand was far too brutal.

“When a friend fell victim to a dreadful land shark and I had no idea what to do about it, young Shizuri-sama was the only person in the world willing to give me the solid punch I needed and then save me. Even though sheltering me could have dragged the entire Mugino Family into that conflict. My soul should have died back then. So I do not care what happens to this extra life she gave me!!”

She wasn’t alone.

More and more people in tuxedos and maid uniforms spoke.

“She fought and destroyed a cult taking advantage of freedom of religion and retrieved my grandma’s mattress money.”

“She was the only one who believed my drug addict brother’s testimony and she helped me catch the real murderer. And the confidence my brother gained from that helped him turn over a new leaf.”

“A reason? Why should I need one? The Mugino Family gave garbage like me a home. What more reason do I need to risk my life for them!?”

This probably wasn’t limited to Mugino Shizuri.

The Sakuya faction’s Management and troops had begun a reckless coup on the orders of their Bloodline, so they likely respected Mugino Sakuya after she saved each and every one of them in some way. So when the time came, they had entrusted their lives to her. With no consideration for morality.

The Mugino Family’s Management had gathered for Sakuya and Shizuri now.

(It’s a start, but in the end, it’s not enough to stand up to that stark darkness.)

Frenda clenched her teeth.

No matter how many Managers they had, Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner was too overwhelming. Not even a concrete wall could stop it, so the standard strategy of “hide behind cover until the bullets stop flying” would only get them all wiped out.

At this rate, all the people who had gathered to stop Mugino Shizuri would be blown away by the #4’s own beams.

“I won’t let that happen,” whispered the track suit girl.

Takitsubo Rikou’s eyes opened unnaturally wide.

“That Mujinayama guy could predict her actions, so I won’t let anyone say I can’t do it too. That old man isn’t the only one who knows Mugino.”

Part 2

“…”

Sobasaka Michio sat silently with his face buried in the airbag even as it began to deflate.

His unmarked police car was stopped while crashed into the mountainside.

The bumper was definitely broken. The engine compartment may have been crushed as well. He doubted the car would start back up if he turned the key. He had come to Kanagawa without permission and he would be found out if he called for a tow truck. Still, the crashed car was city property. He couldn’t just abandon it out here.

His new partner was sitting dazed in the passengers seat. Good thing he had actually been wearing his seat belt. Otherwise he might have flown right on out through the windshield.

“This is going to mean more than some docked pay.”

Sobasaka Michio had been fed up with it all since the attack helicopters showed up.

It wasn’t just one side of the fight that was special. Both sides had fought it out in the air and then some beams of light had torn through them all.

What had he hoped to accomplish rushing in here with only a baton and handcuffs? The threat was in sight. It was within arm’s reach. So what? Why had he assumed he could defeat the criminal? Why hadn’t he considered the possibility of the villain tearing his throat out with their powerful jaws?

Maybe he never should have tried it.

Carrying a police badge didn’t make him anything more than a government worker. Maybe he should have suppressed this weird desire for justice and simply put in as much work as his salary warranted.

(I’ve turned into such a pathetic adult. Would you be angry with me, Hiyamugi?)

And while he was letting the regret wash over him, someone suddenly peeked in through the broken driver’s side window.

The elderly man wore a fancy Italian suit that didn’t look at all suitable for hiking through the mountains.

“Hello, officers.”

“!?”

“You are police, correct? I was hoping you could help me. To keep the peace, of course.”

“Wh-who are you?”

“The head of the Mugino Family.”

The gravity of that statement stopped Sobasaka’s breathing.

The young maid standing by the man’s side slapped her forehead. That likely had not been in line with the manners of high society.

“What is the guy at the very top doing wandering the front lines for? Are you stupid?” asked Sobasaka, taken aback.

“I am perfectly safe even 5cm away from the enemy so long as they are unaware of my presence. Conversely, even the most heavily defended fortress would be bombed or assaulted in no time if people knew I was there. That is how this shadier industry of ours works. Being elusive and slippery is the greatest trump card in our deck.”

The Italian suit man smiled bitterly at Sobasaka’s dumbfounded look.

“Also, no one would follow us if we didn’t give them something to aspire to. Help me out. We need to show those unruly young ladies just how cool a sophisticated adult can be.”

“I-it’s already gotten bad enough you can see the flashing lights from here. How are we supposed to fix this now?”

“What option is there but to fully stop this tragedy in its tracks?”

The man didn’t hesitate.

He somehow reminded Sobasaka of Hiyamugi.

In a way, he seemed more police-like than Sobasaka Michio himself.

“I don’t have a problem with them going after me. The position of head is nothing but risk. I mean, the reason each head looks so grim is because we don’t want to force this throne onto the next generation we so adore. It’s the rest of the sacrifices I won’t stand for. I will make those rampaging fools pay for the trouble they’ve brought to the public, the chaos they’ve caused, and all the death and tragedy they’ve scattered about. I swear it on my name as the Mugino Family head.”

“…”

What had happened?

This wasn’t a recent development. He may have been fighting alone for a long, long time before the world turned out like this.

But then the Mugino Family head grinned.

It was a perfect smile, but that was what made it seem inauthentic.

“You see things the same, don’t you, officer? If you were satisfied with doing just enough work to earn your salary, you wouldn’t have crossed the prefectural border to drive all the way out here. Because it’s your duty? To protect all the good people out there? No. It comes down to you needing to go after everything you refuse to accept. You reject crime for being illogical and you want to make all the villains out there pay for their crimes. Right?”

…Right.

But something about this was bothering Sobasaka.

Yes…

“Are you saying there’s more to this? The unmanned helicopters and the rampaging esper are enough. I already have plenty of stories to tell my future children or grandchildren.”

“You are a government worker and they are Academy City. You’ll be slapped with an annoying gag order and won’t be able to tell anyone about this. You knew that, which is why you broke the rules to be here.”

The Mugino Family head’s tone was carefree as he invited Sobasaka to ruin his life.

Then his voice dropped to a whisper.

“This is Academy City we’re talking about. They won’t just give up after sending in a few Two Wings. If we don’t cut it off at the source, reinforcements will be coming.”

Part 3

She wouldn’t die.

She stood before Academy City’s #4 and still she wouldn’t die.

They were only about 10m apart with nothing in between. Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou leaned loosely to the right.

That was all.

A fearsome beam scorched the air. But it missed her. It came awfully close, but a miss was still a miss.

The butlers, the maids, Kinuhata, and Frenda were all holding their breath.

Was she observing fluctuations in the AIM diffusion field? No.

“What’s wrong, Mugino?”

“…”

“I’m playing the bullfighter role. Just like you.”

She patted her hand across her track suit and then held it out toward Mugino Shizuri.

She hadn’t been brushing off the dirt.

In fact, she had been getting the dark soil from her clothes to her palm.

Or more accurately, the iron sand.

A few more beams surged out, but they just couldn’t seem to hit Takitsubo Rikou.

“You release electrons as-is, instead of as a waveform or a particle. It’s a terrifying power, but Meltdowner is still manipulating electricity. Which means it creates a magnetic field.”

She was gathering up all of that minute data, processing it in her head, and predicting Mugino Shizuri’s next move in real time. That was why the deadly attacks could not annihilate the track suit girl.

“…”

Takitsubo sent Frenda a sign with her fingers and eyes. She could communicate with her elite partners that way, but it wouldn’t work for the butlers and maids she had only just met. Oral communication would be too slow. Knowing the right answer would only get them blasted if the information didn’t arrive soon enough, so it might be best if they fell back.

No, Takitsubo Rikou wasn’t the only one reading the other.

“Kh.”

When the track suit girl saw an opening, she pulled a small case from her pocket and threw it. Body Crystal. That special substance intentionally forced an esper’s power to run wild, but Mugino Shizuri immediately released a thick beam to fry and annihilate the case in midair.

“(Now we can’t stop her by making her power run wild.)”

Takitsubo Rikou and Mugino Shizuri.

Those two had known each other much longer than they had Kinuhata Saiai or Frenda Seivelun. They knew each other too well.

Their confrontation wasn’t visually exciting.

It was all contained in their gazes, their breaths, the slight tension and relaxation of the muscles in their necks and shoulders, and the shifting of their legs and center of gravity.

Whoever managed to read the other with even a millimeter greater precision would take it all.

And.

This was the best way to save Mugino Shizuri.

Takitsubo Rikou spoke softly while glaring at the #4.

“Every single Academy City esper power requires you to use your brain to swap in a quantum mechanical perception of the world around you. Knock Mugino unconscious and the threat of Meltdowner is gone.”

“Knock her unconscious? How!? Even if I could sneak up behind her and get her in a chokehold, it would take a few dozen seconds of pressure to her carotid artery to knock her out. Meanwhile, she only needs an instant. If she reached a hand behind her and blasted Meltdowner, I’d be a super goner!!”

“Then leave it to me.”

Several explosive booms followed.

Caused by gunpowder. The young butler aboard a large motorcycle had fired the heavy machinegun he held at his hip, but not at Mugino herself.

Something exploded, its remains blasted high into the air.

It was a high-voltage power line.

A few power pylons were lined up along the mountain slope in positions meant to not ruin the scenery. The hot spring area would likely had a geothermal powerful plant and related facilities in addition to the hot spring resorts.

A home power outlet was no comparison. Power lines carrying more than 60 thousand volts enveloped Mugino Shizuri like a swarm of snakes. They were as destructive as a train power line.

“That should do it.”

Something loudly burst.

Mugino Shizuri didn’t speak a word.

This wasn’t just a stun gun. The high-voltage lines carried more than 60 thousand volts. More than being knocked out, her body could easily have been obliterated, but instead the #4 stood there silently.

“Wha-!?” groaned Bakyaku, eyes wide. “I-it didn’t even scratch her!!”

“Mugino’s Meltdowner burns through objects by manipulating electrons as-is rather than as a wave or as a particle.”

“You super mean…?”

“She can control electricity, so electrocution attacks will not work on her.”

A fearsome light flashed.

This wasn’t even a simple Meltdowner beam.

A disconcerting tremor, a lot like a minor quake, shook the ground below their feet.

“Wh-what is this? In the end, the damage to the slope isn’t about to cause a landslide, is it!?”

“This doesn’t feel like the ground pushing up from below. It isn’t an artificial quake. Could it be volcanic activity?”

“…”

They all fell silent.

This was a hot spring region, wasn’t it? That meant it could easily have volcanic activity, but why would Takitsubo be bringing that up now?

“Mugino’s power could be roughly described as the power to control electricity.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“If she can also influence natural phenomena related to electricity, then it is possible she could, for example, create enough magnetic power to drag up the magma deep below the surface.”

With a glooping sound, the soft ground broke open and something like smoke erupted vertically out.

A light like a camera flash surrounded Mugino’s body.

The fine volcanic ash was rubbing together in the air to produce a massive amount of static electricity. To look so much like lightning, it had to be around a billion volts.

And that electric storm boosted Mugino Shizuri’s power.

“You’re kidding… What is that!? S-since when can Mugino consume electricity to super power up!?”

“She is ranked at #4 in Academy City. She’s the Level 5 with the unfair power to control electricity without defining it as a particle or a wave. You didn’t think all she could do was shoot projectiles, did you?”

But that wasn’t what concerned Frenda Seivelun most of all.

“In the end, what’s the range of this?”

“…”

It wasn’t that Takitsubo didn’t know.

She fell silent because the worst possible answer had come to mind.

“What if it isn’t just here? In the end, if she can trigger a chain reaction across multiple active volcanoes, she might be able to trigger a major simultaneous eruption of Mount Fuji and all the other active volcanoes in Kantou!!”

Part 4

Detective Sobasaka and the gang lord were on the slope a short distance away.

The Italian suit man smiled in through the driver’s side window of the crashed car.

“By the way, how much do the police know about the Mugino Family?”

“Well…”

“Ha ha. Don’t want to say it in front of the family head? It’s your public duty to investigate criminals, so there’s no need to be shy. At the very least, I’m sure you know about the grain production corporation that fills 1.4 billion stomachs worldwide. The Mugino Family is involved in every single field related to food.”

“Yeah, I know that. Which is how you’ve managed to cover the world in airfields and shooting ranges while calling them ‘farms’ on all the paperwork. And how you develop drugs in your food labs. Unfortunately, it’s all rumors even more sketchy than the Kuchisake Onna, so there’s no actual evide-”

“You see, the Mugino Family has used food as a pretext to fake the paperwork for launching a few satellites without the Japanese government knowing. On paper, they are agricultural support weather satellites owned by a front company, but in truth, well, they’re used for communications to help move our troops around more efficiently.”

He admitted to a shocking truth as if it were nothing.

And if that was true, did it mean they really did have an army?

But even that wasn’t the main point.

“One after another, we have been losing control of those super expensive Mugino brand criminal satellites. It doesn’t seem like trouble with the parts or with communications. That means something must have attached itself to the exterior of the satellites themselves. After sneaking up in the silence of space.”

“Wait, are you implying…?”

“They’re OMVs. That is, orbital maneuvering vehicles. Sounds just like an Academy City trick, doesn’t it? These are satellite-mounted lasers, but they haven’t launched any of the big and damn heavy power units of their own. These are the bare minimum. So they send in a probe with a thin arm that looks all the world like a toy so it can grab onto someone else’s satellite, steal its electricity, and then prepare to activate the laser. I’m sure either Hikoboshi or Orihime are packed full of those ‘work probes’. That’ll reduce the launching costs to maybe less than a thousandth of a strategic military satellite. And after using the laser, it’ll slip away and disguise itself as debris until it burns up in the atmosphere, so no matter how much you might suspect, there’s no decisive material evidence leftover.”

It couldn’t be more obvious where on earth Academy City would be targeting.

They wanted to end this entire incident as soon as possible.

So they would pour glowing rain down across the entire mountain region before long. Nothing at all would remain. Only incomplete records of the bizarre and utter destruction, much like the Tunguska event. The remaining fragments would be so far removed from the truth it seemed more like a ghost story than anything real.

“They are taking bold action here. I imagine the destruction of all their Two Wings was the trigger, but I didn’t expect them to give up on their #4. So now it seems my adorable granddaughter is being rejected. And because dead men tell no tales, their brutal laser attack will probably be blamed on her esper power going berserk.”

“I won’t let that happen. This might be an abandoned resort in the mountains, but there are still some occupied homes in the area!”

Sobasaka recalled his childhood friend who had gone to Academy City and never returned.

Hiyamugi.

Until now, Sobasaka had thought he had vanished into the shadows of history as a poor victim.

He had thought he had been crushed before he could cause the city any trouble.

But that wasn’t the only option.

Hiyamugi could also have become an extraordinary monster like that.

What if that were the case?

Would that make him beyond saving?

The answer was no.

“So that…#4, did you say? If she’s an esper, that means she’s a teenager in middle or high school, right!? I’m a police officer. I chose that path for myself! I won’t let her die for some silly adult nonsense!!”

“…Yeah.”

The elderly man grinned.

The smile was as perfect as ever, but there was something subtly different this time.

That must have tickled him just right.

“With that established, I’d like to get to the specifics, but can you use the power of the Japanese police to stop Academy City right this instant?”

“…”

“I thought not. The Mugino Family’s power can’t do that either. We can’t win. So I’d like for us to join forces and overcome this Parasite Laser threat. Are you with me so far?”

“I’m not about to assist a criminal organization, but what were you hoping a police detective like me could do?”

“You just have to hold your head high and do your job.”

He made it sound like nothing.

The Mugino Family had around a hundred thousand troops globally. The head of that international gang spoke.

With a smile.

“Arrest me.”

Part 5

One hit was all they needed.

A single clean hit would knock out the monster named Mugino Shizuri and she would go down.

The butlers and maids forcibly rotated an anti-air cannon with only two wheels in order to adjust the angle.

Its caliber was a shocking 8.8cm.

It had likely come from the family head’s antique collection. Keeping it operational was highly illegal, though.

“At this range, we can omit the preparation process. Prepare to load the first shell! Use a self-destructing warhead. That is, a dirt wall. The shattered pieces will slam into Shizuri-sama and render her unconscious!!!”

The anti-air cannon was fully covered by thick shielding, but that was meant to defend against enemy shells when battling a land target and to protect the gunners if a shell exploded closer than expected. In other words, it was thick enough to contain its own blast.

“Ahhhhh!! D-dodge!!”

It didn’t matter.

A scorching attack sliced diagonally through the shielding and, a beat later, the shell still inside the cannon exploded.

If the butlers and maids hadn’t leaped to the ground the second before, they would have been blown away along with it.

“Idiots!! In the end, directly challenging Mugino in attack or defense is suicide! What you need is mobility!! You need to keep moving…and dodging!!!”

Just as Frenda shouted, the heavy mortar hanging from an American transport helicopter was cut away by Meltdowner.

And as the transport helicopter tried to fly away in a hurry, a follow-up attack flew after it.

The mountain forest was suddenly set ablaze.

If the helicopter hadn’t fled over the sharp ridge to the other side of the short mountain, it would have exploded too.

Frenda caught a glimpse of something that made her throat go dry.

That frilly lace belonged to Sakuya’s dress.

She was in a daze while some maids dragged her away.

Had shooting Mujinayama done that? How much love and hatred had been spiraling inside her?

It looked more like this was a way to motivate the troops than to rescue her.

That said, it was over the instant Mugino Shizuri noticed. A barrage of Meltdowner blasts would pierce through any shield.

The time to act was now.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Butler Bakyaku kept his large motorcycle in constant motion while aiming this heavy machinegun at Mugino Shizuri. He didn’t get any clean hits. The light in her hand swirled around and formed a giant glowing shield. But without that barrage of bullets, Mugino would be free to act. Without that, the maids and butlers protecting Sakuya would have long since been vaporized.

The real attack was coming from someone else.

Ougigumo repeatedly fired with his nunchaku shotguns. Something like white smoke rose from wherever the bullets hit. He didn’t seem to be using nonlethal bullets made of salt or flour.

The young butler groaned.

“N-not even carbon monoxide works!?”

“Argh, you explosives amateur! That’s only toxic because of the incomplete combustion! When Mugino’s Meltdowner thoroughly burns it, it turns into harmless carbon dioxide!!”

A dull “thud!!” rang out.

While holding his heavy machinegun at his hip and spraying 12.7mm bullets, Bakyaku and his motorcycle were dragged to the side and collapsed. Mugino Shizuri had used her entire body like a spring to tackle the motorcycle. She had caught up to it with her flesh and blood legs.

She got on top of him and raised both hands.

Light compressed between her hands until it emitted a sinister glow.

“Tch. What a super pain!!”

Kinuhata Saiai kicked up a nearby rock, caught it, and threw it like a fastball.

It struck the light just before it was launched and exploded.

Apparently her own power was one thing Mugino couldn’t stop. After rolling off of the butler, she silently stood back up.

She glared at Kinuhata, viewing her as an enemy.

“Ah.”

Kinuhata’s breath caught in her throat.

Mugino had clearly locked onto her. As a dark side pro, she could tell there was no saving her from the next attack.

Takitsubo Rikou’s predictions just weren’t enough.

“Excellent work buying us time,” shouted the Molotov cocktail maid. “Detonating!!”

The earth split open.

It started from one point and spiderwebbed out like a pane of glass after a hit from a bullet.

The battlefield shattered over several kilometers. In only a few seconds, trenches two or three meters deep spread out like a spiderweb, creating a strange design made from countless straight lines branching out. To put it another way, the ground had a labyrinth several meters deep dug into it.

They could now escape below 0m. That is, below the ground.

Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai gestured them over and shouted.

“Hurry!!”

This was better than nothing.

Frenda and the others dove headfirst into the hole in the ground, just barely avoiding the deadly beams.

“Super how did you manage this?”

“Did you notice how each villa in this hot springs resort draws in spring water but there aren’t any rivers for dumping the water afterwards?”

The Molotov cocktail maid happened to be nearby, so she obediently answered.

Since they were a criminal organization, some of the butlers and maids were smoking to replenish their nicotine or passing around a small bottle of brandy to share. Regardless of what effect that might have on their judgment, the smell alone would give them away, but they entirely ignored that basic idea.

Frenda crouched down in the makeshift trench and looked up into the sky. She was dying for some canned mackerel.

“Oh. In the end, this was spring water drainage.”

“They had built special underground waterways for getting rid of the spring water. And they were spread out like a spiderweb. I didn’t even need to bother with long-hole blasting which would have required setting up explosives across a long distance. I only needed to send some coal powder underground and blow it through with a fan. The total length has to be more than 100km, but from there, I juts had to trigger one of those dust explosions that explosion lovers are so fond of.”

“Hm? Why don’t they super use the normal sewer?”

“Kinuhata. Hot springs have a lot of useful substances dissolved in them, so sending the spring water into the sewer would shrink the infrastructure lifespan. You need a dedicated spring water drainage made of special materials that won’t deteriorate.”

A fearsome beam passed by overhead, cutting off any further chatting.

They all fell silent.

“…”

They had escaped the open sudden-death zone, but the walls here were only dirt. If they stayed in one place for too long, they would be located and pierced by Meltdowner. But having anything at all to obstruct Mugino Shizuri’s aim was useful.

Frenda whispered a question while constantly moving through the branching trenches so they couldn’t be targeted.

“(In the end, what do we do now?)”

“(If we fall back, Mugino will only kill us with her beams. Our best bet is to approach without her noticing.)”

Fortunately, the land was covered by a spider web of trenches 2-3m deep. There had to be a route that would take them right up to Mugino.

If they waited too long, Mugino herself might jump down into the trenches, but then several beams flashed out in quick succession.

For some reason, the Meltdowner blasts were directed into the sky instead of at the ground.

And several explosions soon followed.

“That was…an ALCM launched from a bomber. Shizuri-sama’s body is no more sturdy than a normal human’s, so with half ton explosives dropping toward her one after another, I suppose even she needs to prioritize intercepting them,” whispered Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai while ducking low in the dirty trench.

Those tactical weapons were meant to be safely launched from outside the interception range to blow away an enemy fortress or fleet, but launching several of them only bought them some time here.

(Cruise missiles don’t work and she can burn away gasses or germs to neutralize them. Honestly. In the end, can that monster girl stop all existing weapons!?)

Frenda and the others held their breath as they moved through the straight line trenches.

They were doomed if Mugino noticed them. In truth, the result of a surprise attack was mostly determined by the enemy’s actions.

The blonde girl asked a question, her voice low.

“Hey, Molotov maid. In the end, what are you going with?”

“Maybe a concussion blast to make sure I knock Shizuri-sama out? If a close range shockwave with no fragmentary effect hits her skull, it will give her a concussion.”

“In the end, it’s gotta be that or to use intense vibrations to damage her red blood cells, prevent her blood from carrying oxygen, and give her cerebral anemia.”

The two bombers exchanged a nod.

If they were using different methods, it would be more effective if they both attacked at once.

The ALCMs were a threat, but that wasn’t a trump card a nonmilitary force could have. The difficulty of acquiring them would mean a limited stock. Not even the great Mugino Family could continue firing them forever.

It would be a miracle if they could even creep up to the #4’s position.

How many tactical, and possibly even strategic, weapons were being wasted for this one opportunity?

Frenda and Hanagai each pulled an explosive from their skirt.

“Three.”

Frenda was afraid.

She was, but panicking would only waste this chance.

“Two.”

She gulped, dug her toes into the soft earthen wall alongside the Molotov cocktail maid, and prepared to pop up from the 2-3m deep trench.

They were only a few meters away from Mugino.

“One.”

Something flew up over their heads.

Before they had thrown anything.

The sunlight sparkled as it reflected off of…a card? No, was it a semiconductor from the core of a Two Wings unmanned attack helicopter?

“Watch out, everyone,” warned Takitsubo Rikou.

A Meltdowner beam solidly struck the soaring circuit board.

The beam branched out and scattered in every direction like light from a disco ball.

After striking the semiconductor overhead, a storm of light rained down.

The term “air burst” came to Frenda’s mind.

Hiding in the trench was meaningless now.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

She screamed and rolled.

Intense pain ran through her right cheek.

A few drops of dirt melted to a glowing orange must have splattered onto her.

Meltdowner.

A direct hit from that would have sliced the blonde girl right down the middle before she could even feel any pain. And it wasn’t an attack you could reactively dodge.

But Frenda couldn’t rejoice in her survival.

The threat level had increased.

“D-diffusion!?”

Yes.

The density of beams filling the space overhead rapidly increased. Anyone standing on the surface would be fully annihilated with no room to dodge. Not even the ALCMs flying in from the sky would be able to slip through that barrage.

That had been Mugino’s first time using that air burst to attack the deep trench from above, so had she not been able to aim it well?

But she would fine-tune the various values next time. She could shoot down cruise missiles with perfect accuracy, so it wouldn’t take her long.

Frenda and the others had to rethink things.

The straight trench now had parts of its walls and ground orange and bubbling. Those spots were only the size of puddles for now, but if Mugino fired more beams, the entire maze-like safe ground would turn into a scorching moat filled with molten glass.

“The Two Wings,” said the track suit girl.

Despite the situation, Takitsubo Rikou placed her hands on the edge of the straight trench and poked her head out while looking to the nearby bushes instead of into the sky.

“That special semiconductor from one of the crashed attack helicopters happened to cause some kind of reaction in Mugino’s electricity-based Meltdowner.”

“Y-you’re kidding, right? Why would something like that be super conveniently lying around?”

“It’s not a coincidence. Mugino’s power can be used for more than just attacking. I think she was helping with the R&D for new AIs and quantum computers. In the end, if the quantum Hall large-scale hybrid integrated circuits used in the Two Wings are new Mugino brand products, it’s not surprising they would interfere with each other!!”

The seven Level 5s were used for research to earn great fortunes in a variety of fields.

It was an unpleasant look at how Academy City worked.

Used right, this could influence the #4 esper power, but they had too little data. And it hadn’t shown strong enough directionality to send the beams back at her.

Would they be pierced by a straight beam or riddled with holes by the diffusion storm?

When it only let them choose how they died, you couldn’t exactly call it a weapon. They had only found another card to go in cruel and brutal Mugino’s deck.

Takitsubo ducked back down into the battered trench and whispered expressionlessly.

“But this can’t be fun for Mugino either.”

“In the end, was there some delightful surprise I missed? It seems a little early for a visit from a miniskirt Santa.”

“Did you forget, Frenda? Mugino is using her ultra-powerful Meltdowner in a way not even she planned on.”

“Super what’s your poi-”

Kinuhata trailed off.

After hearing a sizzling sound.

Like water droplets on a hot frying pan. Those were burns. Mugino Shizuri’s own body couldn’t withstand the thick beam she was unleashing.

At this rate, her skin would peel back, her flesh and bone would boil, and her own power could char her body.

“…”

Everyone fell silent.

If all they wanted to do was defeat Mugino Shizuri, doing nothing at all might be an option. Who could say how many of the maids and butlers would be killed in the process, but this was over as long as Mugino burned herself to a crisp before the last of them had died.

Muddy Frenda raised her head toward the heavens.

For some reason, she was smiling.

“Ugh. In the end, the trouble I go through for her.”

“But her flaws are what make Mugino so cute,” added Takitsubo.

However, that wasn’t how Item wanted to win this.

What did it mean to win?

After some thought, they added a new win condition.

Their battle against the unbeatable now had a time limit.

Part 6

Mugino Shizuri could not be defeated by normal means.

The ground was rumbling irregularly. All of this had apparently been a shock to the hot spring area’s active volcano.

Academy City’s plan to solve this problem was to blow away the entire mountain region with lasers fired from satellite orbit.

And yet…

“I-is this really the time for that?”

“Just do it!!”

The unmarked police car had crashed into the mountain slope, but its radio was still functional.

Detective Sobasaka pressed the button and grabbed the mic.

“Requesting support from Kanagawa Prefectural Police!! I have arrested the head of the Mugino Family in the act! We can finally settle things with him. I want to transport him out of here before his troops can take him back. I need backup ASAP!!”

What would this accomplish?

Sobasaka Michio wasn’t sure what else to do as he held the mic, but the Italian suit man appeared to be enjoying himself.

“That should do it.”

“Do what?”

“A perverse bastard who loves observing human society from his scientific ivory tower is about to join the party.”

That casual comment proved to be prophetic.

Someone who clearly wasn’t with the police spoke from the car’s police radio.

“Do you have any idea what you are doing?”

The fishing hook had gotten a bite.

The confrontation with an even bigger name was beginning.

“Oh? Why should a noble educator like you care what happens to a filthy criminal? The Mugino Family is a grain production corporation that fills 1.4 billion bellies worldwide, but we have failed to make any inroads in Academy City thanks to your agricultural buildings and clone meat. So whether I live or die seems like it should be none of your concern, Board Chairman.”

“…”

This was not a secretary, an AI, or even one of the 12 members of the Board of Directors.

He had personally joined in.

It had happened at the very, very last moment, but for this alone Sobasaka could only consider himself lucky.

An unpleasant sort of luck.

That was a terribly unreliable factor, but in his field of work you would be brutally killed without enough of it.

“Then again, maybe it is your concern. Because we do have our fingers in every pie related to food. For example, the sweets industry. You know, crepes, pancakes – things like that. Could it be that even you could be in some trouble there?”

Was that old man making a joke here? Sobasaka’s eyes widened, but to his further surprise, the response from the police radio was entirely serious.

“So that was intentional on your part.”

“That’s right, big shot. For another example, there’s barley and wheat.”

The Italian suit man grinned.

A chill fell over the air.

“You mustn’t waste food. Even a child knows that’s a vice. And barley is an ingredient in malt.”

“…”

“Malt is most well-known as an ingredient for beer, but it has more uses than that. But you already knew that, didn’t you? Malt is a natural chemical factory. It’s a crucial ingredient for making the fine adjustments needed in a culture medium for making agar and gelatin.”

A culture was a way for humans to grow living things for their own purposes.

They were an inextricable part of the health and food industries.

“Plant-based agar and animal-based gelatin…why, aren’t those foods? Oh? And aren’t glucose and salt necessary parts of biological research? Well, would you look at that. Our fields of work are more similar than I thought.”

“Academy City can produce and grow all forms of food in our massive agricultural buildings. In high quantities.”

“Ah hah hah. Maybe so, but the unit price is quite different depending on whether it is meant for food or research. After all, research supplies are always kept dirt cheap because they don’t need any extra added value. What percentage of your total production would that eat into? If you redirected all of that to your labs, Academy City’s food businesses would start going under one after another. You could cover it up on paper, but there’s no hiding the reality.”

Academy City was nearly 100% self-sufficient thanks to its agricultural buildings and clone meat.

That much was true.

But…

“Academy City is too fixated on your self-sufficiency rate on paper. People can’t eat numbers. Focus too much on that and you put off ensuring people actually have food on the table. Hitting you with any other ingredients would be a pain and I’d feel bad doing it to your people, so we’ll stick to wheat and barley for now. Glue, art supplies, fermented products like penicillin and streptomycin, and high tech lab supplies. Academy City is actually very reliant on malt and agar. Aren’t you?”

Of course, Academy City received help from foreign groups around the world – the so-called “cooperative institutions” – so the Mugino Family could not directly contaminate them like this.

Nevertheless…

“So will you rely on major grain producing regions like France and Australia? You think you’ll be fine thanks to your cooperative institutions? …C’mon now. We are Mugino. Did you really think anyone could outdo us in the field of wheat? We fully control 1.4 billion stomachs worldwide and we have at least some influence on everyone else’s dinner tables. If the world’s most powerful grain production corporation applies pressure, it doesn’t matter that you’re Academy City or that you have cooperative institutions. Do you really think you’ll be able to find any wheat or barley for you? Even a single grain?”

The air seemed to strain.

Sobasaka held his breath just listening in, but the Mugino head appeared to be enjoying it.

Was he the sort of person who could convert a thrill into strength?

“You’d be in trouble if you lost your malt and other ingredients, right? Same for agar and gelatin. And for sugar and salt. Your human esper development and most any other research with the term ‘bio’ in it would grind to a halt. But if the head of the Mugino Family is arrested and accused of being a gang leader, the global food economy will be thrown into chaos. And the wheat and barley supply network might just wind up in a crisis too. A major one.”

To repeat, Academy City and the Mugino Family did not make any direct deals with each other.

But food supply wasn’t so simple. If one region didn’t have enough food, it could trigger a chain reaction of shortages. And when shortages were predicted, people would start planning to stockpile the food and sell it at a markup. That chaos would eventually engulf Academy City and its cooperative institutions, causing even greater chaos.

So even without a direct link, there were ways to indirectly apply pressure to Academy City.

It just took some doing.

This was not about the quality of weapons or number of troops. This was the first and final trump card available to the Mugino Family as a global grain production corporation. It was a new form of using food as a weapon.

“Do you want me to escape?” asked the Mugino Family head.

The gang lord kept going with the rope around his neck.

“Then you need to think carefully.”

However…

…

…

…

The air currents clearly came to a halt. Even Sobasaka could sense the great tension.

This had to be a gamble for the Mugino Family.

It was a huge wager that put his life and fortune at risk.

They had only managed to survive so long despite being so obviously suspect because the grain production corporation that filled 1.4 billion stomachs was valuable to the people who ruled the world.

And a threat naturally led to a recalculation of the risks and returns.

If Academy City’s ruler’s calculations determined that the city did not need the Mugino Family, the punishment would be swift. The laser weapon parasitically-attached to someone else’s satellite would send down glowing death and create a giant crater in the Kanagawa mountains. Everything the Mugino head had built and the justice and common sense Sobasaka believed in would be blown away like scraps of paper.

Needless to say, Academy City was powerful.

Make an enemy of them, and your organization would be dismantled from the outside and inside.

That was no exaggeration.

The reason the police, the JSDF, and all the other basic systems even children were familiar with had failed to function was because someone had decided it wasn’t worth the risk. It was a cruel and coldhearted decision, but as far as “correct or not” went, their calculation was likely correct.

But this man was taking the risk.

He was directly confronting the city’s leader with no tricks.

This was indeed a gamble that the government and public power could not make. Grasping at an aggressive opportunity while risking death was the realm of the shady gang leader.

The five seconds that passed were excruciating.

Was that a long or a short time to spend in thought for the Board Chairman who managed Academy City?

They had their answer.

“Very well.”

Two simple words.

With that, the police radio went silent.

Sobasaka moved a frightened look between the radio and the Mugino head’s face.

“H-hey. What did that mean? You could take it a yes or a no!!”

“Let me tell you one rule of the shadowy part of the world. If you intend to kill someone, you don’t bother responding at all. Someone like that isn’t worth speaking to, so you silently pull the trigger. (I should know. I’ve done it a lot myself.)”

Did that mean they had survived by the skin of their teeth?

The exceedingly thin skin of their teeth?

“This will only work once. Now he knows of a flaw in their global supply chain, so he will soon rework their supply routes and fill in the holes. All while weaving in some kind of PR campaign, of course. The trump card of the Mugino Family’s demanding compliance has been used. The lord of Academy City isn’t kind enough to let us get away with this again.”

But even if it was a one-time thing, they had gotten through it.

They no longer had to worry about a threat from above.

But that didn’t meant it was over.

“The stage has been set. Don’t die now, you fools.”

Part 7

Bullets didn’t work.

Thoughtlessly throwing a bomb would only got them blown away by the blast and shockwave.

An anesthetic like hexachloroethane or a toxin like carbon monoxide would be rendered useless by the heat.

But that didn’t mean they were out of options.

“A concussion blast probably won’t reach her. If it isn’t detonated a meter or two in front of the target, it can’t rattle her skull enough to knock her out, but anything at hand-thrown speed will be shot down before getting that close.”

“That’s fine, so just do it, Molotov maid! If we rattle her body with the shockwave of several explosions, it’ll damage her red blood cells and oxygen will stop reaching her brain!!”

Frenda and Kinuhata stepped forward.

Takitsubo could predict Mugino’s actions to an extent, but only Item could communicate rapidly with their eyes and fingers. It would take the Mugino Family longer to decode the message, which would increase the odds of them being blasted and killed.

“You cutesy housekeepers can provide support from behind. Just keep throwing bombs over our heads. We’ll draw Mugino’s attention on the front line and divert her Meltdowner fire elsewhere!!”

“We’re risking our lives too. Even with Offense Armor active, I’ll be super killed if that hits me.”

A fearsome beam flew in from dead ahead.

At this point, most cover was only an obstruction to their own view and movement. Frenda suppressed her urge to flee in that direction and swiftly hopped to the left or right in accordance with Takitsubo’s instructions.

Dodging even a single blast was a lot like a miracle.

But Takitsubo, the star of the show in that regard, spoke up.

“Frenda.”

“What, Takitsubo!?”

“I don’t think we’re going to last long enough to destroy enough of Mugino’s red blood cells.”

“Kh. In the end, who said that was the real plan!?”

That was mostly a bluff, but it wasn’t entirely untrue.

Takitsubo was always accurate as their sensor, yet Mugino’s head began to wobble as if to contradict Takitsubo’s prediction. She even placed her empty left hand on the side of her head.

“Orthostatic hypotension.”

With a name like that, it might sound like a complicated disease.

But it really just referred to feeling dizzy when standing up.

“In the end, you’ve been forcing yourself through superhuman actions too. Your circulation isn’t going to remain normal forever!!”

In the brief moment the Meltdowner attacks ceased, the Molotov cocktail maid leaned out from the trench and tossed an explosive that detonated right next to Mugino.

A concussion bomb.

That nonlethal weapon rattled the brain with the shockwave itself instead of using a fragmentary effect.

But track suit girl Takitsubo shouted sharply for once.

“Dodge, Frenda!!”

Someone grabbed Frenda’s collar from the side before she could react. Kinuhata’s skinny arm used the strength boost of Offense Armor to swing her around like a wrecking ball.

A beam pierced the exact spot Frenda had been standing a moment before.

She didn’t feel saved.

Kinuhata was almost as bad as Mugino. Her senses were supposedly those of an ordinary human despite her esper power, so how did she have reflexes like that?

Frenda clenched her teeth.

The red blood cell destruction via shockwaves wasn’t fast enough. And neither the orthostatic hypotension nor the concussion bomb were enough to knock Mugino unconscious.

If none of it was effective, then they were really and truly out of options.

The Molotov cocktail maid spoke as if despairing in her impeding doom. She had supposedly learned from the style of Western gangs, but she showed an oddly Japanese side here.

“Shizuri-sama is Academy City’s #4 Level 5. She is literally a product of science and technology. Perhaps it was a mistake to attempt to challenge her using cheap explosives made from chemical fertilizer.”

Chemical fertilizer?

Frenda Seivelun stared wide-eyed as she muttered to herself.

“No, it can’t be, but in the end…wait.”

“What is it, Frenda?”

She didn’t have time to answer Takitsubo’s question.

She was too busy working a massive amount of calculations in her head.

“I can’t be certain, but this might work. Hey, Molotov maid!! I need your Mugino Family help too!”

“What kind of help?”

“In the end, our esper can gather the nitrogen from the air!!”

There wasn’t time.

That monster wouldn’t give them a chance to hold a lengthy strategy session.

The maid was a pro too.

When Frenda kicked up a parabolic antenna (presumably for satellite TV) that had fallen to the ground from a villa roof or balcony, Hanagai seemed to catch on. She nodded.

“…”

Mugino Shizuri also slowly moved.

Was she worried about making herself dizzy again? She didn’t need to run or leap. She only had to slowly direct her right palm toward them from a distance.

There really wasn’t time.

“Kinuhata, activate Offense Armor. To the very limit!!”

“No matter how super much I defend myself, a direct hit from Meltdowner will obliterate me!”

“Kinuhata.”

At Takitsubo’s gentle urging, the little Level 4 pouted her lips and obeyed.

The air swirled around her.

Kinuhata Saiai’s Offense Armor gathered just the nitrogen from the air around her and compressed it to such an extreme it could defend her entire body.

Nitrogen made up more than 70% of the air. Nitrogen itself was a nontoxic, nonflammable, and stable gas.

But make no mistake. No substance in the world was truly safe.

Yes…

“Nitrogen compounds are a representative explosive ingredient.”

Of course, gathering all the nitrogen in the air wasn’t enough to create an explosive, but Frenda was a professional bomber. The knowledge and skills she had learned in Academy City told her countless ways of converting nitrogen into a dangerous compound. And despite their vast fortune, the Mugino Family had intentionally used cheap explosives as a “signature” left at the scene of the crime. That meant they would have plenty of tools for creating nitrogen compounds.

This was very dangerous.

It was so delicate a task that Frenda would ordinarily have wanted at least half a day to work on it.

She was interested in the compound, not the nitrogen on its own. Which meant she needed other ingredients.

For example, she needed a large quantity of sulfur.

However, she couldn’t spend the time and effort it would take to create an ammonium nitrate explosive.

But she did know an explosive she could make more directly from nitrogen and sulfur.

(Tetrasulfur tetranitride. Heat or even an impact will make that dangerous crystal explode!!)

“In the end, it’s a good thing we’re in a hot springs area far from the city. And blasting the spring water drains exposed a lot of it to the open air.”

The manpower of the Mugino Family boosted their manufacturing rate by a lot.

They combined cutting edge Academy City tech with Mugino Family tradition.

And then they forced it through with their own luck.

“In the end, I can endlessly gather up explosives from all over the world as long as I have Kinuhata with me!!”

Once ignited, the world was compressed.

And in that moment.

What Frenda, Kinuhata, and Takitsubo released while holding hands may have been more like an artillery shell than a bomb.

Ordinarily, an explosion would spread out in a sphere, but that shape could be adjusted. Using what was known as a directional explosive. For example, if the explosive was spread thinly across the inside of something like a concave mirror or a parabolic antenna, the blast would be concentrated on a point out ahead, creating enough explosive force to blow through the door of a bulletproof car more than 100m away.

Furthermore, if the parabolic explosive had metal particles like iron sand mixed in…

It would become a self-forging fragment.

A special kind of warhead designed to pierce through a tank’s thick composite armor.

She reacted.

To an attack that had to be well past the sound barrier. And she made it seem normal. Mugino Shizuri really was a threat. Specifically, the deadly beam flew straight toward them before she could even move her raised hand to take careful aim with her palm.

But.

For some reason, not even the Academy City #4’s Meltdowner could vaporize the self-forging fragment. Instead, it was sliced through from the middle and scattered all around. Its force was not lost. The scattered smaller rays of light sliced through the surrounding villas and streetlights.

That meant the flying weapon had a secret.

The coating used to form the projectile had been a semiconductor from a Two Wings.

This triggered diffusion.

That new substance had been created using the research done on Mugino Shizuri herself.

Yes.

The three of them hadn’t been enough.

Only all four Item members together could pull this off!!

(In the end, we forced it through!! And I trust you’re too much of a monster to let a little thing like this kill you, Mugino!!!)

It exploded.

Mugino had fought it with all her might and it indeed did not make it all the way. The semiconductor self-forging fragment melted and vaporized just before reaching Mugino Shizuri’s nose. The gale produced by an exploding projectile swirled around her. The vacuum blade appeared to have shallowly slashed her on the right cheek, but that was all.

It had been negated by Meltdowner.

Even this may have been a notable accomplishment, but they couldn’t let this satisfy them.

There were only two options here: 0 or 100.

If they didn’t win, it was all meaningless.

“…”

Mugino Shizuri’s lips moved.

Not good enough.

That may have been what she was trying to say.

But it was Frenda Seivelun who grinned.

“Did you forget, Mugino?”

Mugino herself had made this talented girl join Item because she recognized her skill.

And the pro bomber spoke.

“In the end, if you forcibly remove the nitrogen making up more than 70% of the air, the concentration of oxygen and hydrogen will rapidly increase!!”

Something exploded right in front of Mugino Shizuri.

The air itself had become a bomb.

A massive shockwave compressed the air at 300m/s, violently rattling the #4’s skull.

Silence.

No, not a chance. The tremendous explosion had simply temporarily deafened Frenda.

First a shrill ringing and then the actual sounds eventually returned to her.

And in the few seconds it took for her hearing to normalize, she had stood completely exposed in front of Mugino without being killed.

Yes.

Mugino Shizuri wobbled to the right.

And this time…

“We got h-”

“Not yet.”

Frenda’s celebration was cut short by Takitsubo Rikou.

She wasn’t even given a moment.

The track suit girl always seemed out of it, but she was always correct.

“I-In the end…”

Frenda Seivelun’s breath caught in her throat.

Something was wrong with her heart.

The intense fear kept her from even controlling her body.

“After all that…we still can’t stop her!?”

Mugino had wobbled to the side, but she hadn’t collapsed. She caught herself. Her center of gravity was still shifted unstably as she glared at the other girls.

She wasn’t broken yet.

Even from a distance, the girl covered in burns held out her palm.

Almost like she was asking for a farewell handshake.

It ended in an instant.

Oddly, Frenda found laughter growing inside her.

(Ha ha. So in the end, she’s prepared to take us down with her?)

Frenda’s luck had run out.

Or so she thought.

But.

Not yet.

Behind Mugino.

Someone who couldn’t even get up from the ground still managed to lift a bloody right hand to gently grab at her cardigan.

Frenda and the rest of Item, the maid wielding Molotov cocktails, and the butler with the heavy machinegun were not the only ones fighting here.

There was another.

Still.

“Honestly.”

This other stopped her.

It was the old butler Mujinayama.

He had been shot in the back.

He had been injured too severely to stand back up.

He had to dig his nails into the dirt to crawl toward her.

“The trouble you put me through.”

For Mugino Shizuri, that one statement must have been far more devastating than an Academy City Level 4 or a cutting-edge bomb.

The old man in a tuxedo and monocle was still alive.

That one small answer briefly stopped Academy City’s #4 monster.

She tried to turn toward him.

A moment later, Frenda and Hanagai both threw explosives and detonated them above Mugino Shizuri’s head.

One destroyed the red blood cells throughout her body.

The other rattled her skull, giving her a concussion.

She received a solid hit from both and was finally brought down to the dirt ground.

Part 8

Up in the mountains, an old man in a fancy Italian suit stared far, far up into the sky.

“Whew. I don’t see any deadly rain coming from satellite orbit, so I think it’s over now.”

“Do you really think I’m just going to let you go?” asked a low voice.

Sobasaka glared at the underworld king while still in the crashed car’s driver’s seat.

How silly this must have seemed to the ruler watching it all from his lofty heights.

“I’m a police officer. Maybe I’m just some small fry who isn’t worth anything to you, but I’m still a government worker paid with the people’s taxes. I can’t betray all those people who believe in peace. I must fight back against all that threatens their ordinary lives. Whether I could win that battle or not wasn’t why I chose to become a detective.”

“…”

Remember. This is what Hiyamugi would do.

He was sure of it.

“What was that battle just now? There are gonna be charges based on laws banning things far more dangerous than ordinary guns. I don’t need to go out of my way to gather the evidence necessary to corner the Mugino Family. What I’ve witnessed here is enough for an arrest.”

“Yeah, probably so.”

The old man smiled a little.

And the next words came almost too quick.

“But I don’t want a man like you to die.”

Obvious tension filled the air. For the head of the Mugino Family, this was not a bluff. They were out in the mountains where there would be no witnesses or security cameras. Killing a handful of people and hiding the bodies would be easy enough.

The Italian suit man smiled bitterly.

“Don’t worry. I said I didn’t want you to die, didn’t I? A public servant who isn’t led astray by the benefits provided by Academy City and can actually direct his anger their way is worth his weight in gold. I’ve long since lost all faith in public institutions to accomplish anything, but you haven’t. You’re doing something I can’t.”

He even seemed to be enjoying himself.

Which only made it more disturbing.

“And when I say I don’t want you to die, I’m not qualifying that with an ‘if possible’ or ‘but alas’. Letting a man like you die here would damage my reputation.”

“?”

A metallic sound came from the man.

Had he just received something from the young maid by his side? Sobasaka realized the Italian suit man was now holding a bouquet of flowers. He was holding it out toward Sobasaka, but with his hand still solidly gripping it.

But what had that metallic sound been?

The quiet but solid sound squeezed at Sobasaka’s heart.

“A gift from a villain.”

The bouquet’s presence gathered even more weight.

It was hiding something.

Mugino’s ruler smiled.

“I grant you a ticket to survival. One reward and one warning. That should be simple enough to understand.”

Part 9

The greatest threat, Mugino Shizuri, had been neutralized.

It didn’t look like Sakuya was going to wake back up and regather her maids and butlers.

She was currently being dragged out of a trench by a young butler, but the troublesome villain showed no sign of waking.

In fact…

“Wh-what do we with Mugino now? Even if we handcuff her and super wrap her in rope, I’m afraid she’ll still use Meltdowner and go wild again.”

“The Molotov maid had hexachloroethane, remember? The anesthetic. In the end, why not put her to sleep with that until we’re back in Academy City?”

In fact, would that be what had put Frenda herself to sleep when she was initially taken from Academy City? By ordering the truck driver. If so, that drug had a lot to answer for.

And while they were discussing this…

“Everyone alive?”

Someone approached them.

As if taking a casual stroll.

The old man wore a fancy Italian suit and held a bouquet of flowers.

The mood changed. Due to the maids and butlers. They all – yes, even the ones who sided with Sakuya and participated in the coup – kneeled and bowed their heads. As if they so respected him they considered it wrong to even gaze upon him without permission.

The attitude likely came from appreciation.

The young maid who had never left his side even during the chaos remained by his side now. This had all been a conflict over succession in the Mugino Family, but the affiliations within the maids and butlers appeared to have been redrawn.

The old man smiled and approached Item.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about Academy City. No more Two Wings will be flying this way and there’s no risk of lasers from satellite orbit either. I had a chat and resolved all that trouble.”

He sounded carefree.

Then he looked elsewhere and raised his voice.

“One more thing! Who was it that dragged the 8.8cm out from my collection and then blew it up!? Don’t worry. I’m not mad. But we are all going to have some painful discussions tonight!!”

Frenda couldn’t react.

Lasers from satellite orbit? That was something not even the dark side girls had been aware of. Had Mugino not been the only threat?

The Academy City bomber gulped.

“I-in the end…who are you?”

“Do I really need to say it?”

That was as good as an answer.

Why were all the butlers and maids here displaying absolute obedience to him? Why were they so reluctant to break the silence that even the injured ones weren’t so much as groaning?

Put all that together and this man’s identity couldn’t be more obvious.

“In the end, Mugino doesn’t look anything like her grandfather.”

“Pff!! Our family is famous for our beautiful women. As her grandpa, it’s a little sad that she doesn’t take after me more, but it’s probably for the best she didn’t inherit my thuggish looks.”

The Italian suit man shrugged.

He pulled off the suit even better than blonde-haired, blue-eyed Frenda would have.

“I do apologize for how rude our younger generations have been to you. I owe you one. Now, the Mugino Family could make you very rich, but…hm, I get the feeling that isn’t what you want. There’s no point in discussing money with someone who’s already wealthy.”

“In the end, were you checking the brand names of my clothes? Don’t look over a teenage girl from head to toe when you’re supposed to be apologizing, you creep.”

“Ha ha ha,” laughed the old man.

You aren’t even going to deny it, you old lecher? Look, that young maid is giving you an exasperated look.

“I see Shizuri is asleep. Sakuya too.”

“Hey. In the end, don’t wake them up. Let them smell some ammonium carbonate now and their claws will come out again.”

“Sounds like you’ve been through a lot. Sorry about my kittens.”

That said, a weary tone entered his voice.

“Fighting over who gets to be heir, hm? I don’t care who it ends up being, but I’m not going to agree to it until they bring in a trophy bigger than mine. I thought I’d made that clear to my adorable dragon and tiger.”

He still sounded carefree.

But linking together the fragments of information made the meaning clear.

This was the man who had successfully made a direct deal with Academy City.

The higher ups had succumbed to his threat.

Anyone who really wanted to take the Mugino Family for themselves would have to accomplish something even greater.

Most likely, not even Item could manage that.

The higher ups of that city had made it clear they were willing to dispose of the #4 Level 5 if necessary. That meant talent held by only seven people wasn’t enough to shield her. They had weighed the risks and the costs and decided it wasn’t worth keeping her around.

“Wh-what did you do?” asked Frenda.

“You know I can’t tell you that. Underworld jobs are generally kept secret.”

He really was head of the Mugino Family.

It didn’t look like his position would be shaken anytime soon.

The young maid who had stuck by him throughout the coup hesitantly spoke up.

“Th-then is it all over? That’s good.”

“No, not yet.”

The atmosphere froze.

No, he took control of the atmosphere.

The family head spoke quickly.

He never did let go of the bouquet.

“A debt must be paid. Especially in our world.”

No one there was unaware what he meant.

On either side.

There was one person Frenda had failed to save.

“There was an explosion in Shinjuku. The truck driver was an ordinary person, even if he was threatened by a villain. Someone did that. Who was responsible?”

“I was,” said Hanagai.

“I see.”

Gunpowder detonated with a “bang!!”

The bouquet had hidden a double-barreled shotgun. The stock and barrels had been shortened as much as possible.

The Molotov cocktail maid collapsed backwards like a piece of wood.

It happened so easily.

No one was even able to move.

The head of the Mugino Family didn’t bat an eye.

“No emotion or feeling. …That is what human death is like. You can’t force that on someone else, now can you?”

All was silent.

A scent similar to fireworks hung in the air.

The Mugino Family head commanded hundreds of thousands of troops across the world.

He may have seen scenes like this countless times.

That he stood on the front line himself instead of commanding from deep inside the mansion may have been to prevent himself from treating human death with businesslike detachment.

And…

“…Cough…”

There was a sound.

A breath.

The Molotov cocktail maid appeared to be trying desperately to fill her lungs with oxygen as she trembled on the ground.

The family head rested the gun smoke smelling bouquet on his shoulder.

“I used blanks. But even that’s going to cause some real pain to your heart. Death is frightening. Of course it is. But the Mugino Family deals in death because that last resort is sometimes necessary. Make no mistake. No matter how many extra trump cards in your deck, the value of a human life doesn’t change. You can’t just play that card whenever you want. Now you should have some idea what it feels like to have your heart senselessly stopped by someone else. Right, Hanagai?”

The maid had only been following orders.

In a way, that was what the Management who served the Bloodline were meant to do.

The truly responsible party was the one who had used their tool incorrectly.

The family head made an announcement while staring down at the unconscious dress woman who had butlers and maids in position to protect her.

“Bring Sakuya with you. I will calculate out exactly how much trouble she caused the world and punish her. In accordance with the inviolable rules of the Mugino Family which has existed since the Bunmei Kaika.”

Mujinayama simply watched on.

He had the look of the loyal retainer watching his lord’s castle crumble.

After agonizing over the issue more than anyone else could imagine, the old butler in a tuxedo and monocle had ultimately sworn to himself he would continue to fight alongside Mugino Sakuya. He had gone astray in accordance with his own righteousness, so how did it feel to see the many other butlers and maids carrying her away?

Molotov cocktail maid Hanagai had been forgiven, so perhaps he would be spared by the same logic.

But while forgetting his own injury, he seemed to curl up as he bowed toward the family head and spoke with a tremor in his voice.

“I only ask that I can spend my final moments by Sakuya-sama’s side.”

“What? No. You need to get the hospital. That wound is from a 9mm. You were shot in the back and the bullet’s still inside you, isn’t it?”

“But this is far too light a punishment for what I have done!!”

“Oh? Were you under the impression I wasn’t upset with you, Mr. Lady Killer?”

The old man grinned as he crouched down to bring his face in close. With no expression on that face.

“(If you ever make my adorable granddaughter cry again, I will break every one of your 206 bones and hear you scream 206 times before I kill you. And I will be counting the screams.)”

“…”

“This is the head of the Mugino Family talking. My words carry more weight than the death threats thrown out by a random drunk on the street. You know that, don’t you, Mujinayama?”

Part 10

And a short distance away, inside a crashed unmarked police car, the new partner finally came to in the passenger seat.

“Yawwwn… Huh? Senpai, weren’t you going to go arrest the Mugino Family?”

“They took you hostage.”

But not just with bullets.

Something had been balled up inside the bouquet.

And it wasn’t just an English language newspaper used for decoration.

The document wasn’t something you would ever find searching in the police database.

It was a death certificate.

It clearly stated the fate of the smiling boy who had once been known as Hiyamugi.

This time, there was no redaction.

It provided all the information needed to determine who had done what.

(But it’s still going to take a long time to drag this into the courts where our rules apply.)

Perhaps the Mugino Family head lived in that world so he could deal with the problems someone had covered up like this.

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