Chapter 97: Fourth Rank - Part 1

DOOOOOM!!!! A thunderous blast ripped across the cloudy sky.

The former Genius Workshop Clondolly Research Institute.

That was where we had arrived—but by then, it had already become a battlefield.

"Wh…what is happening here!?"

『Hm… it seems the Seventh Ranked just charged in there a moment ago.』

"Mr. Sogiita!? That man’s sticking his nose in again!?"

Seriously, that guy really has way too many ties with Tokiwadai girls!!
Wait, hold up—if Sogiita-san is in there throwing around that much chaos, doesn’t that mean there’s someone in there who can actually keep up with him!? What kind of battle manga nonsense is this!?

"…So what now, Miss Blackguard? If we keep going this way, we’ll have to pass right by the combat zone with the Seventh Ranked."

"We can use a 『Fissure』 to climb from the outside straight to the upper floors. In these situations, the important facilities are almost always located at the top."

"That’s one way, but I do have a suggestion of my own."

With that, Reicia-chan held out her hand toward the building.

"Wouldn’t it be quicker if we just blew up the whole building right here?"
"You idiot!!"

I immediately cut her off. What the hell are you thinking, Reicia-chan!? Well… okay, yeah, it is exactly the sort of thing you’d say. If there’s a dungeon, the first thing you’d probably think of is torching the inside to take care of all the obstacles at once!

"Sure, attacking from the outside means we don’t put ourselves in danger! But this is Academy City, you know!? Isn’t it, like, really likely that their so-called ‘important facility’ is being used to keep innocent girls asleep while ripping away their powers!?"
"……………I-I was just saying it, that’s all!"

Good grief… No, seriously, that’s actually a very real danger.
And besides, I’d heard Tokiwadai was butting heads over this incident. Which means there’s a good chance some ‘hero’ is already inside. If we brought the place down and dragged her down with it, that’d be no laughing matter.

"…So we’re just not going to worry about the Seventh Ranked getting buried under the rubble?"

"Hm? It’s just being crushed by a building, isn’t it?"

No way. I’m not about to fire a 『Fissure』 directly at him. Even we don’t think Sogiita-san is that absurdly invincible. …Though honestly, he does seem like the kind of person who could just tank a 『Fissure』 barehanded.

"(………………Yeah, Level 5 espers are best left inside Indian Poker dreams…)"

"(…What a bastard this guy is.)"

Anyway, that settles it. Best option is to just grab both of them and fly straight up to the roof. Last thing we want is to get ambushed in mid-move like last time.

And then—just as I was about to open a 『Fissure』, the radio hidden in my pocket gave a harsh bzzt!! noise.

…A bad feeling.

A seriously bad feeling ran down my spine.

Without even waiting for the rest of the message, we each shifted our powers in the same direction instinctively—then, as if confirming our fears, a scream-like voice burst out of Baba-san’s transmitter.

『──Is that the Hidden Fourth Ranked, Another Four!? Get out of there, now!! They’re──“ITEM” just showed up!!!!』

After that—there was no more time to think.

Sharaku-san instantly bolted using blind-spot movement kill-zones, while Adabana-san, who must’ve sensed the danger with her sixth sense (probably some kind of magic?), had already started her evasion. With them safe, we had no choice but to launch ourselves into the sky with everything we had.

DOOOOOSH!!!!

The thunderous crash, like a great waterfall slamming down, came right after.

Looking back, countless beams of light poured into the spot where we had been. And at the source stood—one girl.

A girl with long chestnut hair swept back, her mature beauty twisted into a vicious grin.

"Well, well, Another Four. Fancy running into you here. How about you have a little fun with me, hmm?"

Mugino Shizuri.
The Meltdowner.

Her ranking was────

"This────『Provisional Fifth Ranked』, that is!!"

With hatred sharpened into a killing edge, the monster lunged straight at us.

Chapter 3 – The Value of a Soul Is Worthless Double(Square)_Faith.
Episode 82: The Fourth Ranked - Part 1 "Meltdowner"_in_ITEM.

──In truth, Meltdowner is weaker than Black-White Jagged Edge.

The Meltdowner’s overwhelming destructive power forces its user’s survival instinct to hold back output. That restraint creates a brief lag before each shot, which drastically lowers accuracy against high-speed targets.

Because of this, it has poor compatibility against opponents like Railgun or Black-White Jagged Edge, who specialize in high-speed movement. Railgun can nullify the attack with her electricity even if it hits, while Black-White Jagged Edge creates unavoidable shockwave damage through air pressure. Both constitute fatal weaknesses.

Powerful, but unstable.

In short, Meltdowner is the kind of Level 5 esper ability that no one would actually envy.

──Of course.

"Think you can throw off my aim just by zipping around all over the place…?"

The girl herself clearly didn’t see it that way.

"That’s a slow-ass idea, you damn ape!! I passed that stage a hundred million years ago!!!!"

A moment later, the beams of ruin unleashed from Mugino Shizuri split into countless branches.

Reicia barely managed to escape the death trap turned into a bed of needles—but the black-and-white wings on her back now had several holes punched through them.

"…!? My 『Fissure』 got pierced…!?"

"Hah? Of course it did. What the hell do you take my ability for? You really thought some half-baked wannabe Level 5 esper trick could block it? Haah? Keep thinking you’re hot shit. I’ll grind that arrogance of yours flat until nothing’s left but dirt!!!!"

With a casual sweep of her arm, pale orbs of light appeared around Mugino.

Like ghostly flames, those eerie lights swayed in the air before locking onto Reicia above. Then, as if fired from a bow, they shot straight for her with deadly precision—just before Mugino flicked a single card into the air.

The light lances pierced the card dead-on, and instantly shattered apart into a horizontal rain of beams that tore toward Reicia from every angle.

"『Diffusion Support Semiconductor Silicon Burn』. Humans are only strong when they use tools—ITEMs. That’s too complicated for a primitive ape who only knows how to fire off raw esper powers, isn’t it!?"

"──You’d better stop underestimating me."

But Reicia was not about to let herself be nothing but target practice.

It was true that Meltdowner’s diffusion through the Silicon Burn expanded its range. But it also caused a drop in power. If she widened the distance during the setup, she could evade the attack.

And then—

BOOOOOM!! A violent gale burst forth from a 『Fissure』.

"…What the hell is this wind…? With that direction, there’s no way it’s just coming from the 『Fissure』 extending out of her current position…?"

Of course, the black-and-white 『Fissures』 forming Reicia’s wings were constantly appearing and vanishing, granting her aerodynamic lift as she flew.

But──Reicia was never limited to black-and-white fissures alone.

"Transparent 『Fissures』. I already spread them around, you see. Enough to generate strong winds in this area for the next ten minutes at least. So your—what was it again? Ah, yes, too half-baked for me to remember—the liiittle card trick of yours won’t work anymore."

"………Fine then. Bring it on, you damn brat…!!"

A vein bulged on her temple as Mugino spat her rage.

"Frenda!!! If you’ve got a score to settle, now’s the time!!!!"

"Eeeek! Black-White Jagged Edge, please don’t hold it against me later…!!"

Immediately after Mugino’s call, a massive explosion ripped through the air around Reicia.

"──Wh-what the… I-I didn’t notice it at all… What was that…!!"

──A few seconds later. We barely managed to shield ourselves from the blast in time, but the momentum carried us far from the research facility. We ended up crashing into an abandoned building, where we finally caught our breath.

Still… I saw Frenda-san coming because of the air currents, but how exactly did she take that blast? It wasn’t a missile or anything… Haa, thankfully I’d seen that whole Silicon Burn semiconductor diffusion thing back in the anime’s second season, so even if it was my first time seeing it in real life, I managed to handle it somehow. Honestly though, it’s a miracle I blocked it at all…

《Most likely a gaseous explosive.》

《Gaseous explosive…? Oh yeah, was that a thing…?》

Right, Frenda-san had used something like a “Gaseous Explosive Ignis” when she fought Misaka-san in the research lab back then…

《Wait, that was just a bluff though!!》

《But with Academy City’s scientific capabilities, creating something like a gaseous explosive should be simple, don’t you think? Though the detonation process would require incredibly delicate handling.》

《That’s exactly the kind of thing Frenda-san would pull off though…》

Yeah… taking a defective weapon deemed impractical due to overly strict detonation conditions, and then casually weaponizing it—if anyone would do it, it’s Frenda-san. Which honestly makes this troublesome. If she can bypass Jagged Edge’s airflow detection and hit us, then manipulating the airflow carelessly could get me blown up point-blank next time.

Come to think of it, what are Sharaku-san and Adabana-san even doing? They were fighting too, but I didn’t see any backup from them at all.

"Hello? Baba? What are the other two doing right now? If they tucked tail and ran from a Level 5 esper, I’ll fire them on the spot."

『It’s not that simple! We’re tied up fighting a different esper! Damn it… the intel said it was just a Level 4, didn’t it!? What the hell are these people, some kind of monster squad!?』

…Looks like we’re in a pretty bad spot. By “the others”… that’d be Takitsubo-san and Kinuhata-san? No, Takitsubo-san can’t really fight even if she’s here, so it’s probably Kinuhata-san alone. …Yeah, I guess just Kinuhata-san would be enough to give Adabana-san and Sharaku-san trouble.

Ah, right. I should ask this too.

"And earlier… you referred to them as ‘ITEM.’ Just what is that supposed to be? I understand it’s about those girls, but…"

I probed Baba-san with the question. After all, as far as they know, we’re not supposed to be aware of “ITEM” yet. Besides… regardless of that, I am curious why ITEM showed up in this situation.

『“ITEM” is a group belonging to Academy City’s darkness, like us “MEMBER.” Its core is Academy City’s Number Four… Meltdowner, the Atomic Collapse esper. Then there’s that Level 0 bomb specialist we fought the other day. And apparently they’ve also got two Level 4 espers. Their abilities are… Offense Armor, the Nitrogen Armor, and AIM Stalker, the Power Tracker.』

"…You’re quite well informed, aren’t you?"

It’s still the same-level dark side organization, right? How can their combat strength details be this exposed?

『Actually, there was an organization investigating them around summer. It ended up getting wiped out, but while I was combing through their database, I found it. …Does ‘STUDY’ ring a bell?』

"Ah…!"

Oh, right! ITEM was involved in that incident too! I was so busy trying not to disappear back then that it completely slipped my mind! But yeah, since I was also involved in that mess, it makes sense that MEMBER would investigate me, stumble across STUDY, and through them, ITEM.

Now that I think about it… how the hell did STUDY even manage to investigate ITEM in the first place? …Well, with how useful Febri and Journey’s abilities seemed, maybe the higher-ups were pulling strings and steering them into it.

『Anyway, the two of them… actually, it’s mostly the Nitrogen Armor one—handling her is eating up all of their focus. This is… bad. Doctor, if we don’t send reinforcements, they might get worn down completely.』

『Hmm… true enough. T:GD alone might not be enough. Perhaps we should deploy T:MT… or I may have to intervene personally.』

Wait, what!? It’s that bad already!? And Kinuhata-san’s only barely holding the line? Just how wide is the power gap here… no, just how ridiculously strong is this Nitrogen Armor Offense Armor!?

"…As for me, I’ve only just barely managed to escape the last attack. I think it would be wise for us to regroup."

『…You’re right. In that case, Miss Blackguard, move to the location I’ll specify. We’ll gather the three of us first, then reconsider our strategy. Now that we know the enemy includes a Level 5 esper among their dark side assets, our approach will have to change.』

We nodded to “the Doctor’s” transmission, took the coordinates, and were just about to move. That’s when a thought struck me. …If Kinuhata-san is holding off both of them all by herself, then what exactly is Takitsubo-san doing right now? Come to think of it, when Takitsubo-san appeared in the Railgun manga, her role was to lock onto Misaka-san’s position while she was on the run, and—

"aAAaaAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!"

It was a hair’s breadth escape. We destroyed the building with “Cracks” and sprinted at full speed. Otherwise, we would’ve been completely vaporized by Mugino’s Meltdowner barrage that had blasted us from every direction.

Right. Of course. ITEM’s whole tactic is to have Takitsubo-san pinpoint the target’s coordinates, and then follow up with Meltdowner’s guaranteed-kill strike. That’s why Takitsubo-san had to keep straining herself with such a damaging ability, until it ultimately broke her body! In other words—against ITEM, hiding is meaningless!

《Shiren, do you think Residual Matter can block Meltdowner!?》

《…Honestly, I don’t know. If I remember right, Meltdowner can even pierce through Dark Matter. I think that was mentioned in the novel… If that’s true, then Residual Matter probably won’t hold either. Better to assume it’s impossible.》

A single miscalculation here means death. No room for overconfidence. We’re dealing with Academy City’s Number Four, a Level 5.

"Aaah? So you finally stopped buzzing around, huh? Damn pest was fluttering about like a gnat—time to squash ya flat, you damn ‘Another Four, the Fake Number Four’!!"

"…Your vulgar tongue is unbearable! A refined lady like me cannot be expected to comprehend the language of a thug!"

"…You bitch. I’ll make sure you suffer plenty before I kill you."

Reicia-chan’s taunt struck home, and Mugino started firing wildly. Dodging ordinary laser beams isn’t hard, but if only I could see those pre-distortion signs like I did in the battle against Gensei, then my position would be solid. But… it seems those “distortions” only show up when my condition is good, and I haven’t seen them again since. If I at least knew what triggered them, then—

The moment I thought that, watching Mugino on the ground, something about her struck me as… off. How should I put it… that Mugino seemed just a little… bl-u-rr-ing…?

"Oraaa! What’re you staring down at me for, brat!? I’ll blast you outta the sky and roast that arrogant face of yours right now!!"

"Urgh…!"

That was close…! Now’s not the time to get lost in thought! Damn it, this woman is terrifying! If she punched me in the stomach or something, I’d probably faint on the spot! No way in hell do I want her getting anywhere near me!!

… …Wait, hold on. Up to now, I’ve been scared of Mugino because of the “novels” and the “anime” impression in my head… But if I throw all that away—strip away those preconceptions—and look at the situation right here, right now… isn’t this actually something we could flip completely on its head?

Kinuhata-san stalling our allies.

The gaseous explosives locking down airflow control.

Silicon Burn semiconductors adjusting the hit rate.

AIM Stalker enabling pinpoint long-range sniping.

Thanks to all those components, ITEM’s strategy was simple: grind us down from long range without ever letting us fight back. But when you really think about it, that strategy is built on one “assumption.” And if that assumption collapses… the entire situation flips upside down in an instant.

Yes.

If we overturn the assumption that we’re just going to keep running.

"──I think it’s about time we ended this."

Kyugggghhh!!! In a flash, we moved right up to Mugino’s face. Even with Silicon Burn, even with her regular Meltdowner shots, there’s always a fractional lag before she actually fires. And in the world of Level 5 espers, even that fractional moment stretches into eternity.

《Reicia-chan! Leave the airflow manipulation to me! Handle the body!》

《Understood!!》

Leaving control of my body to Reicia-chan, I deployed “Cracks” to manipulate the air around us. First, I shaped the airflow into an ultrasonic armor around the body. With this, even if Mugino punched us, it wouldn’t hurt. Next, I used air current sensing to pinpoint Frenda-san, who was hiding somewhere—

"You think moving in close wipes out my options, huh!?"

That’s when Mugino’s kick slammed into our stomach. …Ghh…! I felt that, even through the armor! If I hadn’t put up the ultrasonic shell, what would’ve happened to me…!?

"…I’ve already seen through you, you gorilla woman! Just one look at those massive legs and it’s obvious you’re a brawler!!"

"Wha!? You little—"

Ah—there’s the opening! Nice one, Reicia-chan!

With Mugino’s composure broken for a split second by Reicia-chan’s verbal jab, I immediately slammed a compressed mass of air into her side. GONK!! The pressure hit like a hammer, sending Mugino tumbling sideways across the ground.

"──Don’t stop now, Shiren!! Finish her off!!"
"No! Wrong! Evade!!"

Cutting off Reicia-chan’s order, I spread my “Cracks” into wings and zig-zagged after Mugino. And sure enough, a barrage of Meltdowner shots rained down on the spot we’d just vacated. …Seriously? That blast should’ve been enough to make a normal person pass out cold, yet she managed to fire it off while rolling…?

We closed the distance, but Mugino was glaring at us with undiminished killing intent, blood running down her forehead. Wiping it away before it could drip into her eyes, she growled:

"…The hell’s with that ‘eye’ of yours?"

"…Eye?"

"Whatever. Thanks to you, I just came up with a great idea…♪"

Gyoooonn!! A beam burst from Mugino’s shoulder. Dodging it itself was easy—but the beam didn’t vanish. Instead, it circled back, returning to her shoulder… and began looping. That was no ordinary laser anymore.

What had formed before us, shining with the thunder of annihilation, was a giant arm.

"Meltdowner always had range… but no duration."

With a cruel, tearing smile, Mugino spoke with the glee of a child showing off a new toy.

"My shots fade fast because once fired, they fly off into the distance. So—what if the endpoint and origin point are placed at the same coordinates? Electrons in that ambiguous state, neither particle nor wave, can be kept under my control forever."

This was the evolved Meltdowner application—born from the battle where she lost her arm against Hamazura. A technique that allowed Mugino Shizuri, once limited to long-range sniping, to wield her guaranteed-kill power even in close and mid-range combat.

"──Now then, how about Round Two, ‘Another Four, Fake Number Four’!!"

Even so… there’s no choice but to fight!

…And then, for a moment, my right eye… throbbed.