Chapter 98: Fourth Rank - Part 2

Since Mugino-san started using Meltdowner’s “Circulation,” there’s no way we can recklessly go for close combat anymore.

Up until now, the only reason we could even attempt close combat with Mugino-san was because of this assumption: “Meltdowner has a delay between aiming and firing, so as long as she doesn’t have time to take aim, she can’t attack.” But now that she can constantly deploy it in the form of circulation, that assumption no longer applies.

Understanding that, we still────de·ci·ded·to·en·gage·in·close·com·bat.

"…Haaah? The hell are these brats doing… even if you come close, my Meltdowner isn’t gonna miss. As long as I’m running it in circulation mode, I can adjust the trajectory down to the centimeter!!"

Flapping the wings of the "Crack" wide, we charged forward with the wind at our backs, only for Mugino-san to swing around a giant arm of light, lashing out at us.

Timing-wise, we wouldn’t make it. We could probably get within about a meter of Mugino-san, but that’s it. No way in hell could we get the “close-quarters fight” we were aiming for.

──That is, unless…

"…Flying isn’t nearly as difficult as you might think."

That’s only if we had been charging in without thinking!

"…What!? The wind… my aim’s off…!?"

I canceled the stored pockets of air I had been keeping inside the invisible “Crack.” With that, Mugino-san suddenly got blasted from the side by a violent gust.

No matter how powerful the ability, the esper herself is still just a human being. She doesn’t have the overwhelming physical strength of a Saint. So of course, if she’s suddenly hit by a strong wind, she’ll stagger──and if the esper staggers, her aim inevitably falters. Just enough that her attack targeting us misses.

…Not that the opponent’s an idiot.
We knew full well that she’d be ready for a trick this shallow.

Even so, we couldn’t afford to stop our charge here. If we gave her breathing room now, Frenda-san, who’s still lurking somewhere, would finish preparing her setup. If that happened, we’d be forced to fight with our newly learned air current control sealed. In our current state, that would be checkmate.

We had to settle this here.

"As if I’d fall for that, nyaaan!? Dumbasses! I already planned for your little wind tricks! I’ve been keeping a faint Meltdowner shield deployed the whole time!"

Mugino-san mocked us as she spoke.
The impact told the story. Sure enough, her Meltdowner shield was active. Not just where the gust had struck, but in all directions. It was so faint you could barely see the glow, but it was probably circulating too.

Meltdowner manipulates electrons in an indeterminate state, neither particle nor wave. The motion of electrons in that state produces immense resistance──that’s the basis of her absurd destructive power. Which means, naturally, that even a faint shield could block wind.

Thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. In the “anime,” there was that scene where Mugino blocked Mikoto-san’s attack, one that used Frenda-san’s bombs against her, with a Meltdowner shield.

"Don’t you dare underestimate the Fourth Ranked, you fake Fourth, Another Four!!!"

──Which, for us, meant this was “within expectations.”

"You’re the one who shouldn’t underestimate the Fake Fourth, Another Four, Fourth Ranked."

And then.
I triggered the “setup” I’d prepared.

The setup was simple: air pressure manipulation.

But manipulating the air pressure of the whole area would take far too long. To sharply lower pressure in just an instant, I restricted the target area. For example──

──the breathing vents of the Meltdowner wall encasing Mugino-san.

"Guah…!?"

In that instant.
The movement of the giant Meltdowner arm stopped, and the response from her shield around her vanished. Seizing the chance, we immediately slammed a violent crosswind into her.

Her giant arm resumed motion almost instantly, but it was too late. By the time the luminous giant’s arm came swinging down, Mugino-san’s body was already staggering badly.

"Tch…!!"

We slipped past the giant arm and closed in on her──

"Checkmate!!"

At that moment, clad in ultrasonic armor, we rammed a tackle straight into her stomach.

"Guogh…!"

An utterly un-girlish groan escaped Mugino-san’s lips. It was a blow that dumped every bit of momentum into her belly. She was launched several meters without even bouncing once.

Honestly, taking a hit like being run over by a car should keep her down for at least a few minutes… probably.
………Why is it that even when we dish out bone-breaking, hospitalization-level damage, I still have to worry if she’ll be back on her feet in a few minutes, maybe not even properly unconscious? Seriously.

…Well, she’s not moving yet.
Her figure still looks a bit blurry to me though… what the hell is this? Maybe I should really go see an eye doctor…

《That went rather well, didn’t it》

As we hurried away from the scene and toward the laboratory, Reicia-chan suddenly said that.
Well, yeah. In that exchange just now, we definitely had the upper hand.

《Meltdowner can interfere with air itself. As long as that premise was shared from the very beginning, the countermeasures practically suggested themselves.》

Jogging along, I replied that way.

This time, Mugino-san’s strategy was to block our gusts with Meltdowner. To make absolutely sure, she even deployed shields in every direction. At a glance, that would seem to render any wind-based attack meaningless.

But──one question immediately arises.

If she had deployed shields interfering with the air all around her, then──why didn’t Mugino-san suffocate?

The removal of firing lag thanks to “Circulation” only applies after circulation is fully established. Spreading a thin shield across her whole body would normally take significant time for her aiming ability──at least three seconds of prep.

There’s no way she could have deployed that in the instant we began our charge. Most likely, that shield was established at the same stage as creating the giant arms. But in that case, with her talking loudly during all this, enough time should’ve passed that her breathing would become difficult. If we had simply kept our distance, she should have suffocated. There’s no way Mugino would rely on such a fragile plan.

That’s why, during the first gust, I scanned Mugino-san’s surroundings.

I figured that somewhere on that shield, there had to be a minimal “breathing hole” to let her survive.

And just as I thought, the shield she deployed had a small opening at her chest.

So we targeted only Mugino-san’s chest and created an instantaneous low-pressure zone.

Air was sucked out through the hole in her chest shield, and Mugino-san briefly suffocated, forcing her to hurriedly cancel the shield──and that was when we slammed her with the gust. That was the real trick behind our earlier exchange. Honestly, not a bad instant brain game, if I say so myself.

《But if “ITEM” themselves have been dispatched here, that means…》

Calling out to Reicia-chan in my mind, we stopped in our tracks.

And right before us──

"……….!!"

We found Frenda-san, crouched in the shadows, both hands over her mouth, trying to stifle her breathing.

《If we capture her, we’ll be able to squeeze plenty of intel out of her, won’t we, Shiren?》

…Though if we go too far, Frenda-san would probably just get silenced by her own side, so let’s not overdo it.

"So you think covering your mouth like that will stop me from sensing your airflow? Naïve. Even if you held your breath completely, a human-sized body lying in hiding is impossible to miss."

"T-tashukete…"

Looking down at her, I spoke, and the first thing out of Frenda-san’s mouth was a plea for mercy. Seriously, this woman is hopeless…

"M-Mugino made me do it…! After that mess with ‘School,’ she was furious for picking unnecessary fights… and when she heard you saved me, she got even madder, so… that’s why…"

"Information."

Since it was turning into a long-winded story, I cut her off bluntly.

"We came here because we heard someone ahead is making ‘recipes’ for Indian Poker… why exactly are you lot involved with them?"

"Eh, no, we were just hired to buy time, that’s all…"

…Buy time?

That phrase set off a bad feeling, and our eyes snapped toward the laboratory.

There──above the lab, a pitch-black haze was floating, like it had been there all along, thickening into a stagnant mass.

"What… is that!?"

"Don’t ask me! I told you, we were only told to stall you if you showed up…"

The black haze kept gathering, like it was concentrating. If it keeps going, won’t it spiral out of control? Just like we did after that whole “Personality Awakening Make-Up” incident…!

So that’s it. “ITEM” was here just to buy time! To keep us from stopping that! …Damn it, can we still make it if we charge now? No, impossible. “ITEM” already finished their job. Even if we went now, we’d never stop the catastrophe in time!!

『──Reicia, is that you!?』

"…Baba-san! The laboratory, it’s…!"

『Yeah, we’ve caught wind of it too! Don’t worry about Adabana and Sharaku. Sharaku’s down, but as for ‘ITEM,’ it seems they decided to withdraw right when you beat the Fourth. You need to retreat as well!』

"But…,"

If we just left now, who knows how much damage this area would take.

Instead of letting it go berserk, shouldn’t we use our full output to crush that distortion ourselves──

『No need. The Fifth has entered the field!』

The Fifth… Shokuhou-san!?

Right, this involved Tokiwadai students in the first place. If someone from her faction was playing “hero,” Shokuhou-san’s personality would never allow her to ignore it.

Thank god… if Shokuhou-san’s intervening, it should be fine. Whatever that strange phenomenon is, it must ultimately be scientific. Probably there’s a student acting as the core of the experiment… but if it’s Mental Out, she should be able to handle it.

…Wait, but if that’s the case, then why are we supposed to run?

『Because now that the situation is being contained, the “back” blockade has been lifted. In other words, Anti-Skill is coming. …If they find you on the scene, it’ll be a problem.』

"………,"

Mr. Baba, thank you very much for the warning.

Well, I was planning to move out anyway.

"...That being said, Frenda, please pass my regards to the Fourth Ranked."

Leaving those words with Frenda, Reicia-chan spread the wings of the "Rift."

And for just a moment, I cast my gaze toward the laboratory.

...Internal Evolution Ideal.

To be honest, I never really grasped the core of it, but... I guess, for now, this wraps things up?

Well, for us at least... if this means Indian Poker can finally settle down, then that’s more than enough.

Chapter 3 – “The Worth of a Soul Is Nonsense” Double(Square)_Faith.
Episode 83: The Fourth Ranked -Part 2  “Jagged-Edge”_in_MEMBER.

The next day.

Having barely made it through our battle with "Item," we soon found ourselves faced with yet another headache-inducing situation.

That was──.

"……Hey, Saraku. What the hell is this?"

"I–I mean, don’t look at me? I don’t really know either, this time! I swear! I was just acting out of a sense of duty as a member of the dark side, making sure nothing got overlooked…… really…!!"

……That sounded suspiciously like he was implying he’d acted on motives other than his dark side obligations last time, but putting that aside.

Right before our eyes lay… the card of "Reicia Blackguard’s Dream," which should have been discarded.

In fact, since then, things had moved concerning Indian Poker.

Thanks to Anti-Skill’s intervention, the toys used for Indian Poker had been voluntarily recalled, which in turn rendered the "recipes" meaningless. The ringleader had been taken down by Misaki-san and Hokaze-san (apparently Hokaze-san had been the one playing "hero" during the incident), so we thought that was the end of it.

But that night, yet another "recipe" had spread across the net, and new cards like this were once again circulating.

"……Didn’t they already catch the ringleader?"

"Hmm, it seems that assumption was mistaken. Most likely──the one dealt with yesterday wasn’t the true ringleader of Indian Poker."

Adabana-san frowned in suspicion, while the Doctor nodded knowingly.

……What the hell does that mean?

"Indian Poker was originally a technology created in the Fifth Rank’s old research facility, was it not? The true ringleader likely borrowed that technology. But in and of itself, there was no malice behind it."

……Meaning, if it had stayed that way, there would’ve been no problem. It would have just settled as a fun cultural trend of sharing dreams. But then, some third party’s malice got involved……?

"According to the intel, yesterday’s so-called ringleader was actually a researcher from the Clonedrie Artificial Talent Workshop. He saw technology from his old lab being used and seized the chance to piggyback. ……That was the real truth behind yesterday’s incident. Since the origins lay in a dark-side lab, we mistook him for the mastermind, when in fact he was just an opportunist from Internal Evolution Ideal trying to ride along──or so it seems."

So then…… that "Item" we ran into there, was that maybe…… the higher-ups of Academy City making sure Internal Evolution Ideal wasn’t half-heartedly stopped? They prepped a "distraction" force, since it would be bad for them if we barged in under the wrong impression? ……What the hell…… If they’d just explained things to us properly, we wouldn’t have had to clash with Mugino-san in the first place……

《Shiren, even if you hadn’t clashed with her then, you would’ve ended up fighting Mugino Shizuri sooner or later, you know?》

That was Reicia-chan, speaking in her usual breezy tone.

《Eh? No way. Even if we sided with "Member," "Item" isn’t the type to rebel against Academy City, right? I doubt we’d ever really be enemies.》

《No, no…… don’t forget, we’re the Underground Fourth Rank, Another Four. As the former Fourth Rank herself, wouldn’t she want to obliterate us the moment she saw us?》

…………C-Can’t deny it. Even ignoring simple logic of benefit, the odds of her trying to crush us on sight felt really high……

《S-So what, then? From now on, any chance encounter with Mugino-san means she might just go straight for our throats?》

《At the very least, if you meet her on the battlefield, she’ll attack unless there’s a very good reason not to……》

……S-Scary…… Mugino-san’s way too scary…… Hamazura-san, hurry up and exorcise whatever’s possessing her……

"Anyway. Now that we know the true ringleader isn’t acting with malicious intent, our list of suspects is extremely narrow. All we need do is find a researcher who once had ties to Clonedrie but is still active in the public sphere. Rest assured, their identity will be revealed soon enough."

The Doctor spoke with full confidence.

……And of course, saying things like that only made it sound like a flag waiting to be tripped.

Right then, Reicia-chan’s phone rang. The name displayed was…… "Sashika Yumetsuki."

Oh, Yumetsuki-san. She should’ve been in the middle of investigating the ringleader with the subordinates right about now……

"Hello? Reicia speaking. What is it?"

"Ah, good timing. We just identified the bastard behind Indian Poker!"

"Truly!? That’s wonderful news!"

Talk about speaking of the devil. But great. Once we knew the mastermind, stopping them would put an end to all this. Since it sounded like the culprit was someone from the public side, we might not even need to step in directly—just report it to Shirai-san, maybe.

"The ringleader’s name is…… Kuriba Ryoko. ……Wait, isn’t this the same person who got paired with you in the three-legged race during the Daihaseisai……? Reicia-san, isn’t she your acquaintance?"

…………Eh.

……Kuriba Ryoko-san!?!?!?