Toaru Majutsu no Index:Item2 Chapter1
Chapter 1: Level5_vs._Little_Honey_Queen[edit]
Part 1[edit]
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[edit]
“…”
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[edit]
“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[edit]
Booooom!
The room and its balcony were blown away so violently it was obvious even from outside.
Part 5[edit]
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[edit]
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[edit]
“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[edit]
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!?”
