She froze, expression darkening.
"Unless"
"Survivors," Misaka and Shokuhou said in unison.
The two locked eyes, setting their earlier quarrel asidefor now.
~~~
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Chapter 805: First Job of Newly Hired Special Force!
Mugino Shizuri's expression wavered a little as she took in the scene before her.
After a brief silence, she drew a deep breath.
"...I'll acceptbut on one condition: I want complete operational autonomy."
Her gaze swept across the three people opposite her.
"I refuse to be anyone's hired gun."
"Agreed."
MisakaMikoto nodded crisply.
"So long as what you do doesn't violate our core principles and rules."
She held out her right hand.
"Welcome to the New Academy City Special Operations Task Force."
ShokuhMisaki suddenly clapped her hands.
"Wonderful~ From this moment, ITEM will be the first action squad of our Special Affairs Division."
From whoknowswhere she produced a stack of documents.
"Let's sign the contract, shall we~?"
ShiraiKuroko could finally hold back no longer.
"Wait! Senpai! Are we really deciding something this important just like that? At the very least"
Shock sharpened her voice.
"At the very least we should run background checks and risk assessments first!"
"Kuroko."
MisakaMikoto cut her off with a smile, confidence glinting in her eyes.
"Trust me."
Her tone left no room for argument.
UiharuKazari timidly raised a hand.
"Um shouldn't we at least sign a contract or something first"
Her voice grew quieter and quieter, yet in the still office it carried clearly.
The tension in the room finally eased.
Looking at the group before her, Mugino felt an unfamiliar, longlost sense of relief.
Maybe this time, things really would be different.
She took the pen Shokuh offered and signed her name.
Just then
Uiharu's terminal blared an alarm.
She checked it swiftly, her face going white.
"Bad newsa bomb has gone off inside the Academy!"
"Mhm, confirmed."
MusujimeAwaki had already calculated teleport coordinates.
"Looks like"
MisakaMikoto's voice crackled, colder than lightning.
"Someone wants to stick their neck out."
ShokuhMisaki set down her teacup with perfect poise, a sharp light flashing in her starry eyes.
"Our 'welcome ceremony' has arrived~"
Lounging against the sofa arm, she turned to the four members of ITEM who had just signed.
"Perfect timingMugino-san, everyone in ITEM, here's your chance to shine."
Mugino arched a brow; her teabrown hair fluttered without wind, green light flickering at her fingertips.
"Oh? You want us to handle it? A big jobthat's my specialty."
Her voice carried its usual confidence and a hint of testing her new role.
"No."
MisakaMikoto's reply was diamondhard.
She stepped forward, meeting Mugino's eyes headon.
"We're administrators, not executioners.
"The objective is to capture the culprit alive, uncover the truth, and then mete out strict justice."
She bit off the last four words, underscoring the principles of the new order.
Mugino clicked her tongue, irritation flickering across her face.
"Tchtake them alive? Trouble."
"Well"
She glanced at KinuhataSaiai and Frenda, both anxiously watching her.
"Since it's legitimate work, fine."
MusujimeAwaki flexed her wrists; her red twintails swayed.
"All rightlet's get to work."
A playful smile curled her lips.
"Do well and your benefits get an upgrade~"
Before her words fully faded she snapped her fingers.
Space twisted.
Mugino, KinuhataSaiai, Frenda, and TakitsuboRik felt everything blur.
Crushing weightlessness and spatial pressure hit themutterly unlike any shortrange transfer they'd ever known.
In a single heartbeat their surroundings completely changed.
The air reeked of scorching and harsh chemicals.
Broken concrete and twisted metal littered the ground.
Far off, an experimental building belched thick black smoke; flames danced in shattered windows.
Sirens wailed, growing nearer, yet were cut off by an invisible barrierclearly Awaki's work to keep outsiders out.
"Whwhat?!"
Frenda stumbled before she steadied herself, blonde hair tousled, skyblue eyes round with shock.
"Thisthis is at least dozens of kilometers from the Board of Directors building!"
"Susuper outrageous"
Instinctively, Kinuhata activated OFFENSE ARMOR; a paleblue halo coated her body and her short chestnut hair quivered in astonishment.
"In an instant we came all this way?"
Takitsubo leaned against a relatively intact slab of concrete, paler than usual.
The violent transfer had scrambled her ability sensing, yet she forced herself to focus.
"Mugino, target's up ahead at the intersectionsignature's a Level4 highability esper."
Mugino ignored her teammates' shock.
Hawksharp eyes swept the scene.
At last they paused on Awaki, casually standing on a broken beam as if out for a stroll.
A Level5 spatial esper
The power to ignore distance and teleport multiple targets at onceunbelievable.
For the first time she felt a concrete, faintly wary respect for her new boss's strength.
Just then
Their target noticed the intruders.
In the middle of an empty crossroads in the southern part of District7
A blurred humanoid mass of liquid metal let out a soundless scream.
It had no clear features.
Its form shifted constantly between molten fluid and semisolid metalnow swelling into a monstrous bulk, now collapsing into twisted strands.
The asphalt beneath its feet was scorched black by intense heat.
Traffic lights and street signs nearby were warped, as if crushed by an invisible giant hand.
Roughly ten metres in front of the liquidmetal figure stood a woman.
Long purple hair whipped in the hot wind from the blast.
She wore an illfitting, evidently stolen oversized coat.
Her eyes were like polar iceutterly devoid of warmth.
~~~
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Chapter 806: KzakuMitori
KzakuMitori
She had just broken out of the suffocating cage that was the Juvenile Reformatory.
The grime and wounds of her flight were still fresh on her body.
Yet all her attention was fixed on the figure in front of herDolly, a being she had created with her ability Liquid Shadow.
Dolly was a lifeform of controllable liquid metal: the warped embodiment of Mitori's longing for her dead best friend, Dolly, and of a hatred carved into her very bones.
Dolly was the weapon with which she would take revenge on this dark city that had swallowed countless innocentsincluding her only source of light.
"Dolly, it's not enough nowhere near enough!"
Mitori's voice was hoarse and suppressed, brimming with grief and rage.
"We have to destroy moremake those highandmighty monsters feel pain!"
Just as she was about to take the next step, MusujimeAwaki appeared out of nowhere, with MuginoShizuri and three others right behind her.
Their arrival instantly put Mitori on guard.
She snapped around, violet pupils contracting like a beast's, full of wariness and hostility.
"Who are you?!"
Her throat was parched, so her voice rasped, but it carried a sharp edge.
Awaki hopped lightly down from an overhead beam, clapped her hands, and spoke as if introducing a game.
"Relaxwe're from the Board of Directors."
She stressed the three words deliberately, then gestured toward Mugino's group.
"These ladies are the response specialists assigned to clean up the damage you caused today.
"As for me, I'm just the driverwon't lift a finger~"
She spread her hands and stepped back, the very picture of a spectator.
"The Board of Directors"
Mitori chewed on the words as though she could grind them to dust.
A tidal wave of hatred swept away her last shred of reason; bloodshot eyes, teeth grinding audibly.
"You againyou damned parasites!! Dolly!!!"
Her hysterical scream rang out.
At the intersection, the liquidmetal figure "Dolly" screeched like tearing steel.
The massive body pivoted toward Mugino's team and charged like an outofcontrol beast, power enough to level buildings.
"Engage!"
Mugino's gaze turned razorsharp; combat mode.
"Roger!"
KinuhataSaiai moved first.
Her small frame exploded into motion, kryptonarmored suit flaring blue.
She met Dolly headon.
"STOP! UltraHeavy Pressure!"
Boom!
Her armored fist smashed into Dolly's torso.
The forward rush halted; the struck metal solidified and dented, only for surrounding liquid to slide in and refill it.
At the same time blistering heat bled through the armor, making Saiai grunt while smoke curled from her fist.
"Tchso hot, and super annoying!"
She changed tactics, using the suit's extreme mobility to circle Dolly at high speed, hammering joints and supports to break its balance and limit movement.
Each hit rang like clashing steel, spraying glowing droplets.
"Frenda! Disrupt it!"
Mugino held fireMeltdowner's power was vast but hard to confine in a narrow street when the target had to be captured alive. Annoying work.
"Got itpiece of cake!"
FrendaSeivelun grinned, fingers flicking across custom explosives on her belt.
She chose not the big bombs but several small devices packed with cryogenic agent and sticky gel, and lobbed them with surgical precision.
"Freeze up! Get gooey, sweetie!"
They landed along Dolly's path and at its joints.
Fssss White vapor burst out; frost spread over the metal shell.
It wouldn't freeze the creature solid, but it slowed the liquid flow drastically.
Splop splop splop! Glue bombs burst, covering Dolly in viscous goo and further binding its limbs.
The liquidmetal monster gave a silent roar, motions growing sluggish and heavy.
Leaning against debris with eyes closed, TakitsuboRik suddenly opened them, gaze razorsharp and locked on Dolly.
"Core is in the chest, a little left of center. Field flow chaotic but core stable. Disrupt it, Muginothen it'll be immobile."
Her ability could pinpoint the AIMdiffusion field node that kept Dolly together.
"Understood."
A cold gleam flashed in Mugino's eyes.
She raised her right hand; an unstable green particle streamMeltdownercoalesced at her fingertip.
"Behave yourself!"
She thrust her finger forward.
A hairthin emerald beam lanced out like a scalpel, avoiding nonvital areas and striking the chest core Rik had marked.
Zzzzzzt!
No thunderous blast, but Dolly's body convulsed violently, as if its spine were ripped away.
The liquid metal shrieked, boiling and churning; the glowing silver dulled to a murky gray.
Its form sagged and collapsed, melting like wax.
"What?!"
Mitori's eyes widened in shock.
Her ability had failed!
~~~
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Chapter 807: Bigger is Better
"Dolly!!!"
The liquid shadow figure shattered.
MitoriKouzaku let out a bloodcurdling scream, eyes filled with disbelief.
She frantically activated her ability, trying to pull Dolly back together, but the core had been wrecked byMeltdownerenergy; her control vanished like a stone dropping into the sea.
Just as Dolly was about to disperse completely into a smoking puddle of superheated, harmless metallic slag
ShizuriMugino moved.
She lunged like a leopard.
Her target: MitoriKouzaku, reeling from ability backlash and slow to react!
"Move one more time and I really won't be able to stop myself from killing you!"
Mugino's speed was frighteningshe was on Kouzaku in an instant.
Her left hand clamped onto Kouzaku's shoulder like a vice, the brutal efficiency of a Darkside operative in every motion.
A flash of madness crossed Kouzaku's eyes.
Somehow a shard of sharp glass had appeared in her hand, and she drove it toward Mugino's throat
A cornered beast fighting back!
"Die!"
Mugino's eyes flared with killing intent.
Her right hand started to rise instinctively, ready to fire Meltdowner and erase the threatbattlehoned muscle memory.
But
At the very moment the green light was about to erupt, she forced herself to stop.
She shoved the erupting destructive energy back down.
"Ghk!"
The recoil of aborting the shot hit her chest like a hammer, and her movements hesitated for a split second.
In that instant, the glass shard sliced through the sleeve of Mugino's coat, leaving a shallow cut on her arm.
At the same time, her hand on Kouzaku's shoulder slipped, failing to pin her completely.
"Tchwhat a pain!"
Mugino clicked her tongue, eyes blazingnot at the wound, but at that damned, almostunleashed instinct.
To avoid killing the target she had to keep herself leashed, a feeling that suffocated her.
She pivoted and brought a knifehand blow down hard on Kouzaku's wrist.
"Ah!"
Kouzaku cried out; the glass shard flew away.
Mugino grabbed her dislocated wrist, clamped her other hand on the opposite shoulder, and drove a knee into her lower back.
"Bang!"
Kouzaku was slammed to the floor, face pressed to the cold, rough ground. Pain and backlash robbed her of resistance.
Only those crimson eyes still burned with stubborn hatred.
"Done!"
Frenda clapped her hands and skipped over with a grin.
"Super smooth, super easy!"
SaiaiKinuhata disengaged her Offense Armor, flexing reddened knuckles.
RikouTakitsubo exhaled and returned to her blank stare.
But Mugino felt no thrill of victory.
She yanked Kouzaku upright, every motion dripping with impatience.
"Tchso much trouble. Would've been simpler to just kill the trash along with the puddle."
She glanced at the inert molten metal on the floor, then at the struggling Kouzaku in her grip, growing even more annoyed.
In the old days she would have riddled her with Meltdowner shots without hesitation.
"Clap, clap, clap"
Clear applause rang out.
AwakiMusujime bounced over, a look of appreciation on her face.
"Brilliant, truly brilliant.
"As expected of pro Darkside agentsITEM really lives up to its name.
"Capturing the target alive under restrictions, perfect coordination, very efficient."
Her gaze lingered on Mugino.
"However"
She stopped in front of Mugino, jewellike eyes probing.
Bluntly she asked, "Mugino, just nowdid you almost lose control? Having trouble handling your power?"
