I

Chapter 3: Sneaky Cat in the Lion's Lair

Infiltration

Part 1

"CHEERS!"

"That was a super success!"

"Good job, everyone."

The excited voices that echoed inside the van came from Frenda, Kinuhata and Mugino (which was holding a certain USB drive between her fingers).

"In the end, the mission got easy thanks to the star of the night: Takitsubo!"

"I did nothing, really. We were only able to complete the most crucial part of the plan thanks to you, Frenda, and Kinuhata as well."

"No, you were super cool, Takitsubo. No one else would be able to super pinpoint the right person among other 72 people by just monitoring their location."

Mugino couldn't help but smile with satisfaction while the others kept exchanging praises (and bragging a bit in Frenda's case). Savoring the taste of victory, she made a proposal. "We all deserve credit for this. Even Frenda didn't messed anything up this time. Since everyone worked so hard… what about we head to our hideout instead of the headquarters and celebrate? We can transfer all the data from there anyway."

Silence. The three of them widened their eyes and stared at Mugino with a blank look, making her uncomfortable. "What is it?"

Surprisingly, Takitsubo were the first one to build enough courage to ask. "Just… who are you?"

"Huh? What kind of question is that?"

"It's just… our leader would never propose that..."

"It's a super spy, for sure."

"Takitsubo! Use your power! We need to find the real one quick, or else we are basically dead! Who knows what kind of torture she would- Buhog!" Frenda was cut of with Mugino's heel on her gut.

"What the hell is all that about! I'm not a spy. Even I feel like rewarding you when you deserve. Besides, I'm really tired after all we had to do. Relaxing on the pool doesn't sound so bad."

"F-forgive me. I'm really sorry. I was wrong. Only the real Mugino could hit so hard from such angle- Guhah!"

"It's the real one, for sure."

"Frenda, are you still alive?" Takitsubo poked the cheeks of her friend, checking for any vital signals as the van changed their destination: the usual private saloon at District 3.

Part 2

Hishiro looked up at the tall building in front of him. His enemy was positioned at the top of this tower, with his target on their hands.

"This feels like a cliche arcade game where you have to fight grunts all over town, climb the criminal skyscraper, punch their leader on the last floor until he falls from the window and rescues your kidnapped girlfriend."

"Except you have no girlfriend..." Mocked Asuka.

"Shut up. You know nothing about my personal life."

"Oh my, do you have a girlfriend Shiro?"

"..."

"Hehehe, Just as I thought ~*! Thanks for confirming it." He felt tempted to turn off the call right there, but he couldn't allow himself the luxury this time. Asuka continued. "By the way, there won't be any damsel in distress to warmly welcome your arrival up there. If you ask me, it's more like the evil tower guarded by the ancient dragon."

"Dragon… That's a creepy way to describe a level 5..." Hishiro smiled wryly and analyzed the surroundings of the said last dungeon. A normal person wouldn't be able to tell, but there were at least five or six under covered guards around the perimeter. Probably there would be even more inside, and those were just the underlings. "ITEM, huh..."

"Shiro, you shouldn't take them lightly." Warned Asuka with a serious tone. She only acted that way when someone on the field was in serious danger. "ITEM is a huge name within the dark side, one that even the Board of Directors may fear. Their combatants not only have more experience than you, they also are very well equipped to maximize their performance in battle. Actually… no one is going to blame you if you just step down now. There is a limit on how much a single person can do."

He could only sigh. He was outnumbered, under-powered and there is the possibility that they had already decrypted the files inside the drive, which would turn the whole operation into a pointless suicide. Even so… "I'll do it. I'll infiltrate, take the guards by surprise, isolate the members, defeat the mighty Meltdowner and retrieve the goddamn USB drive! You just sit there and watch the show!"

"You're hopeless… I love that side of you." Asuka let out a mad scientist like chuckle "Just be careful though. If ITEM is taking action, they are either doing it to keep some higher up in check or working as mercenaries for someone else. In the worst case scenario, they became traitors and will have to be killed, but that's beyond our current capacity... So you'll need to come back alive for the proper team to be mobilized against them."

"Don't worry, I won't overdo it." He turned his phone off to avoid being detected and walked towards the back entrance. Asuka had sent him the blueprints of the building beforehand, so he already knew which routes to take.

"Huh? This feels wrong..." Hishiro had brought some tools to pick the lock but the door was unlocked. "Is this a trap? Did they noticed I'm here and are luring me in to get captured?" He now was feeling even more tense than before, but he got inside anyway. Sneaking through the hallways, he reached the reception using the staff door right behind the receptionist and knocked him out with a single hit. Luckily, no one else was on the main hall since it was already late, but it was only a meter of time until someone noticed something was wrong - that was his time limit.

Reaching for the computer, he quickly checked which rooms were in use in this moment and the exact time when they got occupied. Private saloons ensured the privacy of their customers, so that was all he could hope to find in the database. If he matched those times with what Asuka told him earlier, he could narrow the possible rooms that ITEM could be using. Of course, there were also the possibility that their room wasn't registered in the database, but he had a backup plan if it came to that. Satisfied with what he found, Hishiro dashed towards the emergency stairway close to the entrance and began to climb up. He had to look for 3 rooms and take down anyone he came across in the way as soon as possible if he wanted to survive through this.

Part 3

On the last floor of a certain private salon at district 3, all field members of ITEM were in their swimsuits. Even though it was past eight o'clock, the late summer heat was intense. The cold water of the swimming pool was blissful for those four girls after a day of hard work. Mugino had already swam for her heart's content and was now sitting on a chair, reading a magazine while she waited for the food she had ordered for everyone earlier. Frenda and Kinuhata were splashing water on each other, and Takitsubo was floating in the pool.

"Kinuhata! It's unfair to use your Offense Armor to avoid my attacks!"

"Oh, my bad Frenda, I'm super sorry. But I can't help it, it's just an automatic reflex. You can use your super ability on me to even the odds if you want." She clearly had an evil grin on her face as she said that.

"You know it wouldn't help to begin with- blgah! Cough Cough! H-Hey! Using it to send this much water on my face is NOT reflex!" It was no use. The unfair battle was decided on raw power. Frenda could do nothing but surrender to the level 4 and walk away.

"Where are you going?"

"Toilet. I'll be right back"

...

When Frenda was about to leave the toilet, a hand blocked her mouth and she heard a male voice from behind. "Don't resist or I'll kill you." She tried to turn around and counterattack but her arms and legs wouldn't move at all, as if they were frozen in place. She glanced down and saw that the area around her wrists and heels looked distorted and blurred. The male continued. "I can stop any part of your body at will. If you don't do as I say, I'll stop your heart and you'll die in a matter of minutes."

Frenda then felt a hand placed on her back, roughly the height where her heart should be. It was as cold as the sharp blade of a knife touching her bare skin. Fear filled her whole body, almost like her heart had already stopped for a few seconds. She broke into a cold sweat and couldn't scream for help even after the hand was removed from her mouth. The mysterious male seemed satisfied with her submission. "Answer me. Are the other three on the room out there? All of them?". Frenda could only nod her head, still unable to see the face of this person. "Is there anyone else besides them there?" She shook her head negatively. "Which one of them is with the USB drive you stole?"

"N-None of us..."

"Don't you dare play dumb with me girl!" He whispered into her ear. "You'll regret if you do!"

"T-That's not what I meant! Please listen to me!" Frenda was on verge of tears. "No one is holding to it. We left It on a table on the other side of the room. Our liaison is decrypting and backing up the files right now."

"Tsk!" The male clicked his tongue loudly. "Pay attention. I need you to take the level 5 away for 10 minutes. No less than that, got it?"

"H-how am I supposed to do that?"

"That is up to you. She needs to leave this floor though. And don't try any funny tricks. I placed a nano device on you just now, so I can hear everything you say. I also have someone checking the cameras. One step out of the line and I'll blow up the nano device along with you."

She more or less understood the situation she was in. They had celebrated victory too soon.

...

When Frenda came back no one was inside the pool anymore. The other three were gathered together discussing something.

"It's been an hour or so… our order should had arrived already."

"Come to think of it, this is strange." Said Mugino while holding the inter-phone. "Their service had been flawless so far. But now not even the lines are working."

"Are they having super technical problems?"

T-this is my chance! Frenda gulped and spoke to Mugino. "Maybe someone should go down there to check it?"

"Good idea, Frenda. Go there and report for us later. Oh, and if the food is ready, bring it to us as well."

"What!? Why me!"

"Why not? The super idea was yours to begin with."

All of them cornered her in a matter of seconds. Her plan to survive was getting ruined right before her eyes. Think Frenda, you can't let things end up like this!

"B-But, Mugino! To begin with, I can't bring it all back by myself."

"What are you talking about? You always carry all those bombs and missiles around like it's nothing."

"That has nothing to do with this! I can't carry food the same way I carry my weapons!"

"Is that what they call plot convenience?"

"I see it all the time in some B movies. The director usually come up with a super lame excuse to try to cover it up later when he needs."

"That's not it!" The blonde was already stomping the ground like a kid throwing a tantrum. "My clothes have hidden pockets and compartments inside it! Don't you have any problem with me carrying your food under my skirt? And I'm not even wearing it right now!"

"Tsk, you're too noisy!" Mugino stood up clearly annoyed and dragged Frenda towards the exit. "Fine, I'll go with you! Happy now?!"

The girl felt relieved for a moment. Everything was going smoothly so far. Until…

"What the hell is that? The elevator is not working?" Mugino kept mashing the button besides the elevator door but there was no response. She would have used her meltdowner to forcefully open it if Frenda hadn't stopped her. "This is suspicious…"

With her eyes narrowed, she resigned and they both went down the emergency stairs.

Part 4

All sound vanished. From inside the toilet, Hishiro started to count the seconds after Frenda and Mugino went away. He had no time to waste trying to calm himself now, but he couldn't act too soon, otherwise those two could notice that something was wrong and come back.

29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. The intruder took a deep breath and loaded his handgun. 39. He prepared himself to leave. And then…

…

All of a sudden, Takitsubo saw something running on the other side of the pool. She didn't even had enough time to turn her head and identify what it was when a loud gunshot echoed in the room. In the next instant, Kinuhata was standing right in front of her and there was a bullet on the floor.

The something was a brown haired male wearing jeans and an unzipped gray jacket with the hood hanging on his back (even though it wasn't the season for this kind of clothing). He looked surprised and stopped running.

Kinuhata glared at the male, her eyes filled with anger. "Even though it would just hit her shoulder slightly, it's super rude to shot a woman like this."

"Shoulder? Seems like my aim was a bit off then..." Hishiro retorted and grinned at Kinuhata and put the handgun on his back. "Anyway, it's not that I intended to kill her. I just wanted out of the game for now."

"And you think that I'll super spare your pathetic life because of that trash excuse?"

"Of course not." The hand he used to put the gun away was still on his back, but it seemed that it was holding something different. "That defensive ability of yours is quite something, you know that? Not even I am able to completely stop a bullet at full speed like this. Actually… I thought that only the number one level 5 could do it so easily."

Silence. It lasted for mere 5 seconds, but the tension and malice between the two was so high that it felt like an eternity. Kinuhata gave her last sentence.

"I don't know who you are or why you're here, but I'll kill you."

"Feel free to try."

Both of them took action at the same time. Hishiro resumed his run on the other side of the pool while Kinuhata turned around to lift a steel locker and throw it at him. He stopped on his tracks for a moment and swung his left hand high. The area around the locker became blurred and it stopped in mid air before falling into the water less than a second later.

Kinuhata got distracted by the unusual phenomenon, giving the intruder enough time to counterattack. "Let's see if you can stop this one!" He had another gun on his hand. It was way bigger than the last one, but still seemed to be a pistol. He mercilessly pulled the trigger and..

"Gah!" The bullet hit the middle of her forehead. It wasn't enough to break through her nitrogen armor, but it had so much force that it pushed her head back, making her neck bend backwards. This firepower… was that an anti material bullet, said to be able to pierce through thick concrete? No, it felt stronger than that. It should be able to dig holes through layers of lead without problem. But that's impossible… A pistol shouldn't be able fire something like that. The recoil would be too much for the wielder to handle.

Indeed, Hishiro didn't looked completely unharmed after the shot and he was rubbing his upper arm with the other hand. But that gun should have enough power to send him flying back. Yet, there he was, ready to pull the trigger again. Clicking her tongue, Kinuhata jumped to the side as another shot hit the wall right behind where she was standing and started to run as well.

At this rate, both of them would end up clashing head on at the corner of the pool, and at close quarters Kinuhata had the advantage. Still, he was a few meters ahead of her, and his goal wasn't to confront her. I wonder if he is after that? She threw a couple of objects she found among the way at him, hoping to slow him down but it wasn't enough. He simply dodged them all without needing to use his ability.

The intruder went past the poll and headed towards the corner of the room, that had a large sofa, a television, a table and a few gaming consoles. On that table the USB drive was attached to a transmission device that was sending its data over the network to ITEM's liaison. He reached it and forcefully pulled it out of the device, hoping to corrupt a few files in the process. Now he just had to escape- "What the…!"

Something came flying in his direction. Out of reflex, he closed his eyes and waved his hand, but it was already too late. Even though he used his ability, the ominous field was able to only lower the flying object's speed instead of completely stopping it. It struck the center of his body, sending him flying towards the wall, letting go everything he was holding on his hands.

"Were you really super after this?" Kinuhata picked the USB drive from the floor. "Is it really worth it going trough all this just for a piece of plastic smaller than your finger?"

"N-no… Cough Cough! Cough! Definitively not…" The boy stood up again. He looked at what had hit him. The sofa? No wonder I couldn't stop it, this wasn't 5 meters away from me. My own fault for not noticing how close she was. He licked the bit of blood that was streaming from the corner of his mouth and grinned at her. "But there are a lot of people that think this piece of trash is valuable and are doing a mess all over the city to get it, so I have no choice but secure it to make them stop. Also… seeing 4 girls having so much fun in the pool was worth enough to come this far, so I have nothing to complain about."

"Not only a thief, but a super pervert as well. At least you can say you had no regrets during your last moments." Kinuhata closed their distance in a single second and held her hand back, preparing a punch with enough destructive power to crush his skull. He managed to escape death by crouching and side stepping to the left.

"In that case, there are still a few things I still want to do!" Hishiro tried to kick her side, but his heel felt a heavy resistance before it could hit her. She took advantage of this opening and elbowed him on his right arm. He staggered back from the heavy impact, trying to ignore the pain, and dashed towards his canon pistol that was lying on the floor.

This was his trap. She would obviously be desperate to stop him from recovering the only weapon he could use to damage her. The moment she made a hard step to start running, the foot she was going to use to support her weight stopped moving for a short moment, making her crash on the floor.

"That movement just now was too predictable." He said, pointing the pistol he got back at her. "I need to pinpoint the future position of the ankle if I want to use my ability on someone running. It's not easy to do it when I don't know exactly what they are planning to do."

The impact it self wasn't a problem due to her offense armor, but the pain on her ankle was something. And it was tingling too much. She was no specialist but she thought that maybe it had something to do with her blood suddenly stop flowing. In summary, she couldn't get up on her feet anymore.

The boy walked to her and, while immobilizing all her limbs, he picked the USB drive from her hand. "Don't worry, I don't need to kill you either. One bullet for your other leg and another one for your right arm should be enough to keep you out of my way, so bear it for a little while." He pointed the gun at her again and placed his finger on the trigger. Kinuhata was already bracing herself - when it happened.

A beam of light came crossed the room and accurately hit the gun, melting a hole on it's side. No need to say it wouldn't ever going to fire again. The intruder let go the weapon once again on reflex of the burning sensation on his fingers.

"All I wanted was to take it easy for a while and you ruined it all. Good job." Mugino was the source of the attack. She, Frenda and Takitsubo were standing near to the entrance. "Are you prepared to bear with how mad I am now? Oh, don't answer, I don't even care if you aren't."

Kinuhata gave a faint smile at the sight of her teammates. "Mugino… your timing is super perfect."

"Thank Takitsubo for that. She came running down the emergency stairs calling for help."

"I see. I got so focused on her that I forgot about the other one." The intruder sighed. "What a stupid mistake, I'm ashamed of myself. Things sure got complicated now."

Mugino Shizuri, the #4 level 5, the dragon guarding the boss tower was now his enemy. And he wasn't able to at least finish off the minions. What could he possibly do in such situation?

Between the Lines

There were never any documents regarding the birth of the dark side of the city, so it's hard to tell when it all began. Some believe that it surged when the first Kihara got into the city. Others think it was always there to begin with.

Indeed, the dark side is an important gear in the whole system. Originally, it was there for the sole purpose of protecting the patent of the researches within the walls from the envious and greedy hands of the outside. It didn't take long, however, for it to become the stage of researches that wouldn't be easily accepted by the general public, as well as the battlefield where all internal conflicts could be solved quietly in the shadows without spreading panic.

If anyone looked at an individual incident of the darkness, he or she would without a doubt call it inhuman and accuse the higher ups for letting such a thing to happen. But if they pictured the whole scene, it would become clear that it's not a simple matter of what is right or wrong. It is a matter of minimize losses that are unfortunately inevitable.

It's easy to accuse the use of animals, or even humans, on drugs experiments as a barbarity, but no one thinks about how many lives were sacrificed when their loved ones needs to take medications to stay alive. It's easy to accuse the murder of that person as brutal and unnecessary, but probably no one would stop the trigger from being pulled if they knew that that person could end the lives of many innocents by giving an order, flipping a switch, or even just for being there.

Whether people from Academy City likes it or not, the darkness is needed to keep the city functional. All countries in the world have some similar system in running on the backstage. Chaos needs to exist, it's only a choice of let it run wild or restrain it in the shadows while other people can live in peace.

It's for that purpose that a certain organization was founded by the board of directors: WATCH. They are the ones responsible to over watch the activity within the darkness of the city and finalize any research, organization or individual that goes beyond what's really necessary for the stability of society.

Sorry for the long wait! To be honest, this chapter proved to be a challenge for me to write.

Then there was the release of the new Index volume this month and it got me busy for a while… sorry for that! The volume is great btw, for those who hadn't read it yet.

Anyway, this chapter was supposed to be longer than that. I actually cut it in half so I could release an update as soon as possible. Didn't wanted to leave the fic abandoned for any longer (and the length of the next battles were getting out of hand, I might need to rethink it lol). To compensate for that, I wrote the 'Between the Lines' section. I'll be giving a bit of backstory from now on in these sections hoping you guys may figure out sooner or later where I am trying to get at.

At last, please review if you have the time to spare. Your comments may give me ideas while writing, so it can help getting the next chapter out faster. I'll try to bring the next update next week, but I'm not really confident I'll be able to finish it by then… so no worries if it doesn't, I'm not abandoning this story any time soon.