Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item5 Chapter3
Chapter 3: Crime Eraser[edit]
Part 1[edit]
The wall contained a large hole.
Only darkness was visible on the other side. Even though it was currently daytime.
But they couldn’t move.
Item didn’t dare make any careless moves.
Academy City’s #4, Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner…didn’t work?
That phrase carried great meaning.
And it hadn’t been diverted, scattered, or deflected.
It had been bounced back.
It was hard to believe, but they had no choice but to believe after it happened before their eyes.
A long silence followed.
The first to break it was Kinuhata Saiai.
“This…is bad.”
Yes.
The Dark May Project had messed with her brain and implanted her with a portion of the #1’s personality, so she knew.
This was her original, who she had yet to see.
At Level 4, she could barely reproduce even a fragment of his power.
And that powerful being was now just outside that hole in the wall.
“If that really was the true Reflection…this is super bad. Mugino is a super bad match for him since each of her attacks is so powerful!!”
Yes.
The ordinary logic did not at all apply to him. If the stories she had heard were true, the more you fortified yourself with devastating esper powers and next-gen weapons, the greater your risk of death.
Academy City’s #1.
Accelerator.
…That monster could easily bounce back a Meltdowner beam just by standing in front of it. Getting into a fight with him had to be avoided at all costs.
“I-In the end.”
Frenda Seivelun’s eyes darted this way and that.
She may have been subconsciously searching for another exit.
But what safe escape route was there in the wide open space of District 23?
“Could it be some kind of trick? On the dark side, it’s pretty unusual for that strongest monster to actually show up, right!?”
“The semiconductors Mugino created by directly researching Mugino can interfere with her power, but even that only manages to scatter it. Taking a Meltdowner beam super flying straight at you and turning it around 180 degrees is impossible!!”
“…”
Track suit girl Takitsubo stared straight into the hole in the wall.
With her head tilted, oddly enough.
Something crashed through the wall made of thin sheet metal. It was a giant steel beam used for building construction. It easily cut across the gym-sized lab, mercilessly tearing through the press, industrial 3D printer, and other equipment in its way.
Those things had endured the human bagworms’ heavy machine gun fire, but this broke through so easily.
“That’s more than just Reflection… This super really is vector manipulation!”
“In the end, what do we do!? We’re up against the #1 here. I agree heading out onto the flat runway is a bad idea, but if we stay here, he can just snipe us from wherever he wants. Like stabbing knives into the barrel in that party game!!”
Part 2[edit]
“Yes, exactly like that.”
“…Ksh…”
“Bending vectors, huh? I have to admit, that Reflection is incredible.”
“Ksh…ksh, to hell.”
“Anyway, keep the output at that level and make sure you don’t overdo it. That power is much too great, so going all out would only send them fleeing in different directions. Then you would have a much harder time killing them, wouldn’t you?”
“…Kssshhh.”
“So just buy us some time, okay?”
“Ksh. Yeah, I get it.”
“Because our true target lies elsewhere.”
Part 3[edit]
Academy City’s #1.
Item had no idea what interests had brought him onto the game board.
How deep did the darkness go in this case that began with a bizarre hanged corpse!?
“A-anyway, don’t even think about fighting him. I super mean it,” groaned Kinuhata, still looking toward the hole in the wall. “Maybe a purely psychological esper would stand a chance, but even then it would be a life-or-death gamble. And a super high firepower physical esper like Mugino doesn’t stand a chance!”
“So we should escape, but, in the end, how do we do that?” Frenda sounded rattled. “You say he can control any and all vectors? If he really has a stupid power like that…then stealing a car and driving out of here probably won’t be enough to escape.”
“…”
Kinuhata, the expert on this topic, said nothing.
Which meant Frenda was right.
So fighting was suicide, but they also couldn’t think of any way to escape.
They were trapped before the fight even began.
“In the end, what do we do?”
“We can’t fight and we can’t run. To be blunt, there’s nothing we can do that will help us here. …So what if we super got him to withdraw?”
“Kinuhata, explain what you mean,” said Takitsubo.
“I have no clue why that monster is here, but District 23 is generally off limits, right? It’s not like we ran across him in a dangerous shopping area.”
It was true the odds of this happening by chance were so terribly low it felt downright malicious.
So it was more natural to think of it this way.
“In the end, he gets something out of this…or to put it another way, he’s here on the orders of a client or intermediary?”
“Almost certainly. So holing up in the lab and super buying time works in our favor.”
Kinuhata presented her choice.
It was an opinion they hadn’t mentioned before.
“In the meantime, the voice on the phone above us can apply pressure to the #1’s client or whatever. It can be a negotiation, threats, or persuasion – I don’t care. As long as the enemy’s superior super gives in, the #1 should be ordered to withdraw!”
It looked like the correct answer.
However, there seemed to be plenty of hurdles they would have to clear.
“I doubt the voice on the phone will go to that effort for us,” simply stated Takitsubo.
“Kh.”
“Besides, how are we supposed to buy time against the #1 if he can manipulate any and all vectors? Even if we throw things at him from afar, he’ll probably just walk right up to us.”
“Then what are we supposed to do!? I did my best to come up with an idea! And we’re almost out of time! Dammit, the #1 is super coming here!!”
“We just have to defeat the enemy,” said Mugino who had been keeping quiet and thinking until now.
The track suit girl didn’t even have time to hug panicked and angry Kinuhata’s head.
Takitsubo tilted her head and made sure she had heard that right (while going ahead and hugging Kinuhata regardless).
“Mugino?”
“Bwah, these boobs, what he hell, are these super real!? Wait, why are you raising your head, Mugino!? You’ll get it super blasted off by the #1!!”
“Will I, though?”
It was true her Meltdowner beam had been bent. No, reflected. There was no denying that fact. And not just anyone could do that.
But don’t forget. This was District 23, a special district that felt out of place even in Academy City where the technology was said to be 20-30 years ahead of the outside world. It was an off-limits zone that specialized in aerospace development. Which meant it as replete with devices, equipment, and facilities found nowhere else.
For example…
“There’s an underground silo mass driver out there. That huge-ass launcher uses electromagnetic guidance to launch cargo weighing tons all the way to the moon or Mars. That might just be able to create an electric field large enough to alter a Meltdowner beam’s course!!”
Part 4[edit]
“Rikuri Nee-san, they’ve figured it out. Get out of there.”
“Yes, yes. I had planned to deceive them for a few more moves. …Honestly, and I even increased the compression rate high enough to mask my voice as I pretended to talk like that celebrity. Oh, well. Does this mean they didn’t even intercept that transmission?”
“Those clever plans only work against the clever. Just grab Amazora and withdraw.”
Part 5[edit]
Academy City’s #1 Level 5 wasn’t needed.
Even if it produced an ultra-high-power attack, Mugino’s ability was still limited to controlling electrons. So if something could influence the flow of electrons, it could interfere with her ability.
Like an underground silo mass driver.
This was District 23. That special district’s technology could bend a Meltdowner beam.
“Th-then super what about that super steel beam!?”
“That only weighs a ton or two. You don’t need some incredible power to throw that. District 23 specializes in aerospace development. They’ll have what are basically giant water rockets here.”
“Mugino. Are those the things that are launched with a gas or air?”
“That serial killer John Doom launched the defective lithium batteries using CO2, remember? Developing that idea for military use is hardly unusual. I’ve seen it in the antiques my grandfather collects. They used to use compressed air or metal springs to build silent mortars.”
Their location had also been convenient.
DIY Garage’s lab was a treasure trove of specialized manufacturing equipment and experimental devices. When cornered, the target would begin searching through the junk for something useful instead of running outside unarmed. If they had gone with Kinuhata’s “stay in the lab” plan, Frenda probably would have spent her time doing just that. In other words, this place made a target less likely to flee than in an ordinary environment.
“Then this was all to buy time? In the end, what is the enemy really after?”
“Probably your favorite thing, Frenda: setting up a bomb and blowing the place up! Run!!”
If it was only a trick, they had nothing to fear.
And if they stayed here, they would be blown up along with the building.
Mugino started to leave the giant lab, but Takitsubo shoved her aside.
Blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam!!
The earsplitting roar refused to end. They could tell something was being fired in from outside, but what was it? The lab’s outer wall was already full of holes.
Maybe her ears had adjusted to the roar.
Frenda’s eyes widened where she lay on the ground a distance away.
(This doesn’t sound like the human bagworms.)
“That sounds like a Gatling gun? You’re kidding. In the end, is someone carrying that around with them!?”
“This time, I bet they’re super using some kind of esper power.”
That didn’t matter.
Was the enemy spraying bullets to slaughter Item? No. Spraying the bullets over such a wide area without taking careful aim was meant to pin the target down. That way the enemy could escape to safety while Item was blown away by the bomb along with the lab!
“Do your job, Frenda!!” shouted Mugino.
Finally recalling her role, Frenda pulled something from her short skirt. She ignited and tossed five cheap rockets out through the chewed-up outer wall.
They exploded like normal.
The Meltdowner countermeasure only worked against that one thing. Other projectiles did not have their course bent or reflected.
Just as the blind pinning gunfire stopped, Mugino rushed outside.
Kinuhata and Takitsubo did not follow.
Takitsubo had no direct combat ability, so it was best if she stayed in the lab. Kinuhata was likely worried that Takitsubo could be hit by some surprise gunfire. Even if there was a bomb that could detonate at any moment, staying here was still safer than being shredded by a Gatling gun right this instant.
Something sliced through the blue sky on a sharp approach. It flew down to the mismatched pair of sisters in front of Mugino and Frenda and stole them away into the sky.
(I know District 23 is all about aerospace development…but where did they steal that thing from!?)
The craft was less than four meters from end to end and the cockpit only fit one person at around 1.5 meters, but it was in fact a helicopter with intermeshing rotors. That Flying Room personal work craft was built using a golf cart as a base and was meant for use when performing maintenance on a mountain cabin or mountain road.
The giant Gatling gun appeared to have been discarded after being wiped clean of evidence. A wire dangling from the tiny helicopter had already snatched up the mismatched sisters in gaudy dresses and was now lifting them into the air.
And a similar girl in a dress was piloting the helicopter.
Were all three of them sisters?
“Rikuri Nee-san, be honest with me. Did Amazora get in your way again?”
“Hey, quit doubting me for no reason, Kai Onee-chan! That’s what turns a kid into a delinquent!!”
They were already in flight.
“Tch!!”
They were up in the empty sky. If Mugino raised her palm and took aim, she would be able to shoot them down with Academy City’s #4 Level 5 power before they got away.
But just then.
Gween!!
A dull impact slammed into the side of Mugino Shizuri’s head – square in the right temple.
“Kah…”
An aerial surveillance drone had suddenly flown in from the side.
And an external attachment had attached a hunk of metal about the size of a brick.
Had she been so focused on targeting that distant point it had narrowed her vision? Simply not having Takitsubo with her was all it took.
She could see the busty oldest sister stick out her tongue a little, but she couldn’t aim steadily with her vision so shaky.
She fired a couple of Meltdowner beams, but they only scorched empty air.
She shook her head and vision returned to normal.
The tiny intermeshing-rotor helicopter had already flown off into the far distance.
“Uh, oh.”
Mugino watched them go on unsteady legs and made that comment just before the giant lab exploded behind her.
Part 6[edit]
It had been reduced to a pile of rubble.
The human bagworms and their creator DIY Garage were below it all.
Really, it was a miracle Takitsubo and Kinuhata had survived after staying in the lab.
“Kinuhata, are you alright?”
“This is super my role. Let me be the tank when I can.”
Kinuhata shoved the crumbling wreckage out of the way with a single thin arm.
The Academy City fire fighters would arrive before too long. Or maybe it would be a special rescue squad since this was District 23. Either way, they didn’t have time, but they couldn’t head back empty handed.
“Mugino. In the end, let me know if you need a throwaway SIM. If you weren’t kidding about retrieving their bones, shouldn’t you start making some calls? In the end, even if the public officials discover them, it’s not too late as long as the dark side hasn’t eliminated the bodies yet.”
“Yeah…”
As those two conversed and completed a few tasks…
“Look what I found.”
Takitsubo held out a stamp-sized white chip.
Nothing was written on either side and no metal pins or magnetic tape were in evidence. It may have looked like a small plastic cover from some other machine. To an ordinary person anyway.
After adjusting the angle, holding it up in the sunlight, and such, Mugino snorted with laughter.
“Invisible printing, huh?”
“Super what is that?”
“It’s a type of paint used for cheating on tests. You normally can’t see anything, but when the unscrupulous test-taker views it through spectroscopic glasses, small writing appears.”
Kinuhata’s mouth formed a small triangle.
Entrance exams hadn’t really been a part of her life, but were there really things like that in Academy City?
“Ordinarily, it’s done on their pencil or thumbnail instead of on an obvious chip like this,” added Takitsubo, staring blankly into the distance.
What do you mean “ordinarily”?
“He did it on this noticeable chip because he didn’t want to lose it among all the other junk in his home, Kinuhata. I’m guessing this contains important data for DIY Garage. He probably chose to use this inconvenient analog medium so it couldn’t be hacked.”
When Takitsubo arrived at a correct answer, she would say it like she had seen it herself.
Mugino’s shoulders shook with laughter.
“A full A4 sheet of paper can be compressed down to the size of a stamp, right? Well, you can use that to hide some kind of list or diagram.”
“But, Mugino, this doesn’t do us much good without the corresponding lens,” said Takitsubo.
“Frenda.”
“You got it,” replied Frenda. She truly didn’t even take a second to respond. “In the end, there is something painted on here even if we can’t see it. There are only so many chemicals used for invisible printing, so I can intentionally make it deteriorate enough to see what it says.”
Item hid behind some kind of container when a fire truck arrived. Then they approached a luggage cart that had been stopped for safety purposes. They hid among the many suitcases while the caterpillar-like vehicle took them to the international airport that wasn’t part of any of this.
They were dyed red with blood thanks to the battle against the human bagworms, but Academy City had plenty of effective technologies for getting out stains. A detailed forensic analysis would still detect the blood, but they soon looked presentable enough.
When someone died, all trace of it could easily be erased.
“…”
Once at the airport, they only had to take a large bus to leave District 23. People gathered from all around the globe during the Daihaseisai, so these buses were decently crowded and no one took any real notice of Item.
After renting a rental conference room in a convenient building, they focused on the white chip.
First, Frenda poured some kind of clear liquid into a thin container and then dipped the chip in using pincers. She measured the time with a kitchen timer, removed the chip from the liquid, and dried it with the warm air of a dryer.
“Ohh, that’s incredible, Frenda. It’s just like revealing a secret letter written in lemon juice.”
“Please no, Takitsubo. Don’t reduce Super Genius Frenda-chan’s specialized chemistry knowledge down to the level of my sister playing ninja.”
This was a method of intentionally deteriorating a transparent chemical in order to give it enough color to be visible. So really it was the same basic idea!
Takitsubo’s piercing replies were always so precise it gave Frenda a headache.
“(In the end, maybe I make it all look so easy they can’t appreciate what this genius girl is doing for them. Like how you can’t just take supermarket frozen foods for granted.)”
“Hm? But you are amazing, Frenda. You have real skills that let you do what the rest of us can’t. You’re as amazing as the old man next door who quits his office job and serves humankind by attempting to invent a quasar pulse interference communicator to talk with aliens.”
“I beg you, Takitsubo. That isn’t helping at all.”
Anyway.
Something more brown than black appeared on the surface of the chip.
However, an A4-size sheet of paper had been compressed down to the size of a stamp, so reading it with the naked eye wasn’t easy. One would normally read it through a loupe (or a pair of glasses with that function built into a portion of the lens), but the four of them wanted to share this data. It would be faster to zoom in with a phone camera and take a photo.
“Hm? It’s kinda blurry. How do you set it to close-up mode?”
“Mugino, change your camera settings and you’ll end up with a phone that wont do what you want. If all you want is to prevent camera shaking, it’s easier to fix it in place with a tripod or other support. You could tie it to that table lamp.”
Anyway, it was finally time to view the important document.
The phone screen displayed DIY Garage’s personal account book. What materials did he buy, how much of them, what did he use them for, and who did he sell the results to? It was all listed up here.
“Hm? But wait. In the end, wasn’t there a separate list with the much more dangerous human trafficking stuff? The one using the brandy grades.”
“This analog medium can’t be searched or copy-pasted, so he wouldn’t be using it regularly. I bet this is a backup of his usual records kept as insurance in case someone betrays him. So the really spicy stuff will be recorded elsewhere.”
The document was full of alphanumeric strings, but that was no real problem for Mugino.
She had been born into organized crime, so she had learned at a young age how to read secret account books.
“HoloAu79 was it? Looks like the voice on the phone was overthinking things with the fake gold bars. From the way he was spreading it around, that messed-up scientist probably had no idea the Investment Club or Army Ant even existed.”
“Then in the end, the conflict between the two groups wasn’t planned at all? It was a complete coincidence?”
“That’s right.”
All of DIY Garage’s products were homemade and he appeared to have “invented” plenty of products beyond the fake gold bars. Scanning the list, Mugino saw what might as well have been the invention of a bored housewife, things that would qualify as illegal weapons, IDs and uniforms accurately copied down to the smallest detail, and more.
Kinuhata tilted her head.
“The conflict caused by DIY Garage’s fake gold bars may have been a sad coincidence, but we were still attacked by those weird sisters. And they went to the trouble of disguising themselves as Academy City’s #1. Super what was up with that?”
“Even if it was a coincidence, someone must not have wanted us looking into it. This just means we were poking around where we were not at all welcome.”
But the way those sisters had withdrawn as soon as they lost their advantage made them seem not all that concerned by it all. In other words, it didn’t feel like those sisters would lose their lives if their misdeeds came to light. They were likely assassins or eliminators sent here by a client.
The question was whether or not people who attacked others as casually as picking up some fast food would call it quits after just the one attack. It would be a pain if they only saw this as a detour and Item was subjected to more attacks with different people or methods.
Item needed to shut off that tap. They wanted information on the secret client behind the attack, not the low-level soldiers who actually made the attacks.
Someone didn’t want a product sold here to be discovered.
What on this list of inventions and sales was someone so reluctant to have come to light?
Mugino laughed in delight.
“Now this is going to be fun.”
“?”
“Law-evading murder infrastructure.”
Part 7[edit]
Mugino left the conference room and blended into the streets.
It was 5 PM.
They had begun their investigation in the morning and been caught up in a sudden battle, so they had been at work for quite a while now. It was no surprise they were hungry. And thanks to the Daihaseisai, there was no shortage of food stands and trucks on the side of the road.
“Takitsubo-san, super what are you getting?”
“It’s hard to decide when there are so many options, isn’t it?”
“Huh? You kids just haven’t discovered the amazing possibility of salmon.”
Mugino and the others bought some sandwiches and breads.
Each one came with a colorful dip.
“Doesn’t that mackerel smell? It’s the fish oil. Once it gets on your fingers, I bet it sticks around a while even if you wash your hands.”
“In the end, the challenge mackerel presents in eating it only makes it more adorable!!”
“Her mackerel love has finally reached the super terminal stage, I see.”
Kinuhata had no strong feelings about food and would have been fine with a jelly drink or smoothie, but Takitsubo offered her a very festive frankfurter. Ignoring it would only have led Takitsubo to expressionlessly shove it into her mouth, so she had no choice but to accept it.
“Y’know, I wonder what dip goes best with salmon? The wasabi soy sauce is too ordinary, but mayonnaise just makes everything taste like mayo.”
“Oh. In the end, I want try avocado with my mackerel.”
As Mugino and Frenda chatted, they ended up trying different dips with their salmon and mackerel, seeing what worked best.
They really were good friends.
All they had to do was wander around the train station area while chatting.
Law-evading murder infrastructure.
The term sounded impressive enough, but what kind of toy was it really?
“Why are you acting all self-important? It’s always like this with you. You already know the answer. It’s not an unusual concept in Academy City.”
“…This city really is crazy.”
If she wasn’t eating a grilled salmon sandwich, Mugino would have abandoned the job right there.
“When a lab animal dies after being intentionally infected or injected with bacteria, a drug, or whatever else, its remains need to be swiftly and safely disposed of,” continued the voice on the phone. “Ordinarily, it will be quickly incinerated at high temperature. Electric furnaces have been gathering attention lately. They’re like giant microwave ovens.”
Needless to say, Academy City was a city of science, so it had labs everywhere. Each of those had its own “waste disposal zone”. New drugs meant for esper development posed a risk of an information leak if an outside contractor were hired to dispose of the waste. Blood, hairs that have absorbed a chemical cocktail, and even a single cell were considered classified information.
Everyone was already incinerating dead bodies.
Did the ordinary concern over respecting the dead not exist in this city of science?
(I bet that was a part of how the city was intentionally designed to speed up research.)
“And by adjusting the output of the devices meant for small animals, they can reduce a human-sized mass to white ashes. Besides, you’ve been asking your support group to dispose of bodies. It’s always like this with you.”
That was true.
They hadn’t ever considered how exactly it was done, though.
“Roasting them in a giant oven destroys the entire DNA map, so it can’t be legally proven what you have are human remains. But for worriers like you, it’s best to be extra thorough and dump the ashes in powerful acid to fully eliminate them.”
“So would the law-evading murder infrastructure mean taking all the necessary equipment and facilities for that process and miniaturizing it as much as possible so it all fits in a single box?”
“It’s just a magic trick for making a body disappear. A single storage container should be enough. The bigger problem is the power for the electric furnace. Hooking it up to a 100-volt household power source won’t be enough. It might be quicker to determine where power can be stolen from a factory, railroad, or other facility with a large power source without being noticed. Once we know where the device is located, it won’t be long before you’ve identified the target and their range of movement.”
“Got it.”
That was probably true.
They had already seen that underground silo mass driver in District 23, but that was a fairly special case. Enough power to obliterate a human body on contact couldn’t be found just anywhere.
But Takitsubo was curious about something else.
“What about how the payment was made?”
“Yeah. In the end, that white chip listed quite the unique method. Instead of cash or electronic money, the payment was made by handing over golf clubs or fancy cars. Doing it by leaving them behind in poorly-supervised rental spaces is fairly unusual.”
“I know that method.”
The other three Item members turned to look at Takitsubo. Those words meant something different from before.
This is what Takitsubo Rikou was saying:
“Her usual expressionless face had a hint of a cloud over it.
“Some old friends of mine used it.”
Part 8[edit]
Evening had arrived. Alongside a main street was a space halfway between being a park and being woods. The space was outlined by so many skyscrapers and Takitsubo sat on the edge of a fountain there. She was toying with the small plastic bottle of tea she held in her hands.
And she quietly began speaking.
“A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko…”
“Super what is that supposed to mean?”
“They did have names, but they were more or less meaningless. Because the Advanced Lab at my school was something like a ghost story. The story said people no one had ever seen might select you based on undisclosed standards and you would suddenly vanish from your class with everyone being told you had transferred away. Your original name and identity would be erased and no one would be able to track down your new life.”
But it had really existed.
The organization had erased all traces of living people, including their names, and used them for experiments. The truth had been far more than the ghost story told for fun at the surface-level school.
Still standing, Kinuhata put a hand on her hip.
“And if you hadn’t done anything, that super would’ve happened to you?”
“All I did was take a peek inside.”
Takitsubo, who hadn’t become D-ko, smiled a little.
It was a somehow self-deprecating smile that carried many small wounds.
“The Advanced Lab’s goal was to boost esper powers. But not using methods that would be permanent in case of failure, such as messing with the esper’s brain or DNA. They used external methods like machines or drugs that could be swapped out if the situation demanded it.
“Originally even the school was experimenting with Body Crystal without knowing how dangerous it is,” said Takitsubo.
In that case, how had the Advanced Lab planned to use the already dangerous Body Crystal? The risk to the user’s life would have gone even further with them.
“I heard something caused the Superior Lab to fail before I was officially transferred there. I don’t know the details, but I think they lost some dark side power struggle. All four of the test subjects, including me even though I was still only there on a trial basis, scattered and fled, but only I screwed up and was captured alive.”
Screwed up. Captured alive.
The two phrases made an odd pairing from a dark side perspective, but apparently there was no deeper meaning there.
“They cared more about eliminating the organization and didn’t care all that much about me as an individual. I remember being fairly confused after I was dumped out into the honest world.”
Of course she was confused.
Nothing left people more at a loss than being told they didn’t have to do anything.
But if there was nothing more to it, then Takitsubo Rikou would have to face the honest world.
“I used to want to make quizzes,” said Takitsubo. “No, I don’t think it was that clear in my head. Maybe I would have been happy as a TV host or a museum worker. I wanted to be someone who explained things to people.”
Used to.
That meant it was no longer the case.
Something had forced her to give up on it.
“I lived as a normal person for a while, but it didn’t last long.”
“Did your old friends pay you a visit?” asked Mugino, seated on a nearby metal bollard.
Takitsubo nodded.
“It happened shortly before I met you.”
Takitsubo had always said Mugino rescued her when she had been arrested on false charges.
“A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko all seemed to believe it would fix their lives if they could revive the Advanced Lab. They seemed to view their painful past there as a special experience not available to ordinary people.”
Perhaps their psyches couldn’t endure believing anything else. Perhaps the Advanced Lab’s education and management had just been that effective.
“They wanted us to be a group of four. They seemed to truly believe that would make them whole.”
“…”
“The Advanced Lab wanted to restart its work, so they worked with those three. The adults were willing to do anything if it would allow their research to continue smoothly. When I returned from shopping one day, my room was gone. A dump truck had crashed into the first floor room. With my student dorm destroyed, I lost my standing at school. And those three even tricked Anti-Skill into arresting me for stealing the truck and destroying my own home. I don’t know why, but they said they found a dead body in my destroyed room.”
Those were the false charges forced upon her.
According to Takitsubo, talented students who rejected the Advanced Lab’s recruitment would be isolated and detained in that fashion. It was their usual method. They had a complete false charges manual.
“And after falling that far, in the end Mugino saved you?”
“I had to sneak into the holding area to erase some data,” awkwardly explained Mugino.
The track suit girl kindly narrowed her eyes.
Item had begun as just those two.
There would have been time shared only by the two of them.
Still seated on the bollard, Mugino crossed her legs and sighed in exasperation.
“So does that mean they see Item as an enemy? For stealing you from them and completing the four person team they wanted to be?”
“I think so. Those three aren’t thinking about their individual skill or effort. They believe they failed because they don’t meet the necessary requirements and they blame the person who stole that from them.”
It was funny really.
It made Takitsubo Rikou sound like the flag that determined the winner in a game of beach flags.
Including the fact that what she wanted was ignored entirely.
“You super said these were your old friends, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then do you know what their powers are?”
To Mugino, Kinuhata, and Frenda, those three were a mysterious group, but not so for Takitsubo. She had a general idea of A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko’s powers. That was a major advantage for Item.
Seated on the edge of the fountain with her hands around the bottle of tea, Takitsubo Rikou gave the following explanation.
“A-ko’s power is All or Nothing. Whenever she succeeds in a cross counter, her enemy’s attack power is added to her own, damaging that enemy. The explanation is really vague on the physical front, so I think it’s actually a psychological power. Just as fear of a gun or bomb can cause bleeding from the heart, excessively powerful mental activity can cause actual physical harm. …She externally boosts her power by inducing self-hypnosis with flashing lights and aromas. She cannot lose as long as she can continue deceiving herself.”
“B-ko’s power is Territory Pheromone. The power is based on the scent of her hair. When her own scent particles mix with someone else’s, the microscopic structure breaks down and she can precisely detect their location. You can think of like a radar power centered on her own location. …She externally boosts her power with lifestyle optimizations, including her diet and sleep. The research is apparently trying to draw out her top performance by having her follow the optimal routine.”
“C-ko’s power is Composite. The power lets her adhere any two objects together regardless of their material traits. By sticking an enemy’s hands together, she can restrain anyone. And I believe she had several nastier ways of connecting the body. …She externally boosts her power through brain surgery. Machines smaller than grains of corn have been attached to the interior of her skull and their slight expansion and contraction can stimulate different values in her brain.”
Takitsubo paused there.
But she finally added another point that couldn’t be ignored.
“Also, A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko are all Level 4.”
“Is that super before their powers were boosted?”
“That’s right, Kinuhata.”
The track suit girl looked up from the edge of the fountain.
And breathed a heavy sigh.
“They didn’t cheat their way into being geniuses. They are geniuses who then cheated.”
What could they accomplish when shortening their own lives to forcibly boost their powers? Just like with Takitsubo’s Body Crystal, these Advanced Lab girls sounded different somehow. They weren’t just your average Level 4.
“Also, this is all based on when I knew them…so be careful. I can’t predict how much they might have grown since then. Remember, the Advanced Lab is a research institute meant to push esper powers past their limit with machines and drugs. And technology advances fast. Especially in this city.”
“…”
“Although they also did research into intentionally lowering an esper power so that it could be fully controlled. You don’t hear about that often in Academy City, so I think that was what someone didn’t like and attacked them over.”
That explained the girls’ powers.
But what exactly did they do with those powers?
“I more or less remember their methods. They could have changed since I knew them, though.”
Takitsubo lowered her gaze to the ground, refusing to look anyone in the eye.
Or maybe she was looking to a past era.
“When they would leave the Advanced Lab to complete a dirty job, they would start by attacking the most crowded event in the area on that day.”
“In the end, is that supposed to be a large-scale diversion?”
“It could be Halloween or a graduation ceremony. They just wanted to cause enough casualties in a large crowd to trigger a large panic. Then Anti-Skill and Judgment would be too busy dealing with that to focus on anything else. Then they would, for a short time, have a lawless area where they were free to act. They used this to attack rival labs, assassinate VIPs who were preparing to reduce the lab’s budget, and so on.”
“But that method gets a ton of ordinary people involved, right? In the end, would the higher ups really allow that?”
“They didn’t allow it, which is why the lab was destroyed the first time.”
Takitsubo stated this as a plain fact.
It was all too convincing.
“And they still haven’t learned their lesson.”
Far too convincing.
Mugino crossed her arms while seated on the metal bollard.
“So their goal is retrieving Takitsubo and we’re just incidental, huh? So would the biggest event in this case be the Daihaseisai? But that’s so big you can’t really call it a single event.”
“It won’t be anything that covers Academy City as a whole. They will probably only want to affect a single district. Assuming they know where I am, this is the most crowded event nearby. The night parade. Particularly the riverside fireworks show.”
“Hm? Not one of the sporting events?”
“The stadiums and domes require seats and tickets, so they can only hold tens of thousands, but a free outdoor fireworks show will draw hundreds of thousands. Especially with so many parents and other ordinary people here from outside the city. This will likely have the larger crowd.”
“H-hold on,” interrupted Frenda.
She stepped toward Takitsubo, probably without realizing it.
“A fireworks show? You have to be kidding! In the end, you don’t mean the one on the riverside in District 7, do you? My sister will be waiting there!!”
Agreeing to meet up there early to beat the crowd had been a mistake.
Kinuhata tilted her head while performing some light stretches.
“Super how will they attack the fireworks show?”
Frenda was too worried about her 7-year-old sister to be any help.
Could she contact her sister by phone? No. An ordinary person would never believe that such great danger was lurking so nearby in the peaceful world they knew.
Mugino clicked her tongue.
“Fireworks shows these days are all program controlled, right? They won’t have time to check over every single one of the tens of thousands of fireworks tubes on the day of the show, so spending several days delivering and setting them up remains standard. …So even if someone swaps the fireworks out for a more destructive explosive, the people on site will have no way of noticing. Those girls won’t need a complex circuit board with a mess of colorful cords. An innocent person will press the switch of doom for them.”
“…”
“Frenda, our job is to stop this. If you still intend to do your job, then don’t underestimate the damage in your initial simulation. This is your sister’s life. Are you going to let her die for real because you didn’t want to see her die in a simulation?”
“B-but this is a big fireworks show. Won’t they super already have safety measures in place for accidental explosions? Like placing the launch site well away from the audience.”
“Frenda. Are you going to let us continue based on that mistaken assumption? I doubt we’ll save anyone if we do.”
“Ugh, fine. In the end, I get it already!!”
Everything Mugino said was so accurate Frenda wanted to blow up her mouth.
Irritated, Frenda kicked a metal streetlight pole and immediately hopped up and down holding her toes.
The tearful blonde girl sighed once as she brought a hand to her brow and brushed up her bangs.
Hanging her head, she spoke quickly and quietly.
“A directional mine that scatters small metal balls in a fan shape will turn everything within 50m into a sea of blood. A mine that hops up on its own and detonates like a parasol could send dangerous specks as far as 200m.”
“W-with super only one mine?”
“In the end, yes. And it only has to be as big as a small paint can.”
The fireworks that brought such delight could be seen as no more than explosives.
They were dangerous enough as it is…but bombs were commonly filled with metal balls, nails, and such to more efficiently kill people. Because that would create a solid wall of death by launching dozens or even hundreds of solid metal pieces at speeds greater than a handgun bullet.
“The fireworks show will only have safety measures in place for the flames and shockwaves produced by the explosives, so they won’t help against a bomb packed full of impurities. In the end, the launch site would need to be much farther away.”
This would easily destroy what should have been a happy time.
Defending was much more difficult than attacking. Especially when it came to explosives.
Plus, this show would apparently be launching tens of thousands of fireworks. They didn’t know the scope of the trap being prepared, but if every single firework were a trap, the number of victims would be truly nightmarish.
Frenda breathed a heavy sigh. She may have had some more specific estimates on that front.
“It looks like the fireworks will be launched from a sandbank in the river, but in the end, that isn’t nearly far enough away. …In the end, if a swap really has been made, then at least the front rows on either bank of the river will be turned to mincemeat.”
This would create an uneven distribution for the blast, which would be a problem if the goal were to slaughter hundreds of thousands of people gathered in a large space. But the Advanced Lab’s A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko’s goal was to cause a panic as a diversion to paralyze law and order, so they wouldn’t particularly care how many were killed. What they would want was to create some trouble that was as flashy and noticeable as possible.
Seated on the edge of the fountain, Takitsubo added to Frenda’s assessment with a face that was not expressionless.
“We can’t optimistically assume only the front row will be harmed. We can’t predict how many explosives they will bring in. And even if most escape the blast itself, how many will be knocked over and trampled to death when hundreds of thousands make a disorderly escape all at once?”
This was a diversion – preparation to provide ease of movement.
…The tactic was already showing an effect and it hadn’t even been executed yet. It was looking like Frenda wouldn’t be able to focus on the fight. As long as Item’s position made them defenders of the city, they couldn’t ignore the sabotage to the fireworks show. If they did, they could easily lose the trust of their higher ups and end up the ones on the run.
This was connected to major event in the honest world.
When Mugino explained the situation to the voice on the phone, she received a carefree response.
“Then you can go with that. Item will defuse the sabotage to the fireworks show and also punish those A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko girls from…the Advanced Lab, did you call it? Someone needs to show them the world isn’t that easy.”
“What, you aren’t sending any reinforcements? This goes beyond our filthy dark side. The bright and shining honest world is at risk.”
“I’d love to send some ordinary forces in, but that would probably only cause more of a panic in that densely-packed crowd. It’s always like this.”
It was irritating how right she was.
“Don’t ask to have the fireworks show canceled at this point either. A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko will hear any official announcements, so that would only provoke them.”
“They only care about causing chaos,” said Takitsubo. “It doesn’t matter to them if their bombs don’t go off. I think they would only change plans and show up equipped with masks and guns to fire indiscriminately into the crowd.”
So ordinary people would end up killed regardless.
In fact, the bombs might actually be easier to deal with.
Mugino could only speculate, but it was possible those girls had planned it that way.
This would split up Item, allowing them to possibly be picked off one at a time. Adding more personnel would only work against Item. So despite knowing about the enemy’s trap, Item would have no choice but to split up just like the enemy wanted.
The enemy was in control.
It was like a curse. If they couldn’t break free somewhere, only death and destruction awaited them.
Suddenly, a quiet question left the track suit girl.
With the tea bottle squeezed in her hands.
“But why the law-evading murder infrastructure?”
At first, Frenda froze in her standing position.
She was unsure what Takitsubo meant.
They had found so much new information at this point that DIY Garage felt like old news.
Frenda operated her phone and checked her notes and album even though she hadn’t recorded anything new.
“You mean that thing A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko bought? Well, in the end, it’s an attractive item for anyone up to no good, don’t you think? If devices that let you kill anyone you want without being found out were being sold off at clearance, I’d definitely grab one. Maybe a second one too just to have a backup.”
“That’s not what I meant… The Advanced Lab already has their false charges manual. They can frame a stranger and get away safely, so they shouldn’t need a mechanical law-evading murder infrastructure.”
“Hm? Now that you mention it…”
Mugino frowned atop the metal bollard.
They had to know that buying a product like that in secret was risky. That was why they had hired those three sisters to blow up the lab along with DIY Garage and his records once the purchase was close to being discovered.
But they didn’t seem to gain anything from the product that warranted the risk.
They already had a way to dispose of corpses, so why would A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko go to the trouble of buying it?
“The law-evading murder infrastructure is valuable, but the purchasers themselves don’t benefit from it,” said the voice on the phone. “But in that case…wait. Could it be that-”
Bang ba-bang!!
Mugino stood up from the bollard.
A few dry gunshots rang out. Through the small device she held. The phone produced uneven static for a while before finally falling silent.
“Wait…super what was that?”
“…”
“That was the voice on the phone, right? Even we super can’t reach her! Why was the higher up shot in her safe zone before we were attacked on the front line!?”
“Is this why they wanted the law-evading murder infrastructure? Instead of needing it themselves, they sold it to someone else. They made sure they had the bargaining chip they would need. And in exchange for solving the ‘worries’ of a guilty VIP with the same privileges as the voice on the phone, they received some location information they couldn’t normally get their hands on!”
Item was a group of criminals who lived on the shadowy dark side, but they were unofficially supported by Academy City. However, things changed if they couldn’t contact the voice on the phone who was meant to hold their reins.
A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko of the Advanced Lab had removed Item’s support and now it was time to enjoy the hunt.
Item was isolated.
“What do we do, Mugino?” asked Takitsubo.
“I don’t know if the voice on the phone is actually dead or not. But even if she is, we should be assigned another intermediary. We can go into hiding until then and-”
Just then.
Right next to Kinuhata, the metal bollard Mugino had been sitting on was crushed like an aluminum can.
By a 20-ton semi-trailer truck.
The enormous bumper caught Kinuhata’s small body and more dragged her straight down than knocked her forward. That was as much as the others could follow.
Only a terrible rumble of destruction followed. The truck cut right on across the park without slowing down. The impact must have opened its container because it left a few round shapes on the ground.
It had begun.
In a way, did this count as a greeting?
Still standing, Frenda couldn’t even manage speechlessness as some words spilled from the corner of her mouth.
“I-it’s…in the end, it hasn’t even been three minutes since the voice on the phone was taken out!!”
“Kinuhata.”
“If her power is real, that won’t be enough to kill her! Now scatter!!”
Several pairs of footsteps echoed out.
They didn’t have time to check where the others were running to.
At the moment, survival was their top priority.
They had no idea where an assassin might be hiding. It didn’t even have to be a person. What if the coffee they ordered at a cafe had poison or bacteria in it? Could a lantern or bug zapper fall from someone’s balcony? A buried gas pipe might rupture and trigger a massive explosion. How could they predict, be aware of, and avoid every single threat!?
“Pant, pant!!”
After reaching a gap between two buildings, Frenda Seivelun finally stopped and caught her breath.
She discovered she was alone.
No, it wasn’t that she had gotten separated from Mugino and Takitsubo along the way. They had intentionally run off in different directions to begin with. They still didn’t know what had become of Kinuhata. Frenda doubted a truck hitting her would kill that girl, but if the enemy was focusing on eliminating Item’s high-level espers, then they might have made a further attack on Kinuhata.
Item was scattered.
Without the support of the higher ups, even their connection to the support group was gone.
And the unseen enemy was hunting them as a group and team. Kinuhata had Offense Armor to help her, but Frenda was a Level 0 and would be easily killed if caught by surprise. She didn’t usually focus on it, but Frenda was Item’s only ordinary human and thus had the greatest chance of dying when things went south.
That was why she couldn’t just obey Mugino Shizuri’s instructions.
A Level 5 might be able to survive (using the thorough brute force methods that battle freak preferred), but thoughtlessly following along would only get Frenda killed. Easily killed.
So.
She had to calmly, calmly, calmly…think this through like a villain.
(To be blunt, can we even defeat this opponent in a fight?)
If not, that was fine. Knowing they couldn’t possibly win would help her when coming up with a plan. In other words, she would run away. But she had to remain calm. Was running away even physically possible? Where was her 7-year-old sister right now? Was she already at the site of the fireworks show? Was there any way to locate a single person in a crowd of hundreds of thousands packed in like a train at rush hour and then take them safely out of the city? If not, she would just have to prepare one. She had plenty of her own Level 0 options left. Like her phone’s GPS and her plastic bottle drones. So should she go with that?
Once she thought through it that far, a chill ran along her spine.
A baseless thought suddenly entered her mind.
Be careful.
Choose wrong here and you really will die.
“…”
This wasn’t a simple choice of going left or right.
This crossroads and decision was about what kind of villain Frenda Seivelun would be.
Just as she started to take the easy way out, she took a single step back.
Settle down.
Stay calm.
Truly calm.
(The enemy outplayed us and split up Item as a team. Including the voice on the phone. That much is true, but they wouldn’t go to the effort if they were confident they could beat us without doing that.)
That meant the outcome wasn’t so obvious.
In fact, it meant Item had the upper hand. Whatever the enemy tried, if Item could remain firm as a united team, that alone would scare the enemy group. Feeling like they were facing an extra large piece of unexploded ordnance, the enemy would hesitate. So Frenda couldn’t make a rash decision. When Item had the upper hand, it would be foolish indeed to steer toward destruction for no reason.
The situation was certainly bad, but she still had options. Even if those options felt like narrow and unreliable paths. So as close as it was, this wasn’t the worst case scenario yet.
If she couldn’t see that fear, she just had to define it. Mugino Shizuri, Takitsubo Rikou, and Kinuhata Saiai. Only when she was forced to truly abandon those three would she call it the worst case scenario. And even if that did happen, nothing Frenda could choose could avoid the path to slaughter and she wouldn’t be able to protect her precious sister.
And with that worst case defined, she could prioritize the vague dread surrounding her and the many other formless options spinning around her.
In conclusion, her situation here was…
Scary.
Yes, it was scary. But…
“In the end, that woke me up.”
She raised her head.
She had recovered. It had been a close thing, though.
She was aware of that.
Being at a precipice didn’t mean she had to betray her teammates. And she didn’t have to worry over who to rely on to watch her back. When she was in trouble, she could lean on them. She was certain of it. How blessed a life was this?
Also, how could she run away on her own? Say she did grab that 7-year-old’s arm, forcibly escape Academy City, and ignore both the fireworks show and the other victims. How far would she have to run? Across the wall and into the outside world? Could she actually manage that? And even if she could, what proof did she have she wouldn’t be pursued out there as well? Constantly choosing the safer seeming option would only increase the possibility of her sister being hit by a stray bullet.
She had to throw out the negative thinking that told her evasion was the best option.
She had to win and secure her safety.
If the other Item girls were still safe, then wherever they had run after scattering, they would all be heading to the fireworks show in the end.
So Frenda again raised her head.
And began running on her own two feet. She knew where she had to go.
She couldn’t give into the fear. Doing that was what would take her to the worst case scenario.
Part 9[edit]
Kinuhata Saiai was all alone in the dark city evening.
When the team’s tiny youngest member had been dragged underneath a 20-ton truck, the older members had all fled. Without a second thought.
“Dammit…”
She was leaning against a nearby vending machine.
Twenty tons had been a bit much even for her.
The fact that being in the light calmed her made her feel immature and childish.
A few softball-sized objects made of cardboard were lying on the street around here. Here and there. They had likely fallen from the back of the truck.
(Those are definitely industrial fireworks… No, those are bombs disguised to look like them. Are these spares they prepared just in case? Does this super mean the sabotage is real?)
She sighed.
Should she collect those for the sake of the innocent people who would be walking through here later on?
“Well, that would be more constructive than super messing with my phone.”
The truck had already driven off. While being dragged along the road which had acted like a giant file, she had managed to remove one side of her wireless earphones that could be tracked via GPS in case they were lost and attached it to the bottom of the truck, but she wasn’t sure how helpful that would be. After all, they had used the truck to run someone over. It was almost certainly stolen.
It irritated her she hadn’t just died there.
Because surviving meant she was still in the fight and had to deal with the problem.
The voice on the phone might be dead. With no support from her or the support group, Item was entirely isolated as the enemy hunted them down. And as a diversion or preparation for that, they would blow up or crush the hundreds of thousands at the fireworks show.
That last part was unacceptable.
Didn’t those fools realize that was unnecessary? Without that, Kinuhata’s spirit might have actually been broken.
She didn’t think of it like a movie.
She had no intention of acting like a hero in a movie.
Entertainment was fun because it wasn’t useful in anything else. It was meant to be enjoyed mindlessly.
So she switched to her work mode rather than her leisure mode.
And the dark side executioner spoke under her breath.
“Well, my life was wasting away in the shadows to begin with. I can at least repay them for taking me in. And I do owe the honest people out there for making life so super fun.”
She couldn’t forget.
The ordinary city she knew had been made by the ordinary people there.
Part 10[edit]
Track suit girl Takitsubo Rikou came to a stop in a twilit park.
She doubted anyone was pursuing her. She knew the habits of A-ko, B-ko, and C-ko of the Advanced Lab. They would never continue a messy head-on fight for long. They would secure a distance and direction allowing a unilateral attack on their opponent, launch a preemptive strike from a blind spot, and then withdraw. That sounded nice if you called it a hit-and-away tactic, but they really just loved cheating and abusing loopholes.
Takitsubo had fallen victim to that enough already.
She had thought Mugino had rescued her from all that after the false charges incident, but that hadn’t solved it. It had ended it for a time, but the root problem had remained.
This was all the result of her own decisions.
She had ignored the debt for so long that the interest had grown truly unmanageable.
And now she was trapped by it.
“You really can’t change your past, can you? My own actions are returning to kill me.”
Part 11[edit]
Mugino Shizuri spoke quietly while seated on a bench at a subway station platform.
“Maybe so, but you’re Item now.”
Between the Lines 1[edit]
As the sky faded from orange to purple, the District 7 riverside was already crowded with people.
The motley collection of people all carried cardboard fans used by sticking your thumb through a round hole. They were being handed out for free around here and they doubled as a pamphlet for the fireworks show.
The wide riverside lawn was ordinarily used as a golf driving range or a grass-lot baseball field. Ropes currently divided it into some roughly rectangular areas, but that barely mattered with such a large crowd. There just wasn’t room for people to lay out a sheet and sit down. There were also some large artificial structures. At the front row near the river was a large stage like those seen at outdoor festivals and a temporary relay station for a TV broadcast had been set up.
The noise was deafening.
Large speakers were lined up across the vast space like monoliths and they produced a young male announcer’s voice.
“Welcome to the fireworks show and night parade that acts as an alternate way to enjoy the Daihaseisai!! You will soon be treated to a dance of light and sound born from a combination of skill and talent! Not only that, but a variety of artists, both professional and amateur, are joining us tonight! Allow me to introduce you to them. First is the gold standard who needs no introduction: Hitotsui Hajime. Next is, um, her name isn’t read in the German or the Italian way, is it? …Anyway, this is Arisa-chan! And we have the three-member idol unit Clearance!!”
The stands set up on the riverbank were selling the standard food and drinks but also binoculars and simple phone tripods. The single-lens reflex lenses made to be attached to a smartphone weren’t cheap enough to sell at stands like this, so the ones here were probably useless fakes.
“C’mon, Tessou. We don’t have all day, so get going!”
“Ahhh. W-wait for me, Senpai…”
Some mechanical “gashunk, gashunk” sounds came from the crowd.
More specifically, from Spider Crab crowd monitoring mobile watchtowers. In other words, Anti-Skill was equipped with stilt-like gear that allowed them to skillfully weave through the crowd. With some help from computer support and anti-personnel radar, the metal legs, which were thinner than mops, managed to walk smoothly through the dense crowd without ever stepping on anyone’s feet. They looked ridiculous, but a kick to the side from one of those could supposedly flip over the average car.
And among it all.
Partially at the mercy of the waves of people, a girl waved her small hand and called out to her friend.
“F-Fremea-chan, where are you?”
“Azumi, I’m over here. In the first place, my sister will be here soon!”