Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item2

Novel Illustrations

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  Cover

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Opening

This is the hard-to-believe story of a very real scam that occurred in Academy City.

But not all conflicts involve killing.

Prologue: The Girls Resolve Their Job Like a Puzzle

“And that moron threw out the bloody rubber gloves he’d used for the killing. In the end, he just doesn’t get it. Can’t he use even an ounce of brainpower to imagine what’s going to happen? Your fingerprints are all over the inside of those gloves! Those gloves are thin, so you could at least soak them in alcohol and burn them!!”

“What movie are you super bashing now?”

“Kinuhata, this actually happened.”

It was August 3, 10:30 AM, in Academy City, located in western Tokyo and home to 2.3 million people.

A loud spraying sound echoed across the city full of skyscrapers.

“Ah ha ha ha!! You’d better speed it up! The big, bad wolf is coming for you!!!”

Mugino Shizuri cackled while several beams of lights flashed out.

A helicopter exploded, scattering wreckage and marring the midsummer sky with flames. There were some screams as well, but in this case, being killed by the explosion was a mercy. After all, even the three-bladed wind turbines were a long way down from here. Anyone not dead yet would be forced to live the entire drop to the ground.

Below the shining summer sun and blue sky, Takitsubo Rikou spoke quietly while flying in that same airspace 50m up from the ground.

“Mugino is getting high off her battle addiction. Someone should probably move in and stop her.”

“Not it.” “Not it.”

Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai replied at the exact same moment.

“Mugino is in a good mood given that our plan to disguise ourselves as arms dealers failed and our target got away.”

“In the end, when she screws up, she enjoys working even harder to try again. Which, in our leader’s case, is a very dangerous thing.”

Takitsubo turned her head to check the shoulder straps of the spherical object she wore on her back. Basically, it was a homemade jetpack that provided buoyancy with a giant advertising balloon made of bulletproof material and provided speed with multiple axial jet engines the size of coffee cans.

When blasting the four narrow jets of fire, the overall silhouette made it look like she was wearing the world’s first round satellite as a backpack. Although it was oriented backwards compared to a real satellite.

When inflated, it had a diameter of about a meter, but when deflated and folded, it was portable enough to fit in a school bag. And even at that size, it could produce speeds of 500km/h, so a civilian helicopter could not escape.

“By the way, Frenda, I didn’t realize you made things like this. I thought you only made bombs,” said Takitsubo.

“Ballistic ones are tricky, but the combustion for cruise ones isn’t that difficult. In the end, if you direct the flames and gasses produced by explosives, you have yourself an engine. Admittedly, it wasn’t that long ago all I had a was an execution firework that was only good for putting on a victim’s back and launching them into the stratosphere. The computer chip craft kits they sell at large bookstores these days can be dangerous in the wrong hands. They’re a little expensive compared to searching the junk shops for parts, but they’re a treasure trove of usable cutting-edge parts! You could probably design yourself a cheap WLAN-controlled tablet with those. Thanks to that, I was able to use a simple AI program for all the nitpicky little calculations needed for adjusting the jets.”

“This is fun.”

“She asked and then she didn’t listen to a word I said, did she? Well, as long as she likes it.”

“It’s so weird feeling liberated from your own body’s weight.”

“…That wasn’t a super-uncalled-for dig at us for our chest sizes, was it?”

Piloting their jetpacks was a lot more relaxed than with an airplane, but a life-or-death battle was still underway.

Their target was on the run. They pursued a total of three small egg-shaped helicopters that seemed like symbols of fame and fortune. One of them was falling apart in midair after being hit by a fearsome beam of light. Two remained, but even if they were packed full, that was less than 10 enemies in all.

The view was so overwhelming it was easy to forget that this had been caused by nothing more than distorting one’s “perception” in the quantum physics sense.

Takitsubo blinked twice and expressionlessly focused on her small mic.

“Mugino, the civilians will see this if we leave the Particle Belt. Finish this before that happens.”

“Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha! It’s me! The big! Bad! Wolf!! …The particle what?”

“In the end, all the building windows reflect the sunlight like mirrors and that combines with the faint smoke particles coming from the automatic factories to create an irregular reflection effect. Basically, if we’re in that belt of distorted light, our identities will be obscured even if someone on the ground films us with their phone.”

This was a characteristic of the Academy City summer that had been discovered when researching complaints that the large blimp displays looked weirdly distorted on especially hot days.

And the enemy wasn’t just going to let these girls defeat them. The helicopter’s side door opened and a 12.7mm heavy machinegun emerged. A fearsome array of giant bullets shot out, but Mugino kicked off a building wall to rapidly accelerate. The bullets shattered several tempered glass windows, but she jumped from the wall before they could catch up and she worked to mess with the enemy’s aim.

“Wow, that’s super awful. That’s a civilian building they’re turning to Swiss cheese!”

“Kinuhata. That buildings is the HQ of a seafood izakaya chain that killed someone by mislabeling their ingredients and managed to weasel out of being prosecuted for it. The dark side won’t dock us points for this – if anything, they might give us a bonus.”

That said, their demon queen likely didn’t care as long as she got to enjoy a fun fight and some delightful killing.

What was their objective here again?

The battle was so one-sided Kinuhata Saiai found herself staring into the middle distance despite being in a battle.

“The enemy is called Mutual Acquaintance, right?”

“In the end, that’s right. Mutual Acquaintance is an odd-jobs service for the entertainment industry. Whether you’re a famous reporter who shoved your mistress off your apartment balcony when you were a little too drunk one night or you’re a beautiful actress who accidentally killed a company president with a glass ashtray when you were only trying to stop him from sexually harassing you, you call these guys to clean up the mess before the online news and the tabloids get wind of what’s going on and your career is in ruins. I believe they work out of a stunt agency, which gives them access to TV stations. They started out as specialists in getting a lookalike to confess to the crime in place of their client, but as their skills improved, they evolved into taking on all sorts jobs they could safely complete without anyone getting arrested.”

Of course, “safely” here was only in the selfish sense that criminals used.

How many innocent people had their lives ruined to protect the smiles of entertainers with skeletons in their closet? After all, you didn’t earn “multiple personal helicopters” money without taking on a ton of highly unethical work. And since Item had been called in, inconvenient witnesses disappearing or dying in unlikely accidents was only the beginning of that group’s work. They specialized in getting a victim loaded up on alcohol in the wee hours of the morning and then shoving them head-first into an exposed transformer.

“God, I was wondering how they managed it when idols and actors are so super well-guarded that even the dark side has a hard time getting close to them. But a stunt agency? Yeah, there’s no defending against it when part of your own industry is super corrupt.”

“Kinuhata, did you want an autograph because you’re a film buff?”

Kinuhata wasn’t sure what she had said that would give Takitsubo that idea, but she hated how the girl would sometimes see right through to the real reason she was complaining.

Something blotted out the sun overhead.

It was Mugino Shizuri. After descending behind them, their leader’s staticky voice reached their earphones.

“Hey, I’m not doing all the work when we all get the same share of the pay. So get your asses out there and do some work before I Meltdowner you.”

“You’re the one who super charged in on your own.”

“In the end, our demon queen is just feeling lonely.”

“Mugino is so nice to make sure we all get our turn in the spotlight.”

Since their enemies were airborne, the fleeing helicopters had no choice but to dangerously weave between the buildings. Their own main rotor would get in the way of the heavy machinegun in the side door, so they couldn’t fire up at too steep an angle. And once their movement was restricted, they had as good as lost.

“Okay, how about we super get started?”

“I would like it if you ended this before lonely Mugino shoots down the moon.”

With that call of support from Takitsubo Rikou (who was in charge of targeting support since she could read people’s AIM Diffusion Fields but didn’t have much to do when they were up against non-esper adults), Kinuhata and Frenda turned at a sharp angle to pursue the helicopters. Frenda was armed with bombs and rockets, but Kinuhata only had her own body. She didn’t even cover her own face as she charged toward the side of a rapidly fleeing helicopter.

And she tore right through the aluminum wall.

Now she was breathing the same air as the tuxedo-wearing soldiers who were busy trying to swap out the overheated gun barrel. Their eyes met for just a moment. She saw their looks of desperation as they did everything they could to cling to life.

Then the helicopter exploded.

Her power was Level 4 Offense Armor, which let her surround herself with a thick gas barrier, so an exploding grenade or car wasn’t enough to kill her.

However…

“Oops.”

“You idiot! You protected yourself, but in the end, your jetpack was entirely exposed!!”

A hole must have been blown in the giant balloon portion because Kinuhata began an unsteady fall. Frenda clicked her tongue, abandoned pursuit of the final enemy helicopter, and rapidly descended to collect her teammate.

Kinuhata must have thought Offense Armor would defend her from the impact after the fall because she didn’t seem concerned.

“I’m beginning to think these homemade gadgets are super dangerous.”

“In the end, I call this user error!! Follow the directions and it works just fine!!”

Frenda managed to catch Kinuhata and they gently landed in District 19.

Frenda held Kinuhata in her arms and collapsed onto pavement that felt like a frying pan, where she stared into the distance for a while. Her eyes followed the slow rotation of the wind turbine that seemed to be staring back down at her.

They were in an old-fashioned district that was “intentionally left in the past” and seemed like the perfect place for steam and vacuum tubes. The Mugino-Takitsubo duo must have done something because the final helicopter fell a short distance away, trailing black smoke.

They both heard a staticky voice in their ears.

“Mugino failed to kill the target.”

“Ugh.”

“She was so irritated by the soldiers running around that she knocked one down, climbed on top of him, pinned him down with both hands, and fired her Mugino Cannon from her mouth. Unfortunately, that gave our real target time to escape.”

Frenda and Kinuhata were very glad they hadn’t been present for that, but they didn’t dare say so.

“Mugino is not happy and blames you two for crashing and failing to set up a perimeter. She says you’ll need to be punished if you let our target escape, so consider yourselves warned.”

“Ehhh!? In the end, that means she’s going to tie up our ***** with ****, cover our **** with grated yams, drag us out onto the high-level balcony where there’s no escape, and spend all day ****ing us like that! It itches more than it hurts, but it’s still hell on Earth!!”

“Yikes, girls are super ruthless with each other, huh?”

Frenda and Kinuhata scrambled to their feet and got back to work.

On the ground, their jetpacks were only a hindrance. They folded them up as small as they would go and put them in their pockets.

Kinuhata wiped the sweat that only now started to form on her brow.

“Whew, the heat is so bad on the ground. Is this what they call a super heat island?”

“It’s almost noon in August. It’s not going to be as cool as it was flying around up in the sky where there’s actually a chilly breeze.”

Frenda managed that with a smile, but only because she was wearing a white summer dress inside a thin poncho. The sweat soaking it from within allowed a risqué amount of her bright skin to show through.

After sharing a can of antiperspirant spray that they weren’t sure would help much at this point, the two of them took a look around and found themselves in an electronics district with dark smoke rising from it. High-tech Academy City had several areas called electronics districts, but this was the non-cutting edge one. Metal storage containers were stacked up between rundown multi-tenant buildings and they had all been converted into mysterious little shops that sold capacitors, resisters, transistors, and other electronic components of dubious origin separated out into small baskets or boxes.

“Wow.”

For some reason, Kinuhata Saiai’s eyes lit up as she viewed the labyrinth of junk. Her gaze was drawn to a certain glass component that came in a variety of sizes: vacuum tubes.

“What?” Frenda looked skeptical. “In the end, are you the type to mess with electronics with a soldering iron in hand?”

“If I ever need to do that, I’ll super ask you to teach me how, Miss Bomber. But since we did just get a new hideout, I was wondering what to do about the audio equipment for our home theater system. If I want to super do it right, a vacuum tube amp would be the way to go, wouldn’t it?”

Frenda instinctually sensed that Kinuhata would never shut up if she asked any questions here. For one thing, no one had said a word about building a home theater system, but this film buff was already fantasizing about one.

“Are the legends super true that this place doesn’t have a single convenience store or restaurant?”

“They are. It’s an old-fashioned electronics district, so in the end, the best you’ll find are some vending machines at the back of an alley. And those will only be selling scary things like canned oden. But as long as they have canned mackerel, I don’t care.”

So said the freak who could stake out a target for three days straight as long as she had sufficient cans of mackerel.

But nerds searching out pixel-art side-scrolling retro games in an age of VR and 3D were not the only ones here. Band members with brightly dyed hair were looking for old amps and synthesizers and an Einstein-ish college-professor-looking man was spending the day searching for some kind of materials. Was he building a giant robot back home?

And Frenda herself hurried behind a container’s open door after spotting something.

“Hm? Did you super find Mutual Acquaintance?”

“What is my sister doing here?”

Frenda had tears in her eyes and was behaving so timidly it was hard to believe this was the same professional who loved using bombs to toy with her prey before killing them.

Kinuhata gave her a curious look before turning her gaze back to the crowd. A short distance away, she saw a blonde girl pouting her lips in a baggy T-shirt dress tightened with a belt around the hips, red leggings, and a distinctive beret. This was a rare case where tiny Kinuhata was the older one.

“Ehh? But I’m already tired. In the first place, why are we even here?”

“You said you wanted to play the first entry in the Mariho Bros. series on original hardware, remember? For your summer break research project! I had an old console in storage, but its video output goes through the TV’s antenna line, so it won’t work with modern digital TVs.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of that. In the first place, turning the TV to channel 2 to play games is part of Japanese culture!”

A small boy and girl – age 10 at the most – were holding some kind of serious discussion based on their expressions. Frenda noted (in an attempt to ignore her current predicament) that culture had evolved a lot if video games were being used for school homework. Both sisters were blonde-haired, blue-eyed foreigners, so maybe the teacher was only allowing it as a way for the girl to learn about Japanese culture.

“In the first place, did you know this? Heh heh. People don’t just say he’s a plumber – it’s official lore.”

“I introduced you to the series, so I already know all of that.”

Kinuhata Saiai tilted her head.

“Who’s the boy with her? A boyfriend your sister snagged by super hitting him with chocolate on Valentine’s day?”

“That’s Kanou Shinka. A friend of mine.”

“How wide is your social circle? Anyway, see those men limping within 15m of those two? Those are definitely Mutual Acquaintance members who survived the crash. Hide here much longer and those two will be super dragged into the fight!!”

Frenda Seivelun clicked her tongue.

Then she pulled a cylindrical object from within her short skirt, pulled the pin with her mouth, and rolled it along the ground.

The color white exploded.

The light was a million candelas and the sound 200 decibels.

She had used a stun grenade.

A professional would of course have countermeasures ready, but that wasn’t an issue this time. Frenda’s goal was to blind and deafen the civilians. The stacked container shops meant fixed surveillance cameras were useless here and there were no drum-shaped security robots around.

So in this case, there were no witnesses even with hundreds of people here.

Frenda Seivelun ducked low, took a breath, and took off running. On her way past the small boy, she whispered in his ear.

Even though he could never hear her with his eyes and ears incapacitated.

“(In the end, thanks for looking after my sister since I can’t☆)”

Being too perfect could be a problem in its own right.

If she had failed here, those two young children would have learned the truth, which might very well have changed her future.

Frenda continued onward and shoved an explosive into the face of the flustered man in front of her. She swept his feet out from under him, stared down at the small explosive inside his mouth, and triggered the wireless detonator.

Another man panicked and pulled a gun after seeing his companion’s head blown off, but then he saw the bizarre sight of his own arm bending 180 degrees outwards. Kinuhata had boosted her arm strength with Offense Armor to bend and break the man’s bones and joints before forcing him to shoot himself in the head with his own gun.

That left only one.

He swung a 30cm oblong metal box like a butterfly knife and transformed into a semiauto shotgun. That wasn’t a gun designed for taking careful aim. If he fired that wildly, he could easily hit Frenda’s sister.

A voice reached their earphones.

“Kinuhata, take one step back. Frenda, duck.”

It didn’t even take a full second.

A beam thinner than dried pasta shot through from right to left. It ultimately skewered the man’s sternum, vaporizing everything from his chest on up.

That was Level 5 Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner.

The deadly attack had weaved through all the gaps in the crowded and labyrinthine electronics district.

Takitsubo Rikou had probably provided targeting support.

“In the end, this sucks!!”

“Hm? Your sister is safe, so shouldn’t you count yourself super lucky?”

“Lucky!? She’s only 7! Kids aren’t even supposed to use VR goggles at that age. Her body is still forming, but I had to hit her delicate eyes with a million candelas! Goddammit! In the end, I’m an awful sister. And even Kanou-kun is only around 10!!”

“(I’m not much older myself, so why are you super not worried about me?)”

“Shitty people like us who kill for the dark side don’t count.”

Frenda continued to complain while grabbing a nearby tarp.

“Newbie, you help too. In the end, you can stick your hand in a shopping bag in place of rubber gloves. We have three corpses here. This electronics district is full of all sorts of junk and they sell everything from giant speakers to unspeakable life-sized electronic dolls covered in silicone, so if we wrap them up in tarps and cart them around, no one will know anything’s wrong!!”

“Eh? I thought we super let the support organization clean up the corpses?”

“Don’t give me that look. And you don’t even need a shopping bag when you can wrap yourself with your power, right? A magnesium stun grenade fully neutralizes people’s senses for only 5 or 6 seconds. The lingering afterimage and ringing in the ears differs from person to person, but it should last about 180 seconds. Half of that’s already passed. If we don’t hide and remove these bodies before then, my 7-year-old sister sill see this gory mess!!”

“That was the last one.” Takitsubo’s calm voice spoke in their ears. “And Mugino said to collect someone at the crash site.”

“?”

“Hatsuhane Sarari. The rookie idol that Mutual Acquaintance supposedly abducted. The one this whole job is about.”

This special district had no convenience stores or restaurants, but it did have parking lots. Mugino Shizuri selected one of the electronics district’s parking garages as their rendezvous point. However, more than half the height of the building had been later filled by the stacked container shops.

“Why did you bring the bodies with you?” asked Mugino, visibly puzzled.

“We had no choice. My big sister senses demanded it.”

Family-loving Frenda Seivelun mumbled a response.

Seeing this new trouble to deal with, the delinquents of the support organization hurriedly donned raincoats and rubber gloves to avoid leaving any evidence behind. That could not be fun in the heat of midday August.

“And you helped, Kinuhata?” asked Takitsubo, expressionlessly tilting her head.

“What else could I do? I’m the new one, so I couldn’t leave her behind when she was tearfully trying to do it all on her super own.”

“Hee hee. You were trying to be useful to Item.”

“Why do you look so super happy about that!?”

Meanwhile…

“U-um, thank you…very much.”

A girl of around 15 nervously spoke up.

She was the aforementioned rookie idol, Hatsuhane Sarari.

She wore a short-sleeve blouse with a brightly-colored vest and frilly miniskirt. It was all very cute but felt out of place in the real world. The coloration was designed to be seen under stage lighting. It wasn’t something you would wear out and about.

“Those people kidnapped me. I think they were from that bad odd-jobs service that will cover up scandals. Anyway, I can’t thank you enough. Eh heh heh. I don’t know what they wanted with me, but who knows what would have happened to me if you hadn’t saved me.”

Mugino Shizuri didn’t bother responding.

Meltdowner roasted something with a thick sizzling sound.

“…Eh?”

Surprise formed on the cute idol’s face.

Hatsuhane Sarari didn’t even blink as she looked down to see a melon-sized hole in her gut. She had just lost more than 5kg in an instant diet.

“Mutual Acquaintance weren’t who we were hired to kill. We only took them out first since they had numbers and weapons and would likely get in our way. You could say they were no more than a bonus target we weren’t forbidden from killing while we were at it.”

Boredom was written on Mugino’s face.

She wasn’t naïve enough to be fooled by that angelic smile.

“Our real target was you, the klepto idol. I don’t know if you get off on the thrill or what, but you crossed a line when you stole the handmade cupcakes being sold to support medical research for curing whatever incurable disease it was. Your real mistake was hiring someone on the dark side to take out the fellow member who saw you stealing them, though. Not a good look for an idol who’s supposed to give people dreams,” sneered Mugino. “The voice on the phone – that’s our go-between – spoke with one of your fans, who said he couldn’t believe you were a habitual criminal or that you would put out a hit on another idol when the consequences caught up to you. He said he regrets ever supporting you. And we’re talking a big fan who spent the price of a foreign car buying a ridiculous number of copies of your music and videos in order to get a ticket to shake your hand or get your signature. Betraying the people willing to throw away their own lives to support you probably isn’t the best move. …Still, I almost feel sorry for you. If you hadn’t gone to a dark side group like Mutual Acquaintance, we’d never have shown up.”

“Uh, agh, urgh, whk…”

“So like I’ve said several times now: the big, bad wolf is coming for you.” Mugino grinned. “Of course, we don’t care what happens as long as we’re paid and we get to slaughter some shitty criminal who thought it was a good idea to get involved in the dark side. Gotta say, it wasn’t easy getting such a cautious wicked idol to trust us enough to meet us somewhere dark and deserted!”

As soon as she waved her hand dismissively, the criminal’s eyes rolled back in her head, bloody tears flowed out, and her body collapsed straight down.

This was too malicious to call “going undercover”.

It was a scam or deception technique used to take human lives. The act was much more calculated and well-put-together than the rookie idol’s adlibbed lies when she realized she couldn’t let Item know she was working with Mutual Acquaintance.

“Sigh, in the end, my shoulders are stiff,” complained Frenda, massaging her slender shoulder with a hand.

“I’m no good at this. Can’t we go right up to who we’re supposed to kill and super punch them to death?”

The leader girl shouted to the delinquents around them.

“Okay, we’re heading home now. I know dealing with someone in the entertainment industry can be a pain, but dispose of that corpse, okay?”

Mugino Shizuri didn’t even glance at the crumpled body.

The other girls left with her, discussing indirect lighting and home theater plans for their new hideout.

They were Item.

They were the strongest of the elite four-person teams and – believe it or not – they worked in secret to preserve order within Academy City.

“Ah!!” shouted Frenda, remembering something much too late. “In the end, I forgot to retrieve the used container for my stun grenade.”

“You did what? Do I need to punish you?”

A young boy ended up collecting her forgotten item, not knowing what it was.

It was possible this small mistake changed something down the line.

Between the Lines 1

Memo, memo.

Their natural appearances aren’t enough information. To know what they look like from behind and to track down their sphere of activity, I need to study how they dress and know how they think☆

Mugino Shizuri.

Fluffy chestnut hair, brown eyes, big boobs. Wears a White Season sleeveless blouse, a Sheep & Sheep limited-edition knit cardigan, and a Royal Secret reversible skirt. She seems confident at first glance, but her tendency to hide her legs with stockings gives away how self-conscious she is. lol, so lame. She goes out of her way to wear 180-denier stockings in this god-awful summer heat and black ones at that, just because she wants to look a little thinner. lmao

Level 5. Meltdowner.

She can fire electrons as neither a particle nor a wave to create massive destructive power. She’s about as strong as it gets, but on the other hand, that’s all she can do. An esper is still an esper. She isn’t Miyamoto Musashi, so you just have to make sure you don’t worry over it too much and psyche yourself out before you fight her.

Takitsubo Rikou.

Black hair cut straight at the shoulders, black eyes, possibly hidden big boobs? Wears a Robe of Feathers fitness track suit (pink) and some brand of shorts? She seems to wear that year round. Is she really walking around town in that? Those shorts might even be her school’s gym clothes. But for some reason, her sneakers are Victoria’s limited White Noise edition. Only 100 pairs were ever made! Don’t just walk around in those! There are shoe freaks who finally snagged a pair on an internet auction and then were too afraid to ever wear them so they ended up donating them to a museum!!

Level 4. AIM Stalker.

Her power lets her record and track someone else’s AIM Diffusion Field and she can make her power go berserk using a medicine(?) called Body Crystal. She’s in charge of targeting Meltdowner. Watch out for her. This plain girl who you can forget is even there on the front line is honestly scarier than that simple overpowered girl.

Frenda Seivelun.

Fluffy blonde hair, blue eyes, flat chest. Wears an Angel Halo type-53 beret, a Girl Breeze summer sailor dress, and a Muraki Dressmakers light model UV-blocking poncho. Oh, and I think Sugar Body type-A black thigh highs. Based on her outfit, she seems accustomed to showing off her body. You could even say she’s calculated out how her actions and poses will look to others. She’s confident in herself. And maybe it comes from being a foreigner, but she wears nothing but Japanese brands despite having tons of money.

Level 0.

Specializes in bombs and seems to know martial arts. Her role appears to be setting traps for the enemy to trigger when they’re fleeing from Meltdowner. She probably says the battle begins before the fighting starts. Her attacks take a lot of time to set up, so it’s best not to give her any free time.

Kinuhata Saiai.

A chestnut bob, brown eyes, and a super flat chest (lol). Wears a hoodie dress and a shoulderless top. She makes sure to wear arm sleeves and leggings, so despite how rough it all looks, she might not like showing off much skin? And every single thing she wears is Queen Knights. She might just really like the brand, but I wonder if she threw together the outfit in a hurry, even if it is all so expensive.

Level 4. Offense Armor.

She can control the nitrogen in the air to protect herself. She tends to work as Takitsubo Rikou’s bodyguard. Even an idiot could tell that Takitsubo is the cornerstone of Item. Crushing them has to start there. If she’s alone with her bodyguard, it would be best to set up a situation where we can split them apart.

Based on all this, I can guess they did most of their shopping in District 15, but they’ve recently moved their activity and shopping base to District 3.

Make sure to memorize their names, what they look like, their powers, and their behavior patterns before the mission begins.

Simply put, these are our targets.

Chapter 1: Level5_vs._Little_Honey_Queen

Part 1

In today’s 3rd match, Kaihei Girls vs. Tonami, Tonami Technical High School managed a 1-2 come-from-behind win.

But is the Breaking Ball Princess showing signs of exhaustion?

This year’s total shaved ice sales have already surpassed those of last year.

Have the marketers plotted to create a new trend, or is it the effect of global warming?

Typhoon 11 has formed in the Pacific.

There is a concern it will maintain its size and strength when it makes landfall at eastern Tokyo and continues on to Academy City.

“Uh, oh.”

It was 5 PM on August 4. In her pink tracks suit and shorts, Takitsubo Rikou glanced over at the train’s constantly-changing LCD news display.

The view out the window was dark.

Were the thick, dark clouds just more August weather? Not that along ago, she had been watching the nostalgic sunset. This wouldn’t be the typhoon mentioned in the news, but the typhoon could have messed with the weather by pushing a front in from the ocean. The wind turbines were spinning faster than usual.

She had finished shopping for the day. Everything she thought they would need for their new home was contained in the paper bags she held, but she hoped it didn’t start raining before her walk from the train station to their apartment. She ran a mental simulation of how far the underground mall would take her before she had to emerge into the rain, but then another issue occurred to her.

(Did we leave any windows open?)

That was easy to forget when living on an upper floor. They often just left them open when they went out. She couldn’t remember one way or the other. She glanced over at Mugino Shizuri who was fidgeting with the leather handhold strap.

“It looks like it’s going to rain.”

“Hm?”

Takitsubo didn’t get a real response from the girl who had gone out of her way to take her favorite songs from a modern subscription service and re-record them on a cassette tape because she enjoyed the noisier sound. Mugino had one earphone out, but she didn’t seem all that interested in Takitsubo’s warning.

They had gone to the trouble of getting a new (and decently expensive) hideout in District 3, yet they were running the risk of having the living room floor discolored by rain just because they left a window open.

Mugino pulled her phone from her pocket and waved it to draw Takitsubo’s attention.

She showed Takitsubo the small screen, which had opened some kind of app.

“The windows, right? Not a problem. We live in the IoT age where everything’s internet connected.”

“And?”

The track suit girl blinked in confusion, so Mugino explained further.

“The apartment’s metal shutters can be operated from your phone. It’s going to rain? You’re worried about your laundry? Non, non. There’s nothing to worry about. If you feel a raindrop while you’re out…”

A small diagonal line ran along the train window.

Apparently it really was raining.

“You just need to tap this button on your phone and…voila! Now the metal shutter is covering the entire balcony. You gotta love modern conveniences. Ah ha ha!”

Part 2

“…”

Item had split up to do their shopping and Frenda Seivelun had finished her part and returned to their luxury apartment sooner than the others. What she found there made her form a small triangle with her mouth. But her issue wasn’t sweating in her own home because she had returned first and needed to switch on the air conditioning.

Her eyes met someone else’s.

His body was pinned to the concrete balcony railing like someone about to be guillotined and his head had rotated a full 180 degrees. Much like a clock’s hand.

His upside-down eyes met Frenda’s without blinking.

Frenda sighed.

With her skin showing through her thin, sweaty clothing, she switched on the air conditioning with the remote, pulled out her phone, and called someone.

“Um, Mugino? There’s some weird dead guy with his neck caught in the balcony’s metal shutter. And thanks to the summer heat, he’s already starting to smell pretty funky. In the end, is he a friend of yours?”

Part 3

“Hey, Kinuhata. These are special high-grip gloves and is that a lockpicking tool?”

“I see. So the corpse who paid us an unwanted visit was a burglar. District 3 does have a super lot of big corporate buildings, so climbing skills would be valuable in that trade.”

Takitsubo and Kinuhata’s conversation made Mugino scowl.

“Seriously? We’re on the 50th floor. I know people don’t always close their windows on higher floors, but surely there’s a better use for the patience and endurance it would take to climb this high.”

“You super can’t expect criminals to go straight. It doesn’t matter how far a pervert peeping tom hones his skills – he’ll never be a clever spy. They’re just super not the type to do that.”

“Mugino. It might have been faster for him to climb down from the roof than up from the ground.”

Even that would take a lot of effort.

Letting the corpse (whose neck had been broken by his own weight) fall to the ground would be a neighborhood nuisance, so the four of them pulled him over the railing onto the balcony. There was a roof over that, so the rain wouldn’t blow in.

“In the end, we can’t just leave him here. If the heat wasn’t bad enough, everything is damp from the rain. Mugino, when can the corpse disposer get here? Should we stick a portable air conditioner next to him for the time being?”

“I already made the call, so they should be by soon.”

“Hm.”

That meant they were running behind schedule.

Frenda didn’t give much of a response despite asking the question and a burning metal smell came from her. For her, this may have been like doing a jigsaw puzzle or crossword puzzle to kill time. She was looking through a large magnifying glass held in place by a stand while she used a soldering iron on some kind of computer chip.

After receiving a face full of the lead scent produced by Frenda’s feminine hobby, Kinuhata made sure to keep her distance.

“Super what are you making, Frenda-san? Another deadly alarm clock?”

“An antimatter bomb. In the end, I think it’s more powerful than the sun.”

“…”

Kinuhata formed a small triangle with her mouth and Frenda looked up at her.

“It’s just a chip and a detonator. In the end, this can’t blow up on its own.”

The intercom rang and Kinuhata answered it through the screen, but their visitor was not a delinquent from their support organization. A gentle young woman with ankle-length black hair stood in front of the door. Her curvy body seemed barely contained by a knit dress with various holes that Kinuhata couldn’t remember the name of.

The woman in the lewd knit dress (as Kinuhata decided to call it) smiled with a hand elegantly placed on her cheek.

“Hello. I am Hanatsuyu Kuchikusa the Converter. I believe you called for me.”

“Kinuhata, I called her here out of my own pocket, so open the door and let her in. This is going to be our hideout, so this isn’t like cleaning up a corpse from the side of the road. The usual delinquents said they couldn’t completely get rid of the smell, so I had to hire a higher grade of worker for this one. I don’t want any trace left of this guy.”

Mugino made it sound as casual as letting in a mover to transport their furniture.

“Hm, hm♪ Now, I need to work hard if I’m going to support my family. Hee hee. Look, I have my cute twins as my phone’s wallpaper. I’m training them in the family business.”

“In the end, are you serious? They’re no older than my sister. Sure, I’m spending money I made on criminal jobs to buy clothes for her, but this is different.”

“The two of them are learning all the necessary skills in a sterile lab right now. They still have a long way to go before I can let them take on actual jobs, though. They just don’t have the necessary skills. Or really, they’re far too destructive, so they need to learn better control or how to apply the brakes.”

While bragging about her daughters in about the most disturbing way imaginable, the gentle mama crossed the living room and out onto the balcony. Kinuhata gave her a curious look.

“(That knit dress really accentuates her curves. Would that super work as an easy way to give yourself a touch of adult sex appeal?)”

Meanwhile, Takitsubo noticed something while staring blankly at the woman.

“That gas mask on the side of her head.”

“What about it?”

“I’ve seen it before. On that DJ at the library used for the Colosseum.”

“Oh, dear. You know about my secret hobby? Academy City is such a small place. Hee hee. How embarrassing.”

Mugino jerked her chin toward the burglar with the broken neck.

“How are you going to clean that up?”

“Well, I generally use necrophages,” said the gentle mama like she might when explaining how she makes the dashi for her miso soup. “The term converter refers to the entire category of plants and animals that eat dead carcasses and of bacteria that create organic material out of inorganic material without using photosynthesis. There are enough different types to fill an entire encyclopedia, but whether they are bugs, molds, or plants, the most powerful method is to lay their eggs in the dead host to eat it from within. Hee hee. You can never go wrong with that method. Because for them, the host’s carcass is their home and they will consume all of its resources from end to end, leaving nothing at all behind. So you can sit back, relax, and leave this to the tiny experts. My, my. They will fully destroy the genetic material and not leave a single scent particle behind☆”

“Ew, what a world we live in. Is a mother supporting her kids afraid of nothing?”

“Oh? Did I say anything about being their mama? As a girl yourself, would you have chosen this skimpy knit dress? There are certain parasites and specific endocrine disruptors that can remove a human’s male reproductive abilities and make them female.”

“…”

“Just kidding☆ Whether I am those girls’ papa or mama and whether I supplied the sperm or the egg will remain a secret. Because that kind of mystery is great for increasing your perceived value.”

Item didn’t particularly care one way or the other, but it did sound just like the dark side to turn science on that level into a toy.

Meanwhile, a change was showing itself.

Apparently it was true you couldn’t understand just how impressive an expert’s skills really were. All they could see was the woman spraying a few colorful liquids from something like perfume bottles. She was probably spreading bug eggs or plant seeds. The 170cm collection of flesh and bone, which had a broken neck and was starting to stink, vanished without a trace – including the clothing and equipment. The process was even faster than watching ice melt. The balcony had to be crawling with something microscopic but even more dangerous than army ants. And even though the man’s equipment disappeared, the balcony and living room floor remained intact.

It was a scene that made one wonder what a human even was.

“There, all done. Nothing biologically or physically remains, but it can help on the emotional side if you wash the balcony off with water. That won’t scientifically change anything, though.”

“Is this super safe to leave as is? Isn’t the floor crawling with whatever tiny things ate that guy?”

“Hmm? I’m not sure what you’re so afraid of, but I killed all the human-eating larvae with a mold that’s harmless to humans. But those adorable little babies only eat dead humans, so it wouldn’t matter either way,” casually explained the expert. Apparently a pro’s job wasn’t done until they had returned their monster to its cage. “My, my. Are you about to cook yakiniku? If you’re worried about the smell of the room, please call me again. Bye. …Hello, girls? I’ve finished my job, so what would like for dinner? Hee hee. How about filling our bellies with meat at the churrasco place by the station?”

She remained smiling to the end.

Kinuhata seemed a little dazed as she watched the departing parent of small twins.

“She’s already talking about food. Do people in her business super not need time to switch gears?”

“In the end, humans can eat their lunch in the school bathroom if necessary.”

Mugino raised her arms and stretched her back.

“There, that pain-in-the-ass accident is dealt with, so let’s get to dinner! I’m starving.”

“Looks like one of us super doesn’t care either.”

But going without dinner over something like this would be a problem for a growing girl. Their trouble was finally over and their guest had left. They couldn’t relax in their outdoor clothes, so the four of them started by entering their rooms and changing into their pajamas.

Once they had regathered in the living room, Takitsubo blankly tilted her head and spoke first.

“Frenda, aren’t you on dinner duty today? I know we ran into some trouble, but shouldn’t you have started preparing the food by now? If you need to prepare in a hurry, I can help.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Worry not because this is all going according to plan.”

“?”

“In the end, what’s the standard food choice when one of those famous Asian typhoons is on its way? We could be stuck with nothing but canned food for a while, so I thought we had to do something special tonight. Tah dah! We can use our outdoor gear and a yakiniku set for what I call the Great Veramping Operation!!”

Frenda’s excitement didn’t have much of an effect on Kinuhata and Takitsubo.

Kinuhata tilted her head.

“Super what is veramping?”

“It means to camp on the balcony, Kinuhata. I think Frenda was looking at some solo camping content on social media or a video site.”

In other words, she just wanted to do it herself.

At least it was better than having Frenda say she had bought nothing but preserved foods to prepare for the typhoon, which, knowing Frenda, would inevitably turn out to be a hellish experience with nothing but canned mackerel to eat.

Hanatsuyu Mama had given it away earlier, but that specialist must have identified the thin-sliced yakiniku meat from the smell of the blood, the fat, and so on.

The four of them carried the sofa, table, and cushions out onto the large balcony.

It was still raining outside, but the balcony had a roof and it didn’t look like the rain was going to blow in on them. And as much as they complained, Academy City residents generally didn’t believe in ghosts and such.

“In the end, this lantern will really set the mood, don’t you think? Oh, now it feels like we’re camping!”

“But that’s a super bright LED light?”

After securing a seat, Takitsubo’s gaze wandered through empty space before landing on negligee-wearing Mugino.

“Are we allowed to use the balcony this way?”

“We’re not using fire, so I don’t see why not. And if it is a problem, we can slap the concierge with a stack of cash and have them change the rules for us. It’s not like apartment rules are actual laws or regulations.”

Mugino seemed more interested in the hot plate that kitty pajamas Frenda had for them to use.

“Won’t electric be too weak? A gas-powered grill seems like it would cook the meat more thoroughly.”

“Don’t worry. Now allow me to introduce the stars of the show: check out this glorious wagyu.”

“Hold on, Frenda. What did you take that out of?”

“A silver cooler, what else? This is how you make it really feel like camping! Plus, who wants to keep walking back and forth between the balcony and the kitchen? We’re not leaving the balcony until we’ve finished eating!! In the end, what do you want to start with? The Yonezawa, the Hida, or should we go straight to the Matsusaka!? So many choices☆”

“Isn’t this all cheap cloned beef super created in Academy City’s farm buildings? Admittedly, you super couldn’t find a difference from the real deal even with an electron microscope.”

“Don’t they call it genetic preservation, Kinuhata?” asked Takitsubo. “Reminds me of the hot spring bath additivities they make in factories.”

“Oh, shut up. We all know you two are going to eat more than anyone. And look, I used an outdoor technique they showed in the camping videos. Frozen meat can double as an ice pack!”

This led to a problem.

In her thin baggy pajama top and shorts, Kinuhata formed a small triangle with her mouth.

“How long are going to super cook that meat? When are we going to get to eat something!?”

“It’s taking 20 minutes to cook a single piece of meat. I think this is more defrosting than cooking, though.”

The girl who even wore a track suit when she slept was unfazed by the trouble.

Mugino didn’t even try to hide her irritation as she growled a response.

“That technique of yours is meant for when you’re driving half a day out into the mountains or to the beach, not when you’re at home. What were you thinking putting frozen meat on this weak electric hotplate, you dumbass outdoors novice?”

Frenda was left sulking in a corner of the balcony after the verbal assault from all sides, but fortunately, only the meat had been frozen. That boosted the popularity of the yakisoba, stir-fried vegetables, and other less exciting options that were usually only seen as side dishes.

“Mugino, they must chop up the vegetables super small when your family stir fries them.”

“No one’s going to eat the carrots and bell peppers if you cook them individually, so they go with the meat and carbs. And the meat we left near the hotplate should be back to room temperature by now, right? Pass it here. I don’t want any bad cooks ruining it by flipping it over again and again.”

Mugino complained while using the cooking chopsticks to place meat and vegetables on everyone’s small plates. The large hotplate’s surface couldn’t be easily replaced, so they divided it into four areas with each area used for a cooking meat with a different seasoning, such as tare or salt. Sirloin, kalbi, and other types of meat needed to be flipped over at different times, so it took a lot of finesse. Mugino was probably doing it so the others didn’t piss her off by doing it wrong, but the end result was little different from being a caring big sister. But it was best not to ask the queen why she could do this but couldn’t seem to do any of the ordinary housework.

Takitsubo blinked twice and broke her silence.

“Frenda, where’s the tare?”

“In the end, I bought a few different yakiniku ones,” hesitantly replied Frenda with her lips pouted.

This was another place where individual tastes played a role. Mugino and Takitsubo went for the spicy tare. Kinuhata didn’t hesitate to reach for the mild bottle. And Mugino preferred to squeeze a lemon onto hers as well.

As for Frenda…

“Heh heh♪ Tare on meat? It must be amateur hour in here. In the end, the informed adult chooses salt☆”

“…” “…” “…”

“Hey! Why are you all being so harsh with me today? I set this all up, remember!?”

Frenda was shouting tearfully at this point, but it was written plainly on the other three’s faces that they didn’t consider salt a specific enough flavor to even discuss. It was like saying your favorite dessert was “anything with sugar in it”. She could have at least narrowed it down some by saying matcha salt or truffle salt.

But the cooler that had caused so much trouble had some more delightful surprises inside.

“Oh, it’s super full of drinks. Ice cold carbonated water, fermented milk soda, and even iced coffee.”

“You can’t grill on a hot day without some cold drinks. These might be even more important than the food. Kinuhata, pass me a cider. The French one with the ad about how it got five stars.”

Kinuhata complied with her skin faintly showing through her thin summer pajamas.

“Whew, grilling gets you super sweaty, huh? I’m all sticky. But at least this is isn’t as hot as a gas grill.”

“We’ll all be taking a bath afterwards, won’t we? So what’s the problem?” replied Takitsubo, her cold drink bottle pressed against her forehead.

They were all grabbing their choice of drink when Mugino’s phone rang.

She immediately regretted not switching it off.

“What is it, Voice on the Phone?”

“What’s that sizzling sound I hear? It’s always like this with you.”

“It’s called veramping. Whatever that means. The point is, we’re having a yakiniku party tonight.”

“You stupid kids and your summer break that lasts several weeks! I wish I could take weeks off to do nothing but drink beer, but I can’t!! Goddammit, I know you teens look down on us adults, but I’ll have you know we’re the ones out here working our asses off to support the world you live in!!”

It was nearly 7 PM. The view out from the balcony had transformed from dark to full-on night, but was that workaholic still not released from her duties for the day? Maybe that was how it worked for the average salaryman, but the dark side consumed people’s lives to hold the world’s mysteries in its hands. Would someone in a relatively high position there really be satisfied with an average life?

“Frenda-san, super what are you drinking?”

“In the end, it’s called a virtual drink.”

Instead of a drink bottle, Frenda held out some kind of machine she had created. It looked like a plastic cylinder with a thick straw attached. It looked a lot like the small water bottles sold at a chain café, but the multiple dials on the bottom gave it a more mechanical appearance. It almost looked like an astronomical telescope.

“Your sense of flavor is influenced by more than just your tongue, so this kit uses a combination of multiple aromas to create a virtual flavor. With one of these, you can enjoy over a hundred different varieties of cold Starzucks lattes. The company realized how dangerous this could be to their bottom line and pulled their sponsorship, but volunteers are still uploading new flavor recipes online.”

“But you’re super not drinking anything?”

“This thick straw uses a pump to suck at your tongue and that resistance tricks your senses into thinking you’re drinking something. A normal-size seasonal iced café mocha with extra whipped cream has 700 Calories. You might as well be eating miso butter corn ramen at a cheap stand on the side of the road! So wouldn’t you like the chance to enjoy the exact same flavor as much as you want for 0 Calories?”

“Here,” said Frenda, holding out the bottle and Kinuhata took the end of the thick straw in her mouth while giving it a skeptical look usually reserved for sketchy informercial products.

“Hm? Oh, wow. My mouth really feels super chilly!!”

“In the end, it apparently has a mini air conditioner inside to cool the air. Smell, touch, temperature – it combines multiple senses to make you sense the flavor. But while it works great with the iced drinks, trying hot drinks through the straw just feels wrong.”

While the other three girls excitedly shared that drink(?), negligee-wearing Mugino focused on her phone.

She switched to speakerphone so they could all here.

“So what do you want?”

“Oh, god. That drinking sound. I need to crack open a beer. Anyway, you’re bleeding cash building your new home, right? I have a new job ready, so is Item willing to accept it?”

The Voice on the Phone was their unseen agent who acted as their go-between for jobs.

As peaceful as the city looked, there was apparently a grotesque case lurking in the darkness.

“Pwah, that’s what I needed to forget about the sweltering heat,” said the Voice on the Phone. “So are you familiar with Honey Queen? Probably not. It’s always like that with you.”

“?”

“Fries…frozen fries…there it is. 5 minutes in the microwave. She’s an online marriage scammer who’s been causing a lot of trouble recently. She finds people through a variety of platforms, but she mainly works through the free voice app called Scype. And she doesn’t just target stupid men’s e-money. She sends her messages far and wide to gather up all sorts of things, including research documents full of corporate secrets and even access keys to secret areas. It’s hard to say how valuable any data on esper development could be, but an automatic calculation by the spreadsheet macro released by Academy City’s official industrial espionage countermeasure group estimates the total losses at more than 250 billion yen. Esper development is a profitable business at the higher levels. Ohhh, this new black pepper flavor is so good! My friend, I just knew you’d go great with beer the instant I saw you in that convenience store that one night!!”

“That doesn’t sound like a job for Item. What, is there some middle-aged man who wants us to execute the beautiful scammer who cruelly deceives her clients over the internet?”

“Hic, don’t be like that. I knew you were in a tight spot, so I brought this job to you first and foremost. But if you don’t want to do it, I can pass it off to something else.”

“Now tell us the real reason.”

“I said she’s gotten research documents full of corporate secrets and access keys to secret areas, right?”

Mugino wasn’t the only one who sounded irritated.

The Voice on the Phone continued.

“To be blunt, one of her victims was someone who works for the Meltdowner research lab.”

“Ugh,” groaned Mugino.

That did indeed make it her business.

Meltdowner was her power, but she had not awoken the power within herself using a mysterious personal training ritual. Her power was considered useful, so a massive amount of research funding and personnel were invested into expanding and evolving her power. In a way, she was like a racecar.

For one thing, Academy City only had seven Level 5s.

Even if some research data had leaked, she doubted anyone could copy Meltdowner right away, but it still wasn’t a pleasant thought.

More than that, if word got out security was lax, who knows who would take aim at the lab. And if the adults’ research stalled, it would slow her own development as an esper.

Whatever the case, she couldn’t have anyone taking her lightly. That was like not cleaning up the honey splattered in front of your house. Even if each individual enemy was like an ant to her, she would be worn down eventually if there were enough of them. Plus, going to the effort of eliminating them for nothing in return sounded truly awful. That wasn’t how a professional worked.

If someone did drop some honey in front of your house, you had to wash it away as soon as possible.

Leaving this sort of trouble with someone else was a bad idea because they wouldn’t understand how crucial it was. And if a more relaxed agent worked on it, it could take forever before the problem was resolved.

“So will you take the job?” asked the Voice on the Phone.

“We will.”

“Good, good. You’re awfully obedient today. If only it was always like this with you. If Honey Queen realizes you’re after her, she will see you as an enemy and attack. Now that you’ve officially accepted a job from me, you’ll have to cancel your fun and games. I’ll be enjoying a smoke and a beer in the adult’s hideout, but you need to prepare for battle. And I mean immediately.”

Immediately, when we’re were in the middle of a meal? You must be joking. It isn’t like the enemy is going to attack right away.

Mugino never got those words out.

Something traveled through and dropped out of the PVC gutter pipe above the balcony. It was about the size of a baseball. It had a wheel on either side and a single camera lens. On the inside, it was more than 80% TNT and RDX.

Simply put, it was a mobile bomb that could be detonated at any time by remote control.

“That’s a bo-!”

Part 4

Booooom!

The room and its balcony were blown away so violently it was obvious even from outside.

Part 5

No one who would be killed by a simple anti-personnel bomb would last long working in the dark side.

The instant it detonated, all four girls jumped over the concrete railing.

They all produced popping sounds that were a lot like a car’s airbag activating.

They had deployed the jetpacks Frenda had made.

They had successfully escaped, still in their pajamas.

The hot summer rain soaked their hair and clothing. Takitsubo seemed bothered by her wet track suit sticking to her.

“Oh, I forgot my Body Crystal.”

“Ehh? In the end, you can’t do that, Takitsubo. A girl’s gotta keep her special weapons hidden on her person at all times. Want a few pointers from the Academy City Bomber?”

“Could 200 grams really blow up such a large room? I think it only triggered Frenda’s bombs, which did most of the damage.”

“Oops.”

“Is it punishment time?”

“Ahhhh!?”

Frenda screamed as they accurately flew through the rain.

“These jetpacks have really come in handy, Frenda.”

“You can’t be serious, Mugino. In the end, they discovered our new hideout before we even had time to get it fully furnished. If they did their homework that well, they must know about our scuffle with Mutual Acquaintance yesterday. Which means they’ll have a plan for these homemade gadgets. And there it is, right on schedule: short-range SAMs!!”

Several trails of smoke blasted off from different building rooftops at the same moment. They were likely autonomous surface-to-air missile units. Trying to escape high into the sky would only get them shot down in the open air with nowhere to hide, so the four girls had no choice but to dive down into the valley between the buildings. At high speed.

“Vwahhhhhhhh!? M-my super home theater!! And I had only just started putting it together!!”

Film buff Kinuhata let out a scream of legitimate distress, but her actions remained precise. By flying below a roadside tree with large branches, the surface-to-air missiles pursuing them hit those branches and exploded.

The instant they landed, Mugino heard an odd sound.

From behind her.

“Mugino, your back is on fire.”

“You can’t muster any more urgency than that!? Argh, I can’t get this damn thing off!”

“Oh, no. The jet engine’s fuel injection control valve is busted!” shouted Frenda. “Umm, that thing is full of jet fuel, so if you don’t get the harness off, it’ll explode and set you ablaze!”

“Go to hell!!!”

Mugino reached a hand behind her and used Meltdowner to forcibly blast the jetpack (and the fuel explosion) away from her.

“Are you telling me we were running around the battlefield with giant bombs strapped to our backs? I’m never wearing one of those things again!!”

“Ehh? In the end, even a 100V household power supply can explode.”

They had been lured this way by an unseen enemy.

They always had their support organization waiting nearby in a big 4-wheel-drive truck, so it rushed to them after hearing the commotion. They all climbed aboard, but Mugino couldn’t shake the leaden feeling in her gut.

She shouted at the driver with her skin showing through her rain-soaked negligee.

“Go! Hurry!!”

The tires loudly tore at the asphalt.

Headlights pierced them from behind. Multiple vehicles’ worth. The enemy must have predicted this as well, so Item’s usual methods weren’t going to break free of the rails laid out by the enemy.

A bad feeling settled stickily over Mugino’s mind.

This wasn’t just any enemy.

She sensed someone who had put together a carefully-crafted plan like it was a jigsaw puzzle.

“Takitsubo.”

“I still don’t sense anything. Either they have an enemy that can search us out like I can, or they have an expert at psychologically guiding people.”

(I don’t know how it would happen, but it’s best to assume a direct attack would get us killed. Any nearby intersection leading to a major road is bound to have an ambush set up. So if we try the opposite plan…)

“Turn left into that construction site!! Hurry!!”

The 4-wheel-drive truck roared over a large pile of dirt that was wet with rain. The pursuing cars were racing coupes that sat low to the ground, so they couldn’t handle the dirt pile and abandoned the pursuit.

Item had to set aside a direct attack for now.

They were villains who lived on the dark side. They knew all too well they were never going to get by if they only chose the safe-looking routes. That would mean only ever eliminating the risk of failure and flattening out all the bumps in the course of their life, but it wouldn’t be doing anything to build toward success. If they really wanted to claim the top spot, they had to do something no one else would even consider and claim every opportunity that presented itself.

But leaving the safe path and taking the rougher way would not eliminate their pursuers. The sports cars were one thing, but a pickup truck with thick offroad tires was still after them.

Item had no need to hold back once they were inside an empty construction site.

“Today’s my lucky day. Because I can fire my Meltdowner without worrying about any demerits.”

“Mugino is so nice to worry about her stray shots hitting someone.”

Their 4-wheel-drive truck broke through a chain link fence and raced through a forest of steel beams. Despite the rain, Mugino stuck her upper body out from the sunroof, held her palm out behind them, and released a brutal beam of light.

The building under construction broke apart, the jungle gym of steel beams collapsing and pouring down toward the ground. The pursuing offroad truck swerved a few times to avoid them, but one of the steel beams pierced right through its hood, pinning it to the ground. It exploded shortly thereafter.

Kinuhata, her skin showing through her soaked pajamas in places, was drying Takitsubo’s hair with a towel when Takitsubo raised her voice uncharacteristically loud.

“Mugino!!”

“?”

Mugino ducked down through the sunroof just in time for a simple crane arm to pass by directly overhead. If she had taken the time to grin back at the result of her attack, it would have decapitated her.

(Did they predict that attack? Then they must know about this escape route too!!)

They couldn’t escape the enemy’s grasp.

Every time they thought they had slipped away, they found new trouble awaiting them.

“Wait, wait, wait!! Stop!! In the end, hit the brakes! Yikes!”

Kitty pajamas Frenda banged her palm on the back of the driver’s headrest, but it was too late.

No, it was worse than that.

Track suit girl Takitsubo’s emotionless eyes wandered aimlessly.

“I’m not picking up a signal. The driver must be unconscious. Is something affecting his brain?”

“!!!???”

If the driver had passed out, he couldn’t apply the brakes. The 4-wheel-drive truck crashed into a pile of cement bags. The entire pile was blown away like a wall of sandbags.

Their vision grew too muddy to see.

They heard the loud sound of breaking glass and bending metal.

Mugino groaned and blinked, discovering their crushed truck was flipped upside-down. She heard the quiet sound of the broken windshield’s grainy pieces falling to the ground. She wanted to believe the gasoline scent was only the placebo effect. She was pretty sure this truck ran on diesel fuel.

“Damn, I’m through spending money on our rides. If they’re going to get destroyed sooner or later anyway, we need to view our vehicles as disposable tools .”

“C-can you all super move?”

“Don’t worry about me. You can count me out of the fight. In the end, I just want to lie here and sulk.”

“Mugino, something’s wrong with the driver. I spoke to him and slapped his cheek, but he isn’t waking up. He didn’t cry out in pain before passing out, so I don’t think he had a stroke or aneurysm while driving.”

Mugino groaned quietly in her negligee before kicking the bent door to force it open.

(How largescale is their plan? How far out did they predict our actions?)

Probably to the very end.

She shoved aside the unpleasant sensation of the lukewarm summer rain until she didn’t even notice it anymore.

And as Item slowly crawled out from the truck, they heard soft footsteps.

Approaching footsteps.

Part 6

She bore a small but wicked smile.

She looked to be around 10 at the most.

She had brown skin and overly done-up blonde hair. She wore a neon yellow bikini top and a pleated miniskirt held up by suspenders. The outfit was something like a skimpier version of a cheerleader. The water-resistant bikini top repelled the lukewarm raindrops, giving it a wet sheen. And instead of a string holding the top together in the center, it was forcibly held together by wrapping a wire around and around, similar to how large envelopes used to be kept closed. That wire could snap from metal fatigue at any moment.

She held a phone in a case designed to look like bunny ears and a famous chocolate-covered snack stick wiggled where she held it in the corner of her mouth. A box of the snacks was held between the side of her hip and the short skirt. The girl looked like the encyclopedia image of a gyaru except shrunk down to miniature form.

But that wasn’t why Frenda’s eyes bugged out after she and Takitsubo dragged the unconscious driver out of the truck.

“You’re kidding, right? She can’t be any older than 10. In the end, aren’t we supposed to be dealing with a marriage scammer making a fortune online!?”

“Lame. It’s not like I have to show my face when to let them have some cute conversations using the voice chat provided by a free VoIP app. I usually pretended to be…25, I think it was. Then again, maybe I’d have had an easier time luring in those stupid men if I’d let them see what I really look like. Hwa ha ha☆”

“…”

Mugino Shizuri silently narrowed her eyes, ignoring the way her thin negligee clung to her skin in the rain.

She had been wondering about something.

Supposedly, Meltdowner researchers had been targeted to steal their research data, but that didn’t sit right with her. The damage wasn’t limited to them, but anyone with a Mugino connection performed top secret Level 5 research which was more strictly guarded than the research in other labs. There was no public list of the people who worked in her lab. So how had this external marriage scammer targeted them so accurately?

Now she had her answer.

The culprit was someone with inside information.

“It was the head researcher.”

“Hello, my failure☆ Ugh, lame. You could at least bow when you meet the person who gave you your powers, you know?”

Mugino Shizuri did not hesitate to hold her palm straight out.

The little brown gyaru grinned without making any move to defend herself.

“Sure, sure. I’m all for really going at it to get as much experience as I can☆ Oh, and I’m talking about levelling up in RPGs here. But if the EXP grind is too obviously only there to waste my time, I’ll just use some cheat codes without a second thought. Hwa ha ha. Anyway, I’m down for a cool battle. They do say hardship at a young age builds character, right?”

Meltdowner was one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s and the head researcher who created her would know better than anyone how terrifying Mugino was.

Or was that knowledge the source of her confidence?

Did she know Mugino so well that she didn’t find the high-speed particle-wave cannon worth fearing?

“I-In the end, what do you mean she’s the head researcher?”

“Her name’s Ainame Caroline. She ran that lab until half a year ago. But while she was customizing a few other espers, she played around a little too much and got fired.”

“That’s not my point. In the end, she’s only a 10-year-old girl!”

Ainame Caroline didn’t respond.

Instead, her small body suddenly disappeared.

And a moment later…

“!!!???”

Sparks flew with a loud slicing sound. The club-like grenade Frenda had reflexively held up was sliced clean through and a red cut slashed across her cheek.

After passing by, the 10-year-old brown gyaru twirled her phone in the lukewarm rain.

“Sample acquired☆ Oh, lame. A Level 0? What a waste of time.”

(In the end, are the bunny ears of that phone case actually razor blades!?)

This girl couldn’t be dismissed as “only” a 10-year-old.

She was a true monster of the dark side, just like Item.

What kind of tech did that razor blade use to slice through a club? And the case itself appeared to be military-grade blast resistant. It could deliver a deep, sharp slash, but it could probably also kill from blunt trauma if she hit someone in the head with the corner.

Ainame Caroline laughed a little before speaking.

“Have you really not heard about skipping grades before? You crack me up. Hee ha ha. Not that you’d ever need to know that with your inferior Level 0 brain. When you look at the researchers creating something as crazy as a Level 5, I’d be surprised if you found anyone who climbed the grades one at a time.”

Even so…

What had that girl done to move so quickly not even these dark side pros could track her?

“…”

“Oh, and let’s not forget that all Level 5 research is somewhat connected. And I’m not just talking about the obvious example of Railgun and Meltdowner both being electric powers.”

Ainame Caroline was still smiling when she turned back around to face Mugino Shizuri.

“Did you really think the only Level 5 I had access to was a failure like you? That’d be so boring. I’m talking about Academy City’s #6. I was involved in researching that brat. And as the creator of that power, I can borrow a few of its tricks.”

A sound like a large piece of cloth flapping in the wind came from overhead.

The color red flipped fluttered down.

At first, it looked like a red China dress.

But it wasn’t. The newcomer wore a uniform vest without a shirt below and a long skirt with a bold slit up the side, so the overall silhouette resembled the dress.

Her long black hair was done up in two buns and a braid.

The tall high school girl hid her lower face behind a large white pollen mask and she moved to a position that let her guard little Ainame Caroline.

No.

But…

(In the end, where did she jump in from?)

Mugino Shizuri had destroyed the jungle gym of steel beams to get rid of the offroad truck pursuing them. There wasn’t anything high enough to jump down from in any direction.

Or were they supposed to believe she had flown through the air like a long throw in baseball?

How far would her body have to be modified to allow for that?

Or had she used an esper power?

Ainame Caroline reacted to her sudden rescue by pouting her lips in disappointment and munching on her chocolate snack stick

“Tachiuo-chan. Could you not show up when I didn’t ask for you?”

“But I was worried, Lady Carol.”

Muffled by the mask, her voice sounded like hard-to-make-out noise.

It also looked like she was going to suffocate with the mask so soaked with rain, but she didn’t seem to mind.

“And you need to stop telling them so much about the #6 and other stuff. Especially when they didn’t even ask.”

With a soft grunt of effort, the tall high school girl pulled a nearby steel beam out of the ground. More than that, she wrapped some nearby anti-bird spikes around the end. The end result looked a lot like a Chinese Lang Ya Bang, but it had to weigh more than 200kg. The original weapon would never weigh that much. She might as well be swinging around a weightlifting barbell.

But Ainame Caroline still gave her a cold look and brushed up her rain-wet blonde bangs.

“Lame. Talking tough won’t change that you’re a murder virgin. And if you’re so worried about data security, do better yourself. In a way, unreleased research results are more important than the researcher’s own life. Releasing those results at the coolest possible time is part of the researcher’s strategy, so they can’t have one of their own people letting it out early.”

“A-and, Lady Carol, your skirt is about to fall off.”

“Whoops.”

Just before one of the suspender snaps popped open from the little brown girl’s extreme motion, she managed to hold the soaked miniskirt in place with a hand. If the skirt needed the suspenders to stay up, then it had be a lot bigger around than she was. It seemed about right to hold the snack box against the side of her hip.

Mugino’s eyebrows twitched while the absorbed rain weighed down her negligee.

The 10-year-old head researcher smiled.

“Curious? About my researcher results, I mean. Not my underwear.”

“Not really.”

“Wow, lame! That obvious attempt to play it cool cracks me up!! Obviously a failure like you would be curious. Tachiuo Mary here is a success I can recommend to people with pride. If only I hadn’t been kicked out of that lab for going a little too far with my human experimentation. See, now I need to take back what’s mine to make the finishing touches to her body.”

Was that why this 10-year-old had used the anonymity of the internet to run marriage scams?

She was the head researcher who didn’t hesitate to call Mugino Shizuri – one of the seven Level 5s – a failure.

She was the monster who gotten herself fired by being too much even for a secret dark side lab.

And this Tachiuo Mary was her new creation.

It wasn’t known what exactly made this new girl rate higher than Mugino, but Mugino herself was willing to accept it as true.

She knew this Ainame Caroline was who she said she was. And she insisted that Tachiuo Mary was superior to Mugino.

Bluffing about that would be too risky.

“Uh, oh. In the end, we’re in serious trouble here!!”

“Don’t we just have to super beat up this new girl before those ‘finishing touches’ are done?”

Kinuhata and Frenda stepped forward before Mugino did. Tachiuo Mary was still incomplete, so if they teamed up on her and attacked from multiple angles at once, they might have a chance against her. In a way, that was the most direct tactic here.

But had they learned nothing from how they had ended up in this situation to begin with?

“Lame,” sighed the little brown gyaru.

Ainame Caroline simply raised her empty hand and snapped her fingers.

That really was all she did.

The flipped-over support organization 4-wheel-drive truck exploded.

The lukewarm summer rain was blown away.

Takitsubo reflexively tackled Frenda (who was highly flammable thanks to all her explosives) to the ground and Kinuhata guarded herself with Offense Armor but was still launched more than 3m straight up.

As for Mugino…

“You’re kidding…right?” said a dazed Frenda down on the ground.

She saw Mugino lying face down and unmoving on the ground now ruled by flame and smoke. That proud girl didn’t utter a single complaint as the mud soaked her hair and body.

She was unconscious.

A new chocolate snack stick wiggled in Ainame Caroline’s mouth as she laughed.

“Wow, lame. You really do put power over all else, don’t you? Your attack power leaves no room for complaint, but Meltdowner is so boring because that’s all it is. That wasn’t even an industrial explosive or a plastic explosive – it was a diesel fuel explosion. Sure, you can maybe keep the blast away with brute force, but did you forget to account for the rapid loss of oxygen from the flames? And you wonder why I call you a failure.”

Impossible.

That was Frenda and Kinuhata’s first thought after seeing the result.

They couldn’t accept that Mugino Shizuri of all people could be toyed with so easily.

And it still wasn’t over.

Was there no end to the threat presented by this Ainame Caroline?

“Oh, before I forget. You’re all focused on Tachiuo-chan here. Hee ha ha. But remember the cool attack that took out the brain of your driver? That wasn’t her – it was my power.”

“…”

“Did you think I wasn’t an esper just cause I’m a researcher? Lame. I’m a super cool researcher who can develop her own power however she likes. Do you have the beginnings of a clue how much of a threat I am now? Ah ha ha. It cracks me up how slow your brains are☆”

“…………………………………………………………………………………”

Frenda couldn’t move.

She was soaked with rain and couldn’t even get up.

What could a Level 0 like her do against a monster like this?

How could she win even when working with a Level 4?

For one, she had just watched this enemy overturn the very foundation of Academy City’s level system by one-shotting a Level 5.

Plus, Takitsubo gave a warning while lying on top of her and holding her tight.

Ignoring a warning from Takitsubo’s formless sixth sense was guaranteed to end badly. Her past experience had taught her that all too well.

There was only one option left.

Frenda Seivelun instantly changed tack, pulling a stun grenade and smoke grenade from her kitty pajamas.

“Run away!!”

That was all they could do.

During the explosive flash of light and the thick wall of smoke, Frenda and Takitsubo took off running while covering for each other. Kinuhata hoisted unconscious Mugino onto her shoulders. Takitsubo’s hands wandered through empty space, but Frenda tugged on one hard. They didn’t have the luxury to collect the support organization delinquent who had been knocked out by a mystery attack. Frenda bit her lip at the decision, but they could not stay here any longer. Plus, a powerless Level 0 would only get herself crushed if she tried to drag along a boy who stood more than two heads taller than her. She could not be a hero here.

They were utterly defeated.

A thoroughly exasperated voice pursued Item’s fleeing backs.

The 10-year-old brown girl named Ainame Caroline had only one thing to say to them.

“Lame.”

Part 7

“Hey, you made it.”

“Eh? You already started? You should’ve waited for everyone to get here.”

“Oh, shut up. I’m the one who discovered this place. It’s always like this with you.”

“And why are you wearing a short-sleeve sailor uniform!? Do you not realize how childish that looks!?”

“I got tired of the sexy cleavage teacher look. And it’s cosplay either way.”

Everyone sat wherever they wanted with no concern for rank. The one who carelessly wiped his face with the wet towel was ruthlessly mocked by the rest.

“So why yakiniku all of a sudden?”

“I should’ve realized the truth from the moment my body was craving grease and black pepper. It’s always like this with me. Beer and frozen fries just weren’t enough. Hic.”

“How much did you drink before getting here!? You’re already smashed!”

“Cough, cough, hack!”

“You’ve been smoking too!?”

“This yakiniku place has even more ventilation than is strictly necessary, so who cares if I smoke? Anyway, grab a seat, everyone, and order whatever you like. The grill’s looking awful lonely.”

“(I notice she’s pushing us to order without saying a word about treating us.)”

“(Be careful. There’s a decent chance that drunk doesn’t even have her wallet with her.)”

They all ordered soft drinks after going all the way to a yakiniku restaurant, but not because they were paragons of good behavior. They simply had an excellent argument for not drinking seated right in front of them.

“By the way, everyone’s talking about your project.”

“Hweh?”

“Although I’m not sure if being so noticeable is a good thing on the dark side.”

The short-sleeved sailor uniform woman was too drunk to give the grill proper attention, so the later arrivals had to move the offal, which they hadn’t even ordered, onto plates before it burned.

“It’s called Item, right? I hear they’re really taking off. And word is some other small elite teams are being created thanks to their success.”

“Teams of four?”

“Seems that way.”

“It’s always like this with them. Is that really a good idea? Item is still in its test phase and I haven’t even proven the safety or cost-effectiveness of the entire concept.”

“Ha ha. I know exactly what the higher ups would say: it isn’t your job to worry about that.”

“Hmph.”

The others had finally gotten settled in and started ordering their meat and vegetables

But the first arrival at the table winked and arrived at her own conclusion.

(They’ve started a few teams of their own, I’ll bet.)

Between the Lines 2

Different hotels had different names for a room fancier even than the suites, but this one called it the Princess Suite.

“Hm, the big beads are so bright they’re kind of boring. How about I tie your hair back with a scrunchie and then add in an unusual loop for some extra impact? That’ll make you real cute.”

“…”

Tachiuo Mary looked displeased while she let the 10-year-old brown gyaru mess with her hair. She was decent looking, but her thoroughly gloomy personality meant the gyaru look didn’t suit her at all. She was so gloomy she preferred to hide her face behind her mask even inside the private space of the hotel room.

Ainame Caroline looked puzzled while using the older girl as her toy.

“What’s that look for? You got a problem with this?”

“I-I was just wondering why you were doing this.”

“You’re too plain.”

“You already tore up and modified my uniform… Wh-what am I supposed to do when the break ends?”

“Go to school like that. Everyone’ll love it and it’ll do wonders for your social life. I mean, what are you thinking going through your schoolgirl days without even putting on any makeup? Lame. It’s August – summer break – you’re supposed to be living it up.”

When she realized Ainame Caroline wasn’t being sarcastic or teasing and really did mean all this, the tall loner fixed her modified hairdo and grumbled under her breath.

“I-it’s not like it matters…”

“?”

“This is meaningless. I don’t have any friends and no one pays me any attention in class. Whenever we have to split into groups, I’m always the last one chosen. In fact, they all play rock-paper-scissors to see who gets stuck with me.”

“The boys are just too intimidated by those miracle tits to approach you.”

“Gh!?”

It was written plain on her face that didn’t make her feel any better.

But the little brown gyaru continued regardless.

“And the girls are just jealous of those miracle tits. …The correct play is to laugh in their face. But you loners take it all at face value and miss out on so much in life. You’re like a cute little sister to me, so stand straight and push that chest out with confidence. Flaunt those miracle tits no one – not even you – asked for!”

Tachiuo Mary groaned, unsure what to say.

She was also blushing a bit, probably from all the talk about her chest.

Not that the genius girl cared one iota.

“Anyway, Tachiuo-chan, can you strip down and lie on the bed for me? Face down this time. I want to get today’s maintenance over with.”

“O-okay.”

“…You don’t have to take off that cute underwear.”

“Y-you could have specified how much I needed to take off, Lady Carol!!”

Tall Tachiuo Mary quickly held her plain unhooked bra in place with her arms and nervously lay down on the bed.

“Hm. You still won’t take off that mask? That’s the one boring thing about you.”

“Ugh… Once I put it on, I get used to it and find it hard to take it off. Besides, it’s not like anyone wants to see my face.”

“Hwa ha ha. You do know lying on a hotel bed in your underwear with only your face hidden makes this look extremely naughty, right?☆”

“Why are you being so mean today!?”

Ainame Caroline laughed some more and approached the audio equipment in the corner of the room. Instead of a device that accessed a modern music subscription service, this was a record player.

“M-Mozart?”

“Oh? You recognize it? Ah ha ha. And I thought most kids only knew Mozart as the guy they scribble on in their textbooks and make up ghost stories about his portrait in the music room.”

It wasn’t uncommon to play music in an operating room. Was this supposed to help her relax in the same way?

That was Tachiuo Mary’s theory, but…

“Hm? Tachiuo-chan, is this classical music enough to put you to sleep?”

“Eh? Oh.”

“Ha ha ha. This song’s tempo was designed for young men and woman to ballroom dance to. So you could call it dance music. Composers like Mozart and Beethoven only wrote these really cool songs and then had an orchestra play them, so were they something like the modern Vocaloid producers? Learning about the origin of the songs and the culture at the time goes a long way toward letting you view them in a different light.”

Researcher Ainame Caroline snapped the suspenders holding up her miniskirt and pulled a baton-shaped handheld scanner from her bag.

She passed it directly above the back of the high school girl lying face down on the bed, slowly moving a blue light source that looked a like a fluorescent light. It almost looked like a girl getting the untanned portion of her skin touched up at a tanning salon.

The little researcher glanced over at the wirelessly-connected flat screen monitor.

“Good, good. #1-150 are normal. #380 was causing trouble, but it’s in acceptable bounds now. I can let natural healing handle this one. Since I don’t need to rely on drugs or the corset, I’d call this a success.”

What was she talking about? Bones.

Humans had around 206 bones. #380 might not seem to fit there, but it was no mistake.

The process was called metaplasia.

The differentiation between different bodily tissues was surprisingly fuzzy. For example, the boundary between the stomach and the intestine could be altered by disease. The tissue was replaced by a different type on the cellular level. In the same way, it wasn’t unusual for muscle fibers exposed to constant, powerful vibrations to turn to bone. As seen in the bones of horse riders, new bones could be created.

Where did Tachiuo Mary get her superhuman strength or the ability to jump farther than any normal human?

The answer was plain and simple: her body’s movement system had been newly designed to give her greater use of her body by using a grand total of 503 bones and a unique arrangement of muscles. Measuring her strength required a barbel measured in tons.

But that simple strength wasn’t all. Her creator had demonstrated her skill by giving the girl smooth and beautiful bodylines as well.

“I-is everything alright? With the plan, I mean?”

“Of course.”

She had actually been sweating on the inside when Tachiuo Mary showed up without being asked, but saying so would probably make that loner faint. The truth was she had only just barely managed to stay in control of when she announced her results.

But that still meant Researcher Ainame Caroline remained in control.

“The trick to scamming people is to isolate them and shut off their access to information. That can mean telling them you’ll secretly let them, and only them, know about a great deal on an apartment or private equity. Or it can mean threatening to embarrass them by letting everyone know they fell for an obvious scam.”

“Y-your point?”

“You know exactly what I want to hear, don’t you?☆ My point is we don’t need to settle this all at once. As long as we stir up the hornet’s nest, they’ll be too agitated to think straight. Ha ha ha. And once the tunnel vision sets in, they’ll be so easy to control it cracks me up☆”

Superhuman strength?

The loner with zero self-confidence had far more than that.

Her creator had said as much, so it had to be true.

She was worth far more than Mugino Shizuri.

“There, all done. You can get dressed now.”

“Lady Carol, what should we do for dinner?”

“Hm? I already ordered something cute.”

Ainame Caroline looked puzzled and Tachiuo Mary glared at her while sitting up in the bed (in only her underwear and mask).

The 10-year-old brown gyaru pulled some room service from a boxy receptable that prevented her from ever having to directly interact with the hotel staff. That may have been a feature exclusive to rooms this nice. She placed candy apples, cotton candy, shaved ice, and a variety of other sweets on the table. She also prepared a collection of colorful supplements she supplied herself to provide the nutrients the food lacked.

“Um.”

“What? I have all the necessary nutrients right here. I won’t get too much or too little of anything. Theoretically speaking, this is a healthier diet than the food given to a monk training at a Buddhist temple.”

“But, Lady Carol, you promised to stop relying so much on drug store supplements. If you ingest too much of a nutrient at once, your body can’t absorb it all and it can put a strain on your kidneys and liver.”

“Oh, shut up. I’ll eat plenty of vegetables with all this watermelon. And they’re from the same Cucurbitaceae family as squash, so don’t tell me that doesn’t count as a vegetable. Hee hee. Watermelons really are the best melons☆”

“…”

“What? A balanced diet is what matters, so if I make the right selection of these chemically-designed supplements, the end result is exactly the same. What’s your obsession with it having to be vegetables that grew in the dirt? Some nonsensical belief that eating tons of vegetables will give you 100 years of healthy living? I mean, they ate nothing but grains and vegetables in the olden days when the human lifespan was 50 years. How’s that for a Q.E. D.?☆”

“……………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

Tachiuo Mary got off the bed and crossed the large room in only her underwear and mask.

This was only a hotel room, but it did have a kitchen past the trendy bar counter. However, the nervous loner was not reaching for a kitchen knife to impulsively stab the other girl like a scene from a thriller on TV.

“Eh? Wait, what is that you’re placing on the cutting board? Cucumbers, carrots, and – no, not a radish.”

“I will cook you some vegetables in olive oil. If it doesn’t feel like a salad, even a vegetable hater with an extreme sweet tooth can eat them, don’t you think?”

“Wait, wait, if you know I hate them, why would you force me to eat them!? You could at least say something! Don’t just do it in silence! Ugh, why are the pieces so big? If you must force me to eat vegetables, you need to chop them up a lot smaller and mix them into fried rice or a hamburger steak! No, no, I can’t do it! Can’t you see how pale my face is!? You need to stop! Don’t shove them in my mouth! Agh, they’re too hot- mgh, mgh, mghhhh!?”

Ainame Caroline struggled as the super strong girl of her own creation forcibly shoved the food into her mouth.

“Great job eating it all, Lady Carol. Now, where’s your ‘thank you’?”

“Urp. Th-thank you…and all the farmers…who grew it.”

It was like wanko soba. If she didn’t say it now and end this immediately, she knew from experience she would be attacked by an endless supply of extra helpings. She slumped limply onto Tachiuo Mary’s lap pillow on the floor and let her gaze wander aimlessly for a while.

And eventually…

“Bleh. Anyway, your regular maintenance is complete, so it’s time we left this room.”

“Eh? Right now? But it’s the middle of the night. Won’t we have a hard time finding another hotel to check into?”

“Lame. Didn’t I tell you at the start that we have to move onto the next phase once Item is aware of us? So we need to move to a different hideout.”

They were in a luxury resort hotel made to look like a fairy tale castle. It was located in District 6, where the entire district functioned as an amusement park.

But that important information didn’t mean a thing anymore.

However…

“I see. Then we need to get everything ready to go. I can take the vegetables that didn’t end up in the oil and make a smoothie out of them. We can’t let them go to waste.”

“Eh?”

“Soy milk, yogurt, and honey should work. Hee hee. If it’s mild enough, you can drink it with me, right, Lady Carol?☆”

“Urp. No, no, no, no. Stop that! Don’t pin me down like this! The vegetable part doesn’t even matter here! If you hold my head like you’re about to resuscitate me and pour a smoothie down my throat, it’s going to get in my windpipe and- bwahhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Chapter 2: The Storm Approaches

Part 1

It was August 5.

“Bam, bam, bam!! Bam, bam, bam, bam! Go, go, Hoooshiiiyaaamaaa!! The girls have pulled into the lead in this country. Their ratings have finally surpassed the boys tournament this year. Welcome back to Academy City’s high school girls baseball tournament. The District 2 representative is Tonami Technical High School – a first-timer in this tournament after converting away from a boys school three years ago. Their Level 4 Breaking Ball Princess is showing signs of fatigue after throwing several fouls in a row, but they still aren’t swapping her out. Meanwhile, their opponent is the District 15 representative – Hoshiyama Girls, known for producing videotubers who outperform TV personalities. Their 4th batter is 2nd year Muraki. Can her Move Sensor accurately read the spin of the ball? Now, here comes the 7th pitch. And it’s a hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!! The runner moves from 2nd to 3rd – no, wait. She’s accelerating with her Kick Spike to take it home! Roarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!!!’

Takitsubo Rikou was watching TV while expressionlessly eating salted corn on the cob by holding it on either end, but then she noticed an emergency warning displayed at the top of the screen.

“Typhoon 11 is on track to make landfall on the east coast of Honshu, Japan. All Academy City residents should monitor the latest weather information and adjust any plans to head out.”

Kinuhata Saiai blinked twice and gave the TV a puzzled look.

“Takitsubo-san, what district is your school in? Super which team are you rooting for?”

“The one that’s losing.”

She didn’t sound like she cared all that much.

Takitsubo appeared to be constantly switching which team she supported while squirrelishly filling her cheeks with corn. Her Body Crystal case had been blown up during the attack on their apartment, but a new case was now sitting on the edge of the table. That was one less thing to worry about.

Kinuhata looked to the TV again and sighed.

“Isn’t it super hard to watch this stuff when you live in the shadows? They’re the lucky ones. Seeing those bright and shining success stories is like watching something that’s forever out of reach for you.”

“Why does that bother you?”

Takitsubo sounded legitimately confused.

“Well, maybe it’s not an issue for you and your ultra rare AIM Stalker. Meanwhile, I super don’t get anything from my connection to the #1. Because it’s incomplete. No matter what I do, I only have brute force going for me. I’m just a mass-produced product that only has control over super common nitrogen.”

Takitsubo expressionlessly tilted her head.

“Kinuhata, are you familiar with the Four Bioelements Cycle?”

“No, super what is it?”

“Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. Almost all life on Earth goes through its life moving those four components through breathing, photosynthesis, eating, decaying, and more. It’s the foundation of the food chain.”

“…”

“Directly controlling nitrogen means you have the possibility of tearing down one corner of the Four Bioelements Cycle. That means you could influence the entire cycle. In other words, you either directly or indirectly have the chance of becoming a queen who holds all life on Earth in her grasp. If a rare lifeform that doesn’t need any of those four elements were to stand in your way, you could threaten the majority that are under your control to attack and eliminate that lifeform.”

Kinuhata Saiai smiled a little.

“You’re super exaggerating.”

“Maybe so,” admitted Takitsubo. “But you could describe Mugino’s Meltdowner as nothing more than the power to control common electrons. I think esper powers are all in how you use them. Strength and adaptability are what matter – not what it is you control in the first place.”

On the TV, allowing a run must have thrown off the pitcher’s focus because she threw another hit. Apparently the high-level espers accepted by the sunny world had their own troubles.

“And, Kinuhata, isn’t it lucky we found another hideout so quickly? They say a typhoon is coming, so we might have been forced to fight the rain and wind outside.”

“But it was a super close call, wasn’t it?”

Kinuhata felt the floor shook below her. That was only an illusion, of course.

The blimps with giant screens on their side were used for more than just advertisement. The gondola hanging below the rugby-ball-like gasbag contained a large hotel and a 5-star restaurant. The idea was for it to function as a flying luxury hotel that gave a view of Academy City at night. Takitsubo’s corn was fancy room service, not something bought on sale at a supermarket, so Kinuhata wasn’t interested in learning how much it had cost.

They were staying here for more than just Mugino’s fancy tastes.

“After all, it’s summer break, so all the ordinary hotels and inns are full up and only these stupid expensive rooms are left. If we were only a little slower, I bet we super would’ve been stuck out in the typhoon.”

“Mugino is great at searching out little-known rooms like this. For whatever reason, she never has trouble finding them.”

“Oh, I get it. They are VIPs who keep rooms reserved so they’re super available even during the busiest times of year. Oh, god. That super rich girl cut in line, didn’t she?”

“And you’re benefiting from it now.”

That said, this would be for nothing if their enemy blew up this hideout too. If they didn’t want to find out what it was like to be weather girls doing an on-site typhoon report, they had to go on the offensive and eliminate the threat.

Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary.

That researcher and successful experiment both surpassed Mugino Shizuri by definition.

“Apparently Honey Queen wasn’t just an online marriage scammer.”

“I still can’t super believe she’s only 10. Still, it would be super more accurate to say she was an industrial spy who was after her targets’ research data. She just decided the online marriage scam would lure them in a lot better than a phishing email with a malicious attachment.”

And instead of someone trying to steal the tech they couldn’t create themselves, she was trying to steal her own crucial research data back from the dark side lab that had kicked her out.

(Still, I have to super wonder what that girl did. A gruesome dark side lab isn’t going to freak out over something like human experimentation, so how do you get them to kick you out for being immoral?)

“A scammer is an expert at cutting their target off from accurate information and controlling their target psychologically.”

“Super what about it?”

“That she chose that method could mean she was worried if she didn’t use it. I could understand that if she used to work among those grownup dark side researchers at her age. But why would she choose marriage out of all the different options? Does she just want to make a mockery of ordinary love, or is she actually starved for it?”

Kinuhata was secretly impressed.

Takitsubo was always so perceptive. It wasn’t clear if this came from her power or if she was analyzing people’s expressions, words, and actions, but she was already working at revealing their enemy’s internal motivation after one short encounter. Kinuhata felt ashamed that she had still been trapped by the strange “legend” their enemy had created about herself.

“Of course, if we look at the entire Honey Queen team, then the marriage scams aren’t their only MO. They have also destroyed thick locks by brute force to steal hard disks from a bank safe deposit box or from an armored car in transit. Could that have been the mask girl called Tachiuo Mary? Plus, there could be more we aren’t aware of. Maybe some important research data has been stolen but no one has discovered it yet.”

“So you’re saying Honey Queen is a group of secret data thieves?”

That intellectual-sounding description felt at odds with the actual threat they faced.

Those two were an underground researcher and test subject who were stealing pieces of research data stored across the city and using it to strengthen themselves.

Those monsters had outplayed the Mugino Shizuri and easily knocked her out.

“Do you think we can win? To be super blunt.”

“The explosion of the crashed truck wasn’t anything special.”

The question didn’t have much meaning, but the track suit girl still replied calmly and quickly.

Was that the difference between a newbie and an experienced member?

Takitsubo’s opinion had rapidly eliminated the curse of the enemy’s “legend” from Kinuhata’s mind.

“I don’t know if she used her power or sent a signal from her phone, but all she did was hit Mugino from a blind spot, which kept Mugino from reacting quickly enough. Our Level 5 was defeated. That much is true, but keep in mind what actually happened and don’t let it rattle you. That trick was something anyone could have done if they had as thorough a knowledge of Mugino’s behavior.”

The only real difference there was one of experience.

In other words, Ainame Caroline had built up more experience with that Level 5 than Takitsubo Rikou had supporting her. If anyone should feel ashamed, it was Takitsubo, not a newcomer like Kinuhata.

So the track suit girl would not try to place the blame on Kinuhata Saiai’s shoulders.

This was an issue she had to overcome herself.

“No one is unbeatable. Which is why Item lost here.”

“…Right.”

“But that means you can say the same thing about those two. What we need now is information and a strategy. If we can gather the appropriate equipment and come up with a specialized plan, we can defeat them. Kinuhata, let’s repay them for the lesson they taught us here. With plenty of interest.”

Part 2

“Typhoon 11 is traveling north in the Pacific. Make sure you already have a plan before it makes landfall. Bring inside any bikes, potted plants, or anything else that could blow away in the wind. If you live in an expected flood zone, there are measures anyone can take, such as stacking sandbags around the building in advance.”

The warning news displayed on the side of the blimp was a bit more insistent than before.

But Mugino wasn’t interested in that as she walked along the sidewalk.

“Is that any good?” asked Mugino, sounding skeptical.

“In the end, it tastes just like a Starzucks iced café mocha with extra whipped cream. But it’s 0 Calories no matter how much you drink and it can also reproduce the seasonal drinks you can’t actually get anymore. Like the Christmas strawberry milk iced latte or the autumn maple quadruple mixed cream coffee.”

Frenda Seivelun removed her lips from the end of the virtual drink’s thick straw to speak.

“In the end, is defending ourselves our main motivation for this job?”

“That and the basic reward for defeating Honey Queen.”

“The basic one? I know you better than to think that’s enough for you to go to all this effort. In the end, there has to be reason you’re out in this sweltering heat with a typhoon approaching when you could just have our support organization do all the investigation. Out with it already!”

“Fine, there is another reason, but it only applies to me.”

Mugino pouted her lips while passing a drum-shaped cleaning robot that was struggling against the powerful wind.

“I don’t actually know how the adults are using Meltdowner or what other research it ties into. I would love to get a peek at that by pursuing this mission. But that doesn’t do the rest of you any good.”

“It doesn’t have to! You’re saying we’re approaching some kind of deep secrets about you, right? That’s great! I say that’s worth risking my life for!!”

Frenda was invading Mugino’s personal space a little too much, so Mugino grabbed her with a hand and pushed her away.

Thick, dark clouds covered the sky above.

The latest news said the typhoon was definitely headed this way. The trees alongside the road were rustling in a crosswind and it finally started to sprinkle.

“Mugino, Mugino. In the end, let’s stop by the convenience store.”

“He’s just some thug from the support organization. Are you seriously going to bring him a gift?”

“Yes, but I was more thinking about buying an umbrella.”

Frenda could make friends with anyone, so it was just like her to not deny her intentions.

She purchased a cheap plastic umbrella and a box of somewhat expensive-looking Belgian chocolates. Mugino didn’t normally pay much attention to it, but apparently some convenience stores sold a decent number of gift products.

“Really? It’s not Valentine’s.”

“I really don’t think many girls these days actually make their own heart-shaped chocolates in preparation for February 14. In the end, you have to remember that the support organization’s delinquents aren’t known for having brains. They’ll rejoice like a puppy if they receive candy from a lovely girl, no matter the time of year. But anyway, Mugino, let’s share this umbrella☆”

A powerful gust of wind turned the umbrella inside-out and carried it off into the heavens. The wind turbines were rapidly rotating and producing an unpleasant noise from the intense friction.

The solid blasts of wind continued to pummel them until they arrived at the hospital.

However, this was nothing like the general hospital that served District 3.

“In the end, I can’t believe Honey Queen let our driver live. They should know even a simple pawn will turn against them once he wakes up.”

“Either they seriously underestimate us, or it’s some kind of trap. Be on the lookout for anyone tailing us.”

That aside, knowing what was wrong with the driver was their first step toward striking back. Ainame Caroline had remotely done something to the delinquent’s brain, instantly knocking him out and causing the 4-wheel-drive truck to crash. They really did want to find out what that something was as soon as possible.

Mugino and Frenda entered a cheap short-term apartment building and took the elevator up to the roof. There they found a transport helicopter with two special coaxial rotors, one in the front and one in the rear. The main fuselage was more than 15m long and it was around 30m all the way out to the tips of the rotors. The helicopter was only a few meters wide, so its max capacity was around 50 people, meaning it contained about the same space as a classroom or two. It may have used the more complex structure of coaxial rotors because the design had borrowed from delivery drones.

However, most of the space inside was taken up by medical equipment, an air purifier to eliminate all dust from the air, and various scanning equipment, so it only had enough space left over for a single bed.

The “hospital” Mugino and Frenda were visiting was in fact a high-end medical helicopter created by modifying a transport helicopter. Simple procedures like stitching up wounds could be done in flight. When landed, it could provide plastic surgery to change one’s face or fingerprints or even delicate brain surgery. But a normal hospital would not need the ability to scatter chaff or flares to escape an attacker’s missiles.

“Every time I come here, this feels too nice for a black market doctor’s stronghold. When a villain is shot in the arm or leg, the most they should manage is to rush to a sketchy animal hospital or to a factory breakroom with a special first aid kit inside. In the end, why don’t the Six Wings attack helicopters rush in whenever this thing takes flight without permission?”

“Altering the air traffic control data is apparently part of the business model. Really, she swoops in to save the lives of anyone useful or with useful associates so she can earn their thanks and expand her network of valuable people. There’s always a catch.”

“Hm. In the end, that sounds too nice.”

“True, it isn’t a very dark side thing to do. We’re talking about a medical expert here, so it’s possible she was responsible for the injuries and illnesses she helped the airport workers with. No proof of that has surfaced, though.”’

This hospital provided all sorts of services – from anonymous consultations for fugitives on the dark web to life-saving surgeries performed in person. Since none of that could be charged to anyone’s insurance, the costs had to be astronomical.

Mugino and Frenda were guided in by some miniskirt nurses carrying full-auto shotguns that likely killed with a scattershot of poison needles measuring less than a millimeter long. After entering the rear cargo door and climbing a slope, they entered an airlock where they were disinfected. The damp-eyed nurses looked lewd and cute, but they were probably soldiers doped up on all sorts of military drugs to boost their physical abilities to the very limit. They would feel no exhaustion or limits as they nimbly evaded projectiles head on or grabbed and threw a 750cc motorcycle like it was a metal bat.

(Hm.)

Tachiuo Mary. It was uncertain if she used the same kind of tech as these combat nurses, but it was possible her superhuman strength was not the result of an esper power.

It was best to consider the possibility she had another trick up her sleeve.

“This is supposed to be where we do our surgeries before we stick them in one of the short-term apartment rooms below to recover.”

A frilly blouse, a tight miniskirt, a white coat, and glasses. She looked like she was cosplaying a lewd female doctor. Were the nurses’ outfits also the result of her tastes?

“But he’s in too delicate a situation to leave him in a random bed. Honestly, I really need to build some kind of ICU. He’s hogging the entire flying operating room. All I can do right now is the online consultations and social media counseling for criminals.”

“You don’t look all that upset about it. Are you the kind of doctor who can’t bear to abandon a patient?”

“Not another word. I left that man’s hospital because I’m in it for the money. Everything I’m doing here is a crime, so I’m not about to start preaching to you about being humane.”

This young doctor appeared to have a storied past, but that wasn’t why they were here.

Frenda frowned.

“In the end, what happened? All I know is our delinquent suddenly passed out while driving.”

The busty black market doctor gestured toward the wall with her shapely chin. A giant LCD screen displayed what Frenda assumed were images of the delinquent’s brain from MRI and ultrasound scans.

“Look here.”

“…”

“Something was burned directly onto the surface of his cerebrum. That physically obstructed his brain’s pathways, so there’s no way he can stay conscious.”

They saw something impossible there.

His brain was coated with black, like stubborn mildew in the bath.

It would have actually been more believable if it formed a mysterious face or some kind of occult symbol.

But it didn’t.

“What…the hell?”

Frenda enjoyed viewing gory and gruesome images, but even she gasped at the reality before her eyes.

“ ‘Don’t miss the Shop Marukawa 50%-off sale. Buy a dozen eggs and all profits will be donated to the local community.’ ”

“I don’t think the actual text matters. A random supermarket flier must have been burned into his brain.”

That text was formed on the highly delicate brain inside his skull.

The doctor shrugged.

“If this was an esper power attack, it probably falls under the Thoughtography category. That power outputs or copies information the esper shouldn’t know onto an existing medium. That said, it’s supposed to be used to predict the future or read someone’s mind. I’ve never seen it used offensively.”

“So would that mean someone with Honey Queen – either Ainame Caroline or Tachiuo Mary – has that power?”

“I don’t know anything about who did it. …Meltdowner, that wasn’t information I would be better off not knowing, was it?”

Directly “burning” something inside a target’s body from a distance was enough of a threat on its own.

But if the esper actually had Thoughtography, there was a chance they could look into the future and plan accordingly.

“Tch. That explains how they kept predicting our actions during the attack. I don’t know what they got a photo of, but they did more than profile us based on our past actions.”

“In the end, will he recover?”

“If the text scrawled inside his skull is removed.” The doctor sighed when she saw the chocolates Frenda had brought. “But with the equipment I have here, removing a 1mm brain tumor is a major undertaking that lasts five hours. Based on the standards of brain surgery, safely and fully removing all of that without damaging the surrounding nerves and cells just isn’t possible. Our ability to focus long enough is one problem, but even without that, the patient wouldn’t survive having his skull open that long.”

“Those Honey Queen girls aren’t gods,” stated Mugino. “Ainame Caroline was the head researcher for developing Meltdowner, which means her Personal Reality will be electricity based. If she has Thoughtography, it should use electricity.”

“Oh, so you’re going to search out the esper? It is true this support organization boy, whose name I don’t remember, risked his life because he trusted you. This isn’t about right or wrong – even villains need to look out for those who work for them. Which is why you brought him to my luxurious hospital once you found he was still alive, right? Even if the cost isn’t worth it. If you want to heal him, defeating the source would be best. The ‘paint’ is probably iron. Did you know if you mix an iron clip with gelatin and let it solidify, you can make it jiggle around using a magnet? This did that at such a small scale even nanodevices would be shocked. The black powder paint was sent in through the pores on the skin and slipped past the filters provided by the organs to draw whatever the esper wanted inside the body.”

“In the end, is that also why the truck exploded out of nowhere?” asked Frenda, their explosives expert.

Thoughtography was not a fiery power, but that truck had suffered a serious crash. What if the iron ink used for the Thoughtography had filled in the cracks leading to the sparking electronics within the damaged engine and the leaking fuel had been ignited at the perfect moment by removing that ink?

The sexy doctor nodded.

“I haven’t actually checked with a transmission electron microscope, but this power sounds like something that would cause a panic among the young wives who are terrified of nanotech cosmetics. The iron art is magnetically held in place. If you can convince the esper to release their power on him, the brain graffiti should disappear. It will be carried by the blood and other bodily fluids and expelled from the body.”

“And if we can’t convince her?”

“You could try killing her? There’s at least a chance that would release him from her power’s hold.”

That didn’t sound like a very doctorly thing to say, but it did sound an awful lot like dark side advice.

“In the end, has the Honey Queen esper been concentrating on this the whole time? I don’t really know how it feels since I’m a Level 0, but wouldn’t she burst a blood vessel in her head?”

“The human body is constantly generating a small amount of electricity. Once the thoughtograph draws the pattern, the patients’ own bioelectricity will keep the deadly paint in place. For as long as he continues to struggle to live. So killing the esper should be plan B. Getting the esper to release her power is a lot more likely to work.”

It was fully storming once they left the flying operating room created from a transport helicopter.

The combat nurses, who had put on transparent raincoats at some point, smiled at Mugino and Frenda as the two of them boarded the short-term apartment building’s elevator.

“Ugh. In the end, I’m already soaked. Even my underwear is making wet sounds when I move. I hate it!”

Frenda grabbed the bottom of her miniskirt and wrung it out like a wet rag. Her dress had been white to begin with, so it was now even more see-through than usual. Mugino used a handkerchief to wipe the moisture out of her long hair.

“You could wear something more mature, you know?”

“Yeah, I know the striped bra seems kiddy, but these casual ones are just more comfortable for me. If only I wasn’t too old for the bras that use rubber straps instead of a hook. And I bet it’s even worse for you with that lacey adult bra. How can you stand all those support wires?”

“It’s never bothered me.”

“In the end, I didn’t expect pure white, milady☆”

At any rate, Mugino and Frenda discussed what they had learned while they rode the elevator down.

“I guess that was a worthwhile visit. We know generally what one of their powers is and we have that supermarket flier. That suggests they can burn in things they physically see, not just images of the future. Maybe they have to look at the flier again in a week’s time? Whatever the case, sales like that tend to be pretty localized even between different stores of the same chain.”

“In the end, I hope that’s enough…” Frenda sounded unusually grim as she removed her beret and dealt with her hair. “It’s not that I doubt you, Mugino, but in the end, there are other possibilities. I can’t keep those Honey Queen fish names straight, but the mini researcher one. If she also worked on developing the #6’s power, then electricity might not be enough to explain her power.”

Part 3

The approaching typhoon was bad news.

Item and Honey Queen were both pursuing each other, so they couldn’t have all trace of their actions being washed away by the rain and wind.

Item had no way of knowing how far into the future Honey Queen’s thoughtograph had seen, but they had to assume they were always playing catchup on the intelligence front. Which was all the more reason they couldn’t afford any mistakes when gathering intel the old fashioned way.

Nevertheless, their group phone conversation was complete chaos.

“Urp, gwehh. M-Mugino, this blimp was a mistake. Let’s leave this unorthodox choice and move to a super stable hotel with its foundation on the ground!!”

“Hm? Why do you sound close to death?”

“Mugino, the crosswinds are so powerful the blimp won’t stop shaking. That makes it feel like a ship rocking in the waves. I was doing better than Kinuhata, but that might change if I actually see a bucket or washbasin.”

Those two were complaining a lot given the typhoon hadn’t even made landfall yet. But those guinea pigs had gathered this data firsthand, so Mugino feared she would end up the same if she didn’t heed this warning.

“Mugino. In the end, what are we going to do now?”

“We won’t be able to track down Ainame Caroline or Tachiuo Mary right away. Honey Queen can use their Thoughtography to predict the future and run away before we get there.”

With the wind blowing so hard, umbrellas were useless and you had to choose your underwear under the assumption there was a decent chance it would be seen. Mugino ignored the blowing rain as she gave her response.

“But the same isn’t true of the common thugs Honey Queen uses. They sent in a group of them when attacking us yesterday, so we know they have a support organization like we do. Their security is bound to be laxer than with Ainame Caroline or Tachiuo Mary, so it should be possible to track them down and use them to reach those two.”

“In the end, how are we supposed to find those common thugs?”

“…”

(I really didn’t want to rely on him for a problem inside the city.)

They entered a nearby convenience store to get out of the rain. Once inside, (soaking and see-through) Frenda went off in search of canned mackerel. Meanwhile, Mugino moved straight to the more expensive zone of the bento section, bought a salmon bento, had it heated in the microwave, and took a seat in the eat-in section.

“Hm, hm hm♪ Huh?”

She was really looking forward to the thick piece of grilled salmon when she elegantly picked it up with the disposable chopsticks and found…what’s this? The fillet was as thin as a cheap 15cm ruler. It had only looked so wonderfully thick because the bottom of the plastic bento container rose up unnaturally below it.

Shrinkflation strikes again.

“Arrrrgh!! How could you do this to me!? That’s not playing fair. Not even the dark side gets your hopes up and dashes them like that!”

Mugino’s tearful screaming made the gentle mama clerk nervously look over from the register counter. No, she was only bothered by how much of Mugino’s underwear was showing through her clothing and was wishing the employee manual said she could give the girl a big sports towel. Why did she have to be so nice? Now Mugino couldn’t be mad at her.

The delinquent girl sniffled and attached an eraser-sized anti-recording device to her phone’s bottom connector. That was the proper etiquette when going to the trouble of calling someone beyond the city walls.

“Oh, now this is a rare treat. Do you need something, milady?”

“Mujinayama.”

She called the name of the old butler who served her family outside Academy City.

She wanted to get this over with quickly. It couldn’t be easy looking after the people who ran the grain production company that filled the stomachs of 1.4 billion people worldwide (and lined the pockets of a gang with 100 thousand members).

“I was hoping for some advice from the Mountain Sniper.”

“My, my. I appreciate that you thought of me, but will your school friends be happy about this? If I make a trip all the way out there, they might just become jealous.”

Mugino could tell he was itching for a chance to assist her.

She dried her hair with a cheap handkerchief she bought at the convenience store while she explained the circumstances of the apartment attack to Mujinayama. Then she told him what she wanted to know.

“Whether bombing or sniping a target, you want to carry out your attack from a position with a good view of the target and the surrounding area, right? The initial attack began when our apartment was suddenly blown away by a self-destructing remote-controlled UGV while we were veramping. I’m assuming Ainame Caroline was holding the controller then, so I want to know what building she was observing us from. The bomb had a small camera of its own, but she would have lost track of its direction and position while moving it through such a cramped space. I doubt we’ll actually find her there, but the support organization assisting her may have left some kind of clue behind.”

“Just say the word and I will snipe any point within Academy City from outside its walls.”

“I know, I know.”

Mugino casually rejected that idea.

That would make Mujinayama an enemy of Academy City as a whole. She wasn’t going to place that kind of burden on such a kindhearted old man’s shoulders.

“Also, you appear to be mistaken about one thing, milady.”

“?”

“I doubt a sniper would choose an isolated skyscraper rooftop. The first rule of sniping is to take the shot and make a quick getaway. That will mean wanting a long distance between yourself and the target. Movies often depict snipers in a church steeple, but that would essentially be suicide. You would be surrounded during the time it takes you to descend the spiral staircase after firing.”

“You mean it wouldn’t even be an elevated location?”

“That is a pernicious preconception. If you were on an outward-facing balcony, she would have had a view of you looking up from below as well. The ideal sniping spot is somewhere the target will have difficulty noticing you even if they look your way and which also provides multiple escape routes.”

“That sounds too good to be true. Was Honey Queen using one of those strange mirrors used for interrogation rooms?”

“That would be useful if you had one, but there is a simpler method. That attack occurred in the late evening. There is a lot of light in a city at night, but I would check anywhere that has no lights. To find someone who is up to no good, search the deep shadows.”

“Hm.”

Mugino brushed up her wet bangs with a hand and toyed with her phone for a bit.

Then she grinned.

“I see.”

Part 4

This here is footage of the curb where a streetlight was conveniently broken. A nearby gas station surveillance camera caught it. It shows the two Honey Queen members and a few from their support organization. I doubt we would have any luck pursuing the main two right away, but if we ask these thugs for information, we should learn where Ainame Caroline keeps her hideout or how to contact her. But once we have that information, we have to attack. If possible, we could also threaten them to bring them to us or scare them away, luring them into an ambush. Basically, it’s like shogi or chess. They might have a path to victory using their Thoughtography, but that won’t work if both sides are working to predict each other. It’s just we have to do it without the help of an esper power.”

Mugino Shizuri said all this while lying face down in the nude.

Kinuhata and Takitsubo had complained enough to convince Mugino to leave the blimp hotel, so they had moved their base to District 21. That was a mountainous district with several dams, but it was secretly famous for its villas. It had plenty of cottages that could be rented out in place of a hotel. Few people wanted to camp out in the mountains with a typhoon approaching, so it had an unusual number of vacancies for the summer season.

Since those two had been granted their wish, they were providing a massage in exchange.

Takitsubo tilted her head while pouring oil onto her palm from a bottle.

“They have a different vibe from our support organization.”

“Super true. They’re like a cross between a gambler and an intellectual,” said Kinuhata, curiously moving her fingers inside bumpy rubber massage gloves.

“Kinuhata, do you know what to do now?” asked Takitsubo.

“I have the gloves, so you super check the example video. I’m supposed to rub these on her skin to scrub the filth away, right? I can handle that part since I’m second to none when it comes to power.”

Mugino began to worry it wasn’t safe to leave herself in those two’s hands.

“By following those intellectual thugs from camera to camera, we know their destination was District 22.”

“The district that’s all located underground?”

“For some reason, an unusual number of people gather at a defunct bowling alley there. Hey, Voice on the Phone.”

“Oh, shut up. Your healthy teenage skin doesn’t even need a massage. Why is it like this with you!? I wish I had time to look after my skin that well. I spend so much time sitting down there’s something visibly wrong with the surface of my skin – maybe it’s a circulation issue? …Anyway, that old building was supplied with slot machines, a sturdy safe, and so on. Following the money, I’d say it’s an illegal casino.”

If the Voice on the Phone had checked behind the scenes, that was almost certainly true.

“They have casinos in Japan as part of large integrated resorts, so why go super out of your way to risk using an illegal one?”

“Kinuhata, they are breaking the law to gather on the dark side when they could safely gamble by spending half a day traveling to Guam or Hawaii. They want a local gambling house that’s as convenient as stopping by the convenience store.”

And aside from that, traveling in or out of Academy City was a challenge.

While Item paid their support organization’s wages, Honey Queen apparently had theirs support themselves. That meant they didn’t have to directly pay their subordinates, but it meant the support organization would grow beyond their control and any mistake it made could get its members arrested by Anti-Skill, which could spread to Honey Queen getting arrested too.

“The casino also runs online slots and poker, but they use some brutal settings,” said the Voice on the Phone. “They let the customers win just enough to get them hooked, but then they take them to the cleaners, leaving them deep in debt. It’s all set up that way from the beginning. Damn, the food here has really gone downhill. That’s sad.”

“She didn’t lose big there at some point, did she?” said Mugino, clearly exasperated.

Frenda didn’t have to help with the massage, so she grinned over from a short distance away.

“In the end, is our next mission sneaking into the casino and gathering information there?”

“I’ll be satisfied if we find any information on Honey Queen’s hideouts or activities on the computers or paper documents there, but if that doesn’t work, we can always find some thugs that probably knows something and knock them out with dart of barbital or ketamine hydrochloride.”

“Um, Mugino. A tranquilizer gun filled with a mixture of different drugs isn’t as convenient as it might seem. If you don’t use a neutralizing agent quickly enough, they’ll never wake up again. In the end, it’s safer to knock out everyone in the room using the pressure of an explosive blast than to fire tranquilizer darts everywhere.”

“You know a lot about this, Frenda. And not just about bombs. You’re so smart,” said Takitsubo.

“Heh heh. Think I would look good as a cool science teacher in a lab coat and glasses? And when you get down to it, chemicals and bombs are the same thing. Explosions are just what we call a certain type of very rapid chemical reaction.”

Takitsubo and Frenda continued their conversation, but Kinuhata was a little disturbed by it all.

“Ugh. So we’re going to super trick them into letting us in?”

“Don’t like lying? In the end, even Anti-Skill and Judgement do sting operations. Wow! Isn’t it cool how having a badge or armband magically makes it okay?☆”

“The only time I enjoy being lied to is when the movie industry films in a southern US desert and then super labels it ‘Ancient Egypt’ in the movie. Also, the people who come when you call emergency services don’t abduct and torture people.”

“Yeah, cause it all depends on context. If you confine a healthy person and cause them pain, it’s illegal, but if some clumsy girl restrains a struggling injured person and provides first aid in an extremely painful and indirect way, she’s considered innocent. Really makes you wonder if there even is a solid definition of ‘humane’.”

Frenda clearly wanted to do it and neither Mugino nor Takitsubo had questioned the idea.

Entering enemy territory and gathering information without rousing suspicions was a job for Frenda Seivelun since she could befriend anyone. That rare talent could be used to stop all fighting across the globe and bring smiles to all of humanity, but it could also be abused in the hands of the dark side.

“I’d be terrible going undercover, so you can handle this one, Frenda. You can choose whether to disguise yourself as a rich customer or a new part-timer.”

“In the end, only someone who works there would be able to check the staff-only section in the back. So should I use my card trick skills to become a dealer? Or should I use this perfect sexy body to become a bunny girl?”

“Wait, wait, super wait!” interrupted Kinuhata.

She ignored Mugino protesting that she was getting distracted while rubbing her sensitive skin.

“I’m not letting you super handle everything just because I’m the newest member. Undercover investigations are super risky, aren’t they? And when we don’t know the conditions for the enemy’s Thoughtography, your cover could be super blown even if you don’t make a single mistake.”

“In the end, I’m not sure it counts as an ‘undercover investigation’ when we’re villains without the official right to investigate.”

“I super don’t care. If this is what we’re doing, that’s fine, but I’m the best choice for this kind of dangerous job. Because if something super goes wrong, I can protect myself with Offense Armor.”

If her cover was blown and bullets started flying when there was no escape, Kinuhata’s ability to block bullets with her power gave her an overwhelming advantage.

However.

Frenda blinked a few times, looking surprised.

“In the end, I hope you don’t think that nitrogen barrier is the ultimate cheat armor that blocks all physical and elemental attacks. Or are you underestimating these people because they’re from a support organization? If they have a stun gun, capacitor bullets, or some other weapon that uses a powerful enough electrical current to trigger electrical breakdown, your thin gas barrier is powerless. And the villains who work in an illegal casino full of bunny girls love using toys that don’t leave a mark on the skin.”

It was best not to imagine what fate awaited Kinuhata if she was knocked out by an electric shock. The stories of organs being worth more the fresher they were was only the very beginning when it came to the dark side.

Scientific esper powers were commonplace in Academy City, so the villains there had developed their own special tactics for fighting back against those powers. It was naïve to assume a special power guaranteed safety.

Anything they did meant risk.

On the dark side, it was possible the small child passing you by on the street would stab you.

“Everyone has their area of expertise. Can you keep a stupidly carefree face when they have all their weapons and powers aimed your way and then sneak in without rousing suspicion, newbie? I doubt it. In the end, you can let everyone’s beloved big sister Frenda sneak in and gather that intel☆”

“Super shut up. And I won’t let you call me that again once this job is over.”

“?”

“Newbie. It’s been a month since I joined Item, so it’s super time you stopped that.”

Part 5

“Despite what spy movies may have led you to believe, the trick to an infiltration job isn’t earning everyone’s trust. For one, that’s simply not possible. If you’re going to infiltrate enemy territory, don’t try to make friends with the enemy – try to make it so they have no choice but to shake your hand even if they hate your guts.”

“If you want to get close to the enemy fast, create some trouble you can work with your target to solve. In the end, nothing brings two people together faster than a shared success.”

“If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t give a yes or no answer. Instead, smile and change the subject. Always stay in control of the conversation. If you wait for their reaction, they’ll wear you down with the conversation.”

Frenda gave more and more advice like a mother giving the shopping lift to her child. Kinuhata listened to it all while putting a tiny earphone in her ear and attaching a miniature microphone to the back of her back tooth with the knife of a pliers-style multitool.

“I’ll be monitoring all of your conversations and I’ll search up anything information you need and give it to you through your earphone. You’ll be cheating because your life depends on it. But unlike with an entrance exam, there is no official textbook, so I can’t know everything about the criminal organization’s rules. You’ll be found out in no time if you can’t follow our carefully-worked-out plan and also come up with some quick adlibs, so be careful.”

“Super yeah, yeah.”

“Listen, newbie. In the end, the worst thing you can do is have nothing to say. Avoid that at all costs. A pause of more than 0.6 seconds will be seen as unusual. But as long as you answer faster than that…”

“I get it. You super see me as a clueless newbie, don’t you? How disappointing.”

Kinuhata rebelliously pouted her lips, but for some reason Frenda hugged her tight around the shoulders.

Kinuhata’s eyes widened as Frenda spoke to her.

“Ugh. In the end, I’m just so worried. I really wish I was going instead.”

“I super told you not to, Senpai. Honestly.”

Kinuhata hugged her “Senpai” back with her little hands and then relaxed her shoulders.

But then Frenda’s dark side persona emerged.

“In the end, I have this too.”

“?”

Frenda lifted a gold-glinting metal tube measuring about a meter long. It resembled a stretched out version of a 2L water bottle. It looked pretty heavy.

“Um, super what is that?”

“Oh, just the world’s smallest antimatter cannon with a caliber of only 155mm. It’ll cleanly annihilate everything within a diameter of 1000m. Oh, and it isn’t just the chip and detonator this time – this has got everything in there.”

Kinuhata wasn’t sure how to react to that.

“To be clear, the theory behind this has been around for decades, so it’s a piece of cake to build one with Academy City tech. In the end, if you fail, it’s my responsibility for sending you in. So if you screw up and get yourself killed, I’ll fire this and wipe the casino from the face of the Earth. I promise you I won’t let a single one of them escape. I’ll make sure to collect your bones afterwards, so you can rest easy about that.”

“…”

“(But in all seriousness, Mugino would start firing Meltdowner beams into the building the instant she heard you scream if I didn’t have this ready, so this is really just a Mugino deterrent. I really hope I won’t have to use it☆)”

“Super um…”

When she was mad, that electron beam demon queen really was more dangerous than that miniaturized antimatter weapon.

Takitsubo had been listening to all this in silence, but now she expressionlessly held her index finger up to her lips and spoke.

“Kinuhata, Mugino won’t obey the law, but she’s a kindhearted person who cares deeply about her teammates. But don’t let her hear you say so. That won’t end well.”

“Um, if this could turn out that super bad, I’d really rather you hadn’t told me…”

“I could totally see Mugino tearing one of us in half just to hide that she’s embarrassed. In the end, you have our support, so don’t worry about a thing as you go complete this errand!”

It was written plain on Kinuhata’s face that she had no idea what to say in response to any of this as she set out on her own.

At midday, Kinuhata Saiai boarded a bus and rode it to District 22. She worked up a sweat on the way due to the poor air conditioning. She wasn’t wearing the hoodie dress that grew see-through far too easily, so she was better off than the girls in short-sleeve blouses on the same bus.

The typhoon hadn’t made landfall yet, but wind and rain were pounding on the bus’s windows. It wasn’t too bad at this point, but there was a chance bus service would be canceled before she made her return trip.

(District 22. The entire district is a massive multilevel underground facility, right?)

The bus descended a giant spiraling slope until a silent space spread out before it. Needless to say, there was no wind or rain here. There was a forest of skyscrapers down and a dark cloudy sky was displayed on the screen overhead. The only thing that felt off was the lack of three-bladed wind turbines. Down here, it was hard to believe there was a large and powerful typhoon coming.

This one vast underground space was not the entirety of District 22.

Several of them were stacked vertically, like a tiered bento box.

(Of course, it’ll all flood if there’s any trouble with the water pumps, so I super don’t want to be here on a day like this.)

That thought led Kinuhata to groan and freeze in place.

Offense Armor gathered nitrogen from the air around her to guard her. Did that mean she was susceptible to drowning? First electricity and now water – she was finding a lot of weaknesses in her power now that she was working in the field.

(For better or for worse, the world outside the lab is super full of possibilities.)

After disembarking at the bus stop, she found the underground space had recreated the same sweltering heat of the outdoors. That felt like a waste of energy. Annoyed by that, she walked the short distance to the former bowling alley.

She passed by a drum-shaped cleaning robot on the way. It was moving smoothly since the stormy winds were absent down here. Its camera concerned her, but she didn’t let it show on her face. She hadn’t gone undercover or done anything wrong yet.

“Kinuhata, we’re on the same level as you. We won’t tell you which car we’re in because it would look unusual if you turned to look for us.”

“Super yeah, yeah.”

“In the end, you looked. From here on, be careful when you speak. Don’t move your lips and don’t glance toward the ear with the earphone whenever you hear one of us speak.”

She found an abandoned building about the size of a school.

There were no people or cars at the front entrance where the parking lot was located, but when she circled around back, she found a few delinquent boys gathered together. At first glance, they looked like idle delinquents hanging out behind the abandoned building using an empty coffee can as an ashtray, but they had their eyes on their surroundings, not the center of their circle. To be blunt, it was unnatural and conspicuous. They were likely the doormen for the illegal casino and they appeared to have noticed Kinuhata.

“In the end, this is your first challenge.”

“Is that super advice supposed to be helpful?”

Kinuhata exhaled softly before nervously approaching the boys. There was no correct expression or way to behave. Whether she smiled, looked nervous, or looked terrified, they would suspect her all the same.

“Whaddya want?”

“Excuse me, I super came here for a job interview…”

One of the delinquents viewed Kinuhata’s small body from head to toe, but she knew the real threat was the boy a step behind him who nonchalantly stuck his right hand in his pocket. The dark side was not like the people who made fools of themselves on video sites in the pursuit of clicks. Here, the plain and forgettable ones were the most dangerous.

“Who told you about this job? One of our employees?”

“Kinoshita-san☆”

She lied with a smile. She didn’t actually have a recommendation, so she just had to trust in the fact that you could find a Kinoshita-san or two anywhere you want in Japan.

However…

“Never heard of a Kinoshita-san.”

“He said he was a regular here. You really don’t know him?”

“Tch,” the delinquent clicked his tongue.

Maybe because he didn’t trust this girl who had shown up out of the blue and maybe because some loose-lipped customer was telling people about their casino.

That aside, no customer would want to go by their real name at an illegal casino, so there was no way to verify her story. The doormen had run into a problem they couldn’t answer.

And eventually…

The delinquent pulled out a radio instead of a phone. Because that wouldn’t go through an external server.

“We have an interview candidate. Tag her with Visitor Kinoshita-san, for all the good that’ll do.”

Apparently he didn’t want to risk upsetting a source of cash by turning Kinuhata away. The narrow back door unlocked with a deep metallic clunk.

“Frenda, you’re the expert, so you need to give Kinuhata some advice.”

“In the end, shut up. Remember what I said about a lag of more than 0.6 seconds sounding suspicious? Once she’s in a conversation, our newbie doesn’t have time to listen to me.”

“She came for a job interview on the advice of Kinoshita-san. Kinoshita-san is a regular customer.”

Mugino was speaking quietly, seemingly to herself, so she was probably jotting down some notes and pasting them to the car’s ceiling. If Kinuhata forgot the scenario she had adlibbed, it would rouse suspicion and get her killed, so they needed to keep track of all the details and immediately update it all. The more information, the more important that was for her to survive.

Kinuhata stepped inside while hearing the other girls sound so carefree since it wasn’t their lives at risk.

The atmosphere immediately changed.

She couldn’t let it show on her face.

It was hard to believe this was inside the rundown abandoned building she had seen from the outside. She saw fluffy carpet, two symmetrical flights of stairs, and a giant crystal chandelier at the ceiling. It was all designed to look like a classical mansion, but this was only the entranceway and cloakroom where she was searched and had to leave her possessions. The actual casino appeared to be beyond the large doors directly ahead.

Instead of the delinquent, a man dressed in a black party suit pulled out a 60cm rod.

Kinuhata’s heart leaped into her throat after Frenda’s talk of electric weapons, but…

“Place your phone in this box.”

“Um?”

“Do it now. As well as any trackable keychains, game systems capable of online play, or anything else that emits any kind of signal. Only a limited number of employees are authorized to carry communication devices.”

While Kinuhata obeyed, the man in black held the rod out horizontally and ran it across Kinuhata’s body only a few centimeters out from her clothing. It appeared to be some kind of scanner, so he had to be searching for EM signals.

Kinuhata was a little worried about her earphone, but…

“And done. You’re clean. Sorry, I know this is a hassle.”

“It’s super not a problem.”

“Hm? What happened there, Mugino?” asked Takitsubo in Kinuhata’s earphone.

“Unlike in dramas and movies, the real world won’t let you enter that kind of dangerous area while wearing a communication device constantly emitting an EM signal. It doesn’t matter how small or well-hidden it is. Even a toy radio sold at a discount store for 800 yen can detect those signals. But if you use something other than EM, then that coil scanner won’t detect a thing. For example, you could use ultrasonic communications based on the chirping of insects, or you could use synthetic pheromone communications that use chemical compounds.”

Kinuhata knew it was true, but she really wished they wouldn’t dis movies right in her ear. What if it showed on her face?

“This way. Don’t let the visitors see you. The staff uses the side door. You can ask Kawazakana-san about the rest.”

“Kawazakana-san? Wait, should you really be telling me that? I super don’t have the job yet.”

“It’s a fake name. Everyone uses a floor name – a surname for the guys and a given name for the girls. That’s standard in a business where discretion is key, so don’t forget it.”

After the man in black knocked on a small door off to the side and opened it, Kinuhata found herself in small room of plain concrete that didn’t mesh with what she had seen before. Apparently the luxurious interior decoration was only in the areas the customers would see. A lot of small windows were displayed on a large LCD screen and they all displayed footage from different parts of the casino. She guessed this rundown room was the security room. The main difference from a convenience store was how the cameras tended to be aimed at the tables and people’s hands.

Two young men in their mid-20s were waiting inside.

She had been invited into a room where a single mistake would mean her death.

“Super are you Kawazakana-san?”

“Welcome. I’m Consultant Kawazakana and this guy standing next to me is Manager Kubota-kun.”

Kinuhata wasn’t sure what the exact difference between a manager and a consultant was, but from the look of things, Kawazakana was the one in charge. He was seated in a folding chair while Kubota stood by his side. The discrepancy between their titles and the actual power balance confused Kinuhata a little.

“Ha hah. Is this your first time working at a place like this? Oh, right. Have a seat there. I don’t have a drink for you, but you don’t mind, do you? We really only serve alcohol here.”

“Eh heh heh. Do I look old enough to have had a job before?”

“Is that why you came to the dark side? We do tend to ignore those pesky labor laws and business laws.”

“I ran away from my dorm during summer break. It turns out I can’t get out of the city because of that stupid wall, but I refuse to let them drag me back to my dorm. So now I super need money to super survive here in the city.”

“I see.”

Kawazakana then hit her with a question unique to Academy City.

Namely…

“What’s your power?”

“I’m a Level 0☆ If I had some great power, I’d super automatically get scholarship money and I wouldn’t be here asking for a job, would I? Academy City would be paying me to assist with their research.”

“Good point.”

Kinuhata smiled and gave her answer while realizing she wasn’t entirely sure what bank account was receiving the scholarship money she received for being a Level 4.

(The term Level 0 is really convenient. There’s super no way to continue the conversation from there. I don’t know where she got off to, but I can see why that cosplay lover used that story.)

That memory nearly produced a reaction on her face.

Kawazakana smiled thinly and pulled a deck of cards seemingly out of nowhere.

That was probably a pro’s card trick.

“I’m going to perform a few tricks, so can you tell me what I did?”

“Eh? But I was hoping to be a super bunny girl, not a dealer.”

“Just do it.”

Kawazakana fanned the cards out on the table and then returned them to an orderly stack. He set down set down the cards one at a time, slowly forming groups of five.

This was apparently meant to mimic dealing a poker hand, but…

“There. You palmed a card. That is, you super hid a card in your palm like it was just sucked in there.”

“There. The deck looks like an orderly stack, but you super intentionally left one sticking out a bit so you can pull out the card you want. A lot like a bookmark, I guess?”

“Super there. One of those cards is the same on both sides.”

“Good, good,” said Kawazakana, amused.

He seemed to be observing Kinuhata’s face more than what was happening on the table.

“Next: in the end, the entire deck is formed from odd numbered cards. Next: this one’s simple. He ordered the cards how he wanted and then pretended to cut the deck without actually cutting it. Grab his wrist before he deals himself a royal flush.”

“You know so much about this, Frenda. You’re so mature.”

Kinuhata appreciated the advice in her ear, but had Takitsubo become nothing more than a cheerleader?

“A bunny girl is more than a waitress who brings the visitors their drinks and food.”

“Oh?”

“You need to keep an eye on the entire casino floor to spot and prevent cheating. That’s actually your most important job. The visitors – that’s what we call our customers – will only be wary of the dealers and guards. They tend to be so smitten with the bunny girls they see them as on their side, so a lot of those morons let their guard down. There are even some sad men who ask a bunny girl to elope with him – that isn’t just a thing in dramas. Even though everyone who works here are accomplices who share the profits.”

Was that how it worked?

You couldn’t eliminate all risk even with the most logical and mechanical security system. In the end, it all came down to interactions between people driven by raw greed. In that sense, a psychological approach may have been sensible.

“Hm? Kinuhata, is he saying the point of bunny suits is to distract perverts?”

Kinuhata’s facial muscles trembled from the effort it took to avoid laughing and getting herself killed for it. Meanwhile, Kawazakana gathered the cards back into a single deck and placed his index finger atop them.

“One last thing. Suppose someone has a card trick where they pull a single card from a deck a hundred times in a row and it’s the ace of spades each and every time. How did they do it?”

“They would practice over and over with a single company’s cards, super learning how the cards feel between their fingers. Due to how the cards are lined up, the aces tend to be on the top when shipped from the factory, so even if a new deck is used each time, the aces are more likely to have slight damage or fading from the sun. The jokers tend to be at the very bottom so they can easily be thrown away since they aren’t used in every game. The best form of cheating is one based on hard work, not a trick. Right?”

That was all advice from Frenda.

Kawazakana clapped his hands in hollow applause.

“Congratulations. You have a good eye. Baccarat, roulette, craps, slots – each game has its own forms of cheating. That can include analog sleight of hand and that can include digital devices or programming skills. We’ll have you study up on them all so you can spot them, but you should do fine since you have the observation skills and you know how to read a room. I think you’re exactly the kind of person we want working here.”

“Super really?”

“Ha hah. To be honest, you had more or less passed the test from the moment you didn’t hesitate to give up your phone back at the door. Judgment and online news investigative reporters tend to trigger the first warning there. We’ll tag them but let them continue a while longer while we work out who they’re working for and what they’re doing here, but 90% of the time, it’s already over for them by that point. Humans can’t bear feeling alone or seeing that ‘no signal’ display. Especially when their lives are at risk.”

“Ha hah☆”

Kinuhata mimicked how her boss laughed.

She was currently wearing an earphone, but she ignored that here.

“You said you want to be a bunny girl, right? As a runaway, I assume you want to be paid in cash. How many days a week can you work? Not how much you can physically work, but how often you can head out here without the adults getting suspicious. Well, we can work out all those details later.”

Kawazakana leaned toward her.

He moved his head right in front of her.

“Now that you work here, you belong to me. Don’t you dare betray me and go work for one of our competitors.”

Kinuhata felt the temperature drop around her.

But she kept her smile.

Then Kawazakana held a hand to his mouth.

“Just kidding. Ha hah!! This really is your first time at a place like this, huh? You’re so innocent! Word of an illegal casino always gets out sooner or later and then comes the Anti-Skill raid. Just like you heard about us from your Kinoshita-san. So just relax and work hard like a freelancer who can move to another place at any time. In our business, you can’t get too comfortable with the everyday routine and fail to pull out in time. Leave all the worries for the guy in charge who’ll be stuck as the last one standing after everyone else jumps ship.”

Kubota, who hadn’t said a word this entire time, jumped at that.

It sounded like Consultant Kawazakana was the effective leader and Manager Kubota had been given the top position as a breakwater in case of trouble. That explained the strange balance of power. Was he a former visitor who cheated or brought fake chips to this dangerous dark side casino, or had he gotten too drunk and tried to get a little too chummy with a bunny girl?

“What’s the first letter of the alphabet that comes to mind? In 3 seconds!”

“H.”

“Then your floor name is Haruka-chan. A name that starts with a letter that comes to mind quick tends to be a popular one that won’t stick in anyone’s memory. Welcome aboard.”

He told Kinuhata where the locker room was, so she walked there alone and found an array of simple mannequin torsos wearing plastic packaged bunny suits. She wondered why they didn’t just use hangers before she realized those suits had no shoulders to hang on a hanger. There were some in Kinuhata’s small size, suggesting they hired middle school and even elementary school bunny girls here.

The only ones in her size were pink. She picked up the entire mannequin torso, opened a locker without a nametag on it, and then looked to the ceiling.

“Are you still super monitoring me?”

“Don’t worry, Kinuhata. We won’t lose sight of you.”

“Not my point. If you can see me, it means there’s a security camera in here. Do those pervert criminals watch the girls change!?”

“In the end, I think it’s a business decision, not a voyeurism fetish. The customers won’t use credit cards or e-money since they want to keep their identities hidden, so the casino needs to keep a lot of cash stored in their safe to make all the necessary payments, right? If there’s any kind of blind spot in the building, their own workers can swipe the money or a dealer and visitor can meet in secret to discuss how to cheat, so they have to install cameras and mics everywhere to prevent any secret conversations from taking place.”

Kinuhata didn’t care how logical it was.

She blushed, shut her eyes, and mumbled a request.

“Please super fake some trouble.”

“Sure, sure. In the end, this will increase their alert level, though?”

“Just super do it!!”

Kinuhata used the 20 or 30 seconds of static in all the casino’s security cameras to quickly strip off her clothes and put on the bunny suit. She had never worn one before, but it felt a lot like a stiffer version of a swimsuit.

She heard a commotion outside the door, so she cracked it open and suck her head out. As cutely as she could manage.

“Super what is it, Kawazakana-san?”

“Nothing. Just some technical difficulties. God, was it a power surge? Is the typhoon effecting things this deep underground?”

Was he referring to the static in the security cameras?

Then Kawazakana stuck a hand in his pocket.

“Haruka-chan, did you manage to change on your own? Then take this. It’s standard issue here.”

“Wow.”

He handed her a real handgun.

A piece of plastic was attached below the barrel like a bayonet.

“In the end, that’s a 9mm handgun and an 800,000-volt stun gun. The slide has a different texture, so I’m guessing they used a conversion kit to upgrade the handgun to full-auto. If he’s giving that to you, newbie, it means that’s the minimum standard here. The guards in black are meant to deal with fights, so they’ll have much bigger guns.”

Not even Kinuhata would survive if she was incapacitated with a stun gun and then shot with a gun on full auto.

That possible death flashed through Kinuhata’s mind.

(Esper powers are a lot harder to use than I super thought. It’s more about compatibility than strength.)

“The bunny girls are meant to look weak and sweet so the visitors will let their guard down, so it would be best if you didn’t let them see that,” said Kawazakana. “You pick it up when you show up for work and turn it in before you leave. Make sure you don’t leave the premises with it.”

“What should I super start with today?”

“Eager to work, huh?” He smiled thinly. “But I can’t send you out onto the floor with all the visitors right away. For today, you can take a look around the place, learn the layout and the equipment, and then learn the names of all the food and drinks we offer. There’s actually a lot bunny girls have to learn. As much as a convenience store worker. You need to know the most effective way of earning the visitors’ affections, but you also need to know how to keep an eye on the entire casino floor to watch for cheating and for unnatural increases or decreases in chip amounts that would suggest someone is stealing chips or adding in fake chips. You also need to learn how to resuscitate drunks.”

“How to…resuscitate them?”

“If we called an ambulance every time a drunk collapsed, we couldn’t stay in business even with a hundred Kubota-kuns. Plus, visitors love it when a cute bunny girl helps them. I don’t know if it’s the suspension bridge effect or what, but you need to force your kindness onto them if you want some dedicated customers.”

“Huh? But couldn’t I end up super earning some girl’s ire if I rescue her boyfriend in front of her?”

“Ha hah. In those cases, the trick is to slip a perfume-scented business card in the boyfriend’s breast pocket when she isn’t looking. With a note asking him to come alone next time.”

Kinuhata was beginning to think her job was to ruin people’s lives.

Wrecking homes and relationships with debt and dependence was the name of the game. An illegal casino did not exist to let the customers win money – it existed to make them comfortable while they had their wallet drained of every last yen.

“You won’t actually start your job until next time, so you can relax for today. But do you need money right away?”

“Super yes.”

She actually wanted to investigate every part of the casino as soon as possible, but being too insistent wouldn’t help her here. He was the guy in charge and she was a part-timer on her first day.

She had envisioned the casino as mostly slot machines and roulette tables, but it appeared to have a lot more equipment than that. There was an industrial kitchen like you would find in a restaurant, a broadcast room that controlled the music, and a small room with stacks of cases containing plastic chips. There was even a room with a heavy-looking combination safe in one corner.

“That’s Sawaki-kun, the safe keeper.”

The indicated young man had a rugged crewcut and intellectual glasses that didn’t suit him at all. That STEM criminal looked like the perfect example of how scoring high on tests did not guarantee you would grow up to be a decent adult.

“He’s in charge of all the finances. If the casino atmosphere gets to you and you absolutely have to try gambling, you’re better off skipping the cards and asking Sawaki-kun for some stock and futures recommendations. Trying your hand at any of our toys is a great way to ruin your life, so be careful.”

After walking down the hallway some, they passed by some tough-looking men.

Unlike the normal(?) guards, these were wearing blast-resistant suits like a bomb squad might use. Their guns were humongous revolvers with an additional stock attached, forcing them to be wielded with two hands, and they wore firefighting axes on their backs.

“They’re our Murder Team,” casually explained Kawazakana. “I don’t have to explain what their job is, do I?”

“Yikes.”

“Ha hah! Don’t worry, don’t worry. They won’t have any business with you as long as you follow the rules. And to be honest, they’re real job is to look scary enough that no one tries anything in the first place. If you’re on break at the same time as them, they make great company while you eat.”

Of course, the dark side casino had to create a comfortable space for the customers or no one would gamble away small fortunes there. They couldn’t afford to suspect people without cause, so they normally only used the guards and only sent in the Murder Team in for emergencies. That way they could avoid intimidating the people on the casino floor.

From the look of things, there were usually between 20 and 30 people working in the illegal casino. If there were three shifts, that was a total of around 90. Of course, the 60 not in the casino were not all enjoying time off. There would be a team that moved on to their primary(?) job of assisting Honey Queen.

(Hm. They have more people than our support organization. Maybe that’s because Honey Queen doesn’t have to super think about the cost of supporting so many.)

These were non-disposable subordinates. If they each received a monthly wage of 300 thousand yen and there were 90 of them, the total personnel costs would be 2.7 million yen. Replenishing their stock of food, drinks, and other consumables would be between 5 and 10 million. They had illegally reformed an abandoned building, so they wouldn’t have to consider rent or taxes on the land or building. This was the bare minimum line, but their income goal had to be around 50 million a month. In a single month.

(Wow, looking at the numbers, keeping those delinquents fed is super expensive. And knowing it’s all invested in dimwitted delinquents is real mood killer.)

Kawazakana stopped in front of a small metal door in the very, very back.

“This here is our last stop. In a way, this room is more important to remember than the safe room.”

“?”

“This is the cell for anyone stupid enough to cross us.”

It was a small concrete room with no windows.

A middle school girl lay inside with her arms and legs bound by thick zip ties.

She had wavy black hair, her red, puffy eyes made it clear she had been crying for quite some time now, and the handkerchief being used as a gag was soaked with saliva. The fear of death had formed unusually large beads of sweat on her skin, soaking her dress (which looked out of place on her regardless) enough to see her underwear through it.

“We sometimes get people like this. She’s apparently a Judgment member who was pretending to be a visitor to sneak in. It’s no big deal if the manager on paper is arrested, but we can’t have someone photographing the interior and getting us all arrested. So in cases like this, this is our only option.”

Kinuhata Saiai was not a hero.

But she still felt her heart skip a beat.

Hadn’t he said during the interview that the initial request to hand over your phone could trigger a warning?

“While the dealers are specialists, the bunny girls have to know how to do everything, so you should probably learn how we ‘dispose of’ people like this. Oh, I know. For today, can you assist our throwaway Manager Kubota-kun with his work? You’ll be reducing 55kg of meat to ashes with an electric furnace designed to reach 3500 degrees to incinerate lab animals, so be careful you don’t burn yourself. A bunny girl’s value is in her body, after all.”

Part 6

Once Kubota arrived, it would be time to dispose of this human body.

But if Kinuhata refused, it would damage the trust she had only just built and would make her an enemy of the entire illegal casino.

With a combination of a high-voltage shock and bullets, there was a risk of her getting zapped after her nitrogen barrier was penetrated.

Kinuhata was from the dark side, so she wasn’t about to hesitate when it came to killing.

The problem here was the needless killing of an ordinary person for self-defense.

That was a different kind of killing and a burden she wasn’t willing to bear.

A large silver box took up half the small room Kawazakana had called a cell. They may have torn down one of the walls, pushed the box in, and rebuilt the wall. The box had a large door reminiscent of a bank vault, but it was effectively a giant microwave oven. It was an electric furnace, an appliance capable of efficiently incinerating a human, leaving only a pile of ash behind.

The scary part was this wasn’t an excessive piece of equipment by dark side standards.

(These days, not even banks are too afraid of robbers to keep all their cash in on place. But the customers here don’t want to give their real names, which means no e-money or credit cards. They must do all their dealings in paper money. If you super think about it, it’s obvious they would be on edge about anyone scoping the place out.)

Kinuhata scooted over to the wall and used her bunny butt to crush a 2mm security camera embedded in the wall.

“Ugh, really!?”

Her shout made the Judgment girl jump.

Kinuhata didn’t know what that girl was imagining would happen to her, but she crouched down and removed the handkerchief gag.

“Super what did you do to get caught!?”

“Urb, ugh? Wh-who are you? You aren’t one of the casino’s soldiers?”

Kinuhata saw no need to answer that.

But the middle school girl – who was a bit bigger than Kinuhata – still sounded relieved.

“I-I’m Yamagami Erina. I’m with Judgment, so…oh, that’s right. I didn’t bring my armband.”

“…”

“I’ve heard that voice before,” said Mugino in Kinuhata’s ear. “Was that Judgment girl at the Colosseum?”

“I didn’t know this was a casino. We were investigating tax evasion through unreported income and we received word of a large safe being transported to the defunct bowling alley, so my job was to see what was going on inside. Um, the idea was for some adult Anti-Skill officers to support me.”

(Super what were you having this girl do, Anti-Skill!? Aren’t you supposed to be the good guys!? Let me guess: you sent her in without telling her how risky it was!? This isn’t a summer research project!)

“Do you super have any information?”

“?”

“About the two big bosses in charge of the people who run this illegal casino!”

“Blegh.”

It happened out of the blue.

Still bound, Yamagami Erina doubled over on the floor and vomited.

Or so Kinuhata thought.

Yamagami jerked her chin toward a flash drive the size of a stick of gum contained in several layers of clear plastic wrap.

“I was after the big safe with their illicit money inside, so I don’t have any details on the people.” The smelly Judgment girl weakly shook her head. “But I did extract all the data on the big computer in their office. I didn’t have time to see what was in there, so I can’t tell you what kind of information you’ll find.”

“Their office?”

Kinuhata thought she had been shown around everything but the casino floor where the visitors gambled, but she didn’t recall an office.

Had Consultant Kawazakana omitted that from the tour because it contained secrets he wanted to keep from a new hire?

Kinuhata accepted the flash drive (very carefully since it was covered in stomach acid), wiped it off with a handkerchief lying nearby, and hid it in her flat chest.

(Now I owe her one. She gave us data I didn’t even know existed, so super no one can complain if I help her!!)

“The bowling alley’s main entrance was boarded up. The visitors super use the back entrance and there were guards there. Do you know of another exit?”

“B-below the floor. I was told to escape through there if I ran into trouble, so I remember it clearly.”

The way Yamagami’s face lit up suggested she hadn’t realized the “good guys” had deceived her.

But if she did know of an exit, that was better than nothing.

If the hostage escaped from the cell, Kinuhata would be the primary suspect, but she needed to stay in the dangerous casino to gather more intel. Honey Queen’s Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary had easily defeated Mugino, so sitting around and waiting for them to attack would be a very bad idea.

Kinuhata wanted enough intel for Item to make an attack of their own. No matter what it took.

After ensuring Yamagami wouldn’t start yelling and running away in a panic, Kinuhata used Offense Armor to forcibly tear apart the zip ties binding the girl. Then she heard a voice on her earphone.

“In the end, you’re dealing with an electric furnace, huh?”

“Got any super magic tricks I can use to get out of this one?”

Frenda was the one to go to for advice here.

She was primarily a bomb specialist, but she also knew a lot about machines for designing timers and traps.

“Roughly speaking, you can think of an electric furnace like a humongous microwave oven. In the end, if you dump a person in one designed to incinerate lab animals, the flesh, bones, and hair will all be burned away. Only some soft white ash will remain.”

“I’m super not interested in you bragging about the specs! I think he said it reaches 3500 degrees. I can’t just throw a normal person in there!”

“Which is why you need to think it through. We’ll send more noise through the casino’s cameras and disguise it as a power surge, so in the end, you need to rush to the kitchen. There’s a trashcan for kitchen waste there, right? Gather up all the animal meat and bones in there. You need 55kg worth.”

That was enough for Kinuhata to figure out the basic plan.

Pink Bunny Kinuhata left the foolish Judgment girl in the cell while she peeked outside to make sure the coast was clear, stepped out into the hallway, and made her way to the industrial kitchen.

“Will it super trick them if we just burn pork and beef instead?”

“The idea is to dispose of a dead body so no evidence remains, so no matter how much they suspect something isn’t right, they’ll have no way of proving what it was originally. All they’ll have is the pile of ash.”

“You don’t super think the presumption of innocence holds in the criminal underworld, do you?”

“Then let’s leave them with one piece of solid evidence.”

“?”

“In the end, there are two parts of the human body that are especially difficult to fully incinerate. The bone marrow contained in the femur, since that’s the body’s thickest bone, and the solid back teeth. In the body disposal business, it’s not uncommon for people to get arrested after one of those sticks around and allows the authorities to get the victim’s DNA.”

How could they use that to their advantage here?

“I super get it.”

There were always people in the large industrial kitchen, but Kinuhata stayed hidden by ducking through the labyrinthine pathways created by the gas stoves, countertops, and giant refrigerators. The sounds of cooking and frying were loud enough that no one would sense her presence while she hid behind cover.

“You had better not be thinking those chefs look nicer than the guards and the Murder Team.”

“I’m super not, Mugino.”

“Good. Everyone working in an illegal casino is a criminal. No matter how harmless and powerless they look, they still live in the same world as us.”

Still crouching, Kinuhata spotted something up on a countertop.

A cardboard box of alcoholism drugs sat next to some ingredients. That drug was made from calcium cyanamide and it greatly reduced one’s alcohol resistance so anyone would be easily intoxicated by a single drink. With that, anyone would be chemically knocked out in just 15 minutes. The drug was intended to make you dislike alcohol enough to fix your daily habits, but what was it doing here in an illegal casino full of young men and women?

A giant metal trashcan sat in a corner.

It might as well have been a one meter storage container.

Carrying 55kg of meat was no easy task, but Kinuhata was fortunate enough to have Offense Armor. She carried a stuffed trash bag in her hands instead of using a cart and she also borrowed a big pair of pliers from a tool box sitting on a steel rack in the hallway.

Once back in the cell, she immediately explained what had to be done.

Giving Yamagami time to think about it would only make this harder.

“I’ll be super taking one of your back teeth.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll be super roasting these cow bones and leftovers with microwaves to incinerate 55kg of kitchen waste, but that isn’t enough to fool Kawazakana and the others. But that changes if there’s a tooth as proof of what was fried. The only DNA left behind will be human, so they’ll conclude the entire pile of ash came from a human. It’s not like I’m taking your brain or heart. I mean, you’ve got 32 teeth and you only need to give up one to save your life. If you think about it, that’s a super good deal.”

When Kinuhata showed off the thick pliers, the Judgment girl backed away, face tensing.

To be fair, only a small minority of the true masochists across the globe would want a cute bunny girl to use that big tool to destroy their mouth without even the bare minimum of sterilization or anesthetic.

So…

“Hn!”

“Bwagh!? Agh, hweh?”

Instead of sticking it in her mouth, Kinuhata slapped the girl’s cheek with the giant pliers. As long as the tooth came out, she didn’t particularly care how it happened. And that metal tool was heavier than a hammer. If you know how it was done, you could easily knock back teeth out of the gums with that. But using her power would cause too much damage, so it was tricky to get just right.

“Here, cover your mouth with this handkerchief. This is all for super nothing if you drip blood through the hallway. If you get out safely, go see a dentist…no, a cosmetic surgeon would probably be better in this case. I did essentially perform surgery without any anesthetic.”

“Uhh…”

Yamagami was weeping now.

Even if back teeth were hard to see from the outside, this damage was permanent. Kinuhata felt it was fair for the girl to resent her, but something wasn’t right. The Judgment girl grabbed her wrist and wouldn’t let go.

Was she too scared to go alone and wanted Kinuhata to escape with her?

Kinuhata scratched her head with her other hand.

“Get off of me!! I gave you a chance, but it’s super up to you to make it count. Will you run away now, or do I have to throw you into the furnace after all? That’s plan B, FYI. If you let this opportunity pass you by, the only thing I can do for you is to super break your neck first so you won’t suffer!”

“Eek, eeeeek!!”

The panicked girl threw open the metal door and ran down the hallway.

If she was that desperate to live, she would probably escape the bowling alley using the exit she had mentioned before.

“She was an investigator. You look different from normal in that fantasy costume, but she still saw your face up close. In the end, letting her escape was nothing but a risk.”

“Super shut up.”

Things were already in motion.

Kinuhata could not leave the illegal casino yet. If she was going to keep Kawazakana from getting suspicious, she had to complete this electric furnace magic show and create a single ‘legal human corpse’.

“They’ll be instantly suspicious if you mess with the default time or output settings, so don’t touch those. In the end, you want to create a big pile out of the cow bones and leftover food and then bury the target deep inside the center. Unlike in movies, the back teeth do have a tendency to stick around regardless, but that will ensure it does.”

“?”

“Kinuhata, what happens when you don’t microwave a big serving of yakisoba long enough? The middle stays cold, right? The best way to ensure the tooth survives is to shield it from the microwaves.”

“It would look unnatural if I don’t consider its location. Her head super wouldn’t be here if she was actually lying in there.”

“Remember, the human body is filled with moisture and cavities, so there’s a lot of bursting and moving around when its heated by microwaves. Have you ever had a supermarket side dish package pop its lid off while you heated it? You sometime see EM weapons in action movies, but they never depict that part right.”

“Why do people always feel the need to bash movies when they want to sound smart? I super hate how they make movies into their punching bag!”

“Whatever you say. In the end, do you know how to use the furnace? The parts can be pretty big with an industrial one, so don’t hurt yourself getting your skin caught in the door latch or a lever.”

“I’ll be fine. I can super defend my entire body with Offense Armor.”

With that, she extremely roughly got the device running.

The sound of evaporating water erupted behind the thick metal door. It had to be the placebo effect, but she felt like the room temperature had gotten a lot hotter. Actually, with all the power it was consuming, maybe it really was giving off heat on the outside too.

“Good, good.”

“In the end, Academy City esper powers are cheating with this kind of heavy lifting!”

Only unidentifiable white ash and a partially-burned back tooth would remain.

There was only one logical conclusion to reach with that combination: this was a human corpse with the victim’s DNA remaining.

Kawazakana rushed in.

“Whoa!? I noticed the power supply was unstable, but what the hell are you doing!?”

“Eh? Eh? Didn’t you super tell me to dispose of the body?”

“I only meant you were supposed to help Manager Kubota-kun with it. Oh, god…”

The new bunny girl had made a mistake, but Kawazakana was too nervous to enter the small room. Perhaps he only ever gave the order to kill and wasn’t used to getting his own hands dirty.

Kinuhata only cutely tilted her head.

All she had to do now was wait. The surviving human genetic information would lead the man to the wrong conclusion about the identity of the white ash.

“Um, I’ve never done this before, so I’m super not sure I did it right.”

(He won’t be super suspicious about me leaving some DNA behind in the tooth since it’s my first time, right?)

“I get it, I get it! Just come here. Get out of that room!!”

Once he gave her permission, Kinuhata left the cell.

Kawazakana didn’t seem to question the absence of the Judgment girl.

“That was a reckless thing to do. What if you did something wrong and electrocuted yourself? This isn’t a job to do in that revealing bunny suit… Oh, Kubota-kun. Did you bring your team with you?”

“…”

With more people around, her actions would be observed from more angles. She had to be even more careful now.

She took a deep breath to refocus her mind.

She looked to Kubota’s team and then recalled something she had been told before.

“Despite what spy movies may have led you to believe, the trick to an infiltration job isn’t earning everyone’s trust. For one, that’s simply not possible. If you’re going to infiltrate enemy territory, don’t try to make friends with the enemy – try to make it so they have no choice but to shake your hand even if they hate your guts.”

“If you want to get close to the enemy fast, create some trouble you can work with your target to solve. In the end, nothing brings two people together faster than a shared success.”

“If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t give a yes or no answer. Instead, smile and change the subject. Always stay in control of the conversation. If you wait for their reaction, they’ll wear you down with the conversation.”

Before Pink Bunny Kinuhata Saiai had entered the illegal casino, Frenda had super condescendingly explained that to her like a mother listing off her small child’s chores.

And something else occurred to her.

She had received support over her earphone, but that didn’t mean the other three were all together.

This casino hired guards, a Murder Team, and bunny girls.

Kinuhata saw blonde hair and blue eyes.

A white bunny girl with a very familiar face smiled over at her from right next to Kubota and then whispered in Kinuhata’s earphone that didn’t use EM signals.

“And in the end, if someone on the other side is secretly your ally, a careless statement won’t be enough to blow your cover☆”

Part 7

“Killing that Judgment girl super wasn’t a problem, was it?”

“In the end, how did you do it?”

“Um, I didn’t want her struggling, so I started by snapping her neck to kill her. Then I laid her body in the center of the furnace. That gets up to 3500 degrees, right? So I super set it for half an hour.”

“Hold on. You left her all in one piece? With sloppy work like that, some hair, bones, or maybe a back tooth could survive. Since this was your first time doing body disposal, you might not have eliminated all the DNA.”

They easily began a conversational back-and-forth.

Mugino and Takitsubo were telling Kinuhata what questions she would be asked in advance and, even if she gave a wrong answer, Frenda would smile and make it work out. Making a major mistake would be a challenge under those circumstances.

Frenda’s bunny ears swayed as she turned toward Kawazakana.

“Anyway, it’ll be dangerous in there, so don’t let anyone in the cell room. Don’t worry. Once the time she set is up, it’ll stop on its own. We can check for any problematic evidence once the furnace has cooled.”

“R-right. You know a lot about this. You said your main job is illegal forensics work, didn’t you?”

“Oh, you want to know more about my previous job? Like why I need money badly enough to agree to wear this embarrassing getup? You’re the one who’ll regret learning that kind of dark side secret. Stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and you might get someone sent after you.”

Kawazakana grimaced for once.

The pink and white bunny girls kept their smiles while secretly conversing over their earphones.

“(What are you doing here? Super what happened to that antimatter cannon you showed me before?)”

“(Showing you that scary-looking toy was enough to convince you your super strong Senpai was actually staying behind, didn’t it? No one’s developed a practical antimatter weapon yet. In the end, you proved your newbie-ness by buying that cock-and-bull story. That’s what convinced me I had to go in with you. There was no way you could get through all the mind games on your own. I couldn’t just sit around and watch you get killed.)”

Frenda put an arm around Kinuhata while casually insulting her like that.

“Hey, can I take this girl with me for now? She’s gonna get herself killed if I don’t teach her how to use the equipment – and more importantly how not to use it. I’d hate to have one of our own lost in a corpse disposal accident.”

With that, Frenda practically dragged Kinuhata away.

“(Telling them to wait for it to cool may have bought us as much as an hour. What happened to the Judgment girl?)”

“(She should have super escaped outside by now.)”

The two of them entered the girls locker room before taking a deep breath.

Kinuhata opened an empty locker at the very end to block the view of the 2mm security camera embedded in the wall. She switched on a hairdryer and placed it on the floor to neutralize the small microphone.

“Again, super what are you doing here!?”

“In the end, I said I was sending you in undercover, but I don’t recall saying I wasn’t also going in undercover using a different route☆”

Kinuhata Saiai really did facepalm.

No matter what she did, Frenda was still in control.

“So what did you get from her?”

“She super left me with a flash drive. She said she copied all the data from the computer in their office, but I can’t check what’s on it without a phone.”

“In the end, I snagged these.”

Frenda opened a locked locker and dumped a bunch of mobile devices on the floor.

“These are all the phones the customer and staff left up front. In the end, I just swiped the entire box of them. I was planning to search the personal data on them for anything related to Ainame Caroline or Tachiuo Mary, but let’s take a look at your flash drive while we’re at it.”

Kinuhata picked up her own phone and an adapter cable someone must have left with their phone. She used the adapter cable to forcibly connect the flash drive to her phone’s bottom port.

“300 thousand files in all. That’s a lot of data, so super what should I search for first?”

“Start with names. Either Ainame Caroline or Tachiuo Mary.”

Made sense.

Kinuhata began the search right away.

She ignored the casino’s sales reports and the purchase records for weapons and vehicles. She did check the latest bodyguard schedule. She hoped following the movements of the support organization that accompanied those two would tell her where their hideout was or what places they regularly visited. But…

“Wait, Frenda-san. Super look at this.”

“What is it, newbie?”

White Bunny Frenda leaned in from the side to check the screen. The way her pointy bunny ears hit Kinuhata’s cheek was mildly annoying.

“Today at 8 PM, it looks like Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary will be performing some kind of deal that requires a super large number of troops. It’s happening at the District 7 Stadium Dome.”

“Huh? In the end, isn’t that where they’re holding the baseball tournament that’s been on TV?”

“Kinuhata, what kind of deal is it?” asked Takitsubo.

“If it’s for some kind of giant weapon, this is going to be a real pain in the ass,” complained Mugino.

“It super isn’t that,” said Kinuhata, scrolling the small screen. “It’s for a person. The Honey Queen secret data thieves are planning to super add a new member to give them more ways to steal.”

It was a high-level esper.

Which, in a way, was a lot like a powerful weapon.

Kinuhata Saiai gave the person’s name.

“Shokuhou Misaki. It looks like they’re getting Mental Out, the Level 5 with the strongest psychological power.”

Part 8

They had thought defeating Honey Queen would only require tracking down Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary’s hideout and launching an attack.

But it wasn’t that simple.

This overturned their basic assumptions.

Honey Queen was getting a Level 5 to match Mugino Shizuri. The scales were already tilting in the enemy’s favor, so Honey Queen would be completely out of reach if a monster like that joined them.

It was unclear what Shokuhou Misaki would gain from joining these secret data thieves, but perhaps there were some dark Academy City secrets she was willing to do just about anything to get her hands on.

The deal was set to go down in the District 7 Stadium Dome at 8 PM.

They had to stop that at all costs.

Everything else could wait.

(I super risked my life sneaking in here, but we aren’t any better off for it. All we have is more to worry about!!)

“The Level 5 with the strongest psychological power…”

“Well, if she can directly snatch secret data and passwords from people’s minds or control the researchers to have them unlock the lab from the inside, Honey Queen won’t need to bother with their online marriage scams anymore,” said Mugino.

“At that point, it’s hard to tell if she’s controlling minds or hacking a machine,” said Takitsubo.

You could even call her a mind hacker.

They had the enemy’s critical information and they had recovered their own phones, which were full of risky personal information. It was lucky this was the girls locker room. They didn’t have time to change, but they did stuff their removed clothing in a small bag. They didn’t need to spend any more time in this illegal casino.

“Mugino. And Takitsubo too. In the end, it’s time to start the escape phase. We could use some covering fire from outside. Track our earphones’ signals and make sure at least our location is never in the line of fire.”

“I have some Body Crystal,” offered Takitsubo.

“The side effects are bad, so if there’s another way, we’ll prioritize that.”

“And what do you mean by ‘at least’? What about the other people?”

“This is an illegal casino, so no one here is harmless – visitor or staff. In the end, we won’t be violating the dark side rules no matter how many people die when you blast through the wall!”

With that, Frenda left the locker room.

In the hallway, Consultant Kawazakana greeted them with his handgun’s muzzle. Not even Kinuhata’s Offense Armor would keep her safe if she was hit by the bayonet-like 800,000V stun gun followed by some 9mm bullets.

“Not so fa-”

“Huh? But we dealt with the camera and mic in the locker room. In the end, were you tracking the location of the phones? Or did you remotely activate one of their cameras?”

White Bunny Frenda raised her hands in front of Kawazakana (whose hands were trembling so much it looked like he might fire on accident).

“That aside, I’m impressed. Most idiots would go for strengthening their dominant right hand here, but you’re holding it in your left hand. It is the smart thing to do. Even if someone can dodge the big right straight, there’s no way they can dodge the quick left jab. A real pro strengthens their left. It’s so cool that you know what you’re- bang!!”

“Huh?” grunted Kawazakana with surprise on his face.

Then he looked down to see a dark red hole in the middle of his gut.

Right behind grinning Frenda, Pink Bunny Kinuhata was casually aiming a handgun.

“Thanks for hearing me out☆ In the end, you issued everyone in the casino the same equipment and then you actually took the time to listen to your enemy in the middle of a battle? You need to take the dark side more seriously than that.”

Frenda drew her own gun and took Kawazakana out in full auto mode.

Manager Kubota immediately reacted.

“I-I didn’t do anything!!”

“What?”

The sweaty man raised his hands in surrender, earning him a skeptical look from Frenda.

“How could those filthy criminals act like they had the right to punish me for breaking the rules? They forced me to be the manager on paper as their fall guy. But if this casino is destroyed, I’m free. Ha ha. I’m leaving now, but I’d actually appreciate it if you caused even more chaos in-”

He was cut off by a deafening sizzling sound.

A thick Meltdowner beam broke through the wall to the right, obliterated Kubota’s upper body, and broke through the left wall. As gruesome as the scene was, the way his remaining lower body failed to fall over was almost comical.

“…Huh.”

“He’s the one who super said he’d appreciate it if we caused chaos in here.”

With that over, it was time to escape.

“In the end, they’ll send their troops to fortify the exits to deal with this trouble. I was following along on my earphone, but that Judgment girl – Yamagami Erina, was it? – mentioned a path under the floor, right? How do we get down there?”

White Bunny Frenda was busy organizing the information in her mind, but Pink Bunny Kinuhata had a different thought.

“These bunny suits don’t provide much in the way of defense, so can you really fight in yours? There’s super not much you can do when you don’t have your bombs with you.”

“Don’t underestimate your Senpai, newbie. A bomber always has some explosives and fuses hidden on her person. Oh, but don’t expect me to get into the embarrassing details☆”

“As long as you can fight. I say we go through the central hall and super break our way out the main entrance.”

Frenda’s eyes bugged out.

“With my bombs, we can blow up any wall we like to create our own exit! In the end, why would you want to choose the route that’ll have the most bullets in the air!? Is it some stupid desire to act out a movie scene!?”

“If you make fun of movies again, I’ll super punch you. Using my power.”

With her gun at the ready, Kinuhata turned back toward Frenda.

“Let me super ask you this: are you going to just ignore the visitors still earning money in the central hall and the staff working here? Villains are villains. Even if we destroy this casino, they’ll just super start a new one.”

“Um, in the end, what did you expect a villain like me to say to that? I’m the girl who watched those deadly Colosseum battles for fun. While eating.”

“To put it kindly, you have garbage taste. If we weren’t allies, I’d super kill you.”

“So are you saying you’d do it right here and now if we weren’t?”

“Do you super want to try me?”

“…”

“Do you think this is a victimless crime because the visitors knew what they were getting into? You super remember that furnace in the cell, don’t you? This casino is a criminal enterprise that protects itself using periodic human sacrifices. And they don’t use their fellow villains for that. It’s those immoral rich people who go straight for the unintentional witnesses and the good guys from Judgment and then have a good laugh about it. So are you still going to let them get away?”

“……………………………………………………………………………I can’t tell if you’re being objective or subjective about this. Seeing what happens here up close must have really gotten to you, newbie.”

“Once we super charge into the big central hall, we can have Mugino provide covering fire. Then we take the most dangerous escape route to take all of those super shitty villains out on the way☆”

“In the end, I don’t really care one way or the other.”

So with that…

The two bunny girls kicked open the double doors and began spraying full-auto bullets everywhere.

The space was so large it could have contained an entire 50m pool.

It was supposed to be a classic noble casino.

But in that moment, cards began to fly through the air, the rich visitors knocked over the very heavy roulette tables in their panic, and the slot machines began spewing chips as they were filled with holes. Some of the guards almost immediately lost the will to fight but were mercilessly shot in their fleeing backs. The Murder Team in the blast-resistant suits went red with rage and readied their .50 caliber revolvers with shoulder stocks, only to be vaporized into nothingness when a Meltdowner beam blasted through the wall to their side.

Then Pink Bunny Kinuhata tilted her head and looked confused.

She looked down at her handgun.

“Hm? I can’t seem to hit with this thing. If all I want to do is super kill them, I think it’d be faster to just punch them with Offense Armor.”

“(Yikes. She shot from behind me with aim that bad!? This might be her first time using a gun, so she could have hit me in the back as easily as Kawazakana!!)”

Kinuhata tossed the useless gun to her Senpai, yanked a craps table from the floor, and swung it around in one arm to smash the armed guards. She kicked a broken slot machine from the floor, hitting a fleeing lady in the back. Meanwhile, Frenda had upgraded to dual-wielding handguns, so she created a storm of lead around her.

Maybe they had decided to enjoy some illegal gambling in the calm underground district until the typhoon had passed, but those classy criminals were quickly mowed down.

The casino was awash with blood, corpses, and slaughter.

“Hm, we’re defeating the bad guys, but this super doesn’t feel like something good guys would do.”

“In the end, what else did you expect from Item?”

All they were doing was slaughter their irritating dark side enemies and those enemies’ source of funding.

Bunny Kinuhata jumped onto a baccarat table and then hit Safe Keeper Sawaki-kun with a flying kick. Before you feel jealous, keep in mind that her Offense Armor made that the equivalent of being hit by a giant construction hammer.

Then something exploded behind her, so Pink Bunny Kinuhata ducked down. One of the guards approaching them from behind appeared to have stepped on “something”.

“A…stuffed animal?”

“In the end, no one suspects the cute ones. So of course they’re the best thing to stuff full of bombs.”

The white bunny was busy setting up a few more traps.

“That explosion was way too super close! I’m fine because of Offense Armor, but if it hit you, you’d be blown up by your own bomb!!”

“In the end, don’t insult me like that, newbie. Explosive blasts always take the path of least resistance, so I can freely control the direction and range of the blast using metal panels and concrete. That’s one of the most basic bomber skills. I can still only control it down to the meter, but Hollywood pyrotechnicians can divide up a single room into danger and safe zones down to 10cm. Those freaks are weirdly picky about guns, cars, and explosions when they’re willing to just use CG and VFX for everything else.”

“Super Frenda-san! My friend!!!”

“Hm? Hey, quit it! This is not the time or the place for hugging! That wasn’t meant as a compliment toward movies!”

Frenda hurriedly pushed away the other bunny who suddenly hugged her and rubbed her cheek against her for some reason. If Kinuhata had gotten carried away and used Offense Armor there, she could have easily crushed Frenda.

“Ahem. In the end, there are still at least 10 soldiers up ahead. So what’s the plan? If we wait here too long, more will reach us from behind. We could break through with brute force, but there’s got to be a better way.”

“Super take this.”

Kinuhata grabbed two wireless earphones lying nearby (anything that emitted EM signals was confiscated at the entrance, so were these for the guards or some of the higher-ranking staff?) and shoved them into the nostrils of Safe Keeper Sawaki-kun who had stopped moving after she rattled his brain earlier. Shocked Frenda watched as Kinuhata wirelessly connected her phone to the earphones.

“Test, test☆”

For some reason, Kinuhata’s voice came from Sawaki’s mouth. The sound waves passed through his nose and reflected inside his head to leave through his mouth, so by cranking the volume up to maximum, she had herself a facial speaker.

The man with two wireless earphones shoved up his nose began to convulse and struggle to breathe, but he did manage to speak.

“W-we will get back at you for this. I hope you’re ready.”

“You’re about to die, so why are you talking about the distant future, you super idiot? Okay, let’s end this.”

The two bunnies left Sawaki where he was and moved away in a crouch.

“Hey, hey! This way for anyone who wants a super one-way trip to heaven at the hands of a the cutest bunny ever! Come and get it, you super perverts!!”

Once the guards knew where their enemy was, they all fired in that direction, riddling Sawaki with holes.

While they were all focused on the wrong target, Kinuhata and Frenda moved behind cover to sneak around the side and reach a surviving poker table they could use as a shield. Dual-wielding Frenda fired her full-auto handguns from that blind spot to fill the 10 or more soldiers with bullets and she finished it off by throwing a grenade after removing the pin with her mouth.

“In the end, what movie did you get that idea from!?”

“I don’t use movies for anything like this. Movies are super fun because you can empty your head while you watch them.”

They left the central hall to reach the former bowling alley’s main entrance, but that was boarded up. Frenda reached into her bunny suit and pulled out an explosive that looked like correction tape, but before she could burn through the barricade with that, Kinuhata powered up her fist with Offense Armor and punched the door away.

They heard screeching tires outside.

Below the artificial cloudy sky of the massive underground space, an egglike round hybrid car slid into the rundown parking lot with weeds growing from the cracks in the asphalt.

“A Plinius? In the end, you chose that lightweight eco car for our getaway vehicle!? If someone crashes into us from the side during the car chase, we’ll be knocked clean off the road!!”

“Just get in!!”

“And, Mugino, can we get one more blast for the road? Aim for the third boarded-up window on the west side.”

“?”

“The safe room is through there. I figured we should super burn up all their cash while we’re at it.”

Not only did explosive flames blow out all the boarded-up windows and doors, but the roof was launched straight up. It almost looked like a mushroom cloud. The hybrid Plinius was in the middle of a sharp U-turn, so the blast lifted its left wheels from the ground and nearly flipped the entire car.

Mugino had done it, but her eyes still widened.

“What the hell!? Meltdowner doesn’t fill an entire space like that!!”

“The traps I left for them would have activated by then, so they must have ignited. They were sprayers releasing aerosolized ethylene oxide into the air. In the end, I created a fuel-air explosive☆”

“…” “…” “…”

They had let the foolish Judgment girl escape and only the villainous staff and visitors remained in the illegal casino, so that wouldn’t be an issue.

Embers, broken pieces of the building, and lots of paper money poured down from the sky while the Plinius moved from the cracked parking lot to the road. Kinuhata and Frenda took a running start and jumped through the open door into the back seat, but that was where Mugino and Takitsubo were sitting. The small Plinius’s back seat was fairly cramped with all four sitting there. In fact, someone had to sit on someone’s lap to make it work.

The driver holding the wheel was a college-aged woman with her long red hair tied back. However, she also wore an apron over a maternity dress and had a very pregnant belly. She was strapped in tight with a seatbelt, but was that safer or more dangerous in this case?

She looked like the last person to be on the dark side.

“Super ehhh?”

“A bigger family means more expenses. Kinuhata, cars these days can be driven by AI, so you don’t need a lot of driving experience to help with dark side jobs. Although the car’s location and ID need to be spoofed since it’s being used for crimes.”

“Super what? If it drives itself, couldn’t anyone be in the driver’s seat?”

“Do not understanding an AI tamer. It’s a lot like creating a secure password or inventing a new recipe. You have to give the exact right commands in the right order to get a Plinius to stop driving safely and start drifting,” explained Mugino.

Kinuhata looked to the pregnant woman with an “I doubt that” look.

“Go, go straight, yay, Plinius-chan, you’re super cute, now just zoom greenly on through this one-way street, then zip around the corner in a really yellow way and take a nice warm turn to the right, wow, wow, you really are cute, Plinius-chan, that was a great job, I could kiss you, next blast right on through that pointy light even if its red!!!”

“You may have a point. I super couldn’t do that. Not the way she’s doing it, anyway,” said Kinuhata, her mouth forming a small triangle.

She thought just using the steering wheel like normal would be easier. She also wondered if this woman could cause a supposedly unbeatable shogi AI to bug out.

A bulletproof sportscar shot out from an intersection up ahead. Likely pursuers from the casino. If they did have three shifts, then not all of them would have been in the casino.

“Uh, oh!”

They couldn’t let the people in the sportscar see the bunny suits through the window, so Mugino and Takitsubo quickly pushed Frenda and Kinuhata down. Once the sportscar was gone, the egglike hybrid car entered the giant looping slope leading to the surface and out of District 22.

Bunny Frenda spoke to Kinuhata while the two of them were still pinned below the other girls.

“Kinuhata. In the end, are you hurt anywhere?”

“…”

Frenda gave her a “what?” look, but Kinuhata didn’t give a direct answer.

“Heh heh heh.”

“Again, what!?”

The Plinius reached the top of the slope and emerged outside.

A solid blast of wind and pouring rain struck the windshield, so the small car slid unnaturally to the side. A drum-shaped security robot suddenly fell from the sky, hit the road, and bounced away. It had been easy to forget while underground, but a typhoon was about to make landfall.

But that wasn’t what was Kinuhata focused on.

“Why is it so dark? Damn, I lost track of time while underground. What time is it!?”

“6:30 PM.” Mugino pointed at the LCD screen next to the A/C controls “Honey Queen’s deal with Shokuhou Misaki is supposed to be at 8 tonight at the District 7 Stadium Dome, right? Looks like we’ll have barely enough time to get a look at the place and work up an attack plan.”

Part 9

“Wow, it’s really coming down. It’s pounding so loud on the window. But isn’t it lucky this hotel had a vacancy, Lady Carol? I’d be afraid of flooding if we were spending the night in our car during this storm.”

“You have a point. And we had no choice but to move to a new room once the next phase began after Item learned about us. But.”

“But what?”

“Why – in – the – hell – did you get us a room in a love hotellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!?”

Ainame Caroline took a running start, jumped on the canopy bed, and used that springs to leap toward the other girl while shouting at the top of her lungs. But she was still only a 10-year-old. The gloomy high school girl, who had been modified down to the skeletal level, didn’t bat an eye as she caught the whining child by the scruff of the neck.

And she had to make a correction.

“This not a l-l-l-l-love hotel. It is a spa nap room.”

“Yeah, no. It’s a love hotel.”

“It is not. This facility is legally classified as a hotel, not an amusement business like love hotels are. So it could not possibly have been built for such indecent-”

“Lame! You think that counts as an excuse? The wall to the bathroom is made of glass so you can see inside it, the bed takes up almost the entire floorspace, and the vending machine in the hallway was only selling thin rubber products and some kind of slime made from seaweed. Oh, and there wasn’t anyone at the front desk to ensure no one knows who goes in here or what goes on inside. Every aspect of this place says it’s a love hotel designed for couples!!”

“Ugh.”

The gloomy girl’s spirit finally broke.

This wasn’t an issue of phrasing.

Tachiuo Mary blushed and stammered under her mask.

“I-it embarrasses me too, but this was the only place left. All the inns and hotels were already full from people wanting a change of scenery during summer break and then all the tourists rented out what vacant rooms were left to escape from the typhoon.”

“Lame. So lame! I get the issue, but the bad guy’s hideout is supposed to be a lot more wabi-sabi, cute, luxurious, and cool!!”

“Miss Carol, if you keep complaining, I will throw you out into the storm.”

The little brown gyaru flailed her little limbs while lifted from the floor like the crane game.

“Hmph. You don’t seem too bothered by getting so soaked while searching out this hotel. Aren’t your clothes, underwear, and personal possessions all wet?”

“Eh? Well, I knew it would be raining, so I made sure to pack my things in plastic bags before putting them in my bag.”

“Oh, yeah. And those bath posters you love so much are meant to get wet. Still, you should dry them off before they get mildewy.”

A loud commotion followed.

Tachiuo Mary blushed bright as she flung the little brown gyaru onto the bed, fell onto her butt, and backed into the corner of the love hotel room.

“L-L-Lady Carol, um, but, wait, why do you- how did you learn about th-th-th-that!?” shouted Tachiuo Mary, curled up in compact mode.

“Ah ha ha. You crack me up so much☆ Don’t try to deny it. You always spend an eternity in the bath, turning the small bathroom into your own little castle. You go to such extreme effort to hide that 360-degree full-coverage moe planetarium it would be hard to not notice you’re up to something. Lame. That mystery plastic box might have a small lock, but all it takes is a flathead screwdriver to unlock that.”

“Ablhbalvhbasgakfadfb!”

“(How cute. This doesn’t even count as a secret by the dark side’s standards.)”

Tachiuo Mary’s brain had completely overheated. The extreme honestly that led to such an overreaction proved that she had been worth taking in. Ainame Caroline wished she could watch the beet red girl’s reaction a while longer, but then her phone rang.

She glanced down at her phone in its blast-resistant case with bunny ear razor blades.

“One of the illegal casinos run by our support organization was taken out. Lame. Apparently a pair of new bunny girls did it, but it sounds like they had some outside help. And there are signs they got away with some data, so it probably wasn’t about the money.”

“B-b-bwuh!? Lady Carol, don’t you think that was Item?”

“It’s not a problem.”

The tanned girl twirled her phone with the chocolate snack stick wiggling in the corner of her mouth.

And she grinned.

“If they’re still wasting time there, they’ll never catch up to us.”

“…”

“Hwa ha ha. Now, then. It’s time we got started too. Hey, murder virgin, you jumped the gun and let Mugino see you before, so you’d better do as I tell you this time. Lame. With your lack of experience, I just know you’ll freeze up when it’s finally time to do the deed, you murder virgin.”

“S-stop saying ‘virgin’ so much. I-I-I can do what needs doing when the time comes, okay!?”

“Stop freaking out and do as you’re told, you gloomy murder virgin!!”

Part 10

With the storm raging, travel by car took longer than usual. The solid crosswinds occasionally caused the tires to slip and the view ahead was obscured by all the rain. It didn’t help that the hybrid Plinius didn’t have much weight and horsepower to begin with.

“It’s this bad and the typhoon hasn’t even made landfall yet? In the end, how bad is this storm going to be?”

“Do they super not have storms like this in Europe?”

“Hmm. In the end, the closest thing is the sirocco wind that’s warmer than the cold mistral wind and carries in a ton of rain, but that’s just powerful winds from a single direction. This feels different. Also, Europe’s too big a place to talk about it all at once.”

Frenda and Kinuhata discussed the weather while changing from the bunny suits to their ordinary outfits in the small car.

Their destination was the Stadium Dome in District 7.

“Game 5 has now entered extra innings. It’s fortunate the dome means we don’t have to worry about the weather or time of day, isn’t it? Now, will it be Matsunami or Seijun? Either school could still win this one.”

Takitsubo stared blankly at nothing while listening to the commentary coming from the car navigation screen.

“Sounds like the baseball tournament is still going.”

“Which means Honey Queen is planning to drag that tournament into their dark side business,” spat Mugino.

Of course, Anti-Skill wouldn’t be able to do much even if Item sent them an anonymous warning. This deal wasn’t over guns or drugs. It was over Shokuhou Misaki. There were no laws or regulations preventing any two people from working together, so Anti-Skill would have no justification for acting.

It was approaching 7 by the time Item arrived.

They had an hour until the deal began, which didn’t give them the luxury of taking their time looking over the area and working out an attack plan. They would be lucky if they could even find the person they wanted in the large stadium. Once they did, they would have to adlib a way to stop Honey Queen from contacting Shokuhou Misaki.

Even if that meant killing one or both sides of the deal.

“You don’t need to wait around for us, so go get to a safe distance.”

“Sure. I’ll park somewhere sufficiently far from here and you can call me on my phone if you need anything.”

“Also, super take this!”

“?”

“The data on the flash drive included a prioritized list of people they wanted to silence. An AI tamer like you is super good at internet stuff, right? Can you create an anonymous burner account and super leak this list? The casino is gone, but those people still need to watch their backs.”

Mugino sighed in exasperation and opened the Plinius’s door.

She was hit by a solid wind and the blowing rain.

The official gates would require a ticket to get in, so they couldn’t use that. Instead, they descended an employee-only slope to enter the space directly below the baseball field.

They only had to run a short distance to get there, but the blowing rain had been ruthless. Frenda looked disgusted as she wrung out her short skirt like a rag.

“In the end, the bunny suit might’ve repelled the rain better than this.”

“I am never fighting in a super perverted costume like that again.”

Kinuhata removed her soaked arm sleeves and wrung them out. Fortunately, her shoulderless top repelled the water well. She didn’t even want to think about that turning see-through.

They didn’t see any guards or employees around.

But Mugino didn’t consider that lucky. Something could be up.

Takitsubo looked down at herself.

“I’m soaked.”

“Wow, Takitsubo-san. Your clothes are super see-through. And what’s with that crazy underwear!?”

“Red? In the end, why choose that with that plain track suit?”

“Anyway, did you find a more specific location than just the Stadium Dome? This place holds 50 thousand people.”

They hadn’t, so they had to split up and search.

While it was called a baseball stadium, there was more to it than just the field and the surrounding stands. There were locker rooms and showers for the teams, indoor rooms for pitching and batting practice, and then the control room for the lighting, screens, and music. There also had to be the air conditioning and giant compressors to keep the dome inflated with the power of air. A lot of guards had apparently been assigned to the deal, but just finding the deal’s exact location would be a challenge.

(We have one hour. Can the four of us really look everywhere in that time? There are 3600 seconds in 60 minutes, but there are more than 50 thousand people here. In the worst case, they could shake hands to complete their deal and then escape before we even find them.)

All of that was on Mugino’s mind as she checked around the emergency power that would kick in during a blackout.

Her phone received a call.

“Mugino.” It was Takitsubo

“Did you find them?”

“Something isn’t right on the field.”

“?”

Unsure what that meant, Mugino clicked her tongue and started in that direction. As a dark side worker, she didn’t want to get near the field because of the live TV broadcast, but was the enemy recklessly hiding among the spectators to complete their deal?

However…

“What the-?”

Mugino also noticed something wrong as she walked down the passageway to the stands.

“I don’t hear anything. No cheers and no music from the brass band.”

She frowned as she passed through the spectator gate.

As soon as she emerged, she thought she felt a drop in the air temperature. A chill crawled across her skin.

She found a silent scene.

Someone held a baseball on the mound in the center of it all.

But she didn’t wear the uniform of either team. She had long blonde hair and a flat chest. The small girl wore the sleeveless gym clothes of Tokiwadai and she had one leg up in a poor attempt at mimicking a pitching stance.

“Now, all eyes are on the first pitch. The pitcher shows great confidence as she winds up.”

She clearly didn’t belong there.

Yet no one paid her any heed. There wasn’t even a stir in the stands.

The 50 thousand spectators, the two teams, the TV staff, and…who else was there? Regardless, everyone in the stadium stood stock still and simply accepted the oddity before them.

Shokuhou Misaki.

The Level 5 said to have the strongest psychological power.

(That…bitch.)

“And there’s the pitch☆ …Oh, it fell too soon and didn’t reach the catcher. Not that it matters. I can just erase that embarrassment from everyone’s memory ability.”

It was like a magic trick. The blonde girl suddenly had a TV remote in her hand and she twirled it like a gunman in a Western.

The small girl reached out her other hand and accepted the mic a blank-eyed female reporter was holding out as if to interview the MVP. And she winked.

“Walking around in the storm in that frilly outfit couldn’t have been fun. Umbrellas are meaningless when it’s this windy and a raincoat would only leave you sweaty. Hee hee. Which is why I used my brain ability and chose these gym clothes since I don’t care if they get wet☆”

The monster pressed the tip of the remote against her lips and winked as she turned to face Mugino.

With one on the outside and one at the center, the two Level 5s’ gazes collided.

“By the way, who exactly are you people? I have photos of the Honey Queen pair and you definitely aren’t them.”

The space around Mugino seemed under a great strain. On the remote’s signal, over ten thousand gazes pierced Mugino Shizuri all at once.

She didn’t even have time to think “oh, no”.

She instead organized her thoughts, focusing on anything that would give her an advantage, no matter how small.

(You people. Does that mean she’s aware of at least one of the others? Takitsubo told me something was wrong first, so she must be somewhere around here. But that means that girl might still not know about Kinuhata and Frenda!!)

“If you’re just some bugs crawling around to get in the way of our deal, no one will mind if I squash you, will they?”

With the mystery remote aimed her way, Mugino made the first move.

She fired multiple Meltdowner blasts dead ahead and jumped over the railing in the stands to rush toward the mound.

The sound from all of the speakers combined to form a single voice.

“Screeeeech!! I’ve taken control of the broadcast equipment, so don’t worry about giving away your identity! In the end, nothing that happens here is getting out!!”

(You could’ve quietly informed me using my phone! Why would you flip over one of the cards we still had hidden!?)

All Shokuhou Misaki did was giggle.

Something felt wrong to Mugino, like an invisible hand was stirring up the inside of her head.

She had launched her beams of light.

She had fired several in quick succession, but the psychological Level 5 remained un-vaporized.

(Can she use her power to remove the mental limits on using her muscles? Or…)

“Did you mess with my mind to throw off my aim!?”

“What do you think?☆”

The scene around Mugino changed again.

A baseball girl rushed in from the side, so Mugino knocked her down with a flat hand and then took a step to the right to dodge the metal bat swung down at her by another player. The pitchers were lined up a short distance away and they all began pitching fastballs at Mugino, so she formed a round Meltdowner shield to slice through and blow them away.

“Oh? Hee hee. Are you the type to avoid killing the poor, unfortunate ordinary people?”

Little Shokuhou spread her arms in the bright stadium lighting.

“But can you afford to do that? Take a look around you. How many more pawns do you think I have? If I sent all 50 thousand spectators at you at once, their sheer numbers would crush you beyond recognition☆”

“…”

“But I don’t even need to do that.”

She stopped twirling her remote and aimed it straight ahead.

Right at Mugino Shizuri.

“You’re standing in front of me on this open baseball diamond. How exactly do you hope to escape my Mental Out?”

Part 11

Even from here, it was obvious Mugino Shizuri was just standing there, unmoving.

“In the end, this isn’t good!” hissed Frenda Seivelun, ducking low.

She was hiding in a VIP booth covered by thick tempered glass. This isolated space was on the third level above the media-only located behind the backstop. The small booth contained leather sofas occupied by baseball managers and pro team sponsors. Frenda was a bomber, but in addition to the stationary types, she also used rockets and missiles. That meant she had a chance to attack if she was hidden at an elevated location, but that advantage wasn’t very reassuring at the moment.

This was still better than her being brainwashed into the enemy’s pawn.

But having the Level 5 Meltdowner effectively switch sides was still about as bad as it got. A single beam attack could easily destroy the VIP booth’s tempered glass and Frenda right along with it.

“Frenda.” Takitsubo’s voice came from her phone. “Do you know what the enemy is doing?”

“More or less.”

In an attempt to forcibly relieve her tension, Frenda pulled out her virtual drink bottle and enjoyed the flavor of a sweet Starzucks iced café mocha without any of the calories.

It didn’t do much good.

“Pwah. But in the end, we’re screwed if Mugino falls into her grasp. And that open field is about the worst location for this. If I poke my head out from cover to attack Shokuhou, I’ll just get shot by Mugino. And not even Kinuhata’s Offense Armor can stop Meltdowner!”

No objection was raised on the group chat.

Which meant none of them wanted to battle Mugino Shizuri. And that did nothing to eliminate the threat presented by Meltdowner.

They were being attacked by two Level 5s, one physical and the other psychological.

Little Shokuhou Misaki shouted excitedly into the MVP interview mic in her left hand.

“Now, then! It’s time for the rest of you to come on out!! If you don’t do so, I’ll order this girl here to start blasting everywhere she thinks you might be hiding☆ So if you don’t want to die in a mess of melted metal, I’d say the smart thing to do is come on out!!”

“Frenda.”

“I know. If we do as she says, we’ll be trapped. In the end, we’ll have nowhere to run once we’re lined up out on the open field. All we’ll be able to do is wait while she kills us one by one.”

Little Shokuhou Misaki looked all around from atop the mound until her eyes stopped on a single point among the 50 thousand spectators in the stands.

Was she focused on Takitsubo Rikou?

“Hm. You don’t show any emotion ability on your face, but those big boobs bother you, don’t they? Do you keep your hair short and only ever wear a track suit because – hee hee – the male gaze scares you?”

“What is your name?”

“What, you don’t recognize me?”

This meant the Takitsubo card had been flipped over too.

Once their hiding place was revealed, they were sitting ducks for Mental Out. And the enemy was already starting to dig into Takitsubo’s mind.

(In the end, I can’t imagine many nightmare scenario worse than having her hijack both Meltdowner and AIM Stalker! Even hiding behind cover would be meaningless!!)

What options were left?

What could they do now?

(In the worst case, I might be able to knock out everyone in the dome with carbon monoxide or with a nonlethal dose of poison gas. In the end, a psychological esper can’t stop a physical gas and even the people she’s controlling will suffocate. That would work, right!?)

“Don’t worry, Frenda.”

Takitsubo sounded calm.

Like she was looking at something on another dimension altogether.

“I don’t think you need such drastic measures.”

A fearsome beam shot from Mugino Shizuri’s palm.

But it was not aimed at the VIP booth overlooking the field or the stands holding 50 thousand spectators.

Mugino Shizuri turned around and immediately directed her palm toward Shokuhou Misaki.

“Wha-?”

It was a close one.

In fact, if Mugino’s aim wasn’t being affected, she would have shot right through the center of the girl’s body.

The burning pain in her cheek caused Shokuhou to drop the mic and grimace.

“How!? What do you think you’re doing!? I used all my command ability to order you to fire on Item’s likely hiding spots!!”

“That’s what I did.”

Mugino was definitely under that psychological power’s control.

And yet…

“Frenda’s devious, so she’d probably hide behind the weakest-looking person. So her most likely hiding spot is behind you.”

“Th-then your top priority is protecting me. And your second priority is revealing Item’s location!!”

“Fine. The fastest way to do that is to beat you into a pulp and toss you out there as bait. Frenda, Kinuhata, and Takitsubo are all very cautious. I don’t want them disappearing and making this a long-term effort, so I need to bait the hook with the best bait available.”

“~ ~ ~!?”

Her mind was being controlled.

But whether she was told to attack Item or protect Shokuhou, she attacked Shokuhou. And if any one of those attacks hit, Shokuhou was dead. Leaving Mugino out of it altogether would be better than any of this.

“Shouldn’t you super give up and leave before you get burned?” Kinuhata Saiai emerged from the corridor for players. “You claim to have brainwashed everyone in this stadium – including the 50 thousand spectators – and taken control of them, but I doubt even a psychological Level 5 can do that. Which means it’s a trick. For example, maybe the game’s already over and those 50 thousand people aren’t here anymore.”

That would mean Shokuhou was only controlling the two teams and the TV crews, which was only a few dozen.

The rest were all faked.

“Oh? And how can you be so sure?”

“The air felt chilly when I reached the field. If there were 50 thousand people in super one place, it should have been unpleasantly warm from their body heat. The stadium’s A/C super can’t keep up with that.”

The game had entered extra innings, which could have ended at any time. It was entirely possible a team had scored a point and ended the game after Item left their car. Or Shokuhou could have influenced the players or umpire to manipulate the outcome.

Then she had started playing all alone on the empty field.

“And it wasn’t your power making Mugino’s Meltdowner miss. If you could use your Mental Out on her, you wouldn’t have just thrown off her aim a bit – you would’ve fully brainwashed her into your pawn. So how exactly did you mess with her aim?”

People’s senses could be fooled.

Just like the virtual drinks Frenda had tried out for a diet.

As another example, it wasn’t uncommon for people to buy yakisoba or popcorn at a festival or ballgame only to find they didn’t get as much as they expected. The same for a sashimi pack or salmon bento using the package design to disguise how little was inside. A single plastic container no one gave much thought to before throwing away was packed full of techniques to make the product look more impressive than it really was.

Only believing your own eyes was too weak a defense to get by on the dark side.

“Simple, right? By super moving 50 thousand fake people at once, it creates the illusion of the entire background changing. For example, you could stretch the crowd silhouettes vertically to throw off someone’s sense of up and down. Or you could expand or contract the silhouettes to throw off their sense of depth. Mugino was shooting down on the mound from the tiered stands, so that would have been enough to throw off her aim. And you can super do that without any kind of psychological power.”

Something reflected off the VIP booth on the third level behind the backstop.

That wasn’t a mistake – it was an intentional signal. Frenda had cut an opening in the tempered glass and now had a rocket launcher resting on her shoulder.

“For Takitsubo-san, it was even super simpler. You used the kind of cold reading that fortune tellers use to determine someone’s financial situation and complexes based on their appearance and clothing. That’s just a skill. What matters is, whether Takitsubo-san said yes or no, you created a sense for everyone else that she was rattled by you getting it right. You weren’t trying to scare her – you were trying to scare Frenda-san and me into acting without thinking and giving away our positions. Takitsubo-san didn’t give you a response because she realized what you were up to. When you super don’t know the answer, it’s better to change the subject than give a yes or no answer, right?”

“She still should have smiled, though☆”

“And it’s not like a Level 5 to rely on silly tricks like that. I know that all too well after seeing our Mugino. A real one would use brute force instead. Also, you prepared 50 thousand fake people to fill the stands. Which means it wouldn’t be that hard to prepare one more. There’s only one reason you would use those tricks to neutralize Mugino before trying to control her with your power: you were worried your power wasn’t strong enough in a one-on-one confrontation. …Are you even the real Shokuhou Misaki? I super bet you’re someone else entirely pretending to be her.”

Shokuhou Misaki took a deep breath.

And with a tearing sound, she reached up her hands and ripped away her own face.

Her true identity was thinner even than a mask.

“Ha ha ha ha HA HA ha ha ha HA ha HA HA HA ha ha ha ha HA HA ha ha ha ha HA HA HA ha ha ha HA!”

“…”

“I had a feeling some cheap tech like the Silhouette Screen wouldn’t be enough. But, but. This first battle with the dark side has taught me a lot☆ If I want to face a Level 5 for real, what I need is connections. I need to start by brainwashing all those naughty adults and get my hands on even better next-gen weapons.”

Was it moving paint?

No, were the many spectators and her face created using some kind of extremely thin sheet?

“But whatever the case, I proved I can deceive and manipulate a real level 5. Which means I might have had a chance if I had isolated you from each other first.”

Someone else altogether emerged below the false face. This person had fluffy chestnut hair.

They had no idea who she was.

“By the way, super who are you?”

“Mitsuari Ayu☆”

(I’m really starting to hate people who use special makeup. Is this a super dark side jinx or something?)

Kinuhata Saiai sighed as she remembered something else that had happened quite recently.

“Oh, right. I would just leave Mugino like that, if I were you.”

“Um? I’ve been doing my best not to look that way, but she’s still shooting those thick murder beams my way!”

“Those attacks only pierce a single point, so as long as her aim is off, you can just let her keep shooting. If you do remove her brainwashing, she’ll realize you were controlling her and get super pissed about it. Once that happens, Academy City is screwed.”

“~ ~ ~. On the count of three, start chasing your own tail!!”

Mugino Shizuri began spinning on the spot. Like she was running in a meter-wide circle.

It made sense. If Mugino wouldn’t do what that psychological esper wanted her to do, it was safer to have her do something harmless. The girl had given this some thought.

“Pant, pant. How does your handler – are they called a Voice on the Phone? – control her?”

“What super happened to the 50 thousand spectators?”

“Do you really think I would dump them out into the typhoon to walk all the way to the nearest station when the trains might not even be running anymore? I brainwashed some of the staff to take them to the dome’s underground delivery entrance where busses can take them away. I don’t need to control all 50 thousand when I can brainwash the staff into telling the entire group what to do☆”

“Just like it’s super faster to control the headmaster than to control each and every student?”

It wouldn’t be possible to send them all right away with a limited number of busses. Did that mean this girl had left most of the spectators below the Stadium Dome when she knew something like would be happening on the surface?

Good thing they hadn’t let Mugino go nuts with Meltdowner.

“What assurance did you super have none of them would be hurt? The brainwashed staff are just robotically guiding them, right? What if a panicked spectator tripped and got hurt, or what if a bus set out without ensuring everyone was in a safe position and hit someone? That harm is on another level entirely from a deadly battle between villains.”

“I’m confident it’s safe, but I have no objective proof. I’ve brainwashed people so often I don’t need proof anymore. Besides, so what if someone gets hurt?”

“If they do, I’ll super beat you up until you can’t stand anymore and leave you in a park bathroom. And I mean it.”

That response came to mind unbidden. At times like this, it somewhat bothered Kinuhata that she wasn’t sure if her own thoughts came from the piece of the #1 implanted in her or from herself.

“Don’t worry. I too am the kind of villain who knows where to draw the line☆”

“…”

The Mitsuari girl giggled and tapped her gym shorts pocket.

The phone in that pocket stuck out just enough to reveal its 2mm camera lens.

Did she use that to aim her power, rather than the TV remote?

“I do still have the power to control minds. Even if it isn’t as powerful as Mental Out.”

“That super doesn’t matter.”

“And as long as I damage that loathsome ultra elite’s reputation, then I win in the end.”

A muddy darkness lurked deep inside the eyes she widened like dinner plates.

Was that her objective here?

Kinuhata didn’t know what kind of bad blood there was between Shokuhou Misaki and Mitsuari Ayu, but that didn’t matter here.

“I’m just super glad we could stop you before you joined Honey Queen,” she said with a sigh.

The girl called Mitsuari looked surprised by this, so Kinuhata gave her a questioning look.

“What? Are you super still planning to resist and join Honey Queen? That sounds like suicide to me.”

“Of course not☆” Mitsuari Ayu gave a muddy smile. “I don’t know where you got the information, but if you knew about my deal to join Honey Queen, then I know exactly what this is all about. It’s too bad really. If they had asked, I would have given them some real help.”

“?”

“It sounds like I was nothing more than bait to begin with. I imagine they had you chasing after a phony deal to buy enough time advance whatever their real plan is.”

Kinuhata felt a chill down her spine.

They had learned about Honey Queen’s deal with Shokuhou Misaki(?) by risking their lives sneaking into the illegal casino run by Honey Queen’s support organization, but if this was something truly important, where failure wasn’t an option, it wouldn’t have been sitting on a support organization computer. While it wasn’t a defense against real psychological espers like the one in front of Kinuhata now, the safest place for that kind of information was in your own head.

“In that case…”

They hadn’t won. They were still in the palm of the enemy’s hand.

How far did they have to go to get a step ahead of those villains!?

“I wonder where those villains are right now?” whispered Mitsuari Ayu while sweetly giggling. She spoke about villainy like it was a good friend of hers. “Because unlike the heroes who will wait for their enemy with head held high, villains prefer to stay hidden and cover their tracks.”

Part 12

They had to remember.

Ainame Carolien and Tachiuo Mary.

They had to calmly review what those two had done.

“Sample acquired…”

In the VIP booth, Frenda rubbed her cheek with the hand not holding the rocket launcher.

That was where she had been cut with the razor blade disguised as a phone’s bunny ears.

“We were taken out of the fight by the truck explosion back then, so why did Honey Queen let us go instead of killing us while they had the chance?”

Takitsubo Rikou spoke to herself in the stands filled with fake spectators.

She slowly tilted her head.

“Because they didn’t need to? Did they already have what they wanted from the moment they injured Mugino? Does that make sense?”

Also, Honey Queen had started off as secret data thieves.

Item had completely forgotten about that fact.

“What about that burglar who died with his neck caught in our balcony’s metal shutter? Could he have super been a Honey Queen member?” Kinuhata Saiai muttered under her breath.

But what had that middle-aged man hoped to steal after scaling the skyscraper’s wall?

Since his companions hadn’t hesitated to blow up the apartment after his failure, it couldn’t be any of the furnishings or cash inside the apartment. They had to assume that battle had been meant to make up for his failure.

“Could he have been after Mugino’s hair on the floor? Was Honey Queen plotting to steal Meltdowner’s DNA map? And that super didn’t work, so they attacked to injure Mugino and steal some of her cells – even if it was less than a millimeter of her skin!?”

Ainame Caroline had said from the beginning that she had been the head researcher behind the development of Meltdowner.

She had also called Mugino Shizuri a failure and called Tachiuo Mary a success.

In other words…

“Honey Queen’s super real goal is to use Mugino’s rare DNA map to turn the half-completed Tachiuo Mary into the ultimate Level 5!?”

“If so, I sympathize. As the psychological esper who failed to become Shokuhou Misaki, I know just how tragic that can be. This city is a cruel place where only one esper with a certain type of power is allowed to reach the top.”

The real threat was even worse than Honey Queen acquiring Shokuhou Misaki.

They wanted to upgrade one of their own to surpass Mugino Shizuri.

But instead of creating a brand-new 8th Level 5, they would create a superior version of the same type of esper to forcibly replace Mugino Shizuri with Tachiuo Mary, whether Mugino liked it or not.

If they let this continue, Item truly would have no way of winning.

It would only be a matter of time before they were killed.

Between the Lines 3

The din of the storm was loud and unstable in the convenience store that night.

“Um, where’s the bento I just bought? You recommended I get it warmed in the microwave…”

Tachiuo Mary stared at the floor and mumbled behind her mask.

The part-timer girl loudly chewed her gum and gave Tachiuo Mary an irritated look.

“Eh? Don’t ask me. There’s nothing in the microwave.”

“But I know you put it in there.”

“I did not!”

“But, um, I paid for it. So can’t you at least give me a refund…? Here’s my receipt.”

“Doing refunds is pain in the ass, so nope! Leave me the hell alone. I get paid the same wage either way, so why should I bother with any of this crap? What, you think I should slave away for a loser like you? You’re hilarious. Oh, but that’s not a compliment, so wipe that grin off your ugly face. …God, this pisses me off. My rock-paper-scissors luck is so bad I lost during this stupid typhoon of all days and got stuck working the night shift in place of that plain mom.”

The part-timer’s complaints were absurd, but a line was forming behind Tachiuo Mary. Everyone had to be on edge with the typhoon so close to making landfall, but when they began clearing their throats and clicking their tongues, Tachiuo Mary felt like she was the one who had done something wrong.

Then again, maybe the problem was her inability to stand up to the ill-tempered part-timer.

The part-timer decided everyone was on her side, which only encouraged her.

“And what’s this refund nonsense? You want me to open the register and put change in your hand? Bwa ha! What, do you use physical money in this day and age!? It’s not the 20th century anymore, so get with the times. That’s almost as funny as your face! Bwah ha ha!! What, did you just arrive from the 20th century after building a time machine!?”

Now was not the time to let this get her down.

Tachiuo Mary heard a dull thud from behind her. Ainame Caroline had been hanging around the downloadable games section, but she had just thrown a kick directly into the crotch of one of the bastards who had loudly clicked his tongue at the back of the line.

And it didn’t end there.

The 10-year-old girl grinned with the skinny chocolate snack stick wiggling in the corner of her mouth.

“You crack me up☆ It’s so funny I’d love to hear it all again. If you really think that’s appropriate behavior, you won’t have a problem if I stream it for all the world to see, will you? Oh, and can you give me a good, clear shot of your nametag? Let’s see, Harusawa Märchen? Yeah, I’m sure the world won’t see any reason to make fun of a stupid name like that☆ But, hey, at least you can find satisfaction in bringing the entire human race together as they ruthlessly mock you☆ Hwa ha ha. Okay, all you bored people stuck in your room during the typhoon: I’ve found your main character for the day♪”

“Eh? Uh, hey, stop that! You aren’t really streaming this, are you!?”

“Not only that, this would make it out no matter what I do. Ah ha ha☆ See that ATM? I know it’s got the store’s logo printed nice and big on it, but on the inside, it’s a reused Kazusawa Bank model. That means its security camera records sound too. To prevent people from withdrawing money with a scammer on the phone. Hee ha ha. Lame. Did you not know since the audio’s almost never used?”

“Go to hell!!”

“Oh? So being a bad employee wasn’t enough and now you want to create some even more shocking footage of you grabbing a 10-year-old by the collar? Ha ha ha. So an employee’s life is about to ruined by the very security camera the store paid good money for? That’s what I call funny! No, don’t even try rushing to the back to destroy the footage. It’s an online system, so all the data’s being sent to both the security company and the franchise HQ. Oh, shit. I bet this will go crazy viral, so I need to set up a victim support fund with a throwaway account. I’ll get rich off of this☆”

The terrible part-timer froze in place.

By this point, the other customers in line had already snuck out without buying anything. Which couldn’t be fun with the storm raging out there.

“And you kept badmouthing the 20th century, but you wouldn’t have the world you live in now without it, so how about you show some respect? Lame. And boring too. What is it with idiots and drawing arbitrary lines and rejecting everything outside those lines? You’re a waste of breath and possibility, so how about you apologize to the 20th century? Hey, are you even listening? What happened to that attitude of yours, anyway?”

“Ma’am.” A handsome young man emerged from the back of the store with a gleaming smile. “Are you familiar with the concept of customer harassment?”

“Huh?”

“A customer making extreme demands or behaving in an intimidating manner is a recognized form of harassment. I will not let you harm our employee any further.”

The gum-chewing girl looked to the older part-timer like he was her prince charming.

However…

“Hmm. So when does your shift end?”

“Excuse me?”

“No, it won’t even take that long. The typhoon’s about to make landfall, so even this 24-hour convenience store will be closing soon. I’m willing to wait until the HQ sends their notification.”

A silhouette was visible outside the store.

But this was no ghost.

A noticeably unsocial person stood in the pouring rain just 2cm away from the glass. And he wasn’t alone. There were plenty more. The intellectual delinquents covered all the windows on the road-facing side of the store. They were following orders, but their anger was visibly growing by the second while they were forced to wait out in the storm.

The stupidly misguided prince charming began to sweat with his smile frozen on his face.

The gum-chewing girl had already made herself scarce.

They soon heard a shrill scream.

Had that idiot thought there wouldn’t be anyone at the back entrance?

“As you can see, mister, you can run if you want, but it’s game over if you leave the store☆ Hee ha ha. A cool grownup knows how to complete the job he’s given. And phones aren’t allowed on the clock, right? So I’ll be taking that. Oops, how clumsy of me. I dropped it and stomped on it♪”

There had been a correct answer. If he had grabbed and lowered his foolish coworker’s head and apologized along with her, this could have ended peacefully. But who was it that that ultra moron had decided to threaten instead?

“God. It’s the bad examples like you who ruin it for the 99.99% of convenience store workers who actually do their job day in and day out. If only you 0.01% of idiots didn’t think you could half-ass it just because it’s a part-time job and you can quit if anything goes wrong. But in a single bad decision, all the trust built up by the others goes right out the window.”

Left all alone, the worker glanced over at the stationery section. Was he thinking of writing a large SOS on some paper and showing that to the security camera? Or did he think someone would come rescue him if he pressed the alarm button hidden below the register?

Despite what Ainame Caroline had said to tease the awful gum-chewing part-timer, a dark side pro would always neutralize the security system before taking action.

“So what was that about not letting me harm your employee, little boy?”

This true idiot had chosen this path for himself.

Ainame Caorline grinned as she spoke.

“I’m willing to wait until you’re done working. Then we can talk this out outside, okay?”

“Ugh, I’m soaked. How did that goddamn typhoon get me so wet when it’s only 10m to the curbside parking?”

Ainame Caroline shut the 4-wheel-drive truck’s door and tossed a towel over her partner’s head before worrying about herself. Then she used her small hands to dry the other girl’s hair. She was only wearing a bikini top and a miniskirt with suspenders. She hadn’t chosen it for that purpose, but it was a convenient outfit for getting wet.

“So Tachiuo-chan.”

“Uhh.”

“That was super boring!! How many times do I have to tell you you’re my greatest success, so you need to hold your head high with pride!!”

“But…I’m not worth all that. I even kind of agreed with what she was saying…”

“What happened to the confidence you show in front of your bath posters?”

“You saw that!? Why would you bring that up here!? Just kill me now!!!”

“Lame. You’re such a pushover I bet someone on the side of the road could trick you into trading everything you own for some supposed magic beans. And it isn’t even a case of you being too trusting. You know it’s wrong, but you still let it happen. When someone makes fun of you, they might as well be making fun of me. And I won’t let that stand. Got that?”

“…Yes.”

That was also why Tachiuo Mary was following Ainame Caroline.

Back in the peaceful world, everyone had looked down on her as the gloomy girl in class.

Her school environment hadn’t been as horrific as the bullying seen in manga or anime, but the most popular people in class still decided for everyone what was cool and what was creepy or childish. It should have been a matter of each person’s personal taste, but if you stepped outside the bounds determined by the most popular, you were branded “weird”. And no one else wanted to meet the same fate, so the rest of the class would start downloading and dumping money into a game they didn’t actually care about. And once the most popular got tired of that game on a whim, all of that effort had to be thrown right out the window. Then the process repeated. It was a modern version of the invisible rails that had existed since the days of black-and-white TV, where, if you wanted something to talk about with your peers, you had to have seen whatever popular show had aired the night before.

Tachiuo Mary hadn’t been able to keep up with it all.

She had fallen off the rails.

She hadn’t been able to ignore how foolish it was to endlessly dump time and money into a character she didn’t even like and how depressing it was to be unable to afford to buy and enjoy the things she really wanted.

And once the slave ceased to till the fields of someone else’s kingdom, she had lost her place in the class. An unsociable Level 0 had no influence on her own. And when that high school girl was slowly melting away into nothingness within a peaceful world void of bullets or blades, she had been rescued by a 10-year-old researcher who seemed to have stepped straight out of a manga.

Ainame Caroline had said she wouldn’t let anyone make fun of her.

That meant she believed Tachiuo Mary deserved respect. It meant she had the right to build her own kingdom, no matter how small it might be.

And Ainame Caroline had improved Tachiuo Mary’s power.

In Academy City, esper development was everything. After the previously shunned Tachiuo Mary had rapidly grown to Level 4, the most popular person in class could no longer drive her out of the classroom and had been driven into a corner of the classroom herself. Shallow social skills hadn’t been enough at that point. Tachiuo Mary hadn’t seen it herself since she hadn’t been to school lately, but she had heard that girl had been unable to bear her new circumstances and ultimately transferred to another school.

Tachiuo Mary had found a place she wanted to be. Maybe it was a world of villains, but she felt comfortable there.

Ainame Caroline might think everyone on her team was equal, but it wasn’t remotely true. Honey Queen belonged only to her. Tachiuo Mary was satisfied listening admiringly to the stories of the girl’s exploits. She loved hearing about things she couldn’t do herself.

“We are Honey Queen. So if anyone spits on anyone on the team, we will strike back. And we’ll immaturely use every bit of power we have as a dark side group.”

At that point, the pouting 10-year-old brown gyaru lowered her voice.

“Mugino’s Item mocked Minokasago-chan. So this doesn’t end with just stealing the sample we need. We will use everything at our disposal to crush those four.”

Item would probably have no idea who she was talking about.

Minokasago Ryousuke was the burglar who had died with his neck caught in their balcony’s metal shutter.

He was on the dark side, but he was also a pacifist who disliked fighting. He had joked that he only wanted out of his dead-end office job, but he had obviously been downsized. They had let him join because they had needed an adult guardian if they wanted to arrange a bank account, a car, and so on. He had been an excellent cook and had gone out of his way to handle all the housework. He had even washed their underwear without asking, which had resulted in a blushing Tachiuo Mary chasing him around in tears.

Before Honey Queen had taken action, Minokasago Ryousuke had bowed down and asked for just one chance to do things his way. Not for himself, but to preserve the lives of the enemy. He had smiled and insisted they could avoid fighting Item and peaceably achieve their goal if he successfully burgled the sample.

And this was the result.

The team had taken in the abandoned adult to give him another shot at life. And now look at him.

Mugino Shizuri had mocked that timid pacifist and disposed of his body as no more than a nuisance.

She hadn’t left him even an ounce of dignity.

What was wrong with wanting revenge for that?

Level 5s were rare, with only seven in Academy City. They were well-known figures. But that didn’t give them the right to trample on the lives of the unknown.

So Honey Queen’s temper had been pushed beyond the boiling point from the very start.

Mugino hadn’t just unwittingly stepped on someone’s dignity. She had stepped on a landmine loaded with the explosive known as a taboo.

“This is the all-out war you wanted, failure. Don’t even try to complain about it at this point.”

Ainame Caroline sensed a worried aura coming from the gloomy girl.

She was aware she had a habit of obsessing over her own destructive thoughts to push herself toward victory.

Tachiuo Mary was usually so timid, but she always let these worries come to the forefront even if it would make waves. Perhaps that was why she couldn’t live in a peaceful world and truly shined here on the dark side.

Ainame Caroline sighed and consciously switched gears.

“Well, maybe I’m the cute culprit we should blame for this one since we wouldn’t have gone to the convenience store in the first place if I hadn’t thrown a fit because I was so hungry with no restaurant or shop in the love hotel,” cheerfully conceded Ainame Caroline while reaching into the convenience store bag and pulling out a chocolate sandwich and waffle, which she wasn’t quite sure if she should classify as a snack or a meal. She also stuck a straw in a bottle of sweet caramel iced coffee that appeared to be a collab with some kind café or another. “Anyway, we have Mugino Shizuri’s skin tissue. What happened to Minokasago-chan is a shame, but you’re still alive and kicking. Ohh, we’re so close! I can almost taste it!! Once I use Meltdowner’s DNA map to update the flaws in the fragments of research data I managed to steal, I can use the completed data list to perfect your body!!”

“Hee hee. Lady Carol, what will you do once you have perfected me?”

Ainame Caroline briefly fell silent there.

But after a moment, the 10-year-old brown gyaru opened her mouth again.

Her voice sounded somehow dry.

“I had a sister.”

“You did?”

“I don’t think she was very smart. The adults who only know how to judge people based on their test scores tended to look down on her. But I think she knew a lot more ways to live a cool life than I do. She had a lot of friends too.”

Perhaps the 10-year-old had picked up the gyaru fashion by copying her older sister.

Even if Ainame Caroline didn’t feel worthy of it.

“She was the kind of high schooler who wanted to have as much fun as possible, but then she spent so much time in the kitchen making charaben. Did she think I would like them? They were really just triggered an explosion of embarrassment beams the instant you opened the lid. But still, day after day, she would get up early in the morning and make one for me. She spent so much time on it instead of the things she really wanted to do, but she always made sure to smile for my sake. That’s just the kind of person she was. She could look at her younger sister – who was so much smarter than her – and happily smile. Pretty cool, right? It’s easy to say you appreciate the people closest to you, but actually doing it is something not even Edison or Nobunaga could do. And she did it so easily.”

How much had that everyday action saved this little monster? It was no exaggeration to say her sister had given her everything she lacked as a child prodigy.

Ainame Caroline used her empty hand to toy with her smartphone.

The camera app was filled with charaben photos.

She had felt bad destroying them, so she had gotten in the habit of taking a photo before eating them.

She would not let anyone make fun of her teammates.

Ultimately, that was a value she had picked up from seeing her sister protect her so many times because, even if she was a monster, she was still family.

“Your sister sounds very nice.”

“She’s dead, though.”

Ainame Caroline said it so readily – so quickly – that there was no real emotion in the words.

“One day, she went out to the neighborhood supermarket and a wind turbine’s blade flew over and killed her. Like a pixel art shoot ‘em up where an enemy bullet comes in from off screen and kills you without any warning whatsoever. They claimed it was an issue of aging public infrastructure, but I didn’t buy that for a second. I did everything I could to hide the dark side from my sister so I could protect her from it. But not even my Thoughtography predicted that one. There was no avoiding it.”

“…”

Her sister hadn’t done anything wrong.

It hadn’t been a malicious crime, nor had she been a criminal.

But there were still horrific deaths that no one could avoid.

“These were my sister’s.”

She snapped her suspenders.

She was a researcher in Academy City, which worked tirelessly to eliminate the occult, but she still couldn’t throw out that piece of sentiment.

“It does limit what outfits I can wear, though. Ah ha ha☆ But I want to keep her with me a while longer.”

“Lady Carol…”

“I turned 10 this year. You realize that means I was only 5 when I began working on developing Mugino Shizuri’s power, don’t you? And I had of course already graduated college then.”

Ainame Caroline gave a dry smile.

“Hwa ha ha. Obviously, that’s not actually possible. So I used advanced technology to cheat my way into my degree. That 3-or-4-year-old genius girl was blessed with a talent for deceiving everyone around her☆”

It couldn’t have been that easy.

She would have had to perfectly predict what questions would be on the exams, extract the necessary information from the textbooks, either hide the answers in tiny text on her pencil or eraser or print it on her palm with a special ink mixture, and then convert those things into tech capable of fooling Academy City’s high-tech exam supervision security. That would take more than 5 times as much knowledge as passing the exam the ordinary way, so, to be blunt, it would probably have been easier to just study normally.

Nevertheless, Ainame Caroline chose that method and pulled it off flawlessly.

She enjoyed choosing the riskier and less direct option.

She didn’t resort to cheating at the last second because she found she wasn’t smart enough. No, cheating was second nature to her. For her, it was as much a part of the process as needing to go to the testing site to take the exam.

She was a genius through and through, but in a bad way. She didn’t even need to make a conscious decision to fool people.

It made sense that, when she developed her own power based on the data gained from Mugino Shizuri, she ended up with Thoughtography, which manipulated electrons but was effectively an entirely different power. Because that was how her Personal Reality worked. Simply put, her power let her use a tool to learn the future and cheat in life.

“Of course, these techniques are considered a good thing when it’s an adult, like a politician giving a soapbox speech or a scientist reinforcing their knowledge. And while I’m the kind of monster who can make these excuses for days, my sister would waste her time studying kids anime and getting up early in the morning to make charaben for me…even though I never asked her to. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that Ainame Theresia was a better person than me. If her kindness had been allowed to grow with her to adulthood, I just know she could have changed the world. It’s not fair that she died.”

Ainame Caroline sounded so very lonely, like a child left behind in a strange city.

Perhaps she really was wandering in the darkness after losing her purpose in life.

The researcher, who had conquered the gap between prodigy and dropout through cheating, said more.

As twisted as it was.

She was completely earnest.

“What is a human life?”

“Does heaven really exist?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

She wanted to repay her beloved sister for everything.

That had always been Ainame Caroline’s motivation.

That was why she had gathered her partners and developed Tachiuo Mary.

Mugino Shizuri was too destructive to do the job. Once an esper reached Level 5, it was hard to change the course of their power development. That was why she called Mugino a failure and called her current project a success.

“I have heard a legend of a Kihara who specializes in researching life, but the stories about them are all so exaggerated it’s hard to sort the fact from the fiction. I didn’t want to waste my time chasing a phony legend, so I decided it would be faster to build what I needed myself.”

Once she had completed Tachiuo Mary, she knew she would have the answer she sought.

She also needed to avenge Minokasago Ryousuke who had gone along with her selfish plan.

“Ha ha ha. We have Mugino Shizuri’s skin tissue. It cracks me up, really. Those cells are all I need to have a complete DNA map. We’re so close, so let’s go find our answers. I can’t bring my sister back from the dead, but I can at least know her soul went to heaven. And I’m not talking about finding some psychological peace of mind in the thought of it – I will scientifically prove it to be true.”

Something was making dull clattering sounds.

The sounds came from the back of the 4-wheel-drive truck. A box of reinforced plastic with an oblong, coffin-like shape lay there and some groaning sounds were coming from it. It was actually a battery-powered wine cooler with the between-bottles cushioning and latches removed. It looked large from the outside, but it was a tight fit when two people were crammed inside. The two lovers in their convenience store uniforms may have been gone past shouting at each other and started physically biting.

“Um, Lady Carol. What are we going to do with them?”

Tachiuo Mary didn’t have time to stop it.

The 10-year-old brown gyaru snatched a .45-caliber handgun from the intellectual delinquent in the driver’s seat, held the grip that was much too large for her small hand, and artlessly fired two shots into the plastic box.

After the two loud bangs, the clattering sounds stopped.

As did the moans.

“It doesn’t matter if those two complete morons knew who we are or not. They chose their fate themselves. Ha ha ha. How boring… On the dark side, you’re allowed to kill someone if they insult you for no reason☆”

Ainame Caroline grinned.

Tachiuo Mary froze in place with a timid look on her face.

That small girl earnestly wanted to know everything she could about the concept of life.

But did that mean she didn’t know anything at all about it at the moment?

Chapter 3: Project Angelica

Part 1

It was August 6.

The weather lady had a shocking report that morning.

“The large and powerful Typhoon 11 has finally made landfall in Tokyo!! Current windspeeds have surpassed 40m/s and we’re measuring around 250mm of rain every hour. Ugh, as you can see, Academy City is already experiencing plenty of rain with winds so powerful I need to hold onto something to stay on my fee- eek!? D-did you see that? Something just flew by. Yikes, a wind turbine’s blades just broke off and went spinning through the air before stabbing into the 3rd story of that building! The typhoon is moving a lot slower than predicted yesterday, so if you don’t have any urgent need, you should stay indoors all day today!!”

“Here, you need to water the morning glories we took in out of the storm. And in the end, you need to use this blacklight. The flower will wilt if you don’t give it UV light to replace the sunlight it needs.”

A lazy mood had set in at the shared living space in the elementary school dorm hallway.

Invincible Big Sis Frenda was helping with the potted morning glories brought in from the storm, but the adorable 7-year-old princess in a beret, a baggy T-shirt dress with a belt around the waist, and red leggings wasn’t listening. Even though those flowers were for her summer homework.

The summer homework was apparently to color a white T-shirt with a dye made from the morning glories. During the 2nd term, her class would then go on a field trip to a lab with too much time on its hands and view the fabric under an electron microscope to see how the dye had changed it.

The ordinary program had been interrupted by an emergency news program on the small screen of her children’s phone (which had been ultra upgraded with surveillance functions courtesy of her dark side big sister). She listened to that while standing up on her tippy-toes to excitedly look out of the tightly shut window.

“Ohh! In the first place, this is so cool… It’s a typhoon! Look, look, Onee-chan, I’ve never seen the wind turbines spin so fast!! Hoorayyyy! The world is coming to an eeeend!!”

“R-right. We need to stay in our rooms all day today. Wow…”

Her friend, a glasses girl named Azumi, was looking out the window next to her.

Frenda wondered why little kids got so excited about typhoons. It was still summer break, so it wasn’t like they would get off school.

The rain was coming down so hard it looked white outside, but since the dorm was located on a hill, there was no concern of flooding. Maybe the city was careful about where it put the dorms for small children.

“In the end, did you feed your rhino beetles today?”

“In the first place, Michelangelo and Geraldine are both doing great! All I have to do is swap out their package of sap every day, so it’s kind of boring.”

The younger sister was relatively fine with bugs. From what Frenda had heard, she had trouble with reptiles instead. She said she hated their slimy skin. Instead of being afraid, she was apparently afraid their skin would burst if she touched it. Even though crocodile skin and snake skin were both so tough.

“Thank you for coming today,” the dorm manager said to Frenda. “I told them to bring the morning glories in yesterday, but a lot of the children put it off and never did it. Honestly, even the security and cleaning robots are being kept inside so they aren’t blown over by a gust of wind, but those kids don’t listen. This should really all be my job, so thank you so much for helping out. I know those clay pots are heavy, so moving so many couldn’t have been easy.”

“In the end, it was nothing.”

Dark side people always felt a little guilty when someone from the light side thanked them.

The dorm manager was a weird woman who wore a miniskirt Santa outfit even though it was August. She was the kind of person who had no problem wearing a Halloween witch costume or a New Year’s furisode any time of year. She said she hated how clothing ended up smelling like mothballs if you only wore it once a year.

“Oh, do you want to take a shower? I can wash and dry your wet clothes while you do.”

“Ah ha ha. In the end, there’s no need.”

Frenda’s phone rang.

She checked the email, and…

“Oh, looks like things are happening now. In the end, I’ve got to go.”

“Oh? But it’s storming outside. Feel free to wait here until it dies down.”

If Frenda took the super-sweet elementary school dorm manager up on that offer, she would find herself ensnared in the inescapable trap that was a dorm manager’s lap pillow. Resist. I refuse to become someone who let’s other people feed her instead of picking up her own chopsticks.

“I’ll be fine. In the end, if I chug an energy drink and take off running, I’ll be back in no time. I can’t take up space in this elementary school dorm. And my friends will worry about me if I don’t show up.”

“Oh? Do you live in a District 14 dorm like most of the foreign transfer students? But isn’t that nearly on the other side of the city?”

Frenda smiled ambiguously and didn’t respond.

An umbrella would be meaningless in this storm, so the blonde-haired, blue-eyed big sister pulled her raincoat up over her head and looked back at her little sister.

She pulled the pull tab for her skinny energy drink and spoke with a mischievous smile.

“Root for the typhoon too much and it’ll stay here in Academy City. In the end, then they might cancel the festival.”

“Eh!? I-in the first place, they can’t do that!!”

“Then you’d better start being thankful for the sunny days. Do that and I’ll go to the festival with you. See you later☆”

Frenda smiled and threw herself out into the storm.

The email had been from Item. The next phase was already beginning.

Part 2

A luxurious cottage stood on a mountain.

A full slice of an enormous aromatic tree sat in the living room as a table. Five tablet computers were arranged in a C-shape on the table.

“Is that the UAV Frenda was talking about?” asked Mugino.

“It is,” flatly said Takitsubo, a video game joystick in her right hand.

The five screens provided a 180-degree view from the front of the UAV, along with status information. A different window could be opened to access the view from behind or below.

Long ago, a computer the size of a storage container had been used to control UAVs, but with modern parallel processing, ordinary household machines were enough. Apparently. All this information came from a girl who was currently out and Takitsubo wasn’t too confident on her own.

The UAV she was operating had been custom built by Frenda.

It was about 2m long and had a sharp silhouette resembling a gardening spade or a double-edged sword. It did have small wings spread on either side, but it mostly stayed airborne with the brute force of its ramjet engine’s thrust. It reminded Takitsubo of a bottle rocket with the bare minimum of wings.

“Isn’t this more like a remote-controlled surface-to-surface missile than a UAV?” asked Mugino.

“She said an ordinary UAV would be flipped over by the crosswinds if you tried to fly it in this typhoon,” explained Takitsubo.

Of course, this toy was built by a bomb expert like Frenda, so it probably could perform a precise bombing of a surface target or crash into an enemy fighter and explode.

“Won’t they send out a Six Wings when they detect this thing flying around?”

“The typhoon has bicycles, signs, and other large pieces of metal flying through the air, so Frenda said the airport radars and programmed alerts will be set to overlook a lot.”

That must have been true since the UAV was flying between the skyscrapers without getting shot down.

The UAV was flying through District 14.

That was a strange district where the high-tech skyscrapers were mixed together with short Italian-style buildings with orange roofs and white walls. If they moved the camera, they would have seen a Chinese block, a Korean block, an Indian block, and other small blocks with entirely different designs. The district had more foreign transfer students than any other. It was a lot like a single park with each flower bed containing a different type of flower.

And all of the roads were flooded.

“Hey, Mugino, didn’t the emergency alert say the areas with poor drainage had more than a meter of flooding?”

“Sounds like Venice. It floods every year there, like it’s a seasonal event.”

They could also see broken and toppled wind turbines here and there. Academy City’s power generation was distributed between all the many wind turbines instead of done at a giant centralized power station, so there was supposedly no concern of a power outage…but this made them wonder.

“Anyway, Mugino, does it look like we’ll make it on time?”

“I haven’t seen any non-typhoon alerts, so we should be good.” Mugino Shizuri sighed softly. “Ainame Caroline got my skin…which means she has my DNA map, but that isn’t enough to use for esper development. I’m one of the seven Level 5s, remember? To keep my information secret, all the medical equipment used to develop my power was special-made at my lab. No other equipment will do, so if she wants to cause trouble with my DNA map, she’ll have to attack that lab.”

If it was all used within a secure lab and never left the premises, they could ignore all the safety standards when designing the equipment. That meant Ainame Caroline would have a hard time acquiring the same thing elsewhere.

“I see. That would explain why she spent so much time gathering research data using her online marriage scams. She must have wanted plans for that equipment, or at least enough secret data to create replacement machines for what’s too difficult to get out of the lab.”

“But that tells us she would have a hard time getting into the lab. She’s having trouble. So if we attack the lab first, we can hide inside and set up an ambush. If she could get everything she needs with those marriage scams, she would have finished by now. Which means she can’t get it all. She’ll eventually get impatient and take more forceful measures. And if we know Honey Queen will attack there, I want us in control there first.”

But like she had said, that secret lab was secure enough that even Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary wanted to avoid attacking without a plan. On the surface and in secret, it was no ordinary lab.

“Hula Hoop,” said Mugino Shizuri. “That’s the world’s most powerful particle accelerator buried deep below Academy City’s outer wall. Hah. What better place to develop an electron beam Level 5?”

“Hm? But isn’t Hula Hoop’s control center located below District 23?”

“Officially. But most every facility that large has a higher-level lab hidden within it. The official side gets all the responsibility on paper, but the hidden side gets priority on using it in secret.”

One building looked out of place in the district of international transfer students.

Its vast grounds were surrounded by a tall wall and the building itself had a futuristic design similar to an airport terminal. Its purely functional beauty was a blot on the scenery. And the giant facility sat right smack in the middle of a residential area with no explanation of its purpose.

Takitsubo’s mouth formed a small triangle while she held the joystick.

“That’s the most lab-y building I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s perfect camouflage. Nothing could be more uninterestingly common in Academy City.”

But the UAV controlled by Takitsubo failed to reach the space above the lab.

Something happened as soon as it moved out from between two glass-covered skyscrapers.

With a sizzling sound, the 5-tablet 180-degree view suddenly went dark.

Mugino leaned forward a bit.

“Something just happened.”

“Isn’t this your lab, Mugino? Don’t you have information on its defenses?”

“Defending the lab isn’t my job.”

“Also, this isn’t a problem.”

The five tablets instantly switched to the view of a different UAV. They had more than one in flight. It may have been similar to a soccer video game where a single person controlled the entire team.

“UAV-CAM-02 – manual mode. This one was flying along with the first one, so it should have seen everything.”

With the wide view still in place, Takitsubo opened a smaller window and quickly rewound the footage to the moment UAV-CAM-01 was destroyed. But that didn’t tell her much. After a light like a camera’s flash or welding, the UAV suddenly exploded.

“That was a laser weapon,” concluded Mugino. “And not a single, straight-line optical weapon. I thought there was an unusual number of skyscrapers in the area when they’re guarding their secrets with a tall wall. They must have sprayed a special coating on the glass without permission. Now those skyscraper windows act as mirrors, bending the invisible beam any number of times.”

“That would mean they can hit us even if we approach between the buildings or below the pedestrian bridges.”

“In the worst case, even if we’re inside the manholes.”

That was when a dark shadow appeared on the footage from the upper left corner, static ran through the footage, and UAV-CAM-02 ceased responding.

“UAV-CAM-03…no response. I’ll send UAV-CAM-04 out ahead as bait and switch UAV-CAM-05 to manual mode.”

Takitsubo sacrificed another UAV to give herself some freedom of movement.

The mystery UFO was flying through the air along with their UAVs. It resembled a weather satellite. Solar panels and jets were attached all around the sides of a cylinder with a combination of three long metal rods sticking out of the rear. It looked to be around 5m long in all. It had no wings or propeller, but it managed reach a complete standstill at an altitude of 100m by precisely switching between its jets. It also flew around in small, irregular bursts. Overall, it moved like a small, cowardly fish.

“Is it a ramming weapon?”

“UAV-CAM-05 lost. Switching UAV-CAM-06 to manual mode.”

“It didn’t ram that one.”

“The noise in the footage is getting worse. And the UAVs stop responding to the joystick before they’re shot down.”

“There must be another EM weapon that sends out a beam of powerful microwaves… The EM waves would explain the strange burst of orange sparks just before they’re shot down.”

Their UAVs were more like rockets than airplanes and they had sent them in from multiple directions, but they were still losing them fast. It went without saying what would happen if they tried to approach by foot on the flooded ground. It was starting to make sense why even that arrogant Ainame Caroline had wanted to avoid a direct attack on this place.

Part 3

“Repurposed SDI.”

Frenda Seivelun spoke that term into her phone in the middle of an exceptionally large warehouse in District 11.

The relay mirror experiment used multiple mirrors to bend a strategic laser weapon.

Brilliant Pebbles used a heavy metal satellite for a ramming attack.

They had already seen an EM weapon, but at this rate, there could also be a linear gun that launched a metal shell with electromagnets or an IR weapon designed to destroy mechanical cameras and sensors

Or to sum it all up…

“You’ve at least heard of SDI, right? That was an American defense program during the Cold War, meant to use lasers and ramming satellites to intercept ballistic missiles in space. As their ally, Japan – and thus, Academy City as well – helped develop the technology. In the end, it was never actually implemented because the costs were too high. But they wanted something to show for the money they had spent, so there are a number of ‘legends’ about trying to use that space tech back here on Earth. That became known as Repurposed SDI.”

“That’s a satellite? But this isn’t outer space, so how the hell is it flying all over the place!?” demanded Mugino over the phone.

“That doesn’t really matter. In the end, the jetpack I created works similarly. It’s not hard to find experiments that keep a hunk of metal afloat by precisely switching between different jets. It’s just never mass-produced because the fuel costs are too high. My toy made up for that by supporting the buoyancy with an incombustible lighter-than-air gas.”

The strategic military technology designed to shoot down ultra-high-speed ballistic missiles in space with 100% accuracy had been secretly improved by multiple generations over the course of several decades. If any human or vehicle were to approach, it could be torn to shreds by the multiple layers of that defense network.

This violated anti-weapon and aviation laws, but what did that matter?

After all, this was the secret lab that specialized in one of Academy City’s seven Level 5s. Something like Repurposed SDI should be expected there.

“That building has the A/C units covered, unlike with ordinary skyscrapers where they’re exposed on the roof like they want someone to shove some poison gas in there. If the designer was that security conscious, a few secret weapons is hardly surprising. In the end, if this system is built to the same standards as the one protecting that Antarctic base run by a cooperative institute, then the interception rate should be around 99.99%, I think.”

“What are we supposed to do about that? Not one of those flying drones made it above the lab.”

“Dammit, Takitsubo. Don’t just waste those toys even if they are unmanned. In the end, do you have any idea how much each one costs!? Not to mention that each one of them is a handmade Frenda-chan masterpiece!!”

“Is there anything we can do?”

“In the end, yes.”

With a dull metallic clunk, Kinuhata Saiai pulled something in from the shadows.

It was a 7m piece of metal weighing more than 25 tons. Kinuhata didn’t even bother with the excavator-style treads – she forcibly dragged it using the physical boost provided by Offense Armor.

“Oh, god. This thing’s super heavy! This had better be what you wanted, Frenda-san!!”

“It’s perfect☆ In the end, load it into the support organization’s truck.”

Frenda nodded in satisfaction as she looked at a military vehicle with a humongous container on its back.

“So, Frenda-san, do you spend super all your time in here making bombs?”

“This is just where I store things. I do the mixing and construction in a proper container lab. Different types of bombs are created using different devices and follow different rules, so in the end, it’s easier for the lab to be a cheap space where I can swap out everything inside rather than have a giant space with everything I could ever need inside. I need to adapt quickly like that if I’m going to keep up with the latest trends.”

“Why can a bomber like you move around so super freely?”

“How do you propose they ban it? In the end, you can make jet fuel by purifying the algae you can find floating in the water just about everywhere. And if you abuse that, you can make a pretty nasty explosion.”

Frenda seemed unusually high energy, but that wasn’t just from the new flavor of energy drink. Frenda, the Academy City Bomber, was the kind of weirdo who got excited when she smelled explosives.

“Also, sorry about this. In the end, I had the item, but I can’t drive☆”

“Super what’s the point of collecting things you can’t use?”

“Hm. I normally use an AGV to move things in and out of storage, but I can’t do that thanks to the typhoon and the lightning. There’s too much electrical interference for the EM vehicle guidance markers on the floor to work right.”

Kinuhata had dragged out what was known as a multiple rocket launcher.

If the launch container was raised and its 12 giant rockets were fired, that strategic weapon could scatter 700 bomblets per rocket. That meant a single button was enough to obliterate an enemy ground force with more than 8000 bombs spread out over a wide area.

“No matter how accurately the Repurposed SDI can attack intruders before they arrive, it can only shoot down so many at once. So if we saturate the sky with dangerous targets, their precious interception weapon won’t be able to spare us any attention. Because if they miss even one of those bombs, their own lives are at risk.”

“You mean if we run along the ground during that time, we’ll be super safe?”

“Well, in the end, this tech is simple enough that it was supplied to external cooperative institutes. Its accuracy is 99.99%, remember? That means we can overload it as long as we launch at least 10,000 targets at once.”

That rocket launcher was the HsMLR-05, aka Meteor Shower.

And everything inside, from the solid fuel to the warheads, were Frenda originals.

Frenda Seivelun grinned as she viewed the device designed to launch a meteor shower of explosives and metal balls.

“In the end, you never want to underestimate the Academy City Bomber.”

Part 4

Their saturation attack began.

A pair of personal watercraft with sleek, futuristic designs bounced over the choppy waves in the muddy water and cut across Academy City District 14. Mugino and Takitsubo had met with Frenda and Kinuhata and now they rode alongside each other.

The journey wasn’t easy thanks to the typhoon.

“Wow! In the end, I can barely keep in control!”

“Don’t just focus on the current, Frenda! Focus on the wind too! If that powerful crosswind hits you, you’ll capsize!”

The wind had torn the blades off of a wind turbine and they flew spinning toward Item. Just as Frenda instinctually ducked down, the water nearby burst upwards in a splash of muddy water more than 10m tall. If that had splashed up directly below them, they would have capsized for sure. The rainwater infrastructure must have been overtaxed and a manhole cover had shot off from the pressure, but with the streets flooded, it was impossible to tell where the danger was.

The pair in the back seats weren’t having much more fun.

“Takitsubo-san! With all this rain, you need to hold on tight or you’ll super slip off!!”

“No using Offense Armor, Kinuhata. You would break Frenda’s hips and tear her in half.”

Meanwhile, a single thin trail of smoke shot out ahead of them overhead.

That was a jamming missile that would emit jamming signals to neutralize the enemy radar. It wasn’t clear how effective that would be and it would be shot down eventually. Once they recovered from their confusion, the lab would realize they only had to launch an anti-radar missile that would automatically fly right toward the source of the jamming. Still, it would be worth it if it confused the lab’s interception control system and made them doubt their own equipment’s specs.

Then a gray group passed by above the two personal watercraft.

That was the multiple rocket launcher meteor shower launched on a timer and aimed at a fixed target. The 12 large rockets came apart midflight, releasing the explosives packed inside like fish eggs. There were more than 8000 of the explosives shaped like bowling pins. Their unbalanced center of gravity would give them a stable flight while they rained accurately down in a tightly-packed pattern across the area.

“Good, good, good! We’ll be fine as long as they aren’t shot down before they release the bomblets. In the end, I was a little worried about the typhoon, but their course corrections are working just fine. I don’t think the crosswinds are going to blow them into any student dorms or anything!!”

After several bright flashes of light, orange explosions overlapped overhead. The lab had started making full use of their Repurposed SDI, including the relay mirror laser weapon. But the 8000 bomblets couldn’t all be shot down right away.

The system had an accuracy rate of 99.99%, so more than 10 thousand targets would overload its capacity and targets would start to get through. However, Item’s ambush plan wouldn’t work if they really bombed the lab into dust. The 8000 was about right to keep the enemy busy for the time being.

Takitsubo looked expressionlessly up into the sky while holding onto Mugino’s back.

“Wow.”

“Mugino, we need to get in there before the fireworks show is over!! In the end, we’ll be sliced apart by that glass laser if we don’t!!”

The roaring of the wind was changing from moment to moment like it was alive, but fighting it wasn’t going to speed up their progress. Slicing through the winds with Mugino’s Meltdowner would only have a minimal effect. They had to use building walls, large signs, truck trailers, and anything else that would shield them from the wind as they kept their personal watercraft moving.

“Whoa,” cried Takitsubo without thinking.

A Brilliant Pebble shaped like a weather satellite or transistor had fallen nearby, but it had to be one that failed to shoot down part of the rocket rain. Still, it was packed full of rocket fuel and an oxidant. The two personal watercraft skillfully gave the makeshift mine a wide berth and used the hood and windshield of cars parked on the curb as ramps to jump high into the air. An instantaneous tailwind caught their backs at just the right moment.

“Also, Mugino, lend me your anti-recording device,” said Takitsubo. “The one that also disguises your location and number.”

“?”

“I’m picking up signals to the south-southwest and the northeast. Look, there are students stranded on the roofs. I’m going to report them to the fire department with my phone, so I need that accessory to boost my defenses.”

“So what if they’re stranded? It’s not like Frenda’s missiles are going to hit them.”

“But if they’re still there, they must have left their phones downstairs, so the floodwaters will have damaged them. They might go entirely unnoticed up there if we don’t tell the fire department.”

“Maybe, but why should we bother? It’s not like they’re drowning. If they’re on the roof, they aren’t going to die right away. All you’ll do is leave an unnecessary record that could come back to bite us.”

With a metallic click, Takitsubo Rikou pressed a handgun into Mugino Shizuri’s back.

She was as expressionless as always.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I picked it up in the Plinius yesterday. I think it was Kinuhata’s or Frenda’s.”

Takitsubo was seated right against Mugino’s back, so none of this was visible from the other watercraft bouncing along the muddy water.

Takitsubo whispered right into Mugino’s ear.

“No one can defeat your Meltdowner, but you have no defense against an ordinary bullet from point-blank range. Because there’s no room for you to create a Meltdowner shield. …I am your supporter, so I know your weaknesses. Better than anyone.”

“…”

Some dangerous electrification crackled from Mugino’s back as it leaped between drops of water, but Takitsubo still didn’t show any emotion on her face.

“Your Meltdowner can defeat most any enemy in one shot. I won’t deny that.”

With the watercraft shaking so much, the track suit girl pressed the handgun into that dangerous back all the harder.

“But I will not miss. And if all you want to do is destroy a human body, you don’t need very much destructive force. You get what I mean, don’t you? The key to victory is a contextual thing.”

“Why are you so intent on saving those people? …You even used Body Crystal to search them out. What do you gain from this that’s worth shortening your lifespan?”

“Nothing really. Like I said, I am only your supporter. My job is to do the things you can’t. So this isn’t a betrayal. Deep down, you want to do this too, don’t you? You don’t want to abandon those people in need, even if it is meaningless and doesn’t benefit us in the slightest. Because those people have nothing to do with our fight against Honey Queen.”

Mugino didn’t bother turning around as she clicked her tongue and raised her middle finger.

But she didn’t self-destructively move her arm behind her back and launch a Meltdowner blast backwards, which Takitsubo took as permission. Takitsubo held tightly to her teammate’s back again while she attached the borrowed device to her phone’s bottom port and called someone.

They were approaching the tall wall.

They weren’t even close to the main gate, but…

“In the end, I’ll go in first. Kinuhata, I need you on standby!!”

“Super yeah, yeah.”

Kinuhata removed her arms from around Frenda and instead placed her hands on Frenda’s shoulders. Then she moved out in front of Frenda like a game of leapfrog.

Kinuhata placed her butt on the vehicle’s front hood, activated Offense Armor, and kicked the thick wall with both feet the instant they collided with it.

They broke through.

The two watercraft passed through the large hole, entering the lab’s grounds.

The fireworks show began to lose steam. They had filled the sky with so many explosives, but it looked like the defense system really was going to shoot them all down.

If they didn’t make it in time, it was all over.

Once all the decoy rockets were used up, the defense system could focus on Item instead. Then the lasers, linear guns, and ramming satellites of the Repurposed SDI defense network would wear them down and kill them.

Item approached the futuristic building that resembled an airport terminal. They didn’t expect the sturdy front door to open if they rang the bell, but…

“Mugino, I recommend aiming a bit left of the front door,” said Takitsubo.

“You got it!!”

With a deafening sizzling sound, a 2m hole was melted in a thick bulletproof glass window. Mugino Shizuri had created a new entrance for them.

Once inside, the watercraft skidded along the polished floor before coming to a stop.

The intellectual scientists in lab coats were shocked at first, but they paled and put their hands in the air as soon as they saw Mugino Shizuri.

“Yikes! I-isn’t that Lady Mugino!?”

“Are you kidding me? If we’d known it was her, we wouldn’t have even bothered resisting… There’s no way we can beat a monster like her!!”

Mugino chuckled and brushed her wet hair back with a hand, but the rest of Item had small triangles for mouths.

So this was Mugino’s lab.

She appeared to have the staff well trained.

“I only want one thing: give me full authority over the lab’s security right this instant. If we could get in, so could someone else. Does the name Ainame Caroline ring any bells? You there, the one looking awkwardly away, you didn’t let a 10-year-old trick you into an online romance, did you? But she’s through stealing bits and pieces through those marriage scams. At this rate, Honey Queen is going to try to take over this lab in person! So hurry!!”

Part 5

The typhoon had directly hit the city.

On this of all days, the Voice on the Phone with flaxen hair and a tight skirt suit had ordered Muber to one of her hideouts – a rundown apartment in District 7. Muber was an app that let you order food from any restaurant and have it delivered by bicycle.

“Oh, yes. Eating Menya Ikeda’s extra rich tonkotsu ramen on a rainy day like this is my idea of paradise. It only it were always like this for me☆ And the mentaiko rice side is to die for too.”

“…”

The soaking-wet bicycle delivery boy gave her a deeply resentful look, but the entire point of the delivery service was to get people food on days where going out was difficult. And the Voice on the Phone, being who she was, probably thought forcing the poor delivery boy out into the storm was half the fun.

After getting the college-aged delivery boy to leave quickly by giving him a 5-star rating, she carried the noodle bowl and rice bowl to the small room’s tea table. It was mealtime, which meant setting all her work aside. She also made sure to grab an ice-cold can of beer. She lit the menthol-flavored cigarette in her mouth and switched on the TV to hear the familiar intense-but-somehow-also-relaxed voices of the shopping channel. She had no interest in buying a new microwave, but she always ended up watching anyway.

She settled in to watch when an emergency alert appeared at the top of the screen: A cluster bomb terror attack in District 14? Possible connection to a lab in the district.

The Voice on the Phone’s face silently paled. The intoxication of the long 500mL can vanished instantly. That was the secret lab for Meltdowner, one of the Level 5s. It was meant to blend into its surroundings, so the media shouldn’t be discussing it in any capacity.

Not to mention…

(Wait. Don’t tell me… Uh, oh. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m in charge of Item, so does that mean I’m responsible for keeping Mugino’s data secure!? Why is it always like this for me!?)

Her phone rang.

It was from the great Director Nakimoto (who was a known gourmet and had inspired some unconfirmed rumors regarding cannibalism).

He was brief.

“What are you going to do?”

Hanano Choubi was just one of her disguises. It was only a preset face meant to get people to drop their guard, so she didn’t normally use that identity’s timid way of speaking.

Nevertheless, the tearful and trembling girl(?)’s instinct was to use that puppy dog voice here.

Her body knew she was dead if she couldn’t curry his favor.

“I-I will do everything in my p-power to solve this problem.”

Part 6

Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary of Honey Queen would be arriving soon. And yet…

“Where are they?”

While this was a lab, not all of it was dangerous experiment rooms with warning signs and icons on the doors. Item was currently speaking in the staff recreation room.

Takitsubo Rikou expressionlessly asked that question while drying her hair and track suit with a towel.

Mugino Shizuri didn’t even bother hiding her irritation as she repeated the question herself.

“Where are Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary? Where are Honey Queen?”

“Maybe they’re big fans of Miyamoto Musashi. Besides, they never super said when they would be showing up. And even if they know we’re here, they’re still going to attack in case we destroy the data they need.”

“Hey, hey, Mugino,” said soaking-wet Frenda, ignoring how her striped bra showed through her top. “What do they research here? You only called them ‘Meltdowner projects’, but that doesn’t tell us anything. This big building couldn’t have been cheap, but it’s not like Honey Queen needs everything in it. If we knew what Former Head Researcher Ainame Caroline’s top priority target is, defending would be a lot easier.”

Frenda’s idea of “defense” here was to set up a ton of bombs and traps in the areas they knew their enemy would be going.

“And what’s your real reason?”

“In the end, I want to know all your secrets☆”

At a glance from Mugino, the female researcher checking on the espresso machine by the wall made a quick 180 and left the room. It was written plain on Mugino’s face she didn’t want anyone getting close.

She probably saw this as her territory.

“You can look into it if you want,” she said casually, squeezing a dried towel between her hands to wipe the moisture from her hair.

“So even you super don’t know what they do here?”

“You were produced by the Dark May Project, but do you know what that project was ultimately designed to accomplish? It’s the same here. What my power does is entirely separate from what they’re trying to accomplish by researching it.”

With that, it was time to get moving.

“Huh? I didn’t expect to see the security robots super patrolling a secret lab like this.”

“These probably belong to the lab, not Anti-Skill, so they won’t automatically alert the authorities if something happens. And we count as Mugino’s visitors, so I don’t think we need to worry,” expressionlessly explained Takitsubo before looking to the side. “Mugino, is it just me or does that robot have a rocket launcher? And a shotgun too.”

“You field this one, Frenda.”

“In the end, I bet they’re adapted from a killer satellite. America officially claimed they never made any killer satellites – satellites designed to destroy other satellites – but they work the same as the SDI anti-missile satellites.”

They checked the computers in a few of the rooms, but they weren’t just going to find secret data on Meltdowner just sitting out, either in document or data form. They would need to give the researchers a major talking to if they had.

But that wasn’t what they were looking for.

“Here.” Takitsubo pointed at the screen Mugino was operating. “I saw this error before too. We’ve tried three computers with different access levels and from different sections, but none of them have been able to log into this one server. That means it has the strictest security. This says it’s a parallel machine for use during heavy network traffic, but that can’t be true.”

“In the end, doesn’t it look like no one here is able to get into that server? It’s like a special box that none of the staff’s passwords or access privileges can get open.”

“So is it a personal server that only Ainame Caroline can access?”

If so, then the lab’s overall project would have been effectively stalled since that head researcher had been driven out half a year ago. It also meant Ainame Caroline couldn’t get the data she wanted through her online marriage scams. Not when none of her victims could get at the data she needed.

It was sounding all the more certain that Honey Queen would directly attack the lab. Even if Ainame Caroline’s Thoughtography had foretold Item’s ambush, Honey Queen would have no choice but to go for it.

“That would make this secret server the lab’s super final boss.”

If it had been set up from the beginning to prevent access, no amount of messing with it would let Item view the data. Not when they didn’t have a hacker on the team.

But if they could bypass that basic set up, they could break through that thick wall.

“Hm, hm♪”

Frenda hummed as she removed a wall panel and connected a few cables to her phone. Her work with precise time bombs and UAV bombers had given her solid electronic and hardware skills. She must have needed to learn a variety of skills to survive on the dark side as a Level 0.

“I’ve located the signal relay control point based on where the error response cuts off my access. But in the end, a physical bypass should circumvent it. Operating a manual switch should do the trick.”

“Care to dumb that down for the rest of us?”

“There’s a special gatekeeper that checks the username and blocks the way if it’s the wrong person. But if we rewire the cables to go around that device, the signals can get through without needing the gatekeeper’s approval. Which means we can view all the secret data we want.”

Then it was time to do just that.

…Or so Mugino thought, but Frenda wasn’t moving from the spot.

“What’s the holdup?”

“Um, where the work needs to happen is a problem.” Frenda scratched her cheek with her index finger. “In the end, someone needs to dive into the pool of supercomputer coolant and work underwater.”

“Can you super not swim, Frenda-san?”

“This isn’t ordinary water. It has a higher relative density. See, it’s a liquid of coolant particles. Dive in there clothed and the heavy particles will catch in the fibers like they’re a filter and you won’t be able to float back up again.”

They all exchanged a glance.

Except for Takitsubo who tilted her head with her usual empty look and made a suggestion.

“Then can’t you just strip down naked before diving into the coolant pool?”

They all fell silent again.

They had ridden personal watercraft over muddy water in the pouring rain of the typhoon. They were already so soaked their skin and underwear were showing through their clothes, but Item still had the exact same thought at the exact same time.

“I’m still not stripping down in here.” “I’m still not stripping down in here.” “I’m still not stripping down in here.”

“?”

The track suit girl was the odd one out, but they still knew what they needed to do.

Only one of them needed to do the work, so they only had to choose a single sacrifice and strip off all her clothes.

So…

“How about we wrestle over it?”

“Wait, wait, wait, no, no, no!! Muuugiiinooo! In the end, you can’t just knock me down out of nowhere and perform a giant swiiiiiiiiiing!!!”

While Frenda was spun around by her ankles, her miniskirt looked a lot like an umbrella in a typhoon, but that wasn’t enough to settle it. How wild was that demon lord if she could outshine Kinuhata Saiai and her Offense Armor when it came to martial arts?

Takitsubo Rikou tilted her head again.

“Mugino. I think no one would complain if you chose a fairer way of deciding.”

“What, like our intelligence? Or our femininity? That wouldn’t be fair for Kinuhata when she’s so short and scrawny. Here, Kinuhata, you can use my handkerchief.”

“Are you super picking a fight with me? If you wanna wrestle, then let’s fucking wrestle, you little…”

The casual barb made Kinuhata lower her head and mutter something (in her murderous #1 mode), but that wasn’t what Takitsubo had meant. Not that she said anything to comfort Kinuhata.

Takitsubo pulled out a deck of cards she had picked up in the recreation room.

“How about we play cards? Everyone knows how to play old maid and I think that game is more about luck than strategy.”

Part 7

Item sat in a circle so each turn would go Mugino, Takitsubo, Frenda, Kinuhata.

“Okay. In the end, I’m putting the joker in now.”

Frenda quickly dealt the cards to the four of them. It started out with 13 for each plus the one extra, but it was unusual to hold onto all of those. Any numerical pairs a player was dealt would be discarded right away.

“Tch. I didn’t get many pairs.”

“Ooh, in the end, I can discard these: the 3 of clovers and the 3 of hearts.”

“Ugh…I mean, um, it super isn’t anything. In fact, my hand is looking great.”

“I can discard this jack of diamonds and jack of clubs too.”

“Mugino, aren’t you curious about this card I have sticking up above the rest?”

“Wait, wait☆ Don’t start playing yet. In the end, sorry, but I have more to discard. Like this 8 of spades and 8 of diamonds.”

The other three all stared at Frenda.

This was looking mighty suspicious. As much as the game was based on randomness and luck, why was she the only one with so many pairs to discard before the game even began? The fact that her initial hand of 13 cards was down to just 2 caused their suspicions to explode. If Frenda had one of her cards taken and then got the pair to her remaining card, she would win.

In fact…

“Wasn’t Frenda the one who dealt the cards in the first place? I thought it was weird she volunteered to be helpful for once in her life.”

“And it was super Frenda-san who gave me all that advice about cheating in that illegal casino! Oh, I get it. You only pretended to shuffle the deck, didn’t you? And then you dealt all the matching cards to yourself to give yourself a super advantage!”

“She cheated?”

“What are you even talking about? In the end, accusations of cheating don’t mean a thing unless you grab the player’s wrist while she’s doing it. Ah ha ha.”

Everyone’s gazes collided.

That instant marked the death of the fair and fun spirit of cards beloved by the Earl of Sandwich.

Frenda soon grew visibly tearful.

“Hey, what’s the deal? In the end, I’ve never played such a long game of old maid, that giant discard pile clearly has more than 53 cards in it, and I just got the ace of spades even though I know for a fact I discarded it earlier! Just to be sure, this is old maid we’re playing, right? And who introduced cards from new decks by the same company!?”

“Huh. Sounds like one of those super mysteries we’ll never find an answer to.”

“Mugino. Did you just reach behind your back to vaporize a card you wanted to get rid of? Using a small Meltdowner orb, I’m guessing.”

“You must be imagining things.”

The total number of cards was blatantly growing and shrinking and one of them somehow discarded a pair of jokers in the most hellish game of old maid ever seen, but it did eventually end.

The final two players were Frenda and Takitsubo.

They had finally reached the real challenge of old maid. The game wouldn’t be so exciting if it didn’t come down to two players with either 1 or 2 cards, forcing them to a 50/50 chance of getting the joker or not.

Frenda had one card and she had to select one of Takitsubo’s two cards.

Since Frenda was leaning back in a defensive pose, she probably didn’t have the joker. Takitsubo was leaning eagerly but expressionlessly forward, hoping Frenda would choose the landmine.

It all came down to a choice between left and right, but…

“Grr. In the end, Takitsubo has the perfect poker face. Peering into her eyes doesn’t tell you anything.”

“And I can read you like a book, Frenda.”

“Is she somehow reading my AIM Diffusion Fiel- no! In the end, that’s another bluff meant to rattle me!!”

“Frenda, I will not lie to you. It’s on the right. The card on the right is the joker.”

“In the end, I accept that you aren’t lying, but are you talking about my right or your right!?”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that.”

“The fact that wasn’t even a calculated tactic is what makes you so hard to read!!”

Sweat-soaked Frenda’s fingers wandered uncertainly before finally choosing the card on her left.

She felt like she had tried using all her logic to disarm a time bomb, but it ultimately came down to trusting in her luck and cutting either the red cord or the blue cord.

And…

“I lost.”

“Hell yes!! In the end, I’m out with the 8 of hearts and the 8 of cluuuuuuuuuuubs!!”

Frenda slammed down her final two cards and struck a victory pose.

This meant Takitsubo Rikou would have to remove her track suit and dive into the coolant pool.

However…

“(Do you super think she could do it?)”

“(I think this confirms she can sense something even without Body Crystal.)”

“(Then why did she lose? And she super doesn’t seem bothered by it.)”

“(She might have known what Frenda was thinking and guided her toward victory to help calm us all down.)”

Part 8

The coolant pool was in the back of the lab.

It was more than 2m deep and covered even more space than a convenience store.

It looked like clear water, but the rippling surface seemed somehow thicker than normal water. According to Frenda, sinking in while dressed would allow the clothing fibers to gather the coolant particles like a filter and prevent you from ever rising back to the surface.

“This is a radio and these are the tools you’ll need. In the end, keep everything on camera and follow my instructions,” said Frenda.

“Okay. How long will the work take?” asked Takitsubo.

“Around 10 minutes, I think.”

“Hold on. How will she have enough air?” asked Mugino.

Kinuhata tossed over something like a portable cooker’s gas canister. Frenda attached it to a metal pipe arranged in a fairly complex shape. She was creating a makeshift oxygen tank by customizing the kind of oxygen canister used in indoor gyms.

It was shaped more confusingly than a simple burner used to roast the surface of meat or fish.

“This won’t last an hour, so be careful. In the end, we can’t predict what kind of trouble could keep you down there longer.”

“Hm. Okay.”

“Don’t just breathe in the oxygen. The trick is to breathe out the carbon dioxide while closing the valve to keep the water out.”

“Time to take this off.”

Takitsubo didn’t hesitate to strip off her track suit.

Kinuhata and Frenda got an unexpected eyeful of bare skin from head on, so they awkwardly looked away.

(Th-they don’t look anywhere near that super big in her track suit. Those boobs are wasted on her.)”

“(Don’t let it bother you. I-in the end? Everyone loves our Frenda-chan because of the perfect balance I show in all my measurements. If my boobs were any bigger, it would mess with that balance, you see. So shut up, I’m not crying.)”

“?”

After stripping off her underwear too, Takitsubo Rikou sat down on the poolside(?), stuck the makeshift oxygen tank’s pipe in her mouth, and slowly entered the coolant, feet first. The liquid appeared highly transparent, but once she was fully submerged, she couldn’t be seen from the poolside.

Frenda spoke to her over the radio.

“Keep your right hand on the wall and slowly follow that. You’ll find the maintenance panel at a corner 15m from here, so use that as your landmark.”

“Okay.”

Takitsubo’s voice sounded muffled, but that was due to the pipe in her mouth, not the quality of the radio.

While Takitsubo walked through the coolant pool, the other three followed along outside the pool.

“Once you have the control panel open, aim the camera at the inside. I want to check the arrangement of wiring and switches.”

“This?”

Frenda viewed the footage they received and got to work with her right hand. The other two wondered what she was doing and found she was drawing out a wiring diagram on memo paper with a ballpoint pen.

Mugino viewed that from the side and pointed at one part.

“#2 and #7 are traps, so don’t touch those. Also, this isn’t communicating the signal using anything as obvious as a wired connection.”

“Mugino?”

“Do you see how #5 and #6 are unnaturally close together? Instead of using the electricity, they’re communicating with each other using the faint magnetism that leaks out around the wires. That kind of contactless communication means you’ll never reach the signal’s destination if you only follow the paths drawn out on the wiring diagram.”

Frenda knew a lot about circuitry as a bomber, but Mugino figured it out faster.

Even that (extremely villainous) girl was still a Level 5, which meant she was a genius girl whose brain was built differently from the average person.

“Mugino, what does that mean I should do?”

“Pull on wire #9 and nestle it right up alongside #6. Once you’ve done that, you can snip #5 with the wire cutters.”

Mugino’s phone beeped softly.

The phone was connected to the lab’s wireless LAN, but she found it now had access to a screen she couldn’t reach before. A single folder contained a large quantity of files.

The folder was named “Project Angelica”.

Part 9

“Oof.”

Takitsubo crawled out of the thick coolant.

“You really are as super naked as can be, aren’t you? Here’s a towel.”

“Whoa. What are you doing, Kinuhata?”

“I’m not letting you act like my big sister forever. I need to super return the favor every once in a while.”

“Ooh, my hair.”

(Naked) Takitsubo Rikou looked somehow pleased as she let Kinuhata do as she wished, but she eventually frowned.

“Ugh, there’s nothing worse than putting back on wet clothes. It’s so cold and clingy.”

“Super yeah, yeah.”

While Takitsubo dried off and put her clothes back on, Mugino and Frenda were operating their phones.

Project Angelica.

“Angelica? In the end, that reminds me of the word angelic. Or maybe it’s someone’s name? I know there are people called Angela.”

“Someone’s name? No, it’s only a perennial herb from the Apiaceae family used to decorate cakes.”

Frenda tried to read too deeply into it, so Mugino, who was willing to put on an apron and work in the kitchen (when absolutely necessary), had to exasperatedly correct her.

“And to be honest, I doubt the name means much of anything. It’s common practice to give a project a name that will send anyone investigating it down a dead end. In this case, the similarity to angel and angelic is supposed to make you think there’s something like that hidden behind it.”

“You mean the truly dangerous projects are given easily mistaken names that would sound important to just about anyone?”

“That’s right. Then when you find some idiot trying to secretly search for information on it, you go in for the kill. The occult is the perfect option in Academy City because it stands out so much.”

So what was this lab hoping to do with Mugino Shizuri’s Meltdowner?

“The perfect electron microscope.

“The project being run under the tentative name Angelica can be summed up as an attempt to create the perfect electron microscope and electric scalpel at the same time.

“This will be used for physical and industrial gene manipulation.

“In other words, it can be used to design and develop an esper.”

Developing an esper.

That idea alone was hardly a rare one in Academy City.

But why would they bother adding the “design” in there too?

“Do you super think Ainame Caroline wrote this? That little tanned gyaru? Does her personality change when she’s writing?”

“Mugino,” interrupted Takitsubo. “This file gives a summary of the project’s objective and basic theory.”

“…”

“Existing gene manipulation techniques are either biological or chemical and use restriction enzymes.

“This requires strict calculations, including for the type of DNA molecule to act as a carrier for the sequence processed by the restriction enzyme, but the actual macro results are inevitably fickle. Current techniques cannot de-age someone or create a genius with 100% accuracy, nor can they create a human with wings or gills. This can be seen most plainly in the fact that the creation of the Level 5s, the poster children for Academy City’s esper development, is actually reliant on their initial genetic sequence. That is, they must have some inborn ‘talent’ in the first place for the later development to work.

“When such rare talent is required, not all researchers will be able to develop their specimens as desired. The basic concept is closer to investment or gambling than it is science. Anyone in this field will know countless colleagues who were ruined after they received massive amounts of advance funding but could never achieve the results they promised. We are supposed to be scientists. We must eliminate all financial risk from our work, but that is a problem we will never be rid of as long as we continue using existing methods.

“Angelica will fundamentally fix that reliance on coincidence.

“This problem will never be solved as long as we continue treating living beings as living beings. A true solution requires using a purely industrial approach that treats genes as components to be physically manipulated.”

“In the end, what’s this talk about physical and industrial?”

“So like robots?”

“I super find that hard to believe. You mean we’re going to see tin dolls with minds of their own wielding esper powers?”

There were heretical researchers lurking on the dark side who were attempting to create practical cyborgs or androids, but that didn’t seem to have any direct link to Mugino’s Meltdowner.

“Machines… Wasn’t there some research into using Mugino’s power in the field quantum computing and data transmission since it can fix electrons in a certain state?” asked Takitsubo.

“But it doesn’t sound like that’s what this means by industrial. Look at this file. It gives more details.”

“To reiterate, Angelica refers to the perfect electron microscope and electric scalpel as a set.

“If this ‘device’ is used on human genes, it can accurately cut away exactly the number desired.

“So instead of using chemicals and DNA molecules and then waiting for the reaction to show itself, you could see for yourself and use your own hand to directly slice through the genes. Think of it like editing a movie on old-fashioned film.

“Realizing this technique will require the cooperation of a powerful esper with the ability to control electrons.

“There are reports of the Railgun using EM waves to produce a macro reflected wave radar, but there are no examples of her using electrons themselves to cut anything. She has a tendency to avoid that and instead uses magnetism to vibrate iron sand. It is unknown if this is because she was only recently recognized as a Level 5, or if it is a permanent problem. Since we want both an electron microscope and an electric scalpel, it seems best to start with Meltdowner as a base since she does directly burn through things with electrons.

“With the Level 5’s help, she could manipulate people’s genes to evolve them however we wanted.

“She could evolve every last human to Level 5, or she could devolve any Level 5 into a powerless Level 0.

“Angelica would let a single person perform everything that Academy City is attempting to do.”

They were speechless.

Even the Mugino Shizuri.

Angelica wasn’t just about manipulating electrons or people’s minds. Instead of Level 5s born of happenstance reigning at the top of the hierarchy, they would be creating someone who could alter the total number of Level 5s with a flick of a finger.

If someone like that was created, the 6-tier system running from Level 0 to Level 5 would entirely collapse. The status of Academy City’s seven Level 5s wouldn’t be worth a thing.

Someone would be able to evolve anyone they liked into Level 5s and steal the powers of anyone they didn’t like.

She would truly become Academy City’s queen.

If she were to raise only 100 of her followers to Level 5 and leave the rest of the 2.3 million people at Level 0, she could easily rule over all of Academy City. And she would be able to swiftly snuff out any rebellious traitors among her ranks by taking away their power. No matter how large scale the rebellion, it would end in an instant.

In fact, it wouldn’t end with just the city. The rest of the human population in the wide world found outside the city’s walls would only be a matter of time. No one among the 6 or 7 billion people out there would have any way of resisting the queen and her 100.

If this came to fruition.

However…

“Note:

“Mugino Shizuri = poor match for Angelica’s precise gene slicing.

“Power output too great.

“New esper needed. One with similar power but more precise control.”

The final text file had a different tone.

The choppier text could not hide the irritation of the writer. This was a personal note, not a research paper based on logic.

“…”

Was this why Ainame Caroline referred to Mugino as a failure?

It wasn’t a matter of ability.

She had grown far faster than the head researcher had wanted. She had become poorly suited for the precision Ainame Caroline needed.

Was it after that she had started destroying other espers with her experiments and been driven from the lab? Had her extreme level of tuning been too much for those espers, or had she just been too impatient?

“I see.”

When she finally spoke, that was all Mugino said.

“But Angelica is a means, not an end. It’s a convenient tool that can customize an existing person or create your ideal person out of a fertilized egg. Ainame Caroline. What is that brat trying to do by toying with the building blocks of human DNA?”

Part 10

“Are you ready to go, Tachiuo-chan?”

“Y-yes. No, wait. I need to put on a new mask.”

“Hwa ha ha. Then we’ll get going once you do. If you want to study life, there’s no better place to start than DNA. Yes, I won’t leave any coincidences or gaps in the ACGT. And it’ll all be possible with Angelica. Growth, division, aging, and death – after I view every action the cells and chromosomes can make, I can search for any growth or survival that doesn’t fit into the simple cycle of addition and subtraction. If I do find that invisible current, its unnatural guidance should take me right to the cool thing we call life☆ Then I check and see if humans, cats, and little insects all have equal souls. Depending on the result, I might even prove that humanity is less valuable than some bugs.”

“And this is all for your sister?”

“Right. I’ll scientifically prove that she had a soul and it made it safely to heaven. Then no one can laugh at me for saying so, not even here in Academy City.”

Part 11

After they ate dinner and took turns bathing, it was around 11 PM.

“They’re here,” Takitsubo said out of nowhere.

“Kh.”

“Something feels off to the south-southwest. This fluctuation has to be them.”

If Takitsubo Rikou was that certain, Mugino didn’t need to ask for her reasons or reasoning.

They really were here.

The entire giant building that resembled an airport terminal shook vertically. Sharp cracks ran through all the windows on one side.

But not because something had crashed into the front of the building.

It was more accurate to say, the roof had been torn away. Right after something pierced through a point in the lab ceiling with tremendous force, the typhoon winds tore the entire roof away. It came away as easily as the scored strip at the top of a plastic bag.

But they couldn’t afford to forget about the girl who had broken through a roof sturdier than tank armor at the very start of all this.

(It’s that mask girl.)

“Tachiuo Mary!!” shouted Mugino with a Meltdowner blast directed straight up, but it didn’t hit.

Tachiuo Mary didn’t hesitate to jump down the three-story drop of the central atrium. She used her body’s fearsome muscles and sturdy bones to forcefully absorb the shock of the landing and then adjusted her grip on the thing resting on her shoulder.

The weapon had a long shaft like a spear, but the long blade at the tip was even broader than an azure dragon sword.

It resembled a Chinese glaive called a Chang Bing Dao, but it was essentially different.

She had taken a flat piece of metal and crushed it more than halfway to create a spear-like shaft.

“Is that a helicopter rotor? Where did you super get that!?”

“F-from the ‘hospital’ stopped on a nearby building roof.”

Tachiuo Mary politely answered the question before disappearing.

She held the piece of metal weighing more than 100kg and used pure speed to approach Kinuhata Saiai. Before Kinuhata could raise her arms to guard herself, the makeshift Chang Bing Dao sliced through the air and struck Kinuhata in the torso, sweeping her aside. The follow through of the swing slammed Kinuhata back-first into a nearby wall.

This created a loud crash of destruction.

It made sense that girl could defeat all of the doped-up soldiers armed with full-auto shotguns loaded with tiny needles poisoned with habu venom coagulant or hornet venom acetylcholine.

But Kinuhata forcibly held the rotor in place with her hands, restricting the girl’s movement.

With Offense Armor, she didn’t have to worry about this slicing her in two.

“Super now!!”

Tachiuo Mary abandoned her weapon.

She let go of the Chang Bing Dao, grabbed two nearby wireless LAN antennae and used them to deflect Mugino’s kick and Frenda’s wrist coming in from the sides. With a swishing sound, she again readied the two antennae that branched out something like short tridents.

“In the end, are those supposed to be Bijiacha!? That’s the Chinese version of a parrying dagger!!”

Frenda’s shouted explanation was cut short.

A wire thicker than an index finger was wrapped around Tachiuo Mary’s ankle with a weight attached to the end. A sharp piece of metal more than 30cm long was attached to the other end. It was likely a ceiling crane used to unload industrial computers, materials, and other cargo from a truck parked in a garage.

A sharp kick sent the metal into the side of Frenda’s face, sending Frenda spinning to the floor. No, she had launched herself with a small explosive right before it hit, just barely eliminating its force. If not for that, half her face would have been torn right off.

Ferocious rain blew in through the torn-away ceiling. Mugino was so irritated by the wet clothing clinging to her skin she wanted to just strip it all off, but she only clicked her tongue instead.

“Tch!! A Sheng Biao too!? What doesn’t this Chinese weapon lover have!?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t actually know what any of these are called. I don’t recognize any of those names you’re using.”

Tachiuo Mary politely responded with the muffled voice behind her mask.

Was she saying she didn’t know the names or how they worked, but her body automatically selected any nearby object she could use as a weapon? Just like someone who folded a paper airplane or origami crane out of a random flier didn’t think too much about it? If so, how many reflexes and habits had Ainame Caroline written into her specimen’s brain and nerves?

“I do not mind.”

Tachiuo Mary must have realized the same thing, but she didn’t seem bothered by it.

The gloomy high schooler looked Mugino Shizuri directly in the eye.

“Lady Carol destroyed my ordinary world, which was so peaceful and boring but also so stifling it could kill you. But she never demanded I obey her. She treated everyone in Honey Queen as equals, both me…and him. I like this little world. I’m happy as long as I can remain steeped in this wicked world. Unlike you, I won’t starve from any kind of deficiency!!”

“Hah. You’re wasted as a villain!!”

Meltdowner shot from Mugino Shizuri’s palm.

However, it failed to connect with Tachiuo Mary who stood straight in front of her. It flew right past her cheek.

Mugino’s aim had not been off.

Tachiuo Mary had sharply thrown her makeshift Bijiacha with the power of explosives and one of them stabbed into Mugino’s thigh.

“Gah!!”

“Like I told you, if Lady Carol asks me to, I will win even if it means fighting you.”

(She has guts. What kind of idiot would challenge me of all people to a head-on shootout!?)

Mugino clenched her teeth at the pain that felt like being stabbed by building rebar, but the corners of her lips also rose.

She formed a violent smile. She revealed her identity as a battle freak who didn’t care what she gained or lost from the fight.

She had determined this girl was worth fighting.

The air roared as it blew down from above.

The Sheng Biao, a large piece of metal attached to a thick wire, flew towards Mugino’s head like an axe kick.

She had no choice but to jump back and bear with the pain.

The attached wire gave this weapon a different trajectory from an ordinary projectile, but that also limited its range.

“Tch!!”

Mugino raised her right hand and took aim with Meltdowner, while Tachiuo Mary used a swing of her slender ankle to cut away the Sheng Biao, abandoning it on the wet floor.

Unarmed Tachiuo Mary walked slowly forward. Her long braid swayed side to side, sending water droplets scattering as she approached Mugino with no hesitation whatsoever.

This was no ordinary person.

For one, no one with a stable mind would block Mugino Shizuri’s way in an open space with no cover. This was obviously suicide, but she boasted the specs needed to survive it. She was even more of a threat unarmed than with those brutal weapons because she was now free to move however she liked.

Mugino was having fun.

She enjoyed feeling the chill of death crawl up her spine.

It had been far too long since someone had forced her to push past her limits!!

(Tachiuo Mary. When your enemy’s options are unlimited, thinking too hard is a good way to lose!!)

“Ha ha!!”

Mugino arrived at that answer and held her palm straight out.

She heard a lot of high-pitched metallic clinking sounds and noticed Tachiuo Mary had kicked up some junk and scrap metal from the wet floor and grabbed it in her hands.

The large paper airplane surrounding an explosive lithium ion battery was a Shen Huo Fei Ya.

Was the old-fashioned grenade made by forcibly opening a hole in a spray can and stuffing tissues inside supposed to be a Zhen Tian Lei?

“Ohhhh!!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Neither one ran or hid.

They launched their attacks from head on. A beam surged out and triggered an explosion in midair. The exploding paper airplane erupted with flames like a firework to weave through a gap in the explosion, sharply curving in toward Mugino.

Fighting this girl was fun.

She was a being of pure death and violence who dragged out enough of Mugino’s endorphins to put her in extreme battle freak mode. At this point, Kinuhata and Frenda were reluctant to try and assist. An explosion sent talon-like metal shards slicing through the air, grazing Mugino’s cheek and stabbing into her upper arm, but Mugino only corrected Meltdowner’s aim. Instead of aiming for the vitals, she aimed where she expected Tachiuo Mary to be after a jump to the right.

However…

“Hm!?”

She missed.

Her Meltdowner beam unnaturally veered off course and very nearly grazed Kinuhata Saiai who had been preparing a surprise attack on Tachiuo Mary from the side.

(I didn’t screw that up. She did something to me!?)

“We are both giving this our all, so I will hold nothing back. These projectiles are not my only weapons.”

This was supposed to be a clash between espers, after all.

Meanwhile, Tachiuo Mary slammed her fist into a nearby wall and yanked out a thick steel beam. Since the end was split and spread out like a palm tree, it looked a lot like a Chinese Zhuazi Bang. A hit from the steel beam itself would kill instantly and even a graze from the many “talons” at the end would tear the flesh away like a bear slashing a human.

It scored a direct hit.

Kinuhata’s range of motion had been severely restricted thanks to her teammate’s Meltdowner beam, so she was caught in the flank. This time, she was knocked to the floor. If not for Offense Armor, her upper and lower halves would have been torn apart.

“Check.”

As a deterrent, Mugino launched two blasts without trying to hit, but the beams exploded in her palm.

Her attack had failed.

She was blasted to the wall, but Tachiuo Mary didn’t even bother looking while she spoke to Takitsubo.

“Now she can’t move. You’re only meant to locate the enemy, right? Y-you can’t do anything without your attackers.”

“What did you do?”

“I used Angelica. That allows me to do more than raise an esper’s level. I can lower it too. That is my esper power. The chemical secreted inside me is dangerous in much the same way as Body Crystal. Touch that chemical and it will destroy your genetic sequence. The rainwater dripping from my skin is probably a threat too. I-I’m not talking about anything as simple as losing control of your power. This will destroy your DNA and transform all of your cells into a lesion.”

“Kh.”

“J-just kidding?”

Tachiuo Mary thew away her makeshift Zhuazi Bang with a heavy clank and stuck out her tongue a little.

She was so bad at making jokes that the very air seemed tense.

She had said Ainame Caroline had saved her, but this weight showed just how bad her previous life had been.

And the tall, soaked high schooler readily denied everything she had just said.

“I can’t actually do any of that yet. My Anything Link is still only Level 4. Besides, we’re here right now to complete Angelica. All I can do now is send an electron beam through the skull and into the brain to throw off the balance of brain chemicals. It’s not quite the same thing as electrolysis. Still, it is enough to make an esper lose control of their power.”

She grabbed something next to her without even looking in Takitsubo’s direction. It was a hat rack that looked a lot like a Christmas tree made of wires. But by attaching the long, skinny support of a floor lamp by wrapping duct tape around them, it turned into a Chinese spear known as a Xian Qiang. If she stabbed that into immobilized Mugino’s back, the multiple branches of the thick wires would stir up her insides, making a mess of her bones and organs.

“It’s time I lost my murder virginity.”

Tachiuo Mary knew what this meant.

She put on a resolute face and took another step forward.

“She taught me there was more to the world than the supposedly peaceful classroom where the popular are in control and not even the air molecules can move freely. I’m happy as long as I can stay in this wicked world. I’m willing to kill to stay here.”

“Do you think you’re more noble and special because you’re reluctant about the killing you do? If so, you should already know you’re making a mistake.”

“Shut up. I won’t let anyone call me a murder virgin again. I will live in the same world as Lady Carol forevermore. And this is what that will take.”

“”That’s too bad. That shame and guilt are a luxury those of us with no choice but to live on the dark side can’t afford. If you’re going to throw that away without even understanding its value, then you’re only a smalltime villain.”

Track Suit Girl Takitsubo spoke quietly in the rain.

She held a small case in her hand. The white powder sprinkled on the back of her hand was Body Crystal.

“I won’t let you kill Mugino.”

“S-so what? You can talk big all you want, but no matter how much of your lifespan you sacrifice, a targetter like you can’t harm me without an attacker. Who is going to obey your accurate instructions? There’s no one left. You’re out of ammo and only have the scope left, so what can you do?”

“I’m not worried.” Takitsubo was confident. “I know Mugino will get back up. I trust the Level 5 Meltdowner.”

A scraping sound followed.

Mugino Shizuri’s right hand was dragging along the floor while she remained collapsed with her bangs covering her face.

But…was she even conscious?

“You know I provide targeting support for Mugino because you researched us before this attack, right?”

The Level 5’s palm was aimed precisely at Tachiuo Mary.

Tachiuo Mary should have written it off as impossible.

She was watching something that shouldn’t be happening.

“Sh-she can’t do it.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I already broke down Mugino Shizuri’s brain chemicals using the electron beam I sent through her skull, so if she fires Meltdowner now, it will only blow up in her face!”

“If you really believe that, then you can just stand there and wait for your win.”

Make no mistake.

Takitsubo Rikou was not a kind person. Nor was she harmless.

She was just as messed up as the other members of Item.

That plain track suit girl was also a villain whose only home was on the dark side.

Meaning…

“Kh.”

Tachiuo Mary spun around.

She focused on Takitsubo for the first time.

She was forced to.

Takitsuo’s pupils were unnaturally dilated. She had already used the Body Crystal, meaning she had intentionally pushed AIM Stalker beyond the limits of what she could control.

But more than that…

“I don’t believe it…”

Tachiuo Mary was aware of the deadly light gathering in a corner of her vision, but she did not remove her gaze from Takitsubo.

The obvious Level 5 wasn’t the real threat here.

She focused on the person who inspired far greater terror in her.

“Does this mean…observing and tracking AIM Diffusion Fields isn’t the true form of your pow-”

The light that should have exploded instead shot out as a beam and pierced Tachiuo Mary.

Part 12

Tachiuo Mary had been defeated.

Takitsubo Rikou stared silently at the result for a while, a slight cloud over her face.

“Mugino?”

No response.

Mugino’s hand fell limply to the wet floor. She didn’t react at all to Takitsubo’s call. Mugino Shizuri was unconscious. Was she fully spent after that final attack, or had she passed out before that?

(What was that just now?)

Takitsubo decided she needed to hide what had had happened, even from the rest of Item. At the same time…

“Cough!! Hack, cough!?”

She didn’t even have time to cover her mouth. She reflexively doubled over and coughed up a lot of blood.

This was the result of all the Body Crystal she had taken.

There had to be a cost. The sound of her lifespan shrinking seemed to ring through her very bones.

Nevertheless, she had overcome it.

She had used her power for the people important to her.

Tachiuo Mary must have been reaching for the same summit. That timid high schooler had fought so hard, yet it still wasn’t clear what was in it for her. What good was realizing Project Angelica for her? That couldn’t be her goal. That monster probably only wanted to spend time with Ainame Caroline.

Just like Takitsubo did not hesitate to consume her own lifespan for no direct benefit of her own.

Tachiuo Mary was the same.

“Gh…”

“Wake up, Mugino. She’s still breathing.”

“Ow… That injury is fatal. She just can’t bleed out and die right away because the gut wound was cauterized. The battle is still over.”

Frenda and Kinuhata were…still out.

Mugino and Takitsubo made sure they were still breathing and had a pulse, but they didn’t react to a light slap on the cheek. They also didn’t even stir with the pouring rain falling on them. They would need more specialized smelling salts to wake them.

“Takitsubo. A lab like this is bound to have ammonium carbonate lying around somewhere. We can split up and-”

“Mugino.”

Takitsubo interrupted to give a warning with her wet hair plastered to her cheeks.

Mugino noticed a moment later.

The rain had been pouring in ever since the roof was torn away, but it had stopped.

That was probably nothing more than the ordinary natural phenomenon of entering the eye of the storm, but it felt more like even that massive natural disaster was holding its breath in fear of a certain girl.

Yes, someone was approaching from down the hallway. It was the 10-year-old genius girl with the toxic outfit that looked wrong on her terribly small body.

It was Ainame Caroline.

“Wait. Tachiuo-chan? Damn, did you really lose? Now that’s what I call boring. I guess even you had a hard time taking on all four of them at once.”

“Ugh,” groaned Tachiuo Mary, still unable to get up from the floor.

But she still managed a somehow weak smile behind her mask.

“Did you find it, Lady Carol?”

“I did.”

“Good. Then maybe this was somewhat worth it…”

Tachiuo Mary smiled despite her missing organs.

She was the kind of person who could smile even now.

The little brown gyaru gave a quick nod. She reached into her exceptionally short skirt’s pocket and pulled out something too old-fashioned for a cutting-edge lab.

She held a cassette tape.

“While you were keeping them busy, I accessed by personal server in the back. At times like this, you should take a lesson from what major corporations do when backing up the personal information they get on tens of millions of people with their point cards: if you want to securely backup your most important data, you’ve gotta go with a cute digital magnetic tape☆ The discount hard disks sold in electronics stores are all just disguised nonvolatile memory, so I realllly wouldn’t trust them if I were you.”

Could Ainame Caroline control her personal server from any computer in the lab?

She twirled the digital cassette full of her research secrets like she was performing a card trick and then she inserted it between the wrapped wire at the center of her bikini’s flat chest.

“Ha ha ha. It cracks me up. Now I have the full plans for the lab’s unique medical equipment. It’s honestly sad that all that effort was over this one tiny digital cassette. But if I combine this with Mugino Shizuri’s DNA map, I can continue my research and complete Angelica without needing this stupid lab. It’s only a matter of time now.”

“And how are you going to find that time? The only time you have is her remaining lifespan. That’s a valuable thing. A part-timer won’t be handing out free samples of it on the street corner,” spat Mugino, ignoring that she was so wet her underwear showed through her clothing. “Even with that big hole in her gut, she still has to weigh twice what you do. Did you think you could escape my Meltdowner while struggling to drag her along with your scrawny arms?”

Ainame Caroline titled her head a little.

She twirled her bunny ears phone in a hand and looked down.

“Tachiuo-chan.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for everything.”

Even at a distance, Mugino clearly heard the awful sound of a brain frying.

The mask’s straps came off Tachiuo Mary’s ears.

But she wasn’t moving anymore.

A line of red blood silently dripped from the corner of her exposed mouth.

Ainame Caroline had a form of Thoughtography. According to the “hospital” Item had brought their delinquent driver to, she used a special iron ink to burn a random pattern into the surface of the brain, obstructing the cranial nerves and thus preventing consciousness.

With her gut burst open and multiple organs gone, there had been no saving Tachiuo Mary regardless.

But Ainame Caroline had shown so little hesitation.

“Ah ha ha☆ And now a girl as little and cute as me can nimbly escape. Problem solved.”

“What is wrong with you?”

“Lame. Remind me who fatally wounded her? That blood dripping from her mouth isn’t my fault, by the way. Stop acting all righteous when you’re the one who killed her. That’s just boring.”

Ainame Caroline twirled her blast-resistant bunny ears phone with an icy expression on her face.

She didn’t stop with just the one.

More sizzling sounds followed. This time from unconscious Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai. Finishing off a downed enemy before they could get up again may have been standard practice on the dark side, but that wasn’t the point.

That eliminated the possibility of withdrawing.

Not even finding ammonium carbonate smelling salts in the lab would help now. Those two would never wake up again unless that piece of shit’s power was removed or she was erased from the face of the Earth.

“Mugino.”

Takitsubo tried to say something, but Mugino didn’t even look her way and held out a hand to stop her.

She directed a slight smile toward the source of all this trouble.

“What choice do I have? Tachiuo-chan broke before I could turn her into a complete Angelica. She lost the functions I can trust in, so I see no reason to keep her around anymore.”

“…”

Mugino considered this while looking at collapsed and unmoving Tachiuo Mary.

Maybe this was wrong since she was the one who had given that girl the fatal wound.

But something about that girl reminded her of Butler Mujinayama who would take her side at any time.

There was nothing in it for Tachiuo Mary.

She probably didn’t really care all that much if Project Angelica was completed or not.

And yet she had fought to the end. Despite the lack of any real personal benefit. It wasn’t clear what connection those two had or what debt Tachiuo Mary might owe Ainame Caroline, but ultimately, there was only one reason Tachiuo Mary had consistently accepted more risk with no personal benefit.

She had wanted to be with her.

That little researcher had hit a roadblock in Project Angelica, destroyed some promising espers in her impatience to get back on track, been kicked out of the lab, and found herself on the dark side with nowhere to go. That was who Tachiuo Mary had met. But instead of sympathizing with the troubled little girl, Tachiuo Mary had respected her for having what she did not. That was why she had grabbed the offered little hand. She had seen Ainame Caroline as worth looking up to and she had believed helping her would put a smile on that little face. The shy and timid high schooler had mustered so much courage for someone other than herself.

She had decided for herself how to use her life.

She had chosen to throw out her own possibilities, turn her back on the law, and become a villain who had still chosen to act as a diversion for her partner.

That dumbass had made the choice without any hesitation or regret.

“Tachiuo-chan was admittedly a valuable specimen, but I can create a new Angelica with your DNA map and the equipment plans on this cassette tape. And then, like I said, it’s only a matter of time. This only delays the inevitable. Once I investigate the irregularities in DNA, I will eventually find a scientific definition of life and the soul. Hee ha ha. It cracks me up so much it took me this long to get back what I created in the first place☆”

If you didn’t understand the value of people’s lives and minds, it was best to avoid messing with them. But this girl had trampled on them. Whether enemy or ally, she had destroyed the lives and minds of the people who had found their own reasons for risking their lives and fighting on the dark side.

The most dangerous con artists didn’t need a conscious switch to begin lying.

She did not hesitate or regret eliminating one of her own.

Was that insufficient?

Was that still not enough of a reason to begin a fight between dark side groups?

That dirty piece of shit didn’t deserve to exist even in the hellhole that was the dark side.

Even if this wasn’t the ending Tachiuo Mary would have wanted.

“Are humans worthless to you, you shitty researcher?”

“Humans are just collections of functions. Take my dead sister for example. She was someone who woke up early every day to make a charaben for me. That was one of her functions and it’s why I respected her.”

That girl earnestly wanted to learn what a human life was.

She still didn’t have an answer there and she smiled here.

It didn’t matter what kind of tearjerking backstory she had, nothing would change that this monster was a bad person through and through. With truly bad people, you didn’t need to consider the possibility of some special event giving them a change of heart.

Not even Mugino would deceive the teammates who watched her back.

She was merciless when it came to traitors, but that was a sign off how much she loathed liars and fakers.

But Ainame Caroline had not prepared to maliciously deceive her enemy, nor did she feel any guilt about betraying her allies. She simply had no morals and had a hair trigger when it came to lying.

She didn’t deserve the title of villain.

She was just a disgrace.

What would happen if someone like her completed Angelica and gained the ability to freely increase or decrease the number of Level 5s?

It was unlikely to signal the arrival of a wicked new world.

And not because the winner gets to write the history. It would only lead to a disgrace toying with and consuming lives for fun.

It would only mean more of that kind of bloody scene.

“You’re actually making me look decent,” said Mugino. “If that’s not a sign to stop, I don’t know what is.”

Ainame Caroline was a researcher.

Without her brilliantly broken brain, Mugino’s Meltdowner never would have been completed. No matter how much they loathed each other, that was undeniable. Mugino needed to thank that girl for letting her reign over the dark side and support her life and livelihood as a rare Level 5.

But this was a separate issue.

No causal link between the Level 5 and the researcher could make up for what had happened here. As a villain of the dark side, this was not something she could ever let go.

Mugino would never forgive someone who made a mockery of the people she had accepted as worthy.

Tachiuo Mary had been a respectable villain. That made her worthy.

Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai had the skills needed to watch her back. That made them worthy.

So what would she do now?

Was that even a question at this point?

“Takitsubo.”

“Yes?”

“Take care of Frenda and Kinuhata. If ammonium carbonate won’t wake them, then at least keep them safe. Predicting lines of movement and fire are your specialty, right? Don’t stay in once place. Drag the two of them around if you have to.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll wipe that piece of shit off the face of the Earth. I won’t be satisfied if a single speck of dust is left.”

Mugino didn’t even need to think about it.

She cracked her neck before continuing.

“Because eliminating dangerous elements in Academy City is our job as Item.”

Between the Lines 4

My sister got up early every morning and made me a charaben.

My sister got up early every morning and made me a charaben.

My sister got up early every morning and made me a charaben.

In the end, that was Ainame Caroline’s entire definition of her sister.

She was only a collection of functions.

Ainame Caroline did not understand the formless concepts of the mind or a life, so people’s external outputs were everything to her. If someone had the functions of “cheerfully saying hello”, “giving directions to an old man looking lost on the side of the road”, and “taking lost money to an Anti-Skill station”, she judged them an honest and good person.

That person’s inner life was of no concern to her, even if they made sure to say hello so their teacher wouldn’t yell at them, even if that lost man was a well-known local wealthy person, and even if they simply weren’t interested in such a miniscule amount of money.

At the same time, Ainame Caorline, the girl who had (on paper) graduated college and earned a doctorate at the age of five and helped develop a Level 5, saw even herself as no more than a collection of functions. Of course she did. Who had ever bothered looking into their own inner life? She had turned out this way because of the list of functions fitted into her slots.

When someone makes fun of you, they might as well be making fun of me.

Or in other words, it angered her as a researcher when someone refused to recognize the functions she had created and built into her teammate.

She had to be a good person because she never deleted the photos of her sister’s charaben, right?

She had to be a good person because she still wore her sister’s suspenders, right?

She had to be a good person because she continued to fight a lonely battle for her sister, right?

With functions like those, surely anyone would reach the same conclusion.

Humans were collections of functions.

Since you could never directly view another person’s mind or life, you only had the things they did to judge them by – no matter what they might be thinking on the inside. If someone had functions 1, 2, and 3, you could conclude what it was they would ultimately output into the world. That was all you needed to define an individual person.

In the extreme, you could say humans were hairless apes who had gained the function of thought.

The value of one’s life came from their functions.

You could learn the nature of someone’s mind from their functions.

So creating the greatest function and giving it to someone else was the most good act imaginable. If she filled all of someone’s slots with nothing but “good functions”, they were sure to be happy.

And as the person doing that, she had to have the functions of a good person.

How could that be wrong?

If it was, she wanted to know how. That was something else she was sure to learn once she completed Angelica.

She would view the entirety of someone’s genes and eliminate all coincidences and gaps. Could DNA be controlled through simple addition and subtraction? Angelica would let her fully grasp the activity of the cells and chromosomes and then she could immediately detect even the slightest unnatural current there. That would let her find whatever “life” was. If successful, she could easily figure out if all souls – be they human, cat, or insect – were of equal value. Of course, instead of proving them equal, she might instead fully overturn the accepted hierarchy.

Now, it was time to open her phone, view the photos of those charaben her sister had worked so hard to create, and lose herself in those wonderful memories. Because now it was only a matter of time before she had her answer.

She could reminisce about her beloved sister.

She could fall into a gentle dream about that person whose functions struck such a miraculous balance.

My sister got up early every morning and made me a charaben.

My sister got up early every morning and made me a charaben.

My sister got up early every morning and made me a charaben.

Chapter 4: Your Chains Exist to be Broken

Part 1

It was midnight on August 7.

All sound had vanished from the world in the brief respite of the typhoon’s eye.

Ainame Caroline disappeared.

“!!!???”

Mugino Shizuri felt a scrape.

She immediately swung her head to the side to dodge, but she couldn’t stop the icy pain on her neck. Even though just a 5mm difference would have cut open her carotid.

“Sample acquired☆”

She had seen this bizarre teleportation before.

After sharply moving past her, the little brown gyaru smiled and twirled her phone in her hand. Not only was it contained in a sturdy blast-resistant case, but the case’s decorative bunny ears were in fact razor blades.

(Her power is Thoughtography, which doesn’t explain how she can suddenly disappear! Damn!!)

But Mugino didn’t have time for a detailed analysis.

Before even holding a hand to her neck wound, she held her right hand directly behind her.

She launched a Meltdowner beam.

She heard a sizzling sound, but not from Meltdowner.

“Kee hee ha ha!!”

Dark scorch marks surrounded everything around the 10-year-old girl, including the walls, floor, and ceiling. The lines drew out some kind of pattern and they looked a lot like movie film chopped into pieces and scattered around.

Thoughtography.

That was all it was supposed to be, but Mugino’s attacks weren’t hitting.

“Lame! Did you forget? I’m the head researcher who was directly involved in developing you as a Level 5. This entire lab has essentially ceased to function without me around. And did you think Meltdowner was the only thing I worked on? Hee ha ha! It’s cool, really. So, so cool!! The seven Level 5s all influence each other. And! I’ve already acquired the essence of the #6!!!”

Ainame Caroline disappeared again. She approached while taking small steps to the right and left. If Mugino let herself be lured into firing a poorly-aimed Meltdowner blast, the girl would rush in all at once.

Mugino hated how her wet white clothing clung to her skin. And in this life-or-death situation, even a slight irritation could become a serious threat.

She had a blade slash with red blood dripping from it.

But that wasn’t about to extinguish Mugino’s rage.

“Ohhhh!!”

She thrust her palm out in front and fired Meltdowner.

But just when she assumed Ainame Caroline would disappear, the girl instead swung her body to easily dodge the deadly light and then rushed sharply in toward Mugino.

“Again!?”

Neck, wrist, and thigh.

The sharp bunny ears razor blade had plenty of vital points to choose from.

Even Mugino was forced to guard herself with her arms. A sharp scorching heat ran through her flank.

“Lame. I already have Meltdowner’s DNA map and duplicate samples are honestly a real letdown. But since I took it, I might as well archive it. Oh, I know. Wouldn’t it be hilariously cool if I preserved each drop of blood on a microscope slide and handed them out in front of the train station like tissues!? Ha ha ha. Now that would throw the world into chaos!!”

It wasn’t over yet.

Mugino couldn’t afford to collapse here.

Collapsed and abandoned Tachiuo Mary entered the corner of her vision. That girl had fought all four Item members at once to buy time, but then she was abandoned by the very person she had trusted to the end. A villain like Mugino regretted the loss of someone so deadly.

She wanted to do something for her.

Could the dark side really accept this sack of shit who wasn’t even a villain?

“You can’t possibly understand what it feels like to not just be a duplicate but to be discarded without even getting the chance to live up to your full potential. When I use those support organization delinquents, I at least make sure it’s part of a plan leading to victory. I might coldly consume their lives to win, but not even a villain would continue to throw them into the meat grinder while knowing from the beginning it was a dead end.”

“Ah ha ha☆ Deflate that ego, guinea pig. That’s something only us cool researchers can do.”

Mugino blinked in displeasure.

That girl could gather information through Thoughtography, she could mysteriously teleport, and she had her bunny razor blade.

If Mugino couldn’t reveal all of Ainame Caroline’s tricks and prevent her from using them, she would be carved up little by little!!

Part 2

“Oof.”

Still drenched, Takitsubo held limp Kinuhata below the arms and dragged her to a nearby room. That might not be enough to protect her from stray shots when espers of that level were fighting, but it was still better than leaving her where she was.

The clingy wet clothing felt gross.

Ammonium carbonate smelling salts would be meaningless even if Takitsubo could find some. There might be a drug that would work on the nano iron paint graffiti burned across the surface of the brain, but even a top quality(?) black market doctor had been hesitant to try anything there. It would probably be best to not break open the locked glass cover over the shelves and make a selection with her phone’s search engine in one hand. The most she could do for Kinuhata and Frenda was keep them in a position that wouldn’t obstruct their breathing.

Mugino Shizuri had not asked Takitsubo for assistance.

Ainame Caroline didn’t seem to be paying her any heed either.

But..

(I can still help.)

The track suit girl pulled a small case from her pocket.

She tried to sprinkle some of the white powder on the back of her hand but failed. An unnatural and unpredictable shaking caused the powder to fall to the floor.

“Kh.”

She clenched her teeth.

Her brow was soaked with sweat.

Even so, Takitsubo Rikou was a member of Item.

She could tell Mugino was having trouble fighting on her own. She had once been a victim of false accusations, which led to her rights being stripped away and brought her a step away from being a lab rat. The person who had rescued her from that life was again facing a foe with anger in her heart. If she screwed this up, an even more horrific reality was sure to present itself.

Even dark side villains would never abandon someone they had chosen as a teammate. Anyone who couldn’t even manage that was just a sack of shit.

Takitsubo once more grabbed the small case.

She sprinkled the white powder onto the back of her other hand.

The back of her throat was still stained red from coughing up blood before. She herself couldn’t fully explain what had happened when she fought Tachiuo Mary, so she decided she couldn’t expect it to happen a second time.

But that didn’t mean she could give up. Maybe she was a villain, but she had to consider every option available to her here.

(Using Body Crystal again so soon is pushing it, but I should be able to support Mugino from here.)

Part 3

A few sharp pains slashed at Mugino in quick succession.

Removing her wet cardigan and wrapping it around her right arm didn’t provide much defense against that sharp razor blade. While she did that, Ainame Caroline silently disappeared and continued to do solid damage.

And she disappeared again.

Not even Mugino’s most powerful Meltdowner blast could kill this sack of shit unless she solved the mystery of that brown researcher.

A few more beams missed their mark and the bunny ears razor blade sliced through the air in counterattack.

Red spray scattered in the air.

“Kee ha, ee ha ha!! Hee hee ha ha ha ha!! What happened to your precious Meltdowner? Are you even trying to hit me, you failure? If your power had developed better, I could’ve realized my dream a hell of a lot sooner. Lame. It’s all your fault!! You delayed and twisted my future, so the least you could do is prove that power was worth it by killing me with it!!!”

Even small wounds were a threat if there were enough of them.

And there were plenty of thick blood vessels visible on the surface of the body.

Plus…

“Kh.”

Mugino’s head wobbled heavily on her neck. Her vision blurred darkly. The extreme situation would have caused her to perspire and caused her blood vessels to expand and contract and then her wet body had been exposed to the chilly air conditioning this entire time. It wouldn’t reach the point of frostbite, but there was a risk of hypothermia.

But she refused to relinquish her consciousness.

She had to do something for Frenda Seivelun and Kinuhata Saiai. She also had to stand up to the insult against Tachiuo Mary, who was so delightfully deadly.

She would repay this debt in accordance to her own rules.

She would prove it was a bad idea to underestimate the Mugino family that had gained power by absorbing the Western gangs before anyone else.

(I more or less know how it works.)

“!!”

The 10-year-old brown gyaru vanished and the next attack arrived.

Soaked Mugino scattered water droplets from the end of her long hair as she climbed over a table and used it as a shield.

Nothing happened after that.

Ainame Caroline twirled her bunny ear phone from a short distance away.

“What’s wrong? Does that fancy teleportation of yours not work with an obstacle in the way?”

“…”

The wounds she had taken had not been for nothing.

She would let an enemy cut her flesh as much as they liked. As long as it gave her a chance to turn the tables on them.

Tachiuo Mary had made her tremble with excitement. Frenda and Kinuhata had trusted her with their lives.

She swore she would repay that debt.

She wouldn’t let this sack of shit live out a happy life.

“Of course it doesn’t.”

Mugino grinned and violently kicked away the table between them.

Her wounds wouldn’t heal. Her situation was only getting worse.

But the thought of her imminent victory pumped adrenaline into her blood and her fading field of vision instantly expanded.

“Each esper only gets one power. Even if you did develop your own power based on whatever you learned working with Meltdowner and the #6, you can’t give yourself two Level 5 powers at the same time. That means your esper power is electricity-based Thoughtography. Most likely, you use the invisible flow of electrons to simulate the future and draw it out using magnetism. That ability can be explained with just the one power. I could grab you by the ankles and shake everything out of your pockets, but I’d never find a completely different power that lets you instantly teleport objects.”

Mugino had been looking at it wrong.

That girl wasn’t hiding another unseen power.

“That teleportation is a trick that only requires your Thoughtography.”

That was the proper assumption when thinking about Academy City espers.

Ainame Caroline used the hand not holding her phone to pull a new chocolate snack stick from the box held in place by her short skirt and stuck it in her mouth.

“Oh? Such as?”

“Humans close their eyes automatically. So maybe you dash just one step forward while we’re blinking. The idea would sound silly if I was talking about a normal person, but your Thoughtography lets you see the future. As long as you know when someone will blink, it isn’t all that difficult.”

As a result, it looked like she disappeared.

It was Mugino herself who had been abandoning her sight for brief periods.

She didn’t know how many times a human blinked during a minute, but it had to create a decent opening if you could utilize all of them.

Soaked Mugino brushed her wet bangs up.

“That’s also why you burn photos all over the floor and walls when you use your Thoughtography. Everyone can see your photos, so with just the one photo as a hint, they would realize what you were up to. So you have to scatter a ton of extra photos around as camouflage.”

“Lame. I can only give that 3 out of 5 stars. How borrrring☆’’

“What? Are you saying you aren’t predicting the coincidental timing of our blinking? Do you use light, sound, or electrical stimuli to make us blink when you want?”

“Ha ha ha. Why else would all four members of Item blink at the exact same time? Obviously I’m influencing that. It’s pure sleight of hand, so I don’t even need my Thoughtography to do it.”

That would mean she didn’t even peek at the future when dodging Meltdowner.

She was only littering the floor and walls with wholly unnecessary futures.

By burning all those thoughtographs into the walls and floor, she changed the surrounding patterns and colors to create an optical illusion that accurately threw off Mugino’s aim.

Wasn’t that the same method used by Shokuhou Misaki – no, by Mitsuari Ayu in disguised?

There was no rule requiring someone with a real supernatural power to base their attacks on that power.

“So you’re a goddamn researcher to the very core.”

“Hee ha ha. That’s right, esper. I’m a cool researcher who’s also an esper. I’m built different from a boring Level 5 who has nothing else going for her. It cracks me up, really.”

It had bothered Mugino that Ainame Caroline used a phone as a weapon.

What if it was more than the special razor blade and blast-resistant case? What if the entire phone itself was a weapon? That would let her produce all sorts of toys, like infrared and ultrasound. If light and vibrations too weak to notice applied minute stimuli to the surface of the eyeball, it might be possible to induce blinking at the precise moment you wanted. Maybe something similar to spectators obstructing baseball or soccer matches with a laser pointer.

Mugino saw a small and wicked smile before her.

Ainame Caroline remained confident even after her secret was revealed.

This was odd. The enemy wouldn’t go out of her way to give Mugino an answer that would help her.

If she really had developed her own power based on the Personal Reality so closely related to Mugino’s mentality, she had to understand that villain’s logic.

“Wowww, you actually got it right. But does knowing how it works mean you can avoid it? Can you avoid being dazzled by a bright light through willpower alone? Or can you hold back the tears while chopping an onion through sheer force of will?”

And.

Ainame Caroline hid her mouth behind her rectangular phone.

“Lame. Did you forget? My teleportation might only be a trick, but my Thoughtography can directly fry your brain☆”

So she only needed enough of an opening for that attack.

She only needed to lure Mugino into a position where she couldn’t avoid it.

That was all she needed to win.

And to do that…

“You intentionally let me reveal your teleportation trick!?”

“Ha ha ha!! Were you relieved you’d solved the mystery? Lame! That’s the moment when people drop their guard, making it the perfect time to use my power in a surprise attack!!”

It happened suddenly.

They both held their palm out.

Was the bunny ear phone only camouflage and Ainame Caroline was actually taking aim with her palm?

Just like Ibotanokikouji Kaede had and, more importantly, just like Mugino Shizuri did.

“An expert photographer knows how to draw out the beauty of their subject. To photograph a wild bird, you blend into nature. To photograph food, you let it cool so the steam won’t get in the way. To photograph a human, you chat with and flatter them to make them smile!”

“You mean all of this was you’re a photographer’s conversational technique!? Am I a joke to you!?”

The beam launched from the one palm shot right past the brown girl’s cheek.

The color black danced wildly about.

Countless massive photographs were burned into the walls and floor around the little brown girl.

“Level 1 Thoughtography!!!”

Time slowed to a crawl as Mugino was faced by a threat rivalling a large truck barreling toward her.

Mugino did not consider that to be weak.

At this point, it didn’t make sense.

That girl had the ridiculous ability to accurately read the future and to objectively share it with anyone as a photograph, but she was still only Level 1?

Academy City’s level system was judged by the adults. It was possible her ability to burn graffiti into people’s brains was considered too horrific to warrant any further research, which had cost her points. The adults may have decided the risk outweighed the benefit of knowing the future.

This too was a dark side tactic. As a researcher who knew how powers were scored, she would be able to influence the result.

So how much higher would her level be if it were accurately judged!?

(If I screw up here, I can’t avenge Tachiuo. And I can’t **** Frenda and Kinuhata!!)

If a single Meltdowner blast hit, she would be safe without having her brain scrawled on. But Mugino grimaced. The optical illusions drawn out on the walls and floor by the Thoughtography messed with her aim. Her straight-line beams had been easily avoided. Trying the same thing again wouldn’t help. She would only be hit by a deadly counterattack! How would she handle that attack? She had no way of dodging it!

She had focused on the wrong thing.

Instead of trying to figure out the phony teleportation, she should have focused on finding a countermeasure for the weaponized Thoughtography. Instead, she had fallen for the breakwater placed in front of her and wasted her limited time thinking about something else. It was no surprise she had no plan now.

(How much of this did she predict!?)

“All of it.”

Ainame Caroline answered a question Mugino hadn’t even said out loud and then bit through her chocolate snack stick.

“My Thoughtography isn’t suited for combat because I can’t use it to essentially watch a livestream of the immediate future while I fight. But I’m second to none when it comes to taking my time thoroughly photographing the more distance future! Ah ha ha! It cracks me up!! I’d already photographed your boring defeat before I even showed up. Lame. Did you really expect such a valuable head researcher to set foot in this primitive place if I hadn’t!?”

There was nothing Mugino could do.

Ainame Caroline had bared her deadly fangs. There was no stopping it with Meltdowner!!

“Did you really?”

The third voice that interrupted from the side sounded far too ordinary.

Then Mugino noticed an odd smell.

(Time has sped back up to normal?)

Something had wafted over to her. Then pain raced through her like all her blood was boiling.

Ainame Caroline hadn’t done this.

This wasn’t that girl’s attack!

(Gah, bwah?)

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

The beam gathering in her hand suddenly exploded.

Her power was running wild.

And this was no coincidence. Mugino knew of a substance that could artificially induce this state.

“It…can’t be…”

Ainame Caroline was just as dumbfounded.

Had her precious Thoughtography failed to show her this uncontrolled chaos?

For the brief moment Mugino’s deadly violence blossomed wildly, she clearly broke free of the world’s invisible rails.

“Body Crys-”

It pierced right through.

The thick beam caught the little girl at the hip, fully vaporizing her lower half.

It seemed to happen in a moment of absolute silence.

“You want to save Frenda and Kinuhata, don’t you? You just can’t bring yourself to say it.”

But a voice broke that silence.

“So I’ll say it for you. I am a member of Item and it’s my job to do what you can’t.”

Part 4

Ainame Caroline’s upper half splatted down onto the filthy, wet floor. Just like with Tachiuo Mary, she couldn’t die right away because the edge of the wound was cauterized. That introduced the risk of a counterattack after the battle should have been over, so that may have been a problem worth fixing. A groan came from the lump of flesh pasted to the floor.

Mugino didn’t escape unscathed either. She stung all over. More than half her body may have suffered minor burns. But for now, she had to focus on Ainame Caroline.

She wouldn’t let this end with an accident or losing control.

She had to personally finish off that sack of shit who couldn’t even become a villain.

Otherwise she couldn’t avenge Tachiuo Mary. And she couldn’t get payback for Frenda and Kinuhata.

She had to end this here and return to her ordinary life.

Ainame Caroline had completed Meltdowner. Mugino had survived on the dark side thanks to her Level 5 power, but her thanks for that weren’t enough to forgive that girl for what she had done.

That insane genius had crossed the final line and violated a taboo that was off limits even for villains.

Punishing people like that was Item’s entire purpose.

She couldn’t let that girl out into the world.

She had to defend this final line and eliminate her.

Soaked Mugino put back on the cardigan she had wrapped around her arm and spoke.

“Did you think you could get away with anything just cause you’re a little kid?”

“Lame… I could say the same to you.”

“What, you think you won’t be charged with a crime because you’re special and talented? That isn’t how it works. You might not have much of a body left, but you’ve still got a heart, so look deep in there. Then you’ll see you brought this on yourself.”

“Right back at you.”

She really was a dark side villain, even if she was a poor example of one.

She only had her upper half left and her death was guaranteed, but Ainame Caroline didn’t make a meaningless plea for mercy. Nor did she apologize to someone who was already gone or ask to be put out of her misery.

She chose to leave behind as many malicious scars as she could.

That was the only thing fueling the little brown gyaru’s wicked smile.

“Are those temporary teammates really that important to you? Lame. Boring too. They’ll all move on eventually. Leaving you behind cause you’re the only real villain among them. You’ll find yourself all alone in that pathetic darkness☆”

“You talk big for someone who can only measure people by their functions and skills.”

“What’s your point?”

“I’m saying you never did understand what your sister was thinking when she made you a charaben each and every day.”

“…”

“Yeah, I can see how you ended up like this,” spat Mugino. “At the very least, I know your sister didn’t want you to turn out this way. I’ve never met her, but I know that for a fact. That’s why she worked so hard to shower you with love on a daily basis. She saw you becoming a monster of a researcher with no qualms about breaking the rules, so she did everything she could to change the trajectory of your life. But none of it ever got through to you, so here you are. If she spent so much of her life and sacrificed so much and this is the result, it sounds to me like she died in vain. You might as well have spat on your family grave. Your sister was as much one of your victims as anyone else.”

There was no silence.

For the first time, Ainame Carolien’s face crumpled up.

But any salvation for her would be too little, too late.

She had already mercilessly abandoned Tachiuo Mary and she held Frenda and Kinuhata’s lives in her hands.

If she wasn’t willing to release those two from her Thoughtography, the only option was to kill the source of the brain graffiti and hope that got rid of it.

Ainame Caroline had to understand that.

“Go to…hell.”

Her quivering lips produced a curse. Was this the first true human emotion produced by her heart – not just a function or a skill?

If so, that little researcher was barren earth that would bear no fruit no mater how many seeds were sown and watered.

She should have kept quiet.

Why did she insist on further proving that her dead sister’s life had been meaningless? It was the same with Tachiuo Mary. Everyone who had believed in that wasteland of a person and given her their love received nothing in return.

“You can’t survive…even on the dark side.”

Mugino dragged her aching body and looked down at Ainame Caroline.

She held out her palm and gathered deadly light there.

“Level 5s are not cool enough to grow on their own. You can only continue to grow because all the researchers work themselves ragged continuing their research and experiments. Lame. You saw how this lab’s nothing but an empty shell without me. You’re done for. You had plenty more potential for growth, but now that you’ve killed me, that potential will dry up. Doesn’t that crack you up? Now you can only watch as the others surpass you. And you’ll have no chance at all of making a comeback. Lame… Watch out or they’ll swarm you and prey on you, trapped little rich girl.”

A short silence followed.

And then Mugino spoke clearly, without eliminating the light in her palm.

“That’s a small price to pay for killing you.”

She would not let this girl create a second Tachiuo Mary. No one needed another Mugino Shizuri.

No one at all.

She could carry the weight of this deep darkness all on her own.

“Say what you want, it’s all a million times better than letting someone as dangerous as you go free. Even the dark side’s villains understand human emotions. People are supposed to do what’s right, preserve order, respect other people’s rights, support each other, and live together in a society. The true dropouts who can’t manage that know how to respect the ordinary people who live in the light. But you couldn’t even manage that part. What you’ve done isn’t good and it isn’t even evil. All you’ve done is destroy your own dignity.”

“Oh, really?” said the wicked researcher with a slight smile. “Then laugh. Because you’ve just nipped all your future possibility in the bud by siding with the good guys☆”

That ended it.

But Mugino wasn’t the only one whose lips moved. Ainame Caroline smiled thinly and held her palm out toward the deadly Level 5. Her lower half was already gone and there was no escaping death for her, but she did it anyway.

Both of them said the same thing and used their deadly attacks at the same time.

“You’re – dead – meat.”

Epilogue: If Just One Thing Had Happened Differently

It was August 8.

Typhoon 11 had moved slowly, but it had finally passed Academy City by.

With roadside trees fallen and wind turbines stabbed into building windows, Academy City had a post-apocalyptic look in the wake of the typhoon, but most people breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the clear sky overhead. The ground and building walls were still soaked, but people might begin complaining of the heat once the sun rose high into the sky. The security and cleaning robots were rolling lazily along.

Mugino Shizuri walked through the city and entered a small flower shop on the way.

It had a decent location, squeezed between a luxury car dealer and a chapel that looked like it held weddings on a daily basis. It likely provided for a unique form of demand, much like a bicycle shop near a school.

“Welcome. Are you looking of anything in particular?”

“Not really. I’m on my way to visit some people in the hospital, so can you prepare me a decent bouquet?”

The young, aproned female clerk looked puzzled.

She may have found it odd since there was no large hospital nearby, but Mugino was talking about the black market doctor (who had stubbornly survived the attack by Tachiuo Mary). Ordinary people had no idea the nearby short-term apartment building had some of its rooms converted into temporary hospital rooms.

Mugino quickly brushed off the woman’s confusion.

“You don’t need to worry about it too much. They only have minor injuries, so they’ll probably be released today or tomorrow.”

“Oh. I don’t mean to be rude, but what is your budget?”

“For them? 10 thousand’s probably my limit. I’d just feel silly spending more than that.”

“Wow, 10 grand. That’s generous of you.”

“Even when it’s divided by three? Oh, right. I’ll be splitting it up into a vase for each of them later, so keep that in mind when making your selections. Each flower needs to stand out on its own.”

“Can do☆”

The sweet-voiced clerk selected a few recommended varieties and quickly assembled the bouquet. As a kid back with her family, Mugino had learned what flowers were considered good or bad omens, but unused knowledge tended to fade. And she was pretty sure the version she was taught was less about preparing gifts for important occasions and more about putting together a bouquet that would tell your target they were about to be killed.

(Didn’t grandfather give me a rare head rub when I mixed Japanese and Western by using both chrysanthemums and black roses?)

“All done. Is this bouquet to your liking?”

“Great work.”

Mugino paid with a hefty tip, took the bouquet, and left the shop.

Kinuhata Saiai and Frenda Seivelun had passed out during the fight with Tachiuo Mary. Takitsubo Rikou had also gone down after using too much Body Crystal. But after everything that had happened, they were lucky to have escaped with only minor injuries. The special iron ink used for the brain graffiti was supposedly supported by the patient’s own bioelectricity, but when Ainame Caroline had died, she had released a special form of faint noise over a wide area, which caused the patterns inside her victims’ skulls to collapse and vanish.

It was a good thing the black market doctor had been correct about the Thoughtography user’s death releasing the brain graffiti.

Ainame Caroline had been a formidable opponent.

Mugino sighed and had just rested the bouquet on her shoulder when her phone rang.

It was the Voice on the Phone.

“What do you want?”

“The contradiction of having to reward you for this is threatening to tear my soul apart. Why must it be like this with you? I have independently confirmed Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary’s deaths. But you caused too much damage this time. That lab will be shut down and moved elsewhere, so keep that in mind.”

“Why bother when that lab can’t accomplish anything worthwhile without Ainame Caroline?”

“Fair point. Now, if anything is still bothering you, ask it now while you have the chance. Congrats☆ To celebrate your win, I’m willing to answer a few questions.”

“I’m good.”

“You are so not cute. It’s always like this with you. C’mon, aren’t you curious about that one claim that was never properly addressed? Ainame Caroline said she didn’t just work on Meltdowner, remember? She claimed the Level 5s can influence each other and that she also worked on the #6.”

“That was obviously a bluff.”

“What if I told you I’d heard the #6 was working behind the scenes six months ago when Ainame Caroline was booted from the lab?”

Mugino briefly fell silent.

Ainame Caroline had supposedly been fired for taking her experiments too far, but how exactly had the boring adults in the lab forced out such a monster? That did remain an open question.

Could that be why Ainame Caroline kept using the #6 as a threat?

The psychological esper named Mitsuari Ayu had some kind of grudge against Shokuhou Misaki, so she had pretended to be her on the dark side to ruin her reputation.

The mentality was similar.

“You’re getting closer. It’s always like this with you.”

“…”

“You haven’t made direct contact yet, but you’re getting too close for comfort. In our business, the most dangerous connections are the ones that just happen without you actually digging into whatever it is. You can feel the pull, can’t you? The person at the center of the diagram isn’t you – it’s probably the #6. If a villain comes in contact with the #6, they will die, even if they are Level 5. I’ve seen bits and pieces of a few past cases. The #6 will deliver a finishing blow to a villain’s life, even if it means shoving aside the invisible concepts we call safe zones, causality, the order of events, and the system of god. You know how the dark side loves talking about unscientific things like luck and omens, right? Assume the signs hidden below the surface are far worse than the ones you can see.”

The #6. The Dark Side’s Bane.

Making direct contact, even unintentionally, would mean ruin for any villain.

“I’m not interested either way.”

“You really aren’t cute.”

The Voice on the Phone didn’t sound particularly surprised.

“Don’t get yourself killed too easily. The project you destroyed means more debt, so I’ll be working you hard to repay it. This debt began with your own selfishness, so it’s your responsibility.”

“What’s your point?”

“I have the utmost trust in you☆ Think of yourselves as excellent racehorses and me as the owner who has bet big on you winning. Ah ha ha. If you don’t want to become some workhorse in the middle of nowhere, you need to give me consistent results. It needs to always be like that with you. As long as you remain useful, you will have a place here.”

“You said you would answer some questions, didn’t you?”

“What’s your question then?”

“Maybe this is rude, but do you have a younger sister? While your voice itself isn’t familiar, if I imagined it a little younger…yes, there’s something about your inflection I’ve definitely heard somewhere else-”

The phone call abruptly ended.

Mugino was right smack in the middle of a big city, yet her phone’s antenna symbol showed no signal.

“?”

“Whatever,” she decided. That money lover was sure to call again eventually.

That was another draw of the dark side.

Those untrustworthy sorts would show up whether you liked it or not.

If she was to find anything worthwhile in all this, she would find it in the battles she had fought.

Honey Queen had been a level or two above Item in ability and strategy, so how had Item still won? She needed to focus on that irregularity and thoroughly analyze it.

In other words…

(They weren’t the untrustworthy sort.)

Not that she was going to say that out loud when anyone could overhear her.

Mugino resumed walking toward the “hospital” with bouquet in hand.

Takitsubo Rikou.

Frenda Seivelun.

Kinuhata Saiai.

Without those three – or if they had come together in a different way – she never would have survived that stormy night.

“Hm, hm♪”

She hummed a random tune and pulled out her music player. It contained a cassette tape, but this one did not contain a re-recording taken from a digital music subscription service.

The digital cassette contained all of Ainame Caroline’s research data on Angelica.

She had kept it hidden away instead of presenting it to the higher ups.

“Then laugh. Because you’ve just nipped all your future possibility in the bud by siding with the good guys☆”

That sack of shit had smugly spat that curse.

But that wasn’t enough to stop the Level 5 Meltdowner.

Mugino removed the digital cassette, kissed the corner, and grinned.

After robbing the dead and shrugging off an ominous prophecy, the wicked girl made a new announcement.

“I guess that means my path to the top is restarting from here.”

Afterword

That was Volume 2.

This is Kamachi Kazuma!!

This time, I told a story focused on Mugino Shizuri’s Level 5 research project, including a battle with the Honey Queen secret data thieves. While Volume 1 was about chasing after an external foe, this one was about digging deep inside Mugino.

The criminal theme this time was scams and deception. Ainame Caroline working as an online marriage scammer is an obvious example, but Item also deceived the enemy with their sting operation. Are lies acceptable if they are told for a good reason? Who decides what counts as a good reason? It’s a thorny issue, but I kind of like Kinuhata’s stance that she only enjoys being lied to by the film industry.

I designed the enemy boss Ainame Caroline with Kihara Amata and Accelerator’s relationship in mind. That’s why she has a gyaru-like appearance. And I feel like working to create a genius is always going to mess with a person, for better or for worse. I hope I managed to show that the two of them influenced each other and have a lot in common, but they end up clashing because they have irreconcilable differences deeper down.

I also created her with the idea that she would have what sounds like a lovely story about her past that only goes on to emphasize just how endlessly twisted and messed up she is. Come to think of it, I think this is the series’ first fake elite who achieved her position among the adult researchers by cheating. I thought it would be an interesting combination for her to use next-generation Academy City-style cheating and to have Thoughtography that lets her predict the future. And don’t overlook that her power is less about what she photographs and more about what she photographs it on.

When I was wondering what kind of enemy Mugino Shizuri would most dislike, I thought it would be a sack of shit who belongs to the dark side but doesn’t draw a solid line between the two sides and moves between them at will. What did you think of this wicked enemy who deceives with a smile?

Also, while Volume 1 was an Item group battle with the 4 (+1) against another 4, this time I intentionally gave them uneven numbers. That inevitably makes the ones on the side with fewer people look stronger. Ainame Caroline and Tachiuo Mary both had multiple means of attack and could have wiped out Item singlehandedly, but which did you find more frightening? And if anyone was moved by the initial charaben story in the Between the Lines sections, you need to be careful because all that showed was a collection of functions you could call an “otaku-friendly homemaker gyaru”. You’re at risk of falling for a 10-year-old genius online marriage scammer!

Timeline-wise, this is set in the past, but Academy City’s technology is far ahead of the outside world. That’s why I’ve been using a more old-fashioned term like UAV instead of drone since Volume 1. This time, there was also the outdated slang used by a certain someone, the cassette tape, and the SDI. If you look into that last one, you’ll see they were planning some ridiculous things, but computer chips and components have gotten a lot cheaper and smaller in the intervening decades, so maybe you could actually pull it off? A chilling thought. Let’s hope the retro boom doesn’t head in that direction.

The US weapon I based the multiple rocket launcher on was actually developed quite a while ago. That she had that hidden away shows just how high quality the Dark Side Bomber is and demonstrates the standards needed to call yourself an expert.

Speaking of technology, I was pleased I had a chance to use the personal watercraft. For some reason, the sleek designs of those watercraft and snowmobiles have a way of capturing my heart.

This time, the “it’s always like this with you” Voice on the Phone finally got to be her true self with no acting. She seems like a coldhearted schemer at first, but if you go back and read Volume 1, you should find she is poor at adlibbing and leaves flowers on the side of the road when faced with the deaths of ordinary people. Pay especial attention to her inner thoughts in parentheses.

I give my thanks to my illustrator Nilitsu-san and to my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, and Hamamura-san. It was a sweaty see-through festival of fearless villain girls in thin clothing! …Maybe you think I’ve gone nuts, but thank you for putting up with it all. Volume 1 was all about the bright sun, so I wanted to show another side of summer!!

But maybe showing see-through clothing is a challenge in black-and-white illustrations? I also included an open world of land, water, and air vehicles all in one volume, which couldn’t have been easy for the illustrations either…

And I give my thanks to the readers. I emphasized the links between the past and the present in Volume 1, but this time I focused on the links between the past and the past. Instead of just relying on the main series, I feel like I have created a living world within this series too. That is thanks to your support letting me put out this second volume. Thank you so much!!

It is time to close the pages for now while praying (once again even harder than usual) that the pages of the next book will be opened.

And I lay my pen down for now.

Man, these dark side stories kill off characters so fast…

-Kamachi Kazuma

Ending

“Okie-dokie! The District 14 lab has been shut down like you asked. Top priority access to the Hula Hoop particle accelerator reverts back to the official control center. Really, no one needed the thing anymore once they carelessly kicked Ainame Caroline out, so this was just eliminating a lingering money sink.”

“What about Meltdowner Mugino Shizuri?”

“She’s doing fine. Mugino Shizuri’s Angelica would let her slice up DNA from an industrial approach and Takitsubo Rikou could reach the point of rewriting Personal Realities via their AIM Diffusion Field. They start at different places, but they have the same ultimate goal. That’s no coincidence, is it? It’s almost cruel, really. The whole thing is a comparison test between similar espers to determine which one to prune, similar to what happened between Shokuhou Misaki and Mitsuari Ayu, right?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Eh? Ah ha ha. Don’t even try to deny it at this point. I already know everything. Once one or the other is perfected as a Level 5 capable of creating more Level 5s, we don’t need the other one anymore. Isn’t Item a stress cage where they’ll push each other to greater heights until one wins out? You even faked that whole false charges case so the one could save the other and build solid bonds between the two enemies☆”

“Do not make me repeat myself.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, should I continue to monitor Item like normal?”

“Yes. I am certain I can get a majority of the 12 on my side. And this city’s king agrees with me as well. Even if there are a few opposing votes, there will be no major move against us.”

“When it’s all fated to fall apart sooner or later, I almost feel sorry for Mugino with how hard she’s working at holding it together.”

“(Clink clink)”

“Heyyy, is that silverware tapping against a plate? Th-that’s rude, you know? And I will remind you that I did produce results here, so please don’t eat me. Heh, eh heh heh. Okay, Nya-Nakimoto-shan?”

It was August 9 in District 13.

The typhoon was gone and today was a festival day. Festivals dedicated to one’s ancestors and the gods were a rarity in Academy City where a belief in science was so common, but some of the traditions were still enjoyed without any belief in the religious concepts behind them. The wooden scaffold for the bon dance, the rows of paper lanterns, and the giant Japanese drum had been carried in from District 12 which was dedicated to religion (which in this city, meant studying it scientifically).

“Onee-chan!”

Frenda saw her 7-year-old sister running toward her. She couldn’t have gotten the yukata on herself, so her cosplayer dorm manager must have helped her get dressed. The yukata hung straight down around her like a single tube and it was slipping off of her in worrying ways as she ran.

But the princess of the family was oblivious to this. She held cotton candy in her right hand and her goldfish scooping prize in her left hand and she leaped into her big sister’s arms with a beaming smile.

“Yay! In the first place, I caught you, Onee-chan!! Now you have to join us☆”

“Wait, you’re getting cotton candy on my clothes!”

“In the first place, Japanese festivals are great! You can buy anything just by showing them your Nyaon money phone! Nyaoooon☆”

“In the end, when did this high tech stuff work its way so deep into Japanese traditions? Curse those festival stands for using e-money to trick elementary schoolers into spending money without realizing it.”

“Heh heh heh. They say this is supposed to mimic what a temple festival is like. Now I’m going to bon dance the night away! In the first place, hold this, Onee-chan! I need both hands free!”

“Yes, yes. Wait, can you really keep this goldfish? In the end, looking after a living creature is a lot of responsibility.”

“Heh heh. I’m doing just fine with Michelangelo and Geraldine, so I’ll be fine.”

Oh, right. She already had those rhino beetles. They wouldn’t fight with the goldfish and neither animal needed to be fed several times a day, so they could be left alone at the dorm all day. They didn’t need to be taken for a walk, so maybe Frenda could trust her sister on this one.

The younger sister’s classmate hesitantly spoke up. She had her yukata done up properly to show off her nape and she hid her mouth behind a fan, giving quite the graceful appearance. Frenda found it quite rude for a 7-year-old to show her up like that. How elegant did she think she was?

“E-excuse me. The teachers are calling for us.”

“Okay!! Then let’s go, Azumi. I watched tons of example videos, so I know I can do it. In the first place, how can they do the Japanese bon dance without me!?”

This program had each class at their school dancing together, so Frenda didn’t have to worry about her sister taking part. And she didn’t have to act like a dad at an athletic festival because one of the teachers was bound to take a video to record the event.

Then she noticed a familiar face standing next to her.

The sexy girl in a yukata was…

“Huh? Now this is a rare treat, Mugino. In the end, it’s unusual to see you at a seasonal event like this.”

“Speaking of unusual…what are you wearing?”

“A yukata, what else? In the end, it’s the latest from Demeter & Aphrodite.”

Frenda spread her arms and showed off her outfit. Despite being a yukata, it had a miniskirt, it bared the shoulders in the oiran style, and it was decorated here and there with frills and lace. It had the same vibe as extremely nice avocado sushi made by a traditional sushi chef as a collab with something else. It left the history and tradition in tatters, but the design itself wasn’t bad, leaving no real room for complaint.

“My sister is trying out the bon dance over there, so in the end, we can talk now if you want.”

“About what?

They walked around behind the boxy park management center because it felt like the right thing to do.

There, the two dark side girls continued their conversation.

“Really, it’s just weird to see you of all people participate in the summer festival. In the end, you dodged the question before, but this isn’t your usual routine. And if you aren’t acting like your usual self, it tells me your usual flowchart has broken down. I get the feeling you’ve taken more unseen damage than you’re even aware of yourself.”

“…”

“In the end…”

If Mugino had wanted a change of pace, she had to be carrying some kind of weight inside.

Frenda Seivelun came out and said it.

She gathered her resolve.

“You’re just forcing yourself to go on, aren’t you?”

She felt a soft impact.

Mugino Shizuri had pressed her forehead against shorter Frenda’s flat chest.

She stayed that way for a while.

Until…

“I hate it.”

The Mugino who spoke here was one Frenda normally never got to see.

“That’s a small price to pay for killing you.”

She had thought that was the right thing to do.

To get payback for Tachiuo Mary who had fought fair and square and been trampled on by the very person she had wanted to be with.

And to save her teammates Frenda and Kinuhata who had graffiti burned into their brains when they were already out of the fight.

Mugino had needed to settle things with Ainame Caroline no matter what.

Half measures wouldn’t have been enough.

Even if she ended up at the very bottom of the dark side, she had chosen the best possible option.

And yet.

Even so.

“Say what you want, it’s all a million times better than letting someone as dangerous as you go free.”

She understood all that.

But it didn’t matter.

That Level 5 could not deny that she envied an imaginary version of herself who hadn’t done the right thing.

In the end, that monster had only been a girl.

Mugino refused to accept that anyone out there could perfectly control her emotions.

“I hate it so much. What do you mean my power won’t grow anymore?”

Perhaps that was a cruel thing for a Level 5 to say to a Level 0.

But Mugino couldn’t stop herself.

Her muddy feelings gushed out. She couldn’t help it.

“That lab in District 14 – that giant building – contained my future. I went there today and it was gone without a trace. It wasn’t just temporarily closed!! Hula Hoop is nothing more than a particle accelerator now… I have no idea where Meltdowner research is being done anymore. And it’s supposed to be my power! No, I bet the adults didn’t move anyone anywhere else!! There won’t be another lab!!!”

She had known this would happen.

So she would have avoided reporting it to the higher ups and worked out a plan to avoid this.

But even so…

“I have the digital cassette. I have all the data needed to complete Angelica. But that’s meaningless. I have the data, but there isn’t a single adult out there who can make use of it!! What the hell? It’s not that I didn’t have the talent or that I failed to do the work. What did I do to deserve having my future stolen from meeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!???”

Her beautiful face crumpled up.

Large tears spilled out.

That never should have happened.

But this blow was so powerful it made it happen anyway.

The large fireworks bursting overhead could not fully drown out her voice as she wept like a small child. The Level 5 who ruled everything through fear and charisma was nowhere to be found.

Even though she had defeated a powerful foe, survived that nightmare of a night, rescued her teammates, and brought peace to the world.

This wasn’t the face of a winner.

Winners didn’t cry like an abandoned child.

She had solved everything and defeated the enemy, but the ultimate loser was Mugino herself.

Or was the unfair halting of her research a financial issue or related to Academy City politics?

That little researcher had been confident her curse would come to fruition.

And so she had sneered at the survivor from the verge of death.

“Then laugh. Because you’ve just nipped all your future possibility in the bud by siding with the good guys☆”

Could the Angelica research data have been so complicated that only a genius researcher like Ainame Caroline could make use of it? Was that why none of the adults had tried to take her position after she was gone?

Mugino had killed the genius with the one and only path left for her.

Who was it that had actually fulfilled the curse?

“…”

Frenda had asked her to open up, so the blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl simply listened.

She placed her arms around Mugino and rubbed her back just like when she comforted her little sister.

“I defeated that villain and protected the city and this is the thanks I get!? Are you saying I brought this on myself!? Is it supposed to be my just deserts!? But someone had to stop her. She really was a step away from completing Angelica. We were the only ones who could have stopped that villain!! So why does it have to lock away my future? You work and you work, but this world doesn’t reward you for iiiiiiiiit!!”

The girl burying her face in Frenda’s chest was shaking intermittently.

She was sobbing.

And sniffling.

This was no more than a girl who had hit a significant roadblock in her life.

“…”

Frenda understood the pain of having your path as an esper blocked off. As a Level 0, she had been faced with that one right at the starting line, so she knew just how merciless and unforgiving that precipice was. If anything, she may have been lucky she had faced it and gotten over it when she was still little.

What did it matter if it was ugly?

If they couldn’t open up to each other like this, they weren’t true teammates. Item trusted their lives with each other, so Frenda had to view this display of vulnerability as growth.

Ainame Caroline had said Mugino would never grow past this point, but Frenda refused to accept that.

Go to hell.

Go to hell, cruel world. Then what do you call this miracle happening before my eyes?

This wasn’t an issue for Mugino alone.

If all of Item worked together as a whole, they had endless potential for growth. So it was up to Frenda to help support Mugino here.

She had to repay Mugino for the trust shown by letting her see these tears.

So…

“It’ll be alright, Mugino. We can all get stronger together.”

Frenda Seivelun gently hugged the lonely girl who was working so hard to silence her sobs but continually failing.

She leaned toward Mugino’s ear.

And she said something she never should have.

She spoke the fateful words that could become “one of many factors” down the line.

“In the end, I swear I will never betray you.”

Prev	[v d e]Toaru Majutsu no Index: Genesis Testament GT Volume 1 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword GT Volume 2 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 3 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 4 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 5 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 6 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword GT Volume 7 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 8 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 9 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending GT Volume 10 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending [v d e]Side Stories Volume SP Illustrations - Stiyl Magnus - Mark Space - Kamijou Touma - Uiharu Kazari - Afterword Railgun SS1 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Kanzaki SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Railgun SS2 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Road to Endymion Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 Necessarius SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Virtual-On Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword Railgun SS3 Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Biohacker SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 Agnese SS Illustrations - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 Railgun LN Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword Item LN Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending Item LN 2 Illustrations - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - Afterword - Ending Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game Toaru Jihanki no Fanfare Toaru Majutsu No Index: Love Letter SS Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS: A Superfluous Story, or A Certain Incident’s End Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament SS Toaru Majutsu no Index: Shokuhou Misaki Figurine SS Toaru Majutsu no Index: A Certain Midsummer Return to the Starting Point Toaru Majutsu no Index: Using Final Bosses to Determine a Sociological Threat Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament Bonus Short Story Toaru Majutsu no Index: Thus Spoke the Kumokawa Sisters Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On: Vooster's Cup, The Day Before Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On: Misaka Mikoto's Dangerous Tea Party Toaru Majutsu no Index: Birthday Through the Glass Toaru Majutsu no Index: New Testament 20 Bonus Short Story Toaru Majutsu no Index: Misaka Mikoto’s Teamwork A Certain Magical Index: Genesis Testament SS [v d e]Official Parody Stories A Certain Prophecy Index A Certain Academy Index A Certain Gift Exchange A Certain March 201st Novel I Don't Want This First Story of A Certain Magical Index!! or I Don't Want This Final Story An All-In "World" Tour of Academy City, the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, and Ground's Nir Kamijou-san, Two Idiots, Jinnai Shinobu, Gray Pig, and Freedom Award 903, Listen Up! …Fall Asleep and You Die, But Not From the Cold☆ We Tried Having a Group Blind Date, but It was an All Stars Affair and a World Crisis Will the Spiky-Haired Idiot See a Piping Hot Dream of His Wife? Dengeki Island: A Girl’s Battle (Still Growing) Kamijou Touma Visits Another World Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch Crossover SS Toaru Majutsu no Index X Apocalypse Witch X Heavy Object Crossover SS I Still Want to Do a Summer Fair A Certain Collaboration Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 Kamachi Crossover Illustrations - Preface - Prologue - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Epilogue - A.E. 02 - Afterword Durarara Crossover Preface - Academy City Chapter - Ikebukuro Chapter	Next NA