It was early morning the same day, October 3rd.
However, Accelerator was in a rectangular underground area surrounded by thick concrete, so he couldn’t tell if it was morning or night. And it didn’t really matter. He was standing with his cane underneath fluorescent lights that gave off uniform illumination.
He was in a shooting range.
The room went about 50 meters back, but only the front 10 meters were made for people to walk in. The rest was cut off by an oblong table. There were a great number of human-shaped targets beyond the table and a training program could freely move them anywhere along a mesh-like series of metal rails.
There were a number of thin dividers on the oblong table creating 13 lanes for the shooting area. The space for each lane was about the size of a phone booth.
Accelerator was standing near the middle at the 8th lane.
His slender hand was gripping a small handgun and the area smelled a bit like fireworks.
“Exercise Number 42. Begin.”
A recorded woman’s voice gave that announcement as 5 targets began to move.
(I’ll go in order from closest to farthest. I just have to blow them away one at a time.)
Accelerator held the handgun in one hand and accurately shot each target.
Gunshots rang out in the large underground area. The loud noise bounced back adding even more pressure to his eardrums.
Accelerator was right-handed, but he was forced to shoot with his left hand because of his cane.
“Exercise Number 43. Begin.”
He only needed about 70 seconds per round.
(I can’t focus too much on the sight. I have to watch everything. Even motion at the edge my vision.)
As he thought, Accelerator was intent on his shooting. For him, reloading was more of an issue than the firing itself. As he had his cane in his right hand, he had to do so with only his left hand.
He removed the magazine, spun the gun around so the slot for the magazine was pointed up while his pointer finger remained on the trigger, pulled a magazine from his left sleeve with his mouth, put it in the gun, spun the gun halfway back around, put the slide in his mouth, and pulled it back.
It all took about 2 seconds.
But Accelerator felt that was too slow.
“Exercise Number 44. Begin.”
He had tried firing plenty of other guns.
(I have to choose a gun based on the speed with which I can reload, the weight when I’m swinging it around in one hand, and the recoil when I fire it.)
The table in front of the lane had military, self-defense-use, sports-use, and plenty of other types of handguns on it. It also had shotguns, submachine guns, and rifles.
There were empty cartridges scattered about his feet like a pile of fallen leaves. Because of the various types of guns, the shells had different sizes and shapes. Some were copper-colored metal and some were made of blue plastic.
“Exercise Number 45. Begin.”
He shot the targets moving at high speed on the rails.
(Don’t rely on the destructive force of a single shot. Shooting multiple times with an easy-to-shoot bullet works best as a generic strategy.)
The targets picked up pace and they could turn sudden, sharp corners at the numerous switching points, but he precisely hit every single one regardless.
Members of Anti-Skill underwent formal training and even they couldn’t do that. He had just barely started using guns and his posture was unsteady because of his cane, but he could already handle a gun like he’d been doing it for years.
But…
“…I can’t use this.” Accelerator said in an annoyed voice before the machine output his stats which were a personal record.
He pushed a few buttons on a calculator-like device on the lane’s table and the training program stopped. He then threw the handgun onto the table.
He spoke without turning around.
“What do you want, you disguised bastard.”
After he spoke, a purposeful sounding footstep could be heard from behind him. It was most likely in place of a knock.
“I was trying to suppress my presence, but it seems I need to practice some more,” spoke a soft male voice.
Accelerator turned around to find a thin brown-haired boy standing there. Accelerator recalled that his name was Unabara Mitsuki. But just after naming himself, the boy had said that his face and name were both fake.
“I’d actually like to consult with you on that matter. You were in the middle of target practice, so it couldn’t have been that I made a noise. So how did you detect my presence?”
“You’re always blabbering about something, aren’t you? I’m not gonna help you with that.” Accelerator spat out, but he honestly hadn’t noticed Unabara Mitsuki’s approach.
At least not with any of his normal sensory organs.
But…
(Tch. They’re trembling again…)
The hand that had held the handgun was hurting for a reason other than fatigue.
He didn’t know why, but this had been happening ever since he had first met the guy a few days ago. Whenever Unabara Mitsuki was nearby, his fingertips would tremble unconsciously. And he would feel a pressure on his chest like there was a basketball there.
One thing always came to his mind when it happened.
(Kihara Amata.)
The pouring rain, a dull pain, and the iron-like taste and smell of blood.
(Last Order.)
That small life that had been tormented by unreasonable violence and seemed like it could slip away even now.
And…
(…Those black wings that appeared on my back.)
It was nothing more than a vague, abstract image in his head. He had only started to become aware of that existence when he had joined GROUP…no, it had actually been from the point when he had crushed the researcher known as Kihara Amata.
But he couldn’t exactly discuss that with the man before him.
He would gain nothing from showing any weakness here.
“I asked what you wanted.”
“Have you decided on a weapon?” Unabara’s smile did not go away. “You won’t have time to do too close an examination. You have an urgent job to do. You need to learn how things work around here as soon as you can.”
“So far, nothing’s felt just right,” Accelerator spat out and looked down at the large number of guns on top of the table. “But somehow I doubt I’d find one that did if I checked every gun in the world.”
“How about you put together a list of equipment you can use along with your powers?”
“You just don’t fucking get it, do you?”
He tapped the choker-style electrode on his neck.
“I can’t rely on this thing.”
“Why not? It’s been improved, right? The report from GROUP’s technical team said that the time you can use your powers was upped from 15 minutes to 30.”
“GROUP…” Accelerator repeated as if he didn’t care.
On September 30th, some people in powered suits had appeared after he had pulverized Kihara Amata and taken him away to join a unit by that name, but even a formal member like him didn’t know the details. Currently, it seemed GROUP acted as a 4-member set including him. But he didn’t even know how many other such units there were or even if there were any others. The people in those powered suits may have been members of a different “GROUP”.
He had transferred to Nagatenjouki Academy.
That’s what Yomikawa Aiho and Yoshikawa Kikyou had been told happened. Even Accelerator thought that was a nice method of explaining it. It was true that no one would find it odd that the top school in Academy City had a special class that stressed secrecy. There could very well be a single research room that even the other students didn’t know about.
Taking advantage of that, he was registered as a student there, but didn’t actually attend the school.
(It’s the people who control GROUP. I can’t see the whole picture, but the people above us must have the power to do that and a goal that requires that they go to that much effort. Sounds suspicious to me.)
Accelerator knew there were a number of subordinate organizations that worked under GROUP. They developed and maintained equipment, transported personnel, and completely destroyed all evidence of GROUP’s actions. A huge number of people must be needed to do all those various jobs and it was all for the sake of just four people.
One of the recipients of all that, Unabara Mitsuki, had a look of puzzlement on his face.
“Are you displeased with how the electrode is tuned?”
“Ha. Doesn’t matter if it’s 30 minutes or 3 days, it’s still fundamentally the same. If something fucks up, it’s all over. If the electrode breaks down, I can’t fight and then I’m dead.”
These were his feelings after facing a formidable opponent like Kihara Amata with the battery having died. He could no longer feel safe while he was relying on something.
From now on, he had to fight no matter what situation he was driven into.
“Ha ha. So you’re saying all the effort the technical team went to in analyzing the electrode was a complete waste?”
“I don’t fucking care,” Accelerator responded. “Is that all you wanted?”
“No, I was about to get to why I’m here.”
Unabara paused for a beat and continued.
“GROUP has gotten an order for a job from the Board of Directors.”
“…”
“Academy City is currently fortifying its anti-Roman Catholic battle lines, but due to the focus on anti-Roman Catholic things the defense on the inside has gotten thinner. Our job is to do a clean sweep of a force that is going to use that gap in the defences to do some damage to the functionality of Academy City.”
“Heh. Ha ha ha.”
Accelerator laughed without meaning to after hearing that.
“So I’ve fallen so damn far that I have a collar around my neck and have to be ordered to take out the trash? Life really is full of surprises.”
His red eyes turned to lines in enjoyment and his lips became a shape of scorn.
“I was told I had to make up for what that fucker Kihara did, but I never thought I’d be doing boring shit like this! Ha ha. I guess the higher ups see me as the same kind of trash Kihara was!!”
“You brought it on yourself. No one made you fall this far.”
In response to those words, Accelerator stretched out his slender arm and grabbed Unabara by the collar. He purposefully aimed for the very center of his chest.
He grabbed Unabara with those fingertips that could alter various vectors. He could even reverse the flow of Unabara’s blood with them.
“Listen up, kid. There’s something you need to learn.” Accelerator’s expression did not change as he pulled on Unabara’s shirt. “A human life is a fragile thing. I can destroy one with a touch of my finger. So watch yourself. If you don’t, I might break something you’d rather I didn’t.”
“I’ll be careful.”
But Unabara’s words did not match the smooth tone of his voice and there was a calm smile on his face.
“Tch,” Accelerator lightly clicked his tongue and let go of Unabara’s shirt.
“May I continue?”
“Go ahead.”
“The target is Skill Out. You probably know more about them than me.”
Accelerator frowned at Unabara’s words.
Simply put, Skill Out was an armed group of Level 0’s.
One’s status in Academy City was decided by academics and powers. Being a Level 0 was like living your school life with a test you got a 0 on hanging from your neck and it seemed some people couldn’t stand to be treated like that.
Potentially, there were around 10,000 Skill Out members in Academy City. Most of those were people who rented out a dorm but never went to school and people who went to school but acted as Skill Out members at night. The Skill Out members that never returned to the dorms and gave them the image of an armed group was only about 1% of the total.
They had no clear objective.
If a group of Level 0 boys gathered in the streets at night, they were treated as part of Skill Out. Consequently, there were Skill Out groups that were just 3 or 4 people gathered in a convenience store parking lot and some that made teams of a hundred and strutted around the streets.
“Hey, now. The scale of this job keeps getting smaller and smaller. The higher ups aren’t betting on how far I’ll go before I snap, are they?”
“Not at all. Just so you know, Skill Out has apparently reorganized recently. When an Anti-Skill unit tried to suppress them, they turned the tables on the unit forcing them to retreat. So it isn’t all that surprising that this has come to an unofficial unit like GROUP.”
“Hmph,” Accelerator said in annoyance.
Strategy or force. The good-for-nothings in the back alleys must have come by one of those.
“It seems Skill Out is making some toys.”
“Toys?”
“They are drilling into oak wood and packing explosives inside. They are about 5 cm in diameter and 70 cm in length. They are probably supposed to be rockets as they are completely streamlined and have been confirmed to have 3 PVC fins on the sides.”
“Wait, they’re making pole fire arrows?” Accelerator couldn’t help but laugh. “Those were experimental weapons in the Edo period. What, have they gotten obsessed with archeology or something? They were said to fly 2000 meters, but they weren’t all that powerful. If you packed ‘em with high grade plastic explosives, things would be different, but they’re probably using handmade explosives. They can’t make a single fucking scratch on a research facility wall with that. How are they supposed to be causing problems?”
“It seems that with some preliminary arrangements, they can be quite effective,” Unabara said in a calm voice. “For the past few days, they have been doing a lot of work. They have been moving abandoned cars into the designated emergency paths and clogging the drains around the entrances and exits to VIP facilities with trash. It’s all small things like that that aren’t treated as security issues.”
“…When the hell did we get stuck with cleaning up kids’ pranks?”
“But it seems that over 20,000 of these problems that are too minor to qualify as errors have been prepared already. And even though they could be ignored in peaceful times, when the alert is at orange or red, they are detected as errors. Which means…”
“So an attack by those pole fire arrows could cause a problem?”
“If they use those rockets, they could trigger a Code Orange. And as soon as the alert level rises, the 20,000 ‘bombs’ Skill Out has been setting up over the past few days will trigger as error reports all at once. If the large number of error reports knocks out the server that provides security for the communications network, Skill Out will be able to do whatever they want around the city without Anti-Skill coming.”
“Also, it seems this ‘hole’ in the security is not one that can be filled in just a day or two,” Unabara added.
“That’s quite a story… But how can you be so sure of their aim? Isn’t this just your guess?”
“Not at all. I have captured a number of them and separately made them talk, so there’s no mistaking it.”
Accelerator remained silent for a moment after hearing Unabara’s words, but he decided it wasn’t his place to criticize him. After all, he had taken out about 10,000 more people than that himself.
“So they can’t fight without making preparations? To think about all that little stuff, they must be nothing but cowards.” Accelerator spoke as if he was spitting out the words. “So what are they after? Are they going to attack a military research facility and steal some powered suits?”
“No. Facilities like that have independent security departments. Most likely, Skill Out is simply attempting to rebel against the espers.”
“Ha. So they’re just cutting off the communications network and overwhelming them? Using pure numbers does seem like the kind of strategy Level 0’s like.”
Anywhere from dozens to hundreds of them would corner a single esper and crush them. If they went around the city repeating that strategy, even a group of Level 0’s could cause quite a disaster.
“…If Skill Out’s plan succeeds, the communication network for at least 2 or 3 districts will go down. Which means we should assume the damage caused would be rather high.”
Unabara tilted his head to the side in puzzlement and asked Accelerator a question.
“Skill Out seems to have quite a showy plan, but will it really work? Even if a few dozen of them surrounded a Level 5 like you armed with handguns and other self-defense equipment, I doubt they could do anything.”
“Even a small opening can look attractive, and those idiots will jump at the slightest chance. Their plan will probably end up being a dud. A half-assed plan will give you half-assed results with only a half-assed amount of damage done.”
The ones that Skill Out hated most due to their clear inferiority complex was the Level 5’s like Accelerator.
But he didn’t think any Level 5’s would be defeated with a plan like this. So the members of Skill Out must have settled for a target they could attack more easily.
The only espers that would be defeated with this were powerless Level 1’s and Level 2’s.
Level 2’s.
Mass produced military espers and the single girl that controlled them from above.
Who was going to pay for this violence that had lost sight of its goal?
“…This is bullshit,” Accelerator mumbled.
Then he spoke to Unabara.
“The danger doesn’t come from Skill Out.” Accelerator spat on the floor. “The danger comes from the possibility of some religious group attacking at the hole opened up by the Skill Out attack. Those bastards on the Board of Directors don’t give a fuck about the people in the back alleys.”
“I see you have a good understanding of how things work.”
“So what are you waiting around for? If you know what they’re after, can’t you just turn off the automatic alert system? If Code Orange is never triggered, the communications network won’t go down, right?”
“If we weren’t at war, we would do so. But that would be like turning off your computer’s security software when an attack could be coming at any time.”
“So we’ve got enemies on the outside and inside. Academy City really has pissed off a lot of people.”
“And it is our job to deal with those people,” Unabara said while smiling. “Redoing Academy City’s security system won’t fix the problem in time. Anti-Skill and Judgment are working to fix the obstructions in the emergency paths and the entrances and exits of VIP facilities, but there is no guarantee that Skill Out will just wait until they finish. That is why we need to physically stop them.”
“Ha ha. So it needs to be done in a way too dirty to ask Anti-Skill to do, huh?”
“The target’s name is Komaba Ritoku. He is currently both the leader and brains of Skill Out.”
Unabara pointed to a picture on the screen on his cell phone.
“He is supposed to be quite an influential person in the back alleys of District 7. Have you heard of him?”
“No. I have no reason to remember those people.”
“This time the Skill Out plan can be preemptively stopped by quickly taking care of Komaba Ritoku.”
“That isn’t going to stop those bastards. Their preliminary arrangements are complete, right? As long as the alert goes to orange, they win. Currently, all of Academy City is at yellow. They’re halfway there before starting. Their leader dying isn’t going to stop the rest from-...”
“It will,” Unabara cut off Accelerator. “They have a specific spot prepared for the explosives. As I said before, they have been setting things up at the entrances and exits of VIP facilities and in emergency paths. Well, it seems there is a characteristic way that they are doing it. An explosion in a specific area will cause that area to go to orange or higher which will cause the automatic security to look for errors there. The system will find a ‘problem affecting the safety of a facility’ in the area, so it will check the nearby areas that personnel will be moved through. It seems their plan is that this will continue and the error area will grow exponentially.
“And,” Unabara continued, “it seems only Komaba Ritoku knows where the spot for the explosion where it all starts is. At the very least, the Skill Out members I captured didn’t know it. It seems there was a need to hold the reins tightly to ensure the success of the plan and to prevent anyone from starting it prematurely.”
“Keh. He’s just making sure he’s important enough to keep around.” Accelerator spat these words out and shook his hands lightly. “I’ll take out that Komaba guy if you want, but I’d be worried about me trigging a Code Red. Unlike you people, things can get a little crazy when I fight.”
“If Code Orange or higher is triggered someplace other than the place Komaba has set up for the explosion, his plan won’t work. Because Academy City is divided up into such small security areas, that would likely only trigger an alert for a small area. All the preparation they have gone through is needed for it spread to a large area.”
“…Fuck, if you know this much about it, how can you not know where that critical explosion point is? With that, you could just get someone to guard that area.”
“Well, the only way to get that information is to ask Komaba Ritoku directly…”
Unabara Mitsuki grinned as he spoke.
“And if we’re going to do that, we might as well take him out while we’re at it, don’t you think?”
Accelerator headed to the scene in a truck.
He was sitting in the passenger seat of a garbage truck. But its body was jet black and all of the windows were smoked.
“We have to clean up bodies too, so this is just more convenient,” said the middle-aged man gripping the steering wheel next to him. “The interior of the storage area in the back can be taken out and discarded. After each collection, it’s disposed of along with the bodies and replaced.”
(So it’s like a disposable pack for a vacuum?)
Accelerator was amazed.
“So the garbage this truck takes is corpses, huh? That’s a pretty grim job.”
It seemed to run on electricity instead of gasoline. Because of that, it made almost no noise when it ran. It was perfect for covert actions.
Accelerator watched the scenery go by out the window and spoke.
“What’s with the smoke-tinted glass? I doubt you cart anyone rich around in this thing.”
“Well, we can’t have our faces seen in this job.”
The truck and the driver’s outfit didn’t look thrown together. They had been formally prepared by Academy City for this type of job. He didn’t know how they got their funds, but with this equipment it looked like an entire Anti-Skill district’s worth of funds had been used.
The middle-aged man spoke to Accelerator during a break in the conversation he was having over the truck’s radio.
“You’re part of GROUP, right? And I hear this is your first job.”
“Your point?”
“Nothing really,” the driver said while looking straight ahead. “I just think sometimes that, even though I have no skills beyond being able to drive you around, there are people who wouldn’t be dragged down to hell if I wasn’t here.”
“…”
“Well, I’m sure they can get plenty of other drivers, but I still think about it. For instance, if I just held down the gas now, I might be able to save at least one person.”
“Ha. You’ve got guts. With guts like that you shouldn’t be wasting your time on a job like this.”
“Everyone else like Tsuchimikado-san and Unabara-san says the same thing. I wonder why.”
“Because you’re a sentimental, good person,” Accelerator muttered under his breath.
The GPS navigation system informed them that they had reached their destination with a recorded woman’s voice. The electric garbage truck silently came to a stop.
Accelerator opened the passenger side door, put his cane that had a modern design on the ground, and finally put his shoe down on the dirty roadway.
He heard a voice from behind him.
“As I was instructed, I’ll be back to pick you up in 20 minutes. Be careful.”
“So I’ll be taken away on that thing whether I win or lose. Either as I came or as a corpse.” Without turning around, he responded with a slightly amused voice.
The truck drove off behind him. He ignored it and looked around slowly.
It looked like most other parts of the city.
But this place had a different atmosphere. It was a strained atmosphere and it felt like evil presences were watching from the various entrances to the alleys. It felt like a swamp you would never be able to leave once you entered it.
While standing at an alley entrance, there were numerous iron stakes driven into the road surface at his feet.
The partially rusted stakes were at varying heights from 10 cm to 30 cm and were closely packed together from the entrance to about a meter in. It was like a thicket of iron.
(I see. This is to keep the security robots out.)
Accelerator laughed scornfully.
The drum-shaped robots in Academy City were made to climb up over various changes in the terrain and they could operate elevators using infrared signals.
But an intentionally made barricade like this was too much for them to get through.
After their “dangerous object evasion sequence” had repeated a certain number of times, they would put that area on hold and overlook it for the time being and then go elsewhere.
“…”
Looking up, there were plastic sheets stretched between the buildings almost covering up the sky. Most of them were blue and some were red or yellow, but it was clear they were just covering the space with whatever they could get across. Because of this, the sunlight was tinted oddly so they looked like speckled stained glass.
They were there to avoid satellite detection.
Anti-Skill would forcibly remove this obstruction on a weekly or monthly basis, but Skill Out would put it back up soon afterwards. It was a purposeful endless cycle on their part.
That was how they did things.
Easily made. Easily abandoned. Easily redone.
If their barricade was destroyed, they would prepare a new one. If their base was destroyed, they would make a new one elsewhere. If their organization was crushed, failing people would gather together and a new one would be made.
That was why they would never be gone.
For the same reason that roaches would never go extinct, they learned little by little and strengthened their resistance.
This was the result of a type of evolution focused on the negative that no one wanted.
“…What a nostalgic atmosphere.”
Accelerator’s mouth loosened on its own.
The dark alley spreading out before him was a lawless area where the security robots and the satellite could not reach. Whatever happened, no one would see it. It was a world where no one coming to save you was normal.
“Now then…”
As he was about to go in, his cell phone rang.
He took it out with an irritated look on his face and the display said “Entry 3”.
“Tsuchimikado.”
“I realized you were starting your first job. Before you begin, I wanted to give you a warning.”
“So you’re giving me a warning, are you?” Accelerator spat out. “What is it, senpai.”
“Don’t trust us,” Tsuchimikado responded. “You, me, and everyone else in GROUP are people who would find it problematic if what we’re doing became public. As GROUP was created using people like that, there is no way out.”
“…Were you hoping I’d be grateful you told me that?”
“If you just follow the rules the Board of Directors has laid out, they aren’t going to let you out. This is made so they profit no matter what happens. You need to think about how you can win in this situation. We both have things we need to protect.”
“…” Accelerator briefly remained silent.
He was reminded of a girl who must have been in the hospital at that time.
But he sealed up his expression, his actions, and his words before that could be seen by anyone else.
“Is that all you wanted?”
“Yes, it was. Finish this up quickly and come on back. Musujime should be starting her job about now. Make sure you don’t get caught up in that.”
(Her job?)
Just as Accelerator started looking confused…
Boom!!
A high-pitched explosion resounded from down the narrow, narrow alley.
It sounded pretty far away, but a lukewarm wind hit his face. While he was being bathed in the dust- and dirt-filled air, Accelerator asked Tsuchimikado a question.
For a second, he had thought Komaba Ritoku’s plan had started, but Tsuchimikado seemed oddly calm for that to be the case. After thinking for a second, he came up with a good guess.
“Is Musujime using bombs? And no one told me this was going to be a fucking competition.”
“She isn’t aiming for people; she’s aiming for money.” Tsuchimikado replied in an unconcerned voice. “Skill Out has funds for their activities. They have various ways of decentralizing its storage, but she’s taking it out anyway. After all, burning it is better than giving them a chance to run off with it.”
The sound of explosions continued.
But Skill Out was used to fights that used that kind of weapon. They wouldn’t falter from that alone. Someone with a suitable power was needed to stand in this battlefield.
He was pretty sure Musujime Awaki’s power was Move Point. She could move objects wherever she wanted free of any three-dimensional restrictions.
She must have been using that power again.
“So she can still be useful. And I thought she was just GROUP’s decoration. Wasn’t her unstable mental condition keeping her from using her powers?”
“She’s the same as you,” Tsuchimikado responded while listening to the explosions over the phone. “That’s being compensated for.”
“Okay, fine. So, I can just use this confusion to take out the Skill Out members here before they can regroup, right?”
“Well, with their money supply being attacked, I doubt their leader will just run away, but your main target is Komaba Ritoku, the bastard leading them all. Don’t let him get away.”
“I’m more worried about doing too much destruction. Digging flesh out of rubble sounds like a pain in the ass.”
Accelerator decided to hang up.
He put the phone in his pocket and moved his other hand up to the back of his neck without letting go of his cane. It looked like he was checking the movement of a joint, but that was where the switch for his choker-style electrode was.
“Well, I guess I should get started.”
He sensed a number of people around him.
There were over 20 sights of handguns and bow guns pointed towards him from within the alley, from the windows of the buildings, and from any other cover someone could find.
In response, Accelerator ever so slightly smiled.
This was the place he had once wanted to make his way out of even if he had to crawl through the dirt.
“Looks like I have some cleaning up to do. I’ll be done in 10 minutes.”
He was back with a smile on his face.
Musujime Awaki was walking through a dark alley.
Because there were variously colored plastic sheets spread from building to building above her, the sunlight was tinted in various colors such as blue, red, and yellow. The flow of air was stagnated and the smell of trash and dirt permeated the area. The walls were covered in crude graffiti and a rusted remnant of an ATM that had been brought in from somewhere was lying on the ground with its cover pried open. The area must have had no shortage of activity because there were things like a saw with broken teeth and broken lumber lying around.
And as she walked through that area, Musujime was wearing a piece of cloth wrapped over her bare breasts as innerwear and a blazer that looked like it was part of a school uniform worn over her shoulders. That and her incredibly short skirt made it look like she was asking for something to happen.
But no one touched her.
Not a single one.
“…Too easy.”
The large man who had tried to swing a metal pipe at her and the skinny woman who had tried to shoot her with a bow from a window had been dealt with the same way. Musujime used her Move Point power to take things like rusted broken down cars and metal dumpsters that were in the area and forcibly move them in front of her as shields. After defending against the attack, she would take the corkscrews she had and directly stick them into her opponent’s arms and legs. It always ended with that same pattern.
Spinning in her hand was a military flashlight that could also be used as a baton. She used it to assist with her power by aligning her aim with it. Because her power had too high a level of freedom, if she didn’t establish her own point of reference, her aim was too vague.
She spoke in a bored voice while swinging the tool in her hand around.
“You don’t necessarily get an advantage by gathering a large group of people and you don’t necessarily win by gathering weapons. But I suppose only people who can’t figure that much out would join a back alley gang in the first place.”
In contrast to her calm, the area erupted into a roaring storm.
To defend against attacks from all directions, Musujime had created a tiny tornado with herself at the center. It was formed from a number of thick metal objects like a manhole lid and an iron plate. Her Move Point made no noise, but the number of projectiles hitting those shields made quite a din.
Musujime pulled the pin out of a grenade with her mouth and threw it towards the now lidless manhole.
A muffled explosion could be heard coming from the sewer.
From the information they had gathered, a safe about the size of a handbag was hidden down there.
“That’s #9. …This just isn’t satisfying enough.”
Ever since she had caused an incident on September 14th and had the tables turned on her by Shirai Kuroko of Judgment, a mental irregularity had put her in a slump where she couldn’t use her powers.
The reason she had recovered from that was…
(…When I first heard about this, I thought it was complete bullshit, but I guess the technical team is just that good.)
She had electrodes stuck on her shoulders and her back that looked like compresses. It was a small low frequency vibration treatment device. Simply put, it was a massage machine that sent electric currents into her body. The machine measured the disturbances in her brain waves and created the most effective pulse pattern based on that.
It wasn’t perfect, but it certainly helped keep her stress down to a certain level.
(On the other hand, walking around with compresses all over your body isn’t exactly how a girl wants to live her life.)
Even though she had been able to get back in action with the help of these machines, there had been a major effect on the incident from September 14th.
The ringleader of that incident had been Musujime Awaki, but she was not the only one in the criminal group. In order to steal the Remnant, a part of Tree Diagram, she had gotten the help of a few dozen espers who shared her ideals. Most of them had been defeated by that Railgun and captured by Anti-Skill.
And she was the only one that had made it back out on the streets.
Currently, there was no clear crime in Academy City called treason. But no one was going to protect the civil liberties of a traitor who threatened the peace of the city. So the punishment was carried out in secret regardless of the law. And it was done in a brutal way that took advantage of that lawlessness.
She had to do something.
Her comrades who had once walked on the same path as her were in trouble.
“…”
Musujime threw a grenade into a crack on a large outdoor air conditioning unit and the bundle of bills hidden inside was blown to pieces.
And she continued further into the alley.
(Cash, gold bars, an access card to an IT Bank under a fake corporate name…This really is quite spread out. How did they gather all this money?)
Apparently, Komaba Ritoku the leader running everything in the area had banned the prostitution of girls. Since he had sealed off one of the quickest methods of gathering funds, he must have had some other method.
(I suppose it doesn’t really matter. I’m just here to make sure it’s all destroyed. Just another 14 areas and I can leave.)
As she thought cheerfully, she slowly spun the flashlight around in her hand.
“…I’d like for you to stop that, esper.”
A male voice suddenly cut off Musujime’s thoughts.
About 10 meters in front of her in the straight, narrow alley, a large gorilla-like man was standing. He must have come from one of the buildings’ back entrances. His hard muscles were covered by a cheap jacket, but it looked like it was going to rip apart if he flexed his muscles even slightly.
He looked like an incarnation of destruction, but his voice was quite melancholy in comparison.
His voice sounded like he had copy paper coming from his mouth as he spoke.
“We distributed our money like this to prevent it from all being lost at once. You could say it’s like how a coward afraid of being mugged carries several wallets. Having all of your possessions stolen at once isn’t a very popular option.”
Instead of responding, Musujime pulled out her cell phone right in front of her enemy.
She looked at the screen, checked the photo there, and gave a surprised gasp.
“Komaba Ritoku. Oh, my. It seems I’ve run into the target first.”
