Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item6 Chapter1
Chapter 1: 2_on_2.[edit]
Part 1[edit]
Sirens were blaring all around.
Kinuhata Saiai and Takitsubo Rikou peeked out at the main street from the alley and sighed. At about the same time.
“Really, super really!? Why wouldn’t you turn off your phone’s GPS when robbing a bank!? Are you legit suicidal!?”
“I-I-I-I did switch it off in the options! I know I did!!”
“The option it shows you isn’t enough. Have you never noticed how the weather forecast app still shows the correct district even with the GPS switched off? That means your location is still being tracked even with the option off.”
“Why do you two know so much more about this stuff than a bank robber?”
Kinuhata and Takitsubo coughed in sync with each other.
…Hiding in the narrow alley was no guarantee of safety. There were security cameras everywhere and there were plenty of non-fixed cameras such as cleaning robots and security robots.
The city’s safe blind spots were something only people from the city’s true dark side knew how to identify.
After all, this was a bank robbery.
Those were actually rare in the modern day, so Anti-Skill wasn’t going to just let it slide. Just as Kinuhata was wondering if every news source from personal social media accounts to the major newspapers were having a field day with it, Takitsubo Rikou whispered to her.
“Looks like they’ve gone.”
“Super so what? We’re talking about a bank robbery here. Anti-Skill and Judgment are going to be super gung ho about such a fun surprise event.”
“But remember, they’re still human.”
The track suit girl was not daunted. She was as expressionless as ever.
“People’s focus waxes and wanes. Thirty minutes out from the start, their hope of catching the criminal red-handed will be fading and their excitement will fade with it. The ordinary Anti-Skill officers will be discussing their next plan, so they’ll let the security robots handle the search for the time being. So this is our best chance.”
“And if we super miss this chance?”
“The pros will regain their cool and begin a thorough search. Once they make up their minds tonight, it won’t matter how late it is.”
An immediate response was a form of magic.
Hearing Takitsubo’s voice just about got Kinuhata to go along with it.
However…
“No, wait. Doesn’t this city super have a satellite?”
“That’s why we traveled through a few underground malls and underground parking garages on the way. Besides, they’re busy practicing for the Board’s parade right now, so I doubt they can dedicate many resources to a sudden case like this. Screw that up and, not only will they lose their job, but it will be a disciplinary firing which makes it hard for them to find another job.”
The bikini girl gave them a look that seemed to ask why they knew so much about this, but they were under no obligation to respond.
Simply put, if they didn’t slip past the cordon to safety soon, this would get a lot more annoying. They needed to leave the district.
Kinuhata Saiai roughly scratched at her hair and turned to look at the third person here. She had had enough of calling her “(attempted) robber girl”.
It had to begin here.
“How did you get into this mess!? Super what’s your name!?”
“S-Sudori. Sudori Sayu…”
Then it was time to enjoy a daring getaway with the attractive alto-voice Miss Sudori (who was equipped with a bikini and a thick hot dog).
“It sounded like you were unwillingly following someone’s orders during that bank robbery. Just to be sure, was it one of those blackmailers?”
“Y-yes…that’s right…”
Kinuhata was pretty sure a blackmailer was one of those people who gave instructions over the phone get people to do bad things. …The term had been all over the TV and internet news in Academy City, but maybe it would be safest if she double-checked the definition.
“They don’t ask you to do crimes at first,” politely began track suit girl Takitsubo.
Kinuhata decided to listen in.
“They send a message via an online message board or social media site offering a good-paying day labor job or something like that. Usually weaving in some fictional concepts like saying it’s a job targeted toward students or to test some new Academy City system. Most people won’t go for it, but some will respond to the sketchy address.”
“Ugh,” groaned Sudori Whatever-san.
“Then they explain that it’s an easy job, but it requires registering with them to receive your payment and they ask for a lot of difficult-to-change personal information. Your Bank ID for example. Even fewer people will fall for that, but not none.”
“Ughh.”
“Academy City is an enclosed city thanks to the wall. With your personal information taken, there is no more safe zone for you. So unscrupulous people will use that as a shield. They start controlling people by making threats like ‘we’ll burn down your dorm’ or ‘we’ll hurt your loved ones’. Then they order the victims to attack a jewelry store, a rich person’s home, or whatever else and have them steal anything of value.”
It was like a super powered up version of a group of delinquents threatening a timid classmate into shoplifting for them.
And the person who carried out the actual crime was actually paid for it. Just a bit. Of course this wasn’t about the villains being particular about promises. No, they simply wanted to make the victim feel like an accomplice, trapping them further. By making the victim feel like a criminal who couldn’t go to Anti-Skill for help, they became a lot easier to control.
The enemy was probably a group.
With an unseen group like that, a true solution to the problem wasn’t going to be easy.
But they couldn’t let Mugino Shizuri know.
That meant they also couldn’t use the delinquents of the support team.
Kinuhata Saiai and Takitsubo Rikou would have to manage it on their own.
“Kinuhata, where should we start?”
“~ ~ ~! With Sudori-san’s super home!!”
Part 2[edit]
Kinuhata and Takitsubo arrived in District 8.
Keeping this a secret from Item’s leader Mugino Shizuri meant they couldn’t use the support team’s cars. Thus, they had to travel by train. How they managed to safely use public transportation while the authorities were on alert will be omitted here. …Because safety measures tend to be very boring.
District 8 was a jumbled mixture of new and old buildings and it contained more teachers and office workers than students. The hierarchy was plain to see. The latest, high-tech estates and high-rise apartments were home to the wealthy, so you can guess who ended up in the old buildings.
Sudori Sayu’s home was in a two-story apartment building.
She did not live alone as a student. Her entire family lived there.
The girl walking around in a bikini and a thick hot dog was half-panicked.
Even though they were getting close to her home, she had been getting more and more flustered.
Or maybe that was why she was flustered.
“W-wait. Why do we need to go to my home? I can’t let my parents see me now. They’ll think I’m friends with people like you and get all worried.”
“…” “…”
Kinuhata and Takitsubo both gave Sudori Sayu a look.
The message on their faces couldn’t have been more clear: we wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t tried to rob that bank.
They must have gotten through to her because the public bikini girl shrank down.
“Okay, fine. I’ll die then. Sorry for being born. Look, everyone, I’m about to livestream my own death…”
Maybe they had gotten through to her a little too well.
“Ahh!!” Kinuhata frantically snatched away her phone (with a powerful Offense Armor arm). “Why are you trying to physically and socially kill yourself simultaneously, you super troublemaker!?”
“I should’ve just done this in the first place… I don’t want to be a victim, but I don’t want to be a criminal either.”
What was the bank robber saying now? While trembling. She really couldn’t be much more of a nuisance.
And Takitsubo Rikou responded with a tilt of the head.
“Suicide isn’t considered a crime, but it doesn’t eliminate civil responsibilities. That means it can create financial problems.”
She might be expressionless and seem out of it, but she was still part of the dark side.
She probably wanted to prevent this suicide, but the words she chose were pretty awful.
“Stopping a train or leaving a rotting stench in a rented room will incur a fairly large debt. And since the person who killed herself can’t be charged, the debt goes to her family. …Do you want to cause even more trouble for your parents?”
“…”
“I don’t know if video sites do that kind of thing, but if you violate the terms of service to use their site in an inappropriate way that gathers a lot of attention, you can’t exactly complain if they demand a large payment.”
That was a side issue and didn’t really matter.
It was time to get down to business.
Kinuhata sighed in exasperation first.
“Blackmailers obtain compromising information on their victims and then threaten them into committing crimes. It’s safe to assume they have a negotiator posted near your home to keep tabs on your family. That way they can threaten to harm your home or parents if you super hesitate to go through with the crime.”
“You mean one of the villains is near here? B-but would they really be that easy to find? They’re so scary because they’re a faceless presence, so I doubt they’ll be anywhere near me.”
“Sudori. If they threatened you into stealing jewels or fancy watches, how are they supposed to get the stolen goods? They must have a contact point for handing those things over. And using the mail doesn’t work well with jewels or watches that lose so much value from even a small scratch. They are threatening people because they want money. That means there is a physical connection even if you aren’t aware of it. This is one of them.”
Sudori Sayu looked left and right while cowering down, but they weren’t going to be that easy to find.
If one of the official members of the group was here, the best plan was to locate that person and get the details out of them. Using the unspeakable methods of the dark side. Once they had information on the enemy group, it would be time to physically crush it.
Then Sudori Sayu’s shoulders shook.
A door on the two-story apartment complex opened. A middle-aged man emerged. She hadn’t mentioned which room was hers, but that reaction was enough to know that had to be her father. The timid-looking man watered a planter with a watering can.
He was home at midday, but Kinuhata and Takitsubo didn’t take that to mean he was “one of them”.
Money problems also meant time problems. People in a bad position had no freedom. He may have simply been forced to live an irregular life with no boundaries between day and night or between weekday and weekend.
“My dad works at a milk delivery company. It’s small, but he’s the president,” muttered the robber girl. “All the neighbors say it’s an outdated company and it’s getting harder and harder to survive in the industry thanks to online shopping and with bike and drone deliveries soon to be common. He should really shut down his business and use his know-how in another industry, but then he would have to fire the students who are using their part-time jobs to pay their tuition. So no matter how bad it gets and no matter how bad the future looks…”
“…”
Kinuhata didn’t know the actual numbers, but she could guess it was quite dire.
This was a problem a parent would try their best to hide from their child, yet it had grown to the point even the child could tell. He must not have had any room left for pretending.
“All I wanted was to help my family pay the bills.”
The robber girl – Sudori Sayu – stared at that peaceful scene.
As if it existed in some far distant world. While trembling.
“They said I could earn 100 thousand yen in a week if I worked hard. They said it would be four times that in a month, which would be more than the monthly salary of a new office worker. I thought I could support my family. I thought I could relieve the tension there. But I didn’t know my Bank ID, so I sent them the number written in my mom’s notebook. I thought it was a normal process. I never imagined I was selling out my own parents…”
She only had herself to blame.
…Or did she?
Kinuhata Saiai was from the dark side. She was a member of Item who took jobs from the Voice on the Phone and knowingly wielded violence for money and to secure a place for herself. So she was not a kind enough person to feel pity for a foolish criminal who had intentionally chosen to set foot in that guilty world.
But this was different.
It felt wrong.
“You worry me, Kinuhata.”
The track suit girl was glaring (super exasperatedly) at Kinuhata, but that didn’t change her view.
An ordinary person was dragged into a world of crime without any advance notice, they were sent past the point of no return, and their family and friends were taken hostage to force them to commit crimes. Nothing was done to protect the victim. They were disposable tools whose eventual arrest was all part of the plan.
None of this would have happened if she hadn’t done what she did. That was true.
But…that didn’t meant she had intentionally chosen to set foot in this world.
Part 3[edit]
The blackmailers abused their victim’s Bank ID to threaten them and force them to steal valuables. With the victim’s home and family used a shield, a negotiator had to be nearby.
For Kinuhata and Takitsubo, locating that negotiator would give them a chance to fight back.
Track suit girl Takitsubo glanced over at Kinuhata.
“This residential area doesn’t have much in the way of entertainment, but there are still some people coming and going. We have to identify the suspicious person among them, so what do you say we should do, Kinuhata?”
“The security drum robots are effectively small communication servers.”
“And?”
Takitsubo Rikou’s expression was always blank.
But what was this? There was a hint of a grin in her eyes.
Was she shifting into some kind of drill sergeant mode?
“By borrowing one of them and messing with the wiring a bit, we can monitor the nearby communication situation. For example, the number and location of phones.”
The bikini and tight skirt robber girl nervously spoke up.
“Wh-what good is knowing where any phones are? Everyone has one. You’d be hard pressed finding someone who isn’t carrying one.”
Ignoring her as a distraction would probably get her trembling and suicidal again.
So Kinuhata sighed and answered.
“It’s true carrying a phone is super common.”
“Then what good is it?”
“But people using phones for crimes generally use a few different phones for different purposes. That will work against them here. What if we find someone in the neighborhood who’s carrying five or even ten phones? Wouldn’t that be super sus?”
Being caught on camera while capturing the mobile security cameras that were the security robots would be suicidal for a dark side member. So Kinuhata crept up on one from behind and immobilized it with an (Offense Armor boosted) attack from its blind spot.
Then she only had to tear off the exterior panel and attach her phone with the appropriate cable.
When you knew how to do it, it didn’t take long.
Cautioning the robber girl not to look in that direction was a lot harder.
“I super found them. Ten meters northeast of your home.”
“Eh? You mean that white truck? Wh-why would an old newspaper collection service do that?”
Appearances could be deceiving. It could have been a sweet potato seller or a (somewhat sketchy looking) used electronics collection service. Residential areas were the residents’ territory. The idea was to create the appearance of an outsider who could stick around for a while without arousing suspicion. A pizza delivery driver or newspaper deliverer couldn’t slowly circle around the same area for very long.
Takitsubo nodded.
“Now we physically tail them. That should lead us to their base.”
“Wait. If you already knew where they were, you should have super told me.”
“This helps me too. There are no textbooks in the field of criminal searches, so other people’s ideas can be a valuable learning opportunity. Knowing how other people think can also help you obstruct them.”
Their target was in a light truck, so they couldn’t pursue on foot. The target appeared to be circling along the same course. While strolling past the slowly circling truck, Kinuhata flicked a small wireless earphone into the back of the truck.
Then they just had to open a map app and use the lost item search function.
Kinuhata Saiai spoke up right away.
“I’ve super got the signal.”
Part 4[edit]
Mugino Shizuri took on the bearing of a wealthy daughter.
After all, she had been caught in a bank robbery.
There were Anti-Skill checkpoints everywhere and the drum-shaped security robots had been deployed en masse. She had nothing to do with the robbery itself, but she wanted to avoid being questioned about it and risking discovery of her extremely illicit secrets.
After slipping out of the bank’s front entrance to escape the chaos, the Item members split up (while getting rid of the fire extinguisher foam covering them), vanished into the streets, and made sure they weren’t being watched or tailed before regrouping at the luxury hotel they were using as a temporary home. They were specifically using a suite in a massive tourist hotel in District 5, which was full of college students.
Mugino scratched roughly at her head in the elevator.
(They always increase security here whenever anything happens. We really should’ve gone with an apartment instead of a hotel anyone can stay in.)
“Huh? Where’d Takitsubo go? And Kinuhata?”
“Don’t ask me. In the end, I’m not their chaperon,” casually replied Frenda who had arrived in the suite before Mugino and was mixing a non-alcoholic cocktail in a shaker.
Were those two together, or were they acting separately? Surely they weren’t stupid enough to get questioned by Anti-Skill and then screw it up so badly they got arrested. Mugino considered the possibilities for a moment, but then her phone emitted a tone. She grimaced after checking the screen.
Frenda hopped into the sofa and sipped at her blueish drink as she glanced over.
“In the end, who’s that?”
“You don’t want to know.”
For some reason, Frenda answered that with a nod. That had apparently told her exactly who it was.
It was the Voice on the Phone.
“We only just got back after dealing with some trouble. What do you want?”
“I have a job for you.”
“…”
“Have I ever called you for any other reason?”
Mugino Shizuri very nearly threw her phone into the wall.
“You expect me to head back out into that heat and work some sweaty job when I’m already goddamn furious!?”
“Suit yourself. This is one of the best jobs that’s ever come your way, so it would be a waste to let it go. I’ll just have to give it to someone else.”
One of Mugino’s eyebrows shot up.
The Voice on the Phone was an expert negotiator. This might be nothing more than bait, so she remained cautious.
“You don’t normally talk like that.”
“Ah ha ha. The client must be panicking because they set the reward wrong. It’s turned into an easy job you can solve with a single shot but the pay is excellent☆”
Part 5[edit]
Kinuhata and the other two arrived in the college-focused District 5.
…Mugino and Frenda would be in the luxury tourist hotel in the same district, so they had to be careful. Carelessly encountering those two would mean death.
District 8 was full of chic and mature-looking luxury brand shops for all the teachers and office workers there, so it felt like their surroundings had reversed. The city seemed to be sleeping below the blue sky.
Because…
“A used clothing store for luxury brands? Yeah, that sounds super right.”
“Think of it like a pawnshop that intentionally buys stolen goods.”
Sudori Sayu (who thought she was hiding but was doing a very poor job of it) was trembling and teasing her bikini strap with her fingers.
“But don’t they just need to convert their stolen jewels and brand-name bags into cash? Why do they need a place like this when online auctions and flea market apps exist?”
“Sudori. It might seem simple, but that’s a lot more trouble than it looks. Your screen name can be whatever you want, but it’s hard to avoid any link back to yourself when it comes to the bank account or credit card used to pay. It’s not completely impossible, but there are around three hurdles you have to clear.”
That villain sounded like she had actually done that before, so the robber girl fell silent.
It was hard to argue with someone who had actual experience.
Sudori Sayu did eventually respond while snapping her bikini shoulder strap with her fingers.
“B-but now what? How exactly are we supposed to defeat their boss? We don’t even know if all the stolen goods are in the back of that shop.” (snap snap)
“They’re stolen. They won’t be sitting out where anyone can see them. And we’re super not Anti-Skill, so we don’t need material evidence or a warrant. Now that we know who’s our enemy, we just have to barge in and beat them up.”
“Eh? But…actually who even are you two?” (snap snap snap!)
(Generally small) Kinuhata ground her teeth.
She was shaking.
“Hey, can you stop snapping your super bikini straps!?”
“I got these clothes in a hurry for the bank job, so they aren’t quite the right size. There’s a chance Anti-Skill could search for me using my fashion sense or where I bought them, right? So I chose a swimsuit I would never ordinarily wear. D-did you think I was in the habit of walking around in a bikini?”
Sudori Sayu breathed a heavy sigh.
“And it keeps wanting to come undone if I don’t fix it. I’ve always been bad at tying bows, both with shoelaces and ribbons.”
“Is that even something you can be good or bad at? That sounds like your parents didn’t teach you right when you were little.”
“Huh? This is my issue, so don’t drag them into it.”
Her voice dropped low for once.
But a second later, she shrank two sizes smaller than before.
Kinuhata sighed.
If you care about your parents so much, don’t become a criminal.
Anyway, all that remained was making the actual attack. Takitsubo Rikou was in charge of searching out the enemy and Sudori Sayu was in charge of being nervous, so this was a job for Kinuhata. If this shop was the boss’s home base, then this would bring an end to this mess. And if there was an even bigger boss, she could beat up his subordinates and get them to talk.
“Wait, Kinuhata.”
But Takitsubo, who had been kindly watching over her (to an annoying extent) in drill sergeant mode, stopped her here.
This was unusual.
“The member of the blackmailers you discovered was carrying five different phones, remember?”
“Super what of it?”
“We can’t check all the data in those phone right away, but we can take remote screenshots of the lock screen. What do you make of this?”
“Huh? A baby…photo?”
Kinuhata’s mind nearly went blank.
Kinuhata had never done it with her own phone of course, but she knew using a photo of your child as your phone background was a classic choice in the grownup world. But no one on the dark side would do that. A third party might get a look at your phone’s screen and nothing good came of letting a bloodstained person on a crime scene get a look at your young family member. And a blackmailer who made a living using anonymous threats to get people to do their bidding was an expert at that sort of thing. They would be more careful with their own Achilles heel than anyone.
Which could only mean…
“They might not be from the dark side.”
“…You’re kidding. You mean the people who collect the stolen goods and even the people running the shop are all being threatened into it with compromising information? Super just like Sudori-san!?”
“Defeating the mid boss won’t be enough to end this. Until we defeat the final boss at the very top, any empty seats will just be filled with another threatened person. And if it’s found out Sudori fought back against that hierarchy, they might retaliate against her parents.”
So everyone except the final boss was disposable? Quite the criminal infrastructure. The final boss had to be pretty sure they wouldn’t be ganged up on by their many subordinates and partners in crime. …That spoke to a lot of confidence.
But Sudori Sayu couldn’t ignore this.
Word of the failed bank robbery would eventually get back to the blackmailer boss. Then she would either be given an even worse job or her home and family would be crushed and she would be eliminated as a lesson to others in her situation. In either case, they couldn’t abandon her now.
And unlike Kinuhata and her worries, Takitsubo was quick to make up her mind at times like this.
She had already stated her stance.
Item was not Anti-Skill.
“Kinuhata.”
“Super what?”
“Go beat up the people in that shop. To a nonlethal degree.”
Part 6[edit]
It less than thirty seconds after Kinuhata Saiai stepped through the front door of the used brand-name products store. The security cameras inside (which used 2mm lenses disguised in the walls and ceiling to hide them from the ordinary customers) had already been deactivated of course.
“All super done.”
“I see.”
(With Offense Armor, it’s actually super hard to stop people without smashing them to pieces. It takes as much skill as cracking and frying an egg with construction equipment. A little more appreciation would be nice.)
The lack of resistance was to be expected from victims who were only being threatened into it.
But just as she was thinking that…
“Kinuhata.”
Something rolled along the floor. The metallic object was smaller than a baseball.
It was a grenade with the pin removed and lever pulled out.
Which meant only three seconds remained.
“!?”
(These are ordinary people!! And there super are other people in this area!)
Kinuhata kicked it out the window.
Then the small girl grabbed both Takitsubo and Sudori and pushed them down to the floor.
The explosive “boom!!” was unexpectedly high pitched. It was followed by a ringing sound that seemed to gradually grow from deep in her head.
The bikini girl groaned on the floor.
“Ah…kh…”
“Super bear with it.”
A grenade that scattered small fragments would have a lethal range of over ten meters. However, if you remained standing, the horizontal storm of glass shards from the broken window would leave you bloody even if you were outside the blast’s range.
And Takitsubo remained expressionless even now.
“This will draw attention. We need to gather information fast.”
Takitsubo climbed over the trashed shop’s counter and operated the online register that was really just a computer. Why couldn’t she do it all from the start?
Then she froze.
The LCD screen displayed some data that would never appear during normal register operation.
Specifically, the secret financial records that included all their criminal activity. Although Kinuhata didn’t know how to read the cryptic symbols in the spreadsheet software.
“Super what is this, Takitsubo-san?”
The look in her eyes had changed.
Her usual vacant stare was gone and she now looked like she was viewing a bug displaying bright and toxic colors.
“Kamigi Ryouichi.”
“Eh? Eh? Who’s that?”
Sudori felt left behind as usual, but Kinuhata was right there with her this time.
Kinuhata pulled out her phone and…
“Let’s see. I can find stuff on him on the open internet, so is he a super ordinary person?”
Apparently he was the president of a company that started out as a restaurant chain, shifted into food distribution management, and was now gaining a foothold in the IT realm with online shopping and a food delivery app. Just the publicly available annual sales figures were at 180 billion yen and who could say how much more he had made with stocks and such. Simply put, he was a success story of the “open” world. So much of a success he probably used terms like “Cayman Islands” and “tax haven” more than he did “thank you” and “I’m sorry”.
The official website of his restaurant group displayed a photo of a young man who looked like a grown-up delinquent in a pricey Italian suit. He had the unmistakable look of new money.
“He’s the wallet of one of the Board members,” flatly stated Takitsubo Rikou.
“…” Kinuhata’s voice was hoarse as she asked, “Are you super serious?”
Takitsubo barely changed expression. Barely.
“He said openly on a video site that he doesn’t get directly involved in politics because he finds all the rules constraining. He said not being able to go to your local festival or send a bouquet to a friend sounds like too boring a life for him.”
He certainly sounded like the confident type.
He wasn’t afraid of making enemies with the things he said.
How had he silenced his detractors in a brightly lit world where violence wasn’t an option? Most likely by using sneaky and unnaturally bloodless methods that even the villains avoided.
“But the video sites and his official social media don’t mention that Kamigi is attempting to take over Academy City by building up a position where he can influence the political world from the outside. I don’t know how successful he’s been there, but he has been adopted as a wallet by one of the 12 Board members. He is also good at manipulating public opinion and covering up inconvenient statements.”
“…”
Uh, oh.
The inexperienced antenna Kinuhata had tried her best to develop had heard enough to know this information came with considerable risk.
“Quick question. Why do you super know all of this, Takitsubo-san?”
“A bug maker told me about it. I haven’t been able to contact him lately though.”
“A bug maker…?”
Bikini Sudori sounded astonished, but her imagination was probably having trouble keeping up.
The girl with a much more precise antenna than Kinuhata’s continued.
“The Unseen Director. The 13th. He’s secretly known by a number of names, but that means he’s famous enough to earn those names yet the Board hasn’t eliminated him. They know about him but can’t stop him. That sort of villain makes for a powerful enemy.”
He effectively had as much power as the Board of Directors and he was from the “open” world.
If Kinuhata and Takitsubo of the dark side silenced him with their fists, they would likely make a wide variety of enemies. There would of course be powerful people who weren’t too fond of Kamigi, but that was no guarantee they would protect Item. They would delight in learning some dangerous criminals had eliminated their political enemy and then let the troublesome criminals go down with him. That would be the cleanest resolution.
The die had been cast.
There was no turning back.
And if they were to fight, they had to start by coming up with a method.
“But if he’s that super rich, why is he taking the risk of running a blackmail- oh.”
Kinuhata realized the answer to her question halfway through asking it.
“He isn’t after money. Is he essentially mining for safe and disposable pawns who will take any super risk he wants as long as he scares them or flashes his money at them? He’s trying to build a legal form of violence?”
“D-disposable? How can this be legal!?”
“I’m trying to help you fight him, so don’t super take it out on me.”
Kinuhata could only respond with her mouth forming a small triangle.
Item was a team of criminal girls who performed dirty jobs, but they had an unofficial connection to those higher up in the city. To put it another way, the Board of Directors had that card in their deck. And they might have many more besides Item.
In that case…
“I said he was controlling the political world from the outside, remember? Money and power aren’t the only ways to protect yourself. He will want some way to stop any bullets flying his way. So he probably wanted to create a hierarchy of people who will take on dirty jobs, right? Just to be safe.”
“Yes, safety measures need to be ready super before trouble happens.”
Just to be safe.
Being threatened into committing crimes and ruining their lives just in case a complete stranger ran into any future trouble couldn’t be fun for the blackmail victims, though.
So the blackmailer was the parent organization. And Kamigi Ryouichi’s “safety measure” used a quantity over quality strategy as opposed to preparing an elite team like Item. Although if he continued to increase the quality of his threatened agents, he might end up with an elite team eventually.
“The question is how far his trump card has been built.”
“If brute force can solve the problem, then we just need to use brute force. Super courtesy of my Offense Armor.”
It probably took a high level Esper of the dark side for brute force to be an option here.
Kinuhata kept her voice low.
“I say the question is super how we attack this public big shot. The dark side needs to follow certain procedures to go after someone like that. For example, when a job falls to Item because the media digs too deep into a personal scandal and it might start affecting other VIPs. But given Sudori-san’s situation, I don’t think we have time for an investigation to prepare for a long-term fight.”
On the dark side, you didn’t cause trouble for the “open” world.
That was an unspoken rule for those who lived in this city’s shadows.
On the basis of how much trouble a single death would cause, they really didn’t want to get involved with important and well-known people like the president of a large company, an entertainer, or an athlete. That dividing line pissed off Kinuhata as someone who was ranked lower there, but it was the truth.
That didn’t mean it was impossible.
Item had in fact eliminated some corrupt idols on a job.
But that was only after the Voice on the Phone had laid the necessary groundwork.
They didn’t have that this time.
“B-b-but.” Bikini Sudori was trembling. “We’re talking about the boss of those blackmailers, right? That’s a crime, so isn’t that enough of an Achilles heel for an important person?”
“Sorry, but we’re not talking about whether it’s legal or not. We want a scandal on a level that even a super VIP can’t wriggle out of it. Specifically, something he can’t escape by assigning the blame to a sacrificial pawn.”
“Remember, Sudori, Kamigi Ryouichi went to the trouble of putting together this enormous plan, so he will have insurance in place so he can escape if anyone tries to use it against him. Maybe he has someone with the same name he can blame, or maybe he’ll just claim someone stole his official profile or Bank ID and used them to open a bank account in his name.”
As a famous person and a corporate executive who didn’t use a stage name or handle name, there were unique strategies available to him.
The villain could use the blackmail hierarchy to order around any number of terrified people, so he could prepare as many “fall guy Kamigi Ryouichis” as he needed.
Sudori leaned forward.
“Then what do we do!? If our attack doesn’t finish this, then it’ll be his turn! And it’s not just about me! My parents are at risk too!!”
“Kamigi Ryouichi would never dream that it’s super best to have an Achilles heel without any kind of safety measure…”
Kinuhata’s phone chose this annoying time to ring.
Kinuhata pulled it from her pocket and was disappointed to find it wasn’t a social media notification. Then she could have used a trick to read the message without sending a read receipt and ignored it.
“Is this Mugino?”
“Doesn’t your phone tell you that? Where are you? Is Takitsubo with you?”
“Well, super um…”
Should she tell her? But lying seemed like it would only wrap the noose tighter around her neck. With her phone in hand, she glanced over and saw the track suit girl give a slight nod. With her usual lack of expression.
“Uh, yes. She is super here.”
“Hm? Whatever. Get your asses over here. Free time is over.”
“Eh? We have an Item job right away?”
But they had to find some way of tearing down the defenses of an irritating and (technically) non-dark-side VIP who was known as a Board member’s wallet.
Mugino seemed to be in a good mood as she continued.
“The Voice on the Phone says it’s an easy job that won’t take more than a single attack. Yet it pays a ton. Something about the client being new to this and we get to reap the benefits? I’m already in a bad mood after everything at the bank, so let’s accept this last-minute windfall and have a real feast for dinner.”
“…”
(Wow, why does she choose super now to be thoughtful!? If only she was like this every other day!)
“…Why aren’t you saying anything? Do you have other plans?”
“No, no, no, no!! I was just wondering what you’d be treating us to! I’m in the mood for some super Thai food!”
“I thought you wanted paella? But Thai’s fine too. And if we’re gonna do it, let’s get stuff as good as what they serve in the royal court. Whatever we go with, I need to blow a bunch of money on it to get out of this funk. See you in 20 minutes at the hotel.”
She hung up.
…Mugino Shizuri, the wicked rich girl, was giving some slight hints of a shopping addiction, but that wasn’t what most bothered Kinuhata Saiai as she stood there blankly with phone in hand.
“Oh…oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”
Sudori Sayu was shaking. Did she think they were going to abandon her? She was shaking so hard her bikini’s knots looked ready to give up the ghost, but Kinuhata didn’t bother warning her. Looking after her boobs was her own job, so she could deal with it.
But what were they supposed to do about this?
“Kinuhata, you go.”
“Why do you always choose these moments to act all responsible and start raising death flags!? You’ve known Mugino the longest, so you know better than me how terrifying she is, so why are you super pushing your luck like this!?”
“You have that backwards. I’ve known her longest, so I know best how to evade her followup questions. I can get out of it just this once, but I’m worried about you since you’re so new.”
“Ugh…”
“It’s a job, right? Mugino has switched modes. One of us missing can be passed off as a minor accident, but she’ll get suspicious if both of us are absent. …There is no guaranteed right answer here. We can only try to mentally simulate Mugino’s capricious actions. Kinuhata, can you do that?”
That was right. Kinuhata Saiai lacked the experience needed to say anything with certainty here.
When it came to bluffing or anything else, Takitsubo knew Mugino Shizuri very well.
“Don’t worry. I will take care of Sudori.”
“Kh. Don’t blame me if Mugino super finds out!!”
Part 7[edit]
Kinuhata Saiai hurried back to the District 5 tourist hotel and arrive just as Mugino Shizuri and Frenda Seivelun were leaving.
“Where’s Takitsubo?”
“What? Does this job super require her searching skills?”
She couldn’t answer that question, so she avoided it with a question of her own. The trick was to avoid pausing too long. (A lesson she learned after screwing it up earlier.) Then she went on to lay out her own rules.
“Since you super called my phone instead of Takitsubo-san’s, I assumed you needed strength for this job.”
“Fine, whatever.”
Mugino brushed it off as unimportant.
Frenda sighed while hefting a bag that seemed to be full of various heavy items.
“So how are things outside? That bank robber is still at large, right? Is Anti-Skill still out in full force? In the end, I’ve been intercepting their radio signals and spying on the street cameras on video sites, but as a dark side bomber, I’m pretty curious what things are really like out there.”
“Nothing special. They super seem to be in a lull.”
“It’s 3 in the afternoon. After searching around without finding anything, they must have gotten bored and decided to stop for some afternoon tea. The higher ups will notice soon and yell at them, so the patrols will find a new store of motivation before long. Let’s get this job over with before that happens.”
They left the grown-up District 5 to reach the more eclectic District 7.
On the way, Kinuhata received an overview of the job.
This time they would be destroying something rather than someone.
It was a sabotage job.
“Since we aren’t just killing someone, I get the feeling there’s some nasty link between different villains here.”
“The higher ups have their own issues.”
“In the end, it’s about adjusting the power balance. There are a lot of skilled people at the top, but one of them has gotten carried away and started infringing on other people’s turfs. So those others are going behind the scenes to smack him and bring him back in line.”
(If this isn’t an urgent case of saving a hostage or stopping the imminent leak of a biological weapon, couldn’t this have super waited until later?)
Kinuhata kept that thought to herself.
If she acted natural here, Takitsubo would be free to do her part with Sudori Sayu, so she had to remember she was accomplishing something here. She feared the impatience would overwhelm her if she didn’t find her own motivation like that.
In any case, it was time to get to work.
The work wasn’t confined to District 7. They also went around to other districts.
They performed some quick work at each stop.
“Super what is this? What are we doing?”
“In the end, we’re doing something important enough to ruin a certain someone’s life☆”
After somewhere between half an hour and an hour of work, there was a ringing from a fossil of a pay phone remaining on the side of the road.
Mugino Shizuri grinned and picked up the receiver.
“Is ‘hello’ the right thing to say with a landline phone? Was my data security too good for you to find my personal phone number?”
“Damn you!!”
“Yes, it was us. We’ve been busy going around destroying a few of your factories and warehouses for eco-friendly dishware. But we made sure the damage was light enough to recover from in a few days, so you don’t have to worry about bankruptcy. Still, food isn’t the only important supply for restaurants. This should be a significant problem for a chain that needs to supply these things as cheaply as possible. The knives and forks can be washed and reused several times, but your group as a whole must still have to dispose of quite a few each day. And without new supply, you can’t open your doors.”
Kinuhata couldn’t believe her ears.
That’s what they had been doing?
Just thinking about the extent of the losses terrified her.
Mugino Shizuri took on a singsong voice with the receiver against her ear. The man on the other side was shouting shrilly.
“Do you understand what you’ve done!? Including my artwork and real estate, my personal assets amount to more than 100 billion yen. That isn’t the company’s money – it’s all money I am free to use however I like! I can keep sending in assassins until all of you are dead without having to lift a finger myself!!”
“Oh, really? Then how about we cover your wonderful golf course with agrochemicals next? Or what about sending bomb threats to the shopping mall owned by your group? Being famous does have its drawbacks. Even if you’ve done nothing wrong, everyone around you will be demanding answers. Sooooo if you don’t surrender now, you’ll just have to watch as the value of those assets plummets.”
“No. Do you really think that absurd reasoning will work!? I am known as a Board member’s purse. I am a big deal in the public world! If you filthy dark side dogs try to bite me, you will regret it!!”
“Frenda.”
“Sure thing.”
The ground shook. As if jutting up from below.
Followed by a chain reaction of distinctive electronic tones coming from all the phones in the area.
Mugino smiled and continued.
“That was an artificial earthquake.”
“…”
“Humans can indeed cause earthquakes. Do you know the primary cause of them? Roadwork? Subway trains passing by? Oh, wait. Isn’t the answer nuclear tests in labs built deep underground?”
“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………No, you couldn’t have.”
He was speechless.
Frenda Seivelun smiled maliciously.
As the Academy City Bomber.
“In the end☆ That was☆☆ A pencil nuke☆☆☆”
Cold sweat poured from Kinuhata Saiai’s body.
Frenda…wasn’t joking.
And the object she was twirling in her hand like a pen was exactly what she had described. Did nuclear weapons that small really exist!?
“In the end, that’s a bomb that uses a rare radioactive material called californium instead of uranium or plutonium. It’s what’s known as a super heavy element bomb. The nuclear material itself is a sphere with a diameter of only one centimeter, but I think it’s powerful enough to blow away about a district’s worth of land when used in an open space? Although they’re being developed to be bound together and stuffed inside a larger cluster bomb.”
The blast had been contained because Academy City had many different research labs, both legitimate and illegitimate, which weren’t found on the map.
Otherwise, it would have badly contaminated the land, and the 2.3 million people living there, even if detonated deep underground.
“How far are you willing to take this, Mr. VIP?”
Mugino Shizuri snorted with laughter.
These people really weren’t normal. Kinuhata Saiai was certain of that now. Trying to fight them and win was crazy. Who knows what you would be forced to lose even if you won in the end!
“That isn’t our only trump card, by the way. Chemical weapons? Biological weapon? Anti-ship EMP bombs? Take your pick. We’re willing to keep it up until you give up, but it’s you and your public position that will suffer as this continues. The complaints will start rushing in. Scandals are generally graded with a demerit system. It doesn’t work like a poorly-written success story movie where a single good deed turns everything around. By the end, the average people out there will probably be ready to kill you.”
“…”
“Listen, you corrupt VIP. Once you’ve been stripped of the power your money gives you, you’re nothing more than a naked ape. Are you ready to sleep under a bridge? And once you’re wandering the streets with nowhere to go, that’s when Item will hunt you down and kill you. Once you’re attempting a no-gear challenge run of life, we can bide our time and kill you in whatever gruesome way we like. If that doesn’t appeal to you, then you should give more thought to how you behave yourself. This was a major blow, but you still have some money left. For now anyway.”
“…What are you saying I should do?”
“Look deep inside yourself and consider all the misdeeds you’re involved in. Then pull out of them all. That’s the bare minimum we’re asking for. Oh, right. And if you don’t go through with it in even one case, your money and your life are forfeit, so keep that in mind.”
At that point, Kinuhata Saiai frowned. She had worked this job without knowing whose life they were ruining, but she was feeling some déjà vu here. She had noticed Mugino Shizuri using some familiar terms.
A higher up in Academy City.
Someone famous in the public world.
A corrupt VIP.
(Wait. Could it super be…???)
Part 8[edit]
Takitsubo Rikou held her phone to her ear.
“Did you see that strange video of Kamigi Ryouichi sobbing as he smashed something with a hammer? Apparently those were the disks and drives used to store his blackmail material. He backed out all on his own. Kinuhata, do you have any idea why?”
“That was amazing, Mugino Shizuri! I super love you!!”
“Hey, why are you hugging me!? Get away from me!”
“?”
The track suit girl tilted her head at the voices coming from her phone.
“Well, as long as Kinuhata is alright.”
Most of the people had been freed by this: the bottom rung workers, the negotiators, the contact points, the executives, and so on. None of the blackmail victims needed to do as they were told anymore.
And the video had to have been a complete mystery for the many ordinary people with no connection to crime. Takitsubo noticed comments wondering if that company president was exhausted from overwork. The sudden bizarre behavior had also caused the stock price to fall off a cliff. At this rate, the management of the company would soon be given to someone other than the founder.
Takitsubo didn’t know what it was, but he must have sensed some kind of danger and done this to protect himself. It appeared to have completely backfired, though.
Illegal actions weren’t the only way to cause a scandal.
Being famous had its downsides. A single mistake could have lasting consequences.
“Super how are things on that end?”
“Hm?”
Takitsubo looked to the side.
A weeping Sudori Sayu was hugging her parents who looked taken aback in front of their cheap old apartment.
(We already took the real gun from her. Now we have to swap that out for a model gun and claim the bank incident was an ill-advised punishment game. Where she shot the ceiling might make that difficult, though.)
“Dad, mom! Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
“Oh, dear. What’s this about? What’s the matter, Sayu?”
She could hear it clearly from here.
Takitsubo Rikou slightly narrowed her otherwise expressionless eyes. As if viewing something bright.
That was a sort of life that Level 4 Takitsubo Rikou and Level 5 Mugino Shizuri could never have.
That bikini girl had barged into a bank with a gun in hand, but the thread of tension appeared to have finally snapped. Sudori Sayu hugged her father and wept like a small child.
That was probably how crime was supposed to work.
There really was something wrong with Item for enjoying it and eagerly charging straight into it.
The track suit girl was still here because she wanted to check around with her searching skills for any remaining members of Kamigi’s blackmailers in the area.
She hadn’t found anything.
“For dinner, how about I make stir-fried vegetables with lots of your favorite: chicken.”
“By the way, why are you wearing a swimsuit? And what’s that hot dog toy? Is it Halloween?”
“Um!? W-well…”
Sudori wasn’t sure how to answer her parents’ innocent questions, but she still looked happy.
That was now a different world from Item’s. Once the track suit girl left, it would be fully cut off from the dark side.
That girl had been freed just like so many others.
Takitsubo Rikou gave a simple report to Kinuhata as she quietly departed.
“Let’s just say it ended exactly the way you hoped for.”