CHAPTER 4

The ­Paper-­Thin Line Between ­Self-­Loathing and Pride Enemy
Level5.

1

In the end, he washed the ashes down a river.

Shiage Hamazura just couldn’t bring himself to throw them into an automatic raw garbage disposer. He knew it had only satisfied ­himself—­and contaminated the ­environment—­but he still resisted discarding into the garbage what had once been human.

…This sucks, he thought idly. He’d split up with Takitsubo, and he was now walking along the river alone. It’s not like I sympathized with whoever was in the bag. I was just scared to think it could be me next. I wouldn’t like it if someone threw me out like trash when I die.

“Damn it…” Resisting the urge to mutter and now I have to go back to them, Hamazura started back on his way to where Item was waiting.

Then he heard a voice call out to him, saying, “Hey!”

He tried to ignore it and keep going, but someone grabbed his shoulder from behind.

The impact hit him before he turned.

Thud!! A blow to his head, and Hamazura fell to the dirt below.

He heard laughing. When he looked that way, he saw a few young men he’d never met. One was holding a golf club. That was probably what he’d hit Hamazura with.

…?! Are they burglars?

Eighty percent of Academy City’s population was students. Depending on the time of day, there would be almost nobody in the student dorms. Some delinquents had formed armed groups, which would plunder the rooms while their owners were away.

“See, I told you. I’ve seen this guy before. ­Skill-­Out, from District 7, yeah?”

“Didn’t they go down?”

“Doesn’t matter. We just have to beat him here.”

They all laughed. Before Hamazura could speak, they began kicking him from all directions. And all they did was laugh.

“Get this, ­Skill-­Out. We’ve had it real rough until just recently.”

“That leader of ­yours—­Komaba or something? That guy was fucking annoying. We couldn’t do our jobs with him around.”

“Anyway, we’re gonna beat your face in so hard you’ll look like an extra on a movie set. You hearin’ us?”

Hamazura tried to say that wasn’t his fault, but another kick dug into his side before he could. Now that he was having trouble breathing, he couldn’t talk to begin with.

Damn…it…

The unknown person resting in the sleeping bag flashed across his mind. Burned by the electric furnace, turned into ash, and washed down the ­river—­he couldn’t get the sights out of his mind. Now he’d be erased like that soon. How cheap Level Zero lives went for. It was all making him angry.

And next to him on the ­dirt-­covered road was a metal pipe for propane gas about the width of his thumb.

He didn’t hesitate.

“!!” He grabbed the L-shaped pipe and fiercely swung.

It struck the golf ­club–­wielding shit in the ankle, and he could feel the cracking of bones breaking in his hand. As the screaming idiot fell, the bloody Hamazura rose, bringing down the pipe again and landing another blow.

The other two delinquents shouted something, but he ignored them.

Once again, he brought the pipe down on the guy, and was rewarded with a comforting scream.

When one of the other kids heard that, he took a hammer out of his bag.

That might kill me, thought Hamazura. An iron pipe was plenty destructive, but he couldn’t knock someone out in one hit with it. If this came down to a straight brawl, they could easily both end up dead, too.

But at that point, he didn’t feel like stopping. The sensation of the sleeping bag’s synthetic fabric weighed on his palms with amazing vividness.

And then…

“Over here, Hamazura!!”

Right as he heard the shout, the ­hammer-­gripping boy’s neck bounced to the side with a grrk! Before Hamazura realized it, someone had thrown a ­brick-­like object at him, and someone else grabbed his arm.

“Come on, idiot! We’re getting out of here!!”

In a strange display of lethargy, Hamazura let the person pull him into a run.

After a few moments like that, he finally put a name to the voice. “You’re…Hanzou, right?”

Hanzou used to be another member of ­Skill-­Out, one he’d been on a few jobs with. If he was hanging around a place like this, maybe he was considering robbing an ATM again, thought Hamazura, remembering part of his old habits.

Exasperated, Hanzou answered, “Did you forget the ­back-­alley rules or what, stupid? If you’re too obsessed with winning, you’ll end up dead. If you want to concentrate on life or death, then give up on winning!”

He glanced behind him to make sure nobody was following, and then they stopped.

Hamazura gave Hanzou a mystified look. “Why did you help me? I’m the one who ruined ­Skill-­Out and ran from punishment.”

“That’s not something you gotta say,” replied Hanzou in irritation. “I mean, don’t you get it by now? We don’t hate you, and we don’t think it’s your fault. With what happened, it didn’t matter who ended up as ­Skill-­Out’s leader. We were ruined anyway.”

“…”

“Clinging to the past might look good on TV, but we’re not walking down that road. Although, I’ll admit those were some fun times…me making plans, you getting assistants, Komaba leading the attacks.”

“Yeah,” said Hamazura impassively. “I’ll admit it. It was a shitty life, but it was still fun.”

“…What are you gonna do now?”

“Hell if I know. It doesn’t matter where I roll into. It wouldn’t be the same if I went back to ­Skill-­Out, though. I don’t think there’s much value in that,” he spat, about to turn his back to Hanzou.

But just then, Hanzou reached for something in his pocket and tossed it at him. “Take this. Doesn’t look like you have a good weapon.”

It was a small handgun, its grip only half the size of his palm.

“…This is a ladies’ gun.”

“Who cares? The harder a weapon is to use, the better. Get too used to one and you’ll spill more blood than you need to.”

Hamazura spun it lightly in his hand, then stowed it in his sleeve.

This time, without looking at Hanzou, he left the alley alone.

Item probably had his next job waiting.

2

Shiage Hamazura returned to one of Item’s hideouts.

“Hey, Hamazura, you’re late,” Shizuri Mugino lobbed at him lazily.

They were in part of a ­high-­rise building in School District 3. The facility consisted of sports gyms and pools; all the indoor leisure activities it could ­fit—­and those who used ­them—­were of fairly high grade. You needed to show your member card just to enter the building, and whenever you wanted to use one of its facilities, they’d look at your member rank. Apparently, a membership here was one of the first things people of the so-called upper crust would acquire for their status.

Hamazura and the others were in a VIP lounge, made to look like a ­European-­style “salon”—­a fancy suite of private rooms rented out on a yearly contract. You couldn’t even use it temporarily without at least a ­two-­star membership ­rank—­truly a ­top-­notch room. Even though it was considered private, it was easily bigger than a ­four-­room apartment, and Mugino had made herself at home on a sofa.

Hamazura looked at the people gathered there, then asked dubiously, “What happened to Frenda?”

“Vanished,” answered Mugino curtly. “Either she died or got caught. We don’t have time to replace her, so in any case, Item will have to settle for three for now. ’Course, School’s missing one of theirs, too, so our numbers match. It won’t be hard to recover. Item’s got Takitsubo, after all.”

Mugino had said three. Hamazura frowned at not being counted, but pointing it out wouldn’t get him anywhere.

“Hamazura. You’re hurt,” said Takitsubo, looking at his face.

“It’s nothing,” he replied, blowing it off. “What do we do now? School stole the Tweezers, right?”

“Yup,” admitted Mugino easily. “So now it’s our turn to counterattack. Takitsubo’s Ability Stalker can search for a specific esper’s location with any involuntary diffusion field she remembers. And we fought them at the Particle Physics Institute already. That means we can chase them down. Item’s purpose is to protect against the ­higher-­ups and ­top-­secret organizations running amok. Let’s do our duty, shall we?”

Hamazura looked at Takitsubo. As always, she had her arms and legs sprawled out lazily. Maybe she was always acting unstable because of the ­never-­ending IDF effects.

“Should I search for Dark Matter?”

“Who’s that?” he asked.

“The ­number-­two Level Five,” said Mugino. “And the asshole leading School.”

Meanwhile, Takitsubo brought out a small case from her pocket with white powder in it.

Kinuhata looked at the ­see-­through case, mystified. “You’ve, like, got it ­super-­rough. You can’t use your ability without Crystals, can you?”

“It’s no big deal. This was always normal for me,” said Takitsubo, licking just a little bit of the powder.

The glow returned to her eyes. She straightened up and paused, as though this was her regular state.

“Beginning involuntary diffusion ­field-­based search. Stopping pickup of approximate and resemblant IDFs. Limiting search results to a single matching IDF. Time to completion: five seconds.”

Her voice came out like a machine.

And then came the right answer.

“Result: Dark Matter is in this building.”

Before everyone could give a start and shout “What?!” it happened:

The door to the private lounge was decisively kicked in.

A man came walking in from behind it.

Shizuri Mugino saw him and growled. “Dark Matter…!!”

“I’d rather you call me by name. It’s Teitoku Kakine, in case you didn’t know.”

The man’s hands had peculiar “nails” made of machines. “The Tweezers…,” said Mugino.

“Sweet, right? Came to declare victory.”

“Hah. What’s some secondary candidate Aleister didn’t choose getting all excited for? You ran away before. Now it looks like you had an attitude change.”

“Nah, look. That was some good shit at the Particle Physics Institute. Thanks to you, we lost one of our only four official School members.”

“Aren’t you forgetting someone? We killed your sniper a few days ago. You get a new one?”

The conversation between Level Fives was suddenly interrupted.

The cause was Saiai Kinuhata. Without rising from the sofa, she had lifted up a nearby table with one hand. The table was covered excessively in decorations and looked like it weighed at least two dozen ­pounds—­and now this girl, who looked no older than twelve, hurled it at Teitoku Kakine.

Ga-slam!!

The table shattered, but Teitoku kept a straight face.

“That hurt,” he said, so naturally nobody could tell if he meant it. “And it made me mad. I’ll smash you to pieces first.”

Kinuhata still didn’t respond. She ran to the side of the room, and with her tiny fist, mercilessly broke through the lounge wall. Then she grabbed Hamazura’s and Takitsubo’s hands, shot a quick glance at Mugino, and dove into the broken wall.

A luxurious lounge of similar construction was on the other side. People were inside, but Kinuhata punched them unconscious. When they got into the hallway, there was a man there who was probably one of School’s subordinates, but she knocked him out, too.

Saiai Kinuhata wasn’t monstrously strong; she was an esper who could freely control the nitrogen in the air. The skill was incredibly powerful, and by manipulating chunks of compressed nitrogen, she could lift cars and even stop ­bullets—­but its scope was very small and only reached a few centimeters out from her palms. That was why it had looked like she’d been lifting up the table.

“Hamazura, find us a car, like, ­super-­quick, please,” said Kinuhata. “Takitsubo is probably one of School’s targets. Now that they found this hideout, it’d be extra safe to assume they found other info, too. They probably discovered Takitsubo’s troublesome ability and came to crush us all to throw off pursuit.”

“You mean her search ability?” asked Hamazura. In terms of visible power, Mugino and Kinuhata seemed a lot flashier, but…

“They don’t have to kill everyone in ­Item—­they can severely limit our operations just by taking out Takitsubo. Her being here or not decides who’s being chased and who’s doing the chasing. If it was me, I’d go for her first.”

“…”

“But as long as Takitsubo is safe, we can recover the situation. So please get her in a car and get really far away. If you avoid Item’s hideouts, you should be able to buy a lot of time.” Kinuhata took a stun gun out of her pocket and made Takitsubo hold it. “You always seem ­super-­unsteady, so this weapon is good for you. Even if it misfires, you won’t die.”

Bang!! An explosion ripped through a nearby room.

It was from the lounge where Mugino and Kakine were.

“Get going, like, crazy fast, please!” said Kinuhata, turning her back to them.

Before he could say anything, the small girl had already run off toward the battlefield.

3

The explosion’s impact made the entire building shake helplessly.

As the chief guests ran about, trying to escape the indoor leisure facilities, Saiai Kinuhata walked through the lobby.

Men from School’s ancillary organization were lying on the floor. Kinuhata had thrashed them. She walked next to them, kicking away nearby guns and rifles.

Then suddenly, her face jolted to the side.

By the time she realized she’d been shot, a second and third impact flashed through her, and her small body was sent flying to the floor. She let herself land, then slid across and hid herself behind a nearby pillar.

…A sniper. Where?

The impacts had struck her in the head, chest, and lower ­gut—­all vital spots. If not for the shield from her ability, she’d have died for certain. She placed her palm on a crushed bullet on the floor.

Steel rounds…The magnetic sniper rifle from before? If its initial speed is subsonic, then judging by the way this thing is crushed, they’re five to seven hundred away.

As she thought, she reached into an inside pocket. Her fingers came out with pieces of metal between them, about the size of juice cans, with ­thirty-­centimeter metal rods on the ends. They looked kind of like maracas, or maybe ­old-­fashioned grenades, but it was neither.

They were portable ­anti-­tank missile tips.

The fleeing patrons looked at her in shock, but she ignored them.

She would aim the tips between her fingers in that direction, then pull the short strings attached to their back with her other hand. It would look like setting off crackers at a party or drawing back the string of a bow. After a breath, she jumped out from behind the pillar and looked straight out the broken window. A bullet hit between her eyes that very moment, but she ignored it and took aim.

Then, without hesitating, she pulled the strings.

With a dull shhhp noise, the power of compressed air sent the missile tips flying from their grips. After traveling about ten meters forward, they ­ignited—­and, scattering flames behind them, closed the ­five-­hundred-­meter distance in the blink of an eye.

When all the missiles crashed into the side of the building, the building blew up like crushed ­mille-­feuille. Perhaps as a gift of its excellent aseismic construction, it managed to at least avoid coming down entirely.

“Whoa, that’s crazy. I bet Sunazara and his magnetic sniper rifle are a goopy mess now, eh? Maybe that’s all someone we got in a hurry could manage.”

A bright voice came to her.

When Kinuhata turned around, Teitoku “Dark Matter” Kakine was just coming out of the hallway.

“Heh, wreckage from Project Dark May? You must have it tough. That was the one where they took Accelerator’s calculation patterns and used them to optimize a bunch of espers’ personal realities, right?”

“…”

“And you ended up with a ­self-­defense ability. Though originally, it was an air ­control–­type ability. Automatically deploying a defensive field made from your ability around you, same as Accelerator, is all you can do, eh? Haven’t you ever felt sorry for yourself?”

“Not really,” answered Kinuhata shortly. “I’m ­super–­well off compared to the PRODUCE test subjects. They got their brains sliced up like birthday cakes so people could figure out where personal realities come from.”

“Right,” said Kakine, sounding uninterested.

Still on her guard against the man before her, she asked, “What happened to Mugino?”

“Right, well. Nothing much.”

His words were blunt. Just from that, Kinuhata knew: As a Level Four, she couldn’t stand up to someone who treated the ­fourth-­most-­powerful Level Five in Academy City like that. She’d gotten a vague impression to that end when they’d fought in the Particle Physics Institute, and now she knew she was right.

“So where’s the Ability Stalker? That’s all I want to know. Tell me where she is and I’ll let you go.”

“Who would be stupid enough to make a deal like that?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Frenda, for example.”

“…”

“I’m just saying you’ve got the choice. And to make things clear, your Level Four Nitrogen Armor can’t beat my Dark Matter. No fancy tricks are gonna close that gap, either.”

Kinuhata said nothing.

As she glared silently at him, Kakine said, “Where is the Ability Stalker?”

“It doesn’t seem like I have the right to refuse…,” said Kinuhata, smiling a little.

As she spoke, she grabbed a nearby bench and hurled it.

But…

With a roar, a strange explosion burst out from Kakine.

It shattered the bench flying at him and even batted Kinuhata’s body to the side.

Her small frame flew ten meters through the air, then crashed through a thin wall and into another room.

Kakine watched and smiled thinly. “Weighed your pride against death, eh? Emotional, but certainly not practical.”

Then he turned to a nearby subordinate and said, “Retrieve her.”

“Retrieve…You mean she’s still alive after that?”

“That’s the sort of esper she is.”

4

Shiage Hamazura and Rikou Takitsubo made it to the elevator lobby.

He hit the button on the wall, and the ­display—­paused on floor ­48—­quickly began to descend to the ­twenty-­fifth floor, where they were. Meanwhile, Hamazura took out a ­lock-­picking tool…Parking garage must be underground. Everyone here’s probably got a fancy car, but no time to be picky. We’ll go for the one closest to the ­elevators—

The elevator stopped on floor 25.

With a gentle electronic ding, the metal doors automatically parted.

“Oh, there you are.”

And then Hamazura heard the voice of despair.

One of School’s members came walking out into the hallway: The ­number-­two Level Five who could even fight Shizuri Mugino. With strange nails attached to his right hand, the man approached slowly.

“I was looking all over for you, y’know! You’re the search esper, right?” he said, tossing something he’d been dragging with his left hand to them. “It” flew a few meters and landed at Hamazura’s feet. “It” was Saiai Kinuhata, with whom they’d just parted.

“…!!”

“She made a good decision. Item’s core isn’t the Level ­Five—­it’s you, right? Man, if you’d gotten out of here, that would’ve been rough. On the other hand…” Teitoku’s voice lowered. “You can’t run away at this point.”

Each of his steps counted down the lives of Hamazura and Takitsubo.

Hamazura turned his attention to the gun up his sleeve. Then, looking at the open elevator out of the corner of his eye, he spoke to Takitsubo in as quiet a voice as he could. “(…You get on the elevator and go down.)”

“(…But ­Hamazura—,)” she whispered back.

“(…Either way, if I abandoned you and ran away from School, it would mean the end of Item! Damn it, I’m caught between a rock and a hard place!!)”

Teitoku Kakine stopped walking.

He wasn’t hesitating, nor was he trying to let them go. He was already in effective range as a Level Five. “So what’re you gonna do? How long do ­good-­byes usually take?”

“…!! Go!!”

Hamazura tried to push Takitsubo into the elevator.

But instead, she reached for his hand.

Their positions whirled around like they were ballroom dancing, and then she pushed him toward the elevator. Hamazura, confused at the sudden act, fell onto his rear.

Only Takitsubo’s hand went into the elevator.

She pressed the B1 ­button—­for the underground parking garage.

“What the hell are ­you—?”

“Sorry, Hamazura.” From the other side of the automatically closing doors, Takitsubo gazed at him. “I asked everyone about the furnace. I don’t want you to turn into ashes like that.”

Her eyes were smiling softly.

“It’s okay. I’m a Level Four, and you’re a Level Zero. I promise I’ll protect you.”

“…!!”

Before he could say anything, the door finished closing and the elevator began dropping like a rock. Something absurd had just happened, but on the other hand, he was out of immediate danger, and he felt an odd sense of relief wash over him.

Still sitting on the floor, he put his back to the wall and looked up at the ceiling.

Weren’t espers supposed to think our lives weren’t worth anything? he thought as the floaty sensation unique to ­fast-­moving elevators came over him. He put a hand over his face, still looking up. There are heaps of us. We’re like disposable umbrellas. Even if we die, we’re supposed to get burned to a crisp in an incinerator and our ashes thrown out with the rest of the trash.

“Damn it,” he mumbled.

Hamazura probably hadn’t been the only one experiencing shock when he cooked the black sleeping bag in that furnace. The girl watching from behind him had been shocked just the same. Had Rikou Takitsubo always wanted to protect people like him, or had the furnace incident given her a change of heart? He didn’t know.

But he did know one thing.

Rikou Takitsubo had stood up to the ­number-­two man in Academy City to save him, a Level Zero.

“…This is a load of crap,” he mumbled, putting a hand on the wall and slowly getting up. “This is a load of bullshit!!”

He slammed the wall with his open hand, pounding a button on it and causing the elevator to stop.

Clenching his teeth, he took a few deep breaths. To be honest, he had virtually no chance of winning. That Kakine guy was a Level Five, and he wasn’t the only bad guy. He at least had those ­black-­clothed guys, probably from their ancillary organization.

But…

“Is there even a place for Level Zeroes? Of course there is. Can you get by without victimizing other people? Of course you can, damn it!!”

Once, he’d met a Level Zero completely different from him in the Dangai University database center, and now his words naturally came to mind.

“You had enough strength to form ­Skill-­Out— If you’d used that to help people in weaker positions, you’d all be in a different place right now!! You had the strength to fight back against strong ­espers— If you’d used that to reach out to people in need, everyone in Academy City would have accepted you!!”

“…Yeah.”

Shiage Hamazura pushed the button for the ­twenty-­fifth floor again, where he’d parted with Takitsubo, and closed the elevator doors.

“That’s right, asshole,” he declared, cutting off his own retreat and returning to the battlefield where the Level Five waited.

5

The elevator stopped on the ­twenty-­fifth floor.

The automatic doors opened, and Hamazura passed through them to find the scene he’d predicted.

“What? Came back, eh?” stated School’s Level Five, Teitoku Kakine.

Near him, in the same position as she had been when he’d thrown her, was Saia Kinuhata.

And at the unscathed man’s feet was Rikou Takitsubo, head down, face unreadable, limp on the floor. He couldn’t even tell whether she was alive or dead.

Kakine cracked his neck joints. “I gotta tell you, she’s got no direct combat skills, but she came at me pretty hard. Must have been an application of her search ­ability—­she interfered with my involuntary diffusion field and then reversed it, trying to hijack my own ability. Sheesh, if she’d developed normally, she could have been the eighth one.”

Each word of praise just sounded like he was making a fool of her.

Hamazura didn’t say a word. Silently, he whipped out the gun hidden up his sleeve and pointed it at him.

“Oh, you weren’t finished yet?”

Suddenly, another voice.

A girl wearing a fancy dress came around the corner behind Kakine.

The…the crane girl from before?!

Hamazura hesitated for a moment about where to aim.

“You’d better not.”

That moment, Shiage Hamazura lost the ability to move even a finger.

“I would’ve needed to kill you before, but now that I have the Tweezers, I don’t have ­to—­you’re only part of their ancillary organization.”

His body wasn’t paralyzed for any reason. Physically, he was totally fine. But there was an idea blossoming in his ­mind—­one that he couldn’t shoot even if he wanted to.

He felt like he was trying to stomp on a kitten taking a nap.

He felt like he was trying to kill a sick kid to steal his valuables.

He felt like he was accidentally pointing his gun at Rikou Takitsubo.

“You’ve got a mean face, but you’re a nice person on the inside. I knew I should have used my power from the start,” said the girl in the dress, smiling. “My Heart Measure can freely control the distance between people’s hearts. What do you think would happen if I set us to the same distance as all of your friends?”

“Ugh…!!” What is this? Some kind of telepathy?!

“Why not call it quits?” she continued. “Right now, I’m at a distance of twenty units…In other words, the same distance as between Shiage Hamazura and Rikou Takitsubo. You can’t shoot Takitsubo, so you can’t shoot me. I know you came all the way back up here for her sake. You’d never be able to hurt her, would you?”

The gun clattered, shaking in his trembling hand.

He couldn’t do it. He knew Takitsubo and the girl in the dress were different people, but he just couldn’t do it.

Kakine made a look like his fun was spoiled. “This is dumb. Now it seems like we’re the bad guys.”

“Hey, a boy and a girl protecting each other is romantic. It’s so rare I almost don’t want to break it.”

“Yeah. It’s too bad. Wonder if she’ll do us a favor and die without us doing anything.”

Hamazura’s shoulders jolted at that. “What the hell…? What do you mean?”

Kakine kicked the clear case near Takitsubo over in his direction. “The Crystals. Did you know she was using them?”

“…Yeah, for her ability…”

“Strictly speaking, they induce a physical rejection and make her ability go out of control. More specifically, they used ’em in the Explosion Experiment for Analyzing Runaway Ability Laws. Most of the time, it’s nothing but a ­disadvantage—­but in really rare cases, someone’ll be able to get better results when berserked. This girl was probably one of them.”

Kakine sounded like having to explain every little thing was boring him.

“She won’t last long in this state. She might be fine if she never uses her ability again, but one or two more times and she’ll break down.”

Break down. The unsettling phrase made Hamazura grimace.

Kakine ignored him and went on. “We don’t even need to finish her off like this. Without her search ability, her death doesn’t mean much.”

“Just so we’re clear, she collapsed of her own volition,” the girl said flatly. “It’s because she kept forcing herself to use those Crystals to fight against School in this ­building—­if we were really going in for the kill, there’d be nothing left.”

Hamazura glared at her, unable to move in any meaningful way, even as the two School members ignored him and pushed the elevator button.

“Anyway, now what?” said Kakine simply as they waited. “Kill him, or let him live?”

“Leaving him be won’t be a problem, will it? Item’s on the brink of destruction anyway. They can’t stop us.”

Hamazura gnashed his teeth at the words “brink of destruction,” but he just couldn’t pull the trigger. Her Heart Measure ability had him completely under her control.

“Killing him would be easier.”

“Look, didn’t your personal reality get messed up through your IDF because of the search ability? Shouldn’t you check yourself? You going out of control is a lot more dangerous than a ­near-­dead Item. I’d rather not die because an ally went on a berserk rampage.”

Teitoku Kakine cracked his neck again, annoyed. He wasn’t holding a gun. He must have had just that much faith in his ability. But if worse came to worst and his ability did go haywire, Kakine himself would be the first one caught up in it.

“Guess I don’t have a choice. Let’s go back. The check is simple, but we don’t have the machine here.”

As though timed, the elevator arrived on this floor.

Shit!! Hamazura pushed the gun’s hammer up with his thumb.

But the dress girl’s face remained steady. “Our current distance is twenty. The same as between Shiage Hamazura and Rikou Takitsubo. But I can make the distance even shorter, you know.”

“!!”

“There’s nothing sadder than plastering false emotions over real ones. You should share your happiness of surviving this with that ­near-­dead girl over there.”

The two got into the elevator, Hamazura unable to stop them, and the automatic doors closed.

He looked down at the Crystal case at his feet, then at the unresponsive Rikou Takitsubo, and slowly sat down.

If she uses her ability a couple more times, she’ll break down…

Hamazura, being a stupid delinquent, didn’t know what “break down” entailed, exactly. But he could guess it was nothing good.

What should I do?

He peered at her face. Her body wasn’t even twitching. No sign of her waking up, either. She must have put a lot of excess strain on herself, too, since she was covered in a layer of thick sweat.

Rikou Takitsubo had fought Kakine until she’d gotten like this.

Probably to save Shiage Hamazura.

While borrowing the power of these Crystals he didn’t understand.

“…” He quietly clenched his teeth.

It didn’t amount to enough to be called resolve, and it wasn’t refined enough to be called determination. But he still had something ­now—­something to drive him, to move his own arms and legs with.

“Damn it…”

He couldn’t return Rikou Takitsubo to Item. Their system would gladly replace official members if they disappeared. Even if he brought her there in her critical state, they’d cruelly force her to use her ability.

As his hands trembled, he took the ladies’ gun out of his sleeve. He pulled the magazine out and checked his ammunition. It couldn’t hold much, given how narrow the grip was built to be. Besides, even with thousands of bullets on him, could he really overcome the crisis he was about to face? Academy City’s underworld would chase Takitsubo down, and even Item had enemies. Could he fight them all?

“God damn it!!”

He had to.

If they made Takitsubo use her ability any more than this, it would really be over.

Then Kinuhata, lying on the floor with her, looked over at him without moving anything else. She seemed to guess the situation from his irritation. “…Well, that’s probably the right thing. Take Takitsubo somewhere else and disappear, please.”

“Thanks.”

“I didn’t say anything you needed to thank me for. I’m just insulting you. I’m saying that the only thing ­super-­useless people like you and her are good for in Item is holding us back anyway.”

Despite that, a little smile was on her lips.

She wasn’t unharmed, either. Blood was trickling from her lips. But she saw him act for Takitsubo’s sake and smiled anyway.

“Is there anything I can do before I leave?”

“…Well, you could use code ­five-­two to contact our ancillary organization and get an information concealing unit and an ambulance here, please. As you can see, I can’t move.”

“All right,” said Hamazura. It pained him to leave her here, but for now, he had to take Takitsubo and escape.

In any case, we’re fine as long as she doesn’t use her ability. She’ll have to retire from Item, but that’s a lot better than “breaking down” or whatever, he thought.

But just then, his cell phone rang.

On the other end was Shizuri Mugino.

“Haamaazuraaaa. Would Rikou Takitsubo happen to be with you?”

“…Are you all right?! You were fighting Kakine, and, and…!!”

“Quit making such a fuss. It’s time we started our counterattack on School. We’re using Takitsubo’s power and chasing them. If she’s there, bring her here, now. We’re getting results even if it kills her.”

6

Hamazura, with the ­corpse-­like, unmoving Takitsubo on his back, left the building. He wasn’t obeying Shizuri Mugino’s orders and making her use her ability. Quite the opposite. He would run as far away as he could, so that she would have no part in Item in the future.

He was on a short bridge now. It wasn’t water flowing underneath, but a railroad track. It was one of the parts of the subway line that went aboveground. A sports car was parked on the other side of the bridge.

“So I don’t know what’s going on, but you want me to take her, yeah?”

It was an ­Anti-­Skill officer named Aiho Yomikawa who had gotten out of said car and was now putting a hand on her hip in exasperation.

The escape routes and hiding places they used were also used by all of Item, which meant Mugino would easily find out. He decided the better plan would be to give her to someone with a completely different escape route.

“Hamazura, you know what my job is, right? I’m an ­Anti-­Skill officer, ’kay? You think I’d let you escape alone after coming to me in this extremely suspicious situation with an unconscious girl on your back?”

“…Shut up,” said Hamazura, gritting his teeth. Yomikawa frowned a ­little—­his irritation seemed different. He went on, “If you want an explanation, I’ll tell you whatever you want later. I’ll attend whatever I need to! Take her and bring her somewhere safe, and fast!! She’s seriously messed up right now. She was using some Crystal things and now she could break down any second!!”

“Crystals…? Wait, Hamazura, did you just say Crystals?!”

Yomikawa’s expression changed completely just from that one word, but Hamazura didn’t explain.

He didn’t have the time.

“…Haaamazuraaa.”

Suddenly, he heard a voice from behind.

He turned around and saw Shizuri Mugino, covered in blood, on the other side of the short bridge. Some blood was hers, some wasn’t. She was dragging some rags in her right ­hand—­and he knew what they were.

“Frenda…”

To be more accurate, only her upper half.

Her lower half was nowhere in sight, and dark red dripped and dropped from her terminus.

“Oh, yes. It looks like School scared her, so she betrayed Item and tried to go into hiding. I cleaned her up real nice…And what’s this, now? I don’t have to clean you up, too, do I?”

Mugino let go, and what was left of Frenda dropped to the ground with a blotch.

She wasn’t paying attention to her trophy anymore.

That showed the depth of their friendship.

Hamazura grimaced at the ­sight—­clearly a corpse, unlike Takitsubo. But he still wouldn’t waver. He pushed the girl on his back onto Yomikawa and said quietly, “…Please, go.”

“Hamazura, like I said, I’m an ­Anti-­Skill officer. I could never use a child as a shield in this ­situation—”

“Go, damn it!!” he shouted, interrupting her. “I know you can’t leave a murder case alone. But she’s in a different dimension! I can’t tell you the details, but Frenda was really strong herself. And that woman killed her, no problem! Just take Takitsubo and get out of here!!”

After that, his expression about to break down, he looked at the unconscious Takitsubo.

“Please…I don’t want to let her die. For a while, I haven’t had any idea what to do, but now I finally found something. So please, go. I can’t protect her alone. Without your help, I’ll lose everything!!”

“Hamazura…”

“Anyway, what chance would you have alone?! She’s a Level Five. The fourth-most-terrifying monster in Academy City! I’ll buy you time, so you get Takitsubo out of here!!”

The words seemed to tear his throat apart. Yomikawa sucked in her breath at his fierce look. She ­hesitated—­but nevertheless, spurred by the glint in his eyes, nodded at last.

“Once I’ve brought her somewhere safe, I’ll get fully equipped officers here right away. Don’t die before then.”

“…Right,” he answered.

Yomikawa decisively got into the car and stepped on the accelerator. The sports car, with Rikou Takitsubo on board, quickly sped away.

He heard someone whistling.

Hamazura looked over just as the Level Five Shizuri Mugino was crossing the bridge and approaching him.

“A fight with your life on the line? How exhilarating, Hamazura.”

“­I—”

It was just when he tried to say something.

Mugino, now close to him, waved her hand horizontally. He took the hit, and his body went flying to the side. With a dull crack, the bridge’s metal handrail dug into his gut. The shock brought bile up into his throat. The power almost left his limbs as he hung across the railing like a futon set out to dry. Right under the bridge, he saw a subway train going by on the tracks.

“Quiet. I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

Ignoring Hamazura’s moans, Mugino crossed the rest of the bridge.

She hadn’t used her power as a Level Five. It was just brute force. She’d purposely made him yield to physical strength so he couldn’t use their relative levels as an excuse.

She hadn’t given up yet. She wanted to know where School was even if Takitsubo “broke down” because of it.

“Ha-ha,” he laughed anyway, still limp on the handrail. “You sure you don’t want to just finish me off?”

“Eh?” Mugino turned an indignant glare on him.

Then her eyes went wide.

The case of Crystals that Rikou Takitsubo had been using was in Shiage Hamazura’s hand.

“She absolutely needs these to use Ability Stalker, doesn’t she?”

“You bastard…!!”

Before clear rage could make it into her eyes, Hamazura went over the metal handrail and jumped off the bridge.

A subway car was passing by just at that moment.

He crashed into the car’s roof. People usually perceived them as flat, but subway cars actually had outer air conditioners and such on their roofs, making them fairly uneven. When he landed, he rolled several times, his skin tearing as though he’d been dragged over a grater, and the momentum almost carried him straight off the car. But he managed to dig in and stop.

Sprawled out on the subway car’s roof, he grinned. Looks like I managed to shake her off. Without these Crystals, she can’t make Takitsubo use her ability. I don’t have to fight her. As long as these don’t make it into Mugino’s ­hands—

Suddenly, with a massive jolt, the train car stopped.

He slid across the roof. As he stopped himself and looked up, startled, he saw Mugino standing far behind them on the rails. Like Hamazura, she’d jumped off the bridge. Her hand was deep inside the ­ground—­the ground within which the electric cables for Academy City’s subways ran. Mugino had used her ability to sever those cables, forcing the train car to come to a stop.

A few hundred meters away, Shizuri Mugino said something.

He couldn’t hear her, but he could read her lips.

Now. You’re. Dead. For. Sure.

7

Hamazura, on the train car roof, got the message from Mugino.

The Level Five had stopped the car by force, and now she had a sharp, enraged grin on her face.

“…!!” Hamazura’s hair stood on end. He quickly jumped from the car roof and ran across the gravel. He was blocked off on either side by concrete walls, like this was a ­man-­made river, but spotted a metal staircase interrupting one. He ran up those stairs and burst out into the streets aboveground.

He cast a glance over his shoulder.

Mugino was ascending the stairs, not far behind. In spite of the twenty or thirty meters between them, she was staring straight at him through the crowds. She’d already locked onto Shiage Hamazura as her prey.

Shit!! I can’t even shake her in a crowd!!

He kept on running, slipping between the people enjoying their days off. But he soon reached his limit. He looked around, then headed for a nearby building. Without checking if the door was locked, he basically gave it a shoulder tackle to force open the entrance and rolled inside.

“…Damn. Where am I…?”

This wasn’t a normal company building. Trees a little taller than Hamazura were planted all over the floor. A wire netting hung overhead, and the trees’ branches tangled around it. Grapes. He looked down and saw a line of hydroponic containers. The ­bluish-­purple illumination must have been ultraviolet light to stimulate photosynthesis.

An automatic manufacturing plant for vegetable ethanol fuel?

Research on gasoline substitutes had come a long way. Sugar cane and corn were the usual culprits, but judging by the purposeful choice of grapes, which had a low alcohol production rate, it probably meant the grapes were of the finest quality, with a serious consideration on branding. Apparently District 3’s celebrities wanted even the fuel they put in their cars to be different from the norm. Were they trying to make their engines drink wine, or what?

“What a nice place.”

The voice came from directly behind him. He tensed.

“That’s some good sense to choose an unmanned facility, Hamazura. It’s best if you’re the only one to die.”

Before he could turn around in a panic, he felt the impact.

­Gwa-­thud!! With a nasty noise, Hamazura’s body flew several meters away before hitting the ground. In grand style, he overturned the hydroponic containers, cracked through several grape vines, and kept on rolling along.

The one hit, liable to kill him outright, caused intense pain all over.

It was very strange that none of his bones were broken.

“Damn it…!!”

Hamazura dragged his bruised body out of the room. There was a staircase, so he went up it. Upstairs, he found rows of silver machines twice his height and straight metal piping connected to them. It looked like a beer production plant, the kind he saw in commercials once in a while. They were fermenting grapes and using the alcohol content from them, after all, so it was probably mostly the same on the inside. There would have also been machines to concentrate the alcohol and convert it into automobile fuel.

Compared to before, there were more blind spots.

She might be a Level Five, but that doesn’t mean she’s invincible.

Hamazura wriggled through the intricate pipes, then pushed his back up against the wall of a machine the size of a small room, desperately searching for an advantage.

Back when I got attacked by that crane truck outside the Particle Physics Institute, she didn’t use her power to destroy the wrecking ball. And with the subway before, ­too—­she didn’t try to stop the speeding car itself. She aimed for the power line in the ground.

He clenched his teeth against the pain going through him and looked for a way out.

She’s incredibly strong, but I bet she needs a certain amount of time to take aim. In other words, she’s weak to surprise attacks. She shouldn’t be able to deal with a sudden attack from the shadows.

That wasn’t because her power was commonplace, but rather a weakness born of it being too strong. Unless she was meticulous and defined her ability’s area of effect, she could get herself caught in it.

Whatever the reason, he didn’t care, as long as she had a disadvantage.

With all the obstacles there, Shiage Hamazura should have had some chance at victory.

But…

“Haaamazuraaa.”

One word. Just hearing the voice made Hamazura’s body scream of danger.

Abandoning all logic, he went down to the ­floor—­and a moment later, it came.

Zzzhhhaaa!! A rain of light rays.

­Pure-­white, ­unhealthy-­looking rays of light lashed out in all directions from around the woman named Shizuri Mugino. They were special electron beams, each fired with as much energy as a lightning strike. Electrons, like light, exhibited properties of both particles and waves, depending on the situation, but Mugino could control electrons in a vague state between those.

When these electrons, stuck in an ambiguous state, collided with an object, they wouldn’t be able to determine which response to ­exhibit—­a wave or a ­particle—­and would end up “stopping” in place. The mass of an electron was supposed to be infinitely close to zero, but because of this stopping effect, they would turn into a ­pseudo-­wall, which would smash into the target with terrible force, given the speed the electrons were fired at.

That was Meltdown.

Its formal classification: a ­high-­speed ­particle-­wave cannon.

Unlike the ­number-­three Railgun, this Level Five could control electrons without using either waves or particles.

Each of the light beams destroyed metal like it was paper, melted down thick walls, and painted everything in an orange hue. As though heat had made it to the ­already-­produced alcohol, small explosions were triggered in a few places. Hamazura managed to avoid a direct hit, but a metal fragment the size of a guitar pick stabbed into his left shoulder. And it didn’t stop at ­one—­three or four more followed.

“Guh, ahhhhhhhh!!” he screamed, holding his bloody shoulder.

If his cover was in her way, she would make short work of it. With everything reduced to rubble and the room now flattened, Hamazura and Mugino hopelessly faced each other.

“The machines around ­here—­they’re just like those things you use to scoop goldfish. Uhh, I forget the name. Anyway, none of this can block my Meltdown.”

Academy City’s number four.

She’d reduced all the machines covering the room to rubble in a single attack. She’d wrecked all possible cover, even doing major damage to the outer ­walls—­and with the building itself now in danger of falling, Mugino stood in the center of the destruction and slowly, slowly widened her smile.

“According to those shithead scholars, my biological instincts put a safety on my ability, so this is all the power I can use. But I hear that originally, it could instantly kill Railgun. I guess that’s just me complaining, ­though—­if I actually did it, the recoil would apparently blow my own body to pieces, too.”

Fear washed over Shiage Hamazura like a wave.

The Level Five monster merely approached him without a word.

8

Shizuri Mugino’s Meltdown fired with overwhelming force.

With the rubble behind him, Hamazura ran for his life, trying to get as far away from her as he could.

As he fled from the vegetable ethanol plant to another part of the building, Mugino called out.

“Hamazuraaa. Couldn’t you please stop making this difficult and hand over the Crystals and Takitsubo already? I won’t be satisfied until I’ve killed every single person in School.”

As he ran, Hamazura rejected her words. “I refuse. I’m not letting Takitsubo use the Crystals anymore. She’s at her limit!”

“So what? If Takitsubo dies, we can just get another esper to replace her. She’s probably the only one who can search for people by their involuntary diffusion fields, but I don’t mind having an esper who does it differently. As long as we know where the School bastards are, we don’t have any problem.”

Hamazura made it to the area where the remnants of grapes were temporarily gathered once the alcohol had been wrung out. But Mugino’s Meltdown reduced that place to a mountain of debris in mere seconds.

As he hid behind a heap of hot metal, Hamazura said, “…Sorry, but I can’t go with you.”

“Eh?”

“You can’t beat that Kakine guy. You’ve already run away ­twice—­once at the Particle Physics Institute, and again during the last battle.”

He thought he heard her grating her teeth.

But he continued anyway. “Now that I faced him personally, I know. It’s not about you being fourth place and him being second. You’d lose to him in a different way. What good is it going to do for you now, finding out where he is?”

The people in School were perverted in their own way, but they at least let people farther down the scale escape. Even when their enemy, Takitsubo, exhausted her strength, they didn’t move in for the kill.

Meanwhile, Shizuri Mugino was baring her fangs at even her allies, just because she didn’t like it. She didn’t seem stronger than them. However overwhelming her power, that impression didn’t change.

“Being able to win or not isn’t the problem. Even if you risked your life and won, all anyone would get out of it is ­self-­satisfaction. I can’t let Takitsubo go along with something that petty. You’d squander her life away on that?”

“Hah. Ha-ha!!”

Even when she heard Shiage Hamazura’s answer, Mugino just laughed it off. She slowly followed him as he changed cover, from rubble to rubble, to get away from her.

“How did she train you, Hamazura? Did her cute face make you do it? Or was it because she was nice to you even though you’re a Level Zero?”

When Hamazura stayed silent, Mugino’s smile deepened.

“There’s a word for you: an idiot. Is everyone who says nice things to you a good person, and everything who says harsh things to you a bad guy?! You talk like you’re the center of the world!!”

“…I know that.”

Hamazura didn’t deny it.

If Rikou Takitsubo hadn’t said those nice things to him, he wouldn’t have changed his mind.

“But she said she didn’t want me to die to some calculating bastard like you. She’s capable of saying things like that, you know! A girl like her deserves to be happy. Neither of us is fit to stand above others. If a nice idiot doesn’t get to the top and lead us all to a new kind of society, this shithole of a world will never be saved!!”

He didn’t get an answer.

Instead, with a roar, light rays so white it was like a nuclear explosion blew away both Hamazura and the pile of metal he was hiding behind. The blast sent him careening back, but suddenly, he felt the presence of someone right along his back.

Before he turned around, he noticed something felt off in his right ear.

Shizuri Mugino had stuck a screwdriver into it.

“Hey, wait. It looks like you have a screw loose in your head.”

Slshh…The screwdriver’s tip slowly went into his ear.

“Want me to screw it back in for you?”

He couldn’t move. If he moved his head at all, it would damage the inside of his ear and he’d start bleeding everywhere. As Mugino maintained their positions, she brought her empty left hand in front of him and held out her palm.

She was telling him to give her the Crystals.

Hamazura reached into his pocket.

The clear case with the Crystals was inside.

Damn it…

He clenched his teeth, shut his eyes, and made up his mind.

Whirl!!

He disregarded the screwdriver and whipped around.

9

Shiage Hamazura ignored the screwdriver in his ear and twisted his body.

“­Wha—?”

Even Mugino seemed a little surprised.

The screwdriver chewed up the inside of his ear. Unimaginably intense pain exploded in his head, and sounds on his right became muted like he had put in an earplug. On top of that, for some reason, half his vision seemed faintly red.

He ignored it all and took the Crystal case out of his pocket.

It was a small, rectangular, clear case, like the tubing inside a mechanical pencil.

He squeezed it, and using its corner, shoved it lengthways into the clinging Mugino’s face.

It crushed her right eye in an instant, like a pirate captain.

“Guh, ooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Mugino wobbled backward, grasping at her red, dripping face with her hands.

Hamazura watched quietly and smiled. “A Level Five’s eye for a Level Zero’s ear…Bargain shopping, am I right?”

When Mugino heard that, her face distorted in anger. “Hamazu­raaaaa!!”

Bam!! A flash of light burst from her.

Her left arm, from hand to elbow, blew away as though it had melted. The ­pure-­white light it created aimed at Hamazura’s face. She was trying to fire her weapon without taking precise aim first.

“…!!”

Hamazura swung his head out of the way a moment before.

It was total coincidence that he dodged an overwhelming attack like that.

Mugino reached out with her ­blood-­covered right hand, shoved Hamazura to the ­ground—­he had lost his balance, and was unsteady—­and climbed on top of him. As she did, the case of Crystals left his hand and clattered across the floor. Mugino wasn’t paying attention to that anymore.

Glaring at Hamazura through her remaining left eye, she screamed, overtaken with fury. “It doesn’t matter!! It doesn’t fucking matter!! An ear? An eye?! You can break off my limbs and crush my heart and it wouldn’t change the fact that I’m stronger than you! This is what a Level Five is. I am the ­fourth-­ranked Meltdown!! Don’t get full of yourself, bastard. I could kill a hundred of you fucking Level Zeroes without even moving a finger!!”

As spittle flew from her mouth, Mugino grabbed Hamazura’s neck with her right hand. If she activated her ability like this, she’d definitely annihilate his head.

Hamazura smiled as she held his neck like a can of juice.

The strength left his body as though he had given up on something.

“…Hey, I’m no idiot. I figured this would happen,” he said, listening to Mugino’s ragged breathing. “You’re the kind of person who can’t be satisfied unless she can beat a video game without dying. The slightest mistake, and you fly into a ­rage—­and even if you see the ending, you’re not happy.”

“Eh?”

“When people like that make a tiny mistake, they’ll find another goal so they can write it off. If you can’t win without dying, you’ll get a new high score and be satisfied…You never needed to obsess over some boring Level Zero. You should have just used your Level Five shit and sniped me from far away.”

He grinned.

“What I’m saying is that wasting time to come here and declare victory was a fatal opening!”

Shka!!

It was the sound of Shiage Hamazura stretching his arm, and the ladies’ gun up his sleeve sliding out.

“­Wha—?”

Before Mugino could say anything, Hamazura pulled the trigger.

Bang, bang, bam!! With a series of dry sounds, several holes opened up in her upper body. Hamazura kept on firing until he ran out of bullets, and even after that, his index finger continued to move for a while.

“…”

Mugino looked at the blood all over her, surprised.

Eventually, she rolled limply to the side, fell to the floor, and stopped moving.

“Easy win, Level Five,” said Hamazura casually, dragging his own beat-up body to its feet. He picked up the case of Crystals and put it back in his pocket.

He probably couldn’t have beaten her if he’d taken his gun out right away. She would have easily used her ability to protect herself. He needed to be stingy about it until the very last moment. Even when she put the screwdriver in his ear, he hadn’t taken it out—­to lull her into a false sense of security, that he had no actual weapons.

Ritoku Komaba, ­Skill-­Out’s leader, had once locked out Academy City’s strongest Level Five’s ability and gotten within inches of taking his life. Hamazura had done the same kind of thing.

He pushed his pinkie into his wounded right ear.

The eardrum didn’t seem damaged. His finger came out with a clump of blood, and some of his hearing returned.

“…Sheesh. Bargain shopping indeed,” he grumbled, about to leave.

“…ma…zura…”

Then a voice, as though from the depths of hell, gave Hamazura a terrible chill up his spine.

He slowly turned around.

“Hamazuraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

Despite the ­dark-­red holes in her body, a left arm missing from the elbow down, and a right eye crushed into mush, she was just shooting to her feet. An ­all-­too-­unhealthy white light surrounded her right hand. She was probably looping her ­high-­speed ­wave-­particle cannon, which used an immense number of electron beams. One hit from that would wipe Hamazura clear off the map.

The handgun in his right hand had no ammo left.

He wouldn’t be relying on it.

“Ohh…Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

He flung the gun aside and charged straight into Mugino’s zone.

Their arms intersected.

The slightest hesitation would have created an opening.

The slightest opening would have ensured his death.

But Shiage Hamazura had made up his mind. He simply stepped forcefully in, gripped his fist tight as a boulder, stared straight into the face of the enemy he had to defeat, and let loose the strongest, fastest attack he could.

A loud slam thundered through the room.

The energy left Shizuri Mugino’s body; she crumpled to her knees, then to the floor. The terrible white light in her hand melted into the air and vanished. There was no danger there.

Hamazura picked up the gun he’d thrown away, then looked down at the unmoving Mugino and took his cell phone out of his pocket. He called up Yomikawa, who had given him her number when she’d put him in custody, saying something about being there if he wanted to talk.

“It’s Hamazura. Don’t need ­Anti-­Skill support anymore,” he said, walking through the demolished building, heading for the exit.

“Yeah. I ended it all.”

10

Shiage Hamazura left the District 3 vegetable ethanol plant. Several people from Item’s ancillary were standing by to erase all the evidence, but nobody stopped him. From the looks of things, he’d just crushed the ­fourth-­ranked Level Five in Academy City. Nobody would want to foolishly lay a hand on him.

“Yo.”

A figure standing a short distance away from the building saw him and spoke up.

“Hanzou?”

Delinquent members with their bases in District 7 had nothing to do with the ­celebrity-­filled District 3. It couldn’t have been a coincidence he was there. Had he tapped into their radio or something?

“Heard all about it, Hamazura.”

“What, and how much?”

“You beat a Level Five on your own, right?”

Some information source he’s got, thought Hamazura with a sigh, then he remembered something. “It came in handy, by the way.”

“It?”

“The girl gun. If you hadn’t given it to me, I’d be dead.”

“Hah. If you took down a Level Five with that tiny little gun, that makes you a real beast.” Hanzou took out a cigarette, then handed a second one to Hamazura. “Well, isn’t that a nice little present? With all this under your belt, nobody would turn you down. Not that many people actually hate you anyway.”

“…”

“Your old position’s available, Hamazura. A bunch of others are waiting for you, too.”

“Sorry,” said Hamazura, lighting the cigarette and grinning. “I found something else to do.”

“Pfft. Now I’m jealous.”

Nevertheless, Hanzou didn’t persist. The fact that Hamazura, of all people, had stood up to the monster that was Shizuri Mugino all on his ­own—­he could sense something different about his state of mind.

“Whatever. I’ll round up ­Skill-­Out for the time being.”

“Thanks.”

“But don’t forget about us. We’ll save you a seat. Come on back when you’re done.”

They talked, they laughed, and they bumped fists, before each headed for his own destination.

INTERLUDE FOUR

After holing up in a hotel room for about an hour, the girl in the dress went back to School’s hideout. Teitoku Kakine, Level Five, was in there.

“Huh? Where’d you go, exactly?”

“Just making a little pocket change. Academics are the worst, you know. They calculate a base rate and don’t bother tipping.”

“Hmm. One ­hour—­sounds like a rousing time.”

“I wasn’t doing anything shameful. We got a hotel room, sure, but we just flipped through magazines and talked a bit.”

“…Not having sex?”

“No! And I didn’t need to. It depends on the person, but my ‘customers’ don’t generally come looking for something like that. Do you know why rich people go to stores and give money to women? It’s not because they have some sexual desires they want to fulfill. They just want to form a personal relationship by themselves outside of work.”

“Strange world,” said Kakine.

The girl in the dress seemed ­half-­exasperated. “You know workaholics, right? Their jobs are so much fun for them that they wreck their families because of it. For them, relationships they can build with money are like salvation. Money is the result of their work. They use it to buy friendship and love, and then get the satisfaction that they made personal relationships on their own, or really are fit for this society. I’m just relieving some of the complex they feel by having money.”

“Right,” said Kakine, his voice perfectly uninterested.

The girl in the dress lost the will to explain. “Oh, right,” she said. “Looks like Item, the ones we were after, are out of business. Infighting. Shizuri Mugino, number four, went down, and now they can’t keep their group together.”

“Huh? ­Infighting— So Mugino escaped my attack…But wait, who took her out? Frenda ran away after making a deal with us, and we crushed Saiai Kinuhata. Rikou Takitsubo doesn’t have any direct fighting power, so…”

He stopped. “No…”

“Yes. If it wasn’t an official member, it’s most likely someone from their ancillary group.”

They both thought of the Level Zero who had come back up into the elevator lobby to protect Rikou Takitsubo. Kakine whistled in praise.

The girl stared at him. “Anyway, how’s the analysis on the Tweezers going?”

Teitoku Kakine wore a mechanical glove on his right hand, and two clear nails were equipped to its index and middle fingers. Plus, though you couldn’t see it with the naked eye; the nails were filled with silicon chunks absorbed from the air. Although they were chunks, they were only seventy nanometers ­across—­you’d have to use an electron microscope to observe them.

“I always had doubts,” said Kakine, clicking the nails together. “That jackass Aleister always knows too much about what we’re doing. He’s not just watching through the surveillance cameras, security robots, or satellites. I was always confused about how he got his information.”

“…”

“Turns out, it’s nothing much. He just has about fifty million invisible machines floating around the city he pulls intel from. It’s no wonder he knows the place inside and out.”

It was called the Underline.

It took the form of a spherical body, with three wiry cilia extending from each side. It didn’t walk along the ground to ­move—­it was closer to drifting through the air.

These ­ultra-­small machines rode on convection currents in the air to generate their own power, ­pseudo-­perpetually gathering information and using a straight electron beam to send internally produced quantum signals to and from the Underline, creating a sort of network. The Underline was the only place information entered the Windowless Building, and naturally, the little things would contain several pieces of information powerful enough to shake the world.

“But even knowing the Underline exists, it’s really hard to find machines you’d need an electron microscope for. And even if I did catch them, I’d have no way to get information out of them. After all, you’d have to pry open a ­nano-­sized device and hook up to its circuitry. On top of that, I hear the quantum signals inside them would get changed if an outside source carelessly observed it.”

That was where the Tweezers came in.

However small the nanodevices were, the Tweezers would have no problems, since they were developed to grab elementary particles themselves. They would make it possible to extract information from the Underline.

The girl in the dress looked at Kakine and asked, “What did the analysis show?”

“What we thought it would,” answered Kakine. “It won’t work. There’s a lot of data stored in the Underline, but I don’t think this by itself will put us on an equal playing field with Aleister. We’ll need one last push, in addition to this data.”

“Then we’re going to do it?”

“…Yeah. We’ll kill Academy City’s number one. That’s the only way. If we want to have an advantage negotiating with Aleister, a spare won’t cut it. Instead, I’ll have to become a main.”

“I see,” replied the girl, not particularly emotive. “Doesn’t matter to me. I’m still not getting involved in the Accelerator fight.”

“What?”

“My Heart Measure ability changes the distance between people’s hearts. So if I held the same distance to Accelerator as whomever he’s closest to, I might be able to force him to hesitate to attack.”

“And?”

“But that doesn’t guarantee he’ll stop when confronting the person closest to him. Some people go crazy and attack even more fiercely. Why’d you betray me, ­bastard—­that kind of thing…Could you trust Accelerator on that front? I’m sorry, but I feel like no matter how I adjusted the distance between us, he’d attack me. He’s a mess, and I can’t predict what he’s going to do.”

“Huh,” answered Kakine boredly. He didn’t sound disappointed—he must not have been expecting much from the girl in terms of fighting force.

She looked at the nails on his right arm. “Once you’ve got a result, tell me. Once we have direct bargaining rights with Aleister.”

“Right,” said Kakine, before the girl in the dress left School’s hideout.

Teitoku Kakine stared at the Tweezers and grinned lethargically.

“…Accelerator, eh?”