Hamazura Shiage was losing his presence of mind over an electronic beeping in a back alley.
The sound was coming from the portable terminal in Mugino Shizuri's pocket.
"Hey, should you really be ignoring that?"
"It's fine, it's fine. If I don't deal with it, someone else will."
Even so, the terminal continued to beep. It was so insistent that Mugino started trembling, forcibly grabbed it, and yelled into it as if she was trying to bite it.
"Shut the hell up, you damn idiot!! Can't you tell I don't feel like answering!?"
"It's always like this with you! I'm not contacting you because I want to!!"
It wasn't on speakerphone, but the sound easily reached Hamazura as he listened from the side. The speaker was the mysterious woman that always gave orders to Item.
"There's an emergency at the District 5 Virus Isolation Center, so you need to go and deal with it!"
"Ehh?"
"No, not 'Ehh?'! It's always like that with you! The powered suit group is busy searching for the body of someone called 'Terra of the Left' in Avignon. So get moving!!"
"I'm busy now, so can we deal with this later?"
Mugino's tone of voice made it extremely clear she didn't want to do this.
"It's always like this with you!" the woman on the phone yelled back. "As I'm sure you know, Item's job is to eliminate and erase elements of unrest in Academy City. So do your job already!"
"Yeah, but…"
"And you killed School's sniper before, right? You said Oyafune Monaka wasn't going to be assassinated, right? It's always like this with you! If what you said was true, then why did it turn out like this!? I thought that was over, so I reported that the level of danger had fallen… I'm the one who's mad here, so shape up!!"
It was like she was yelling at a waitress who had gotten her order wrong.
"Damn it. That's it… I'll ask someone else to deal with the Virus Isolation Center, so write a report on the attempted assassination for me. And have it done ASAP."
"Sorry, but that isn't happening."
"And why the hell not!?"
"Because we're about to go kill all of those bastards in School."
The complaining woman's voice suddenly stopped.
"Umm, could you make sure you shoot each one of them at least 10 times for me?"
"…Okay, that was awkward. As our manager, aren't you supposed to try and stop us?"
"Don't worry, my underling. I've hated School for a long time. And everything that worries me should be eliminated from the Earth!!"
"Gah ha ha ha ha!!" the woman laughed like a military commander and then hung up.
As she put the portable terminal back in her pocket, Mugino's expression seemed to be asking if someone like that should really be the organization's manager. Then she looked around.
"Hey, Hamazura. Can you really get us a ride?"
"You sure make that sound casual… But I suppose I can."
As he spoke, Hamazura approached a passenger vehicle parked on the street. There was a fiberscope on a connector at the bottom of his cell phone that he used to send a small optical fiber thinner than soumen into the keyhole to check the arrangement of the pins. Hamazura used the image of the inside of the keyhole displayed on his phone to use a number of wires to unlock the door.
Hamazura got in the driver's seat and checked the engine keyhole below the steering wheel.
"Huh, that's a convenient skill," said Mugino with real admiration in her voice as she got in the passenger seat.
Kinuhata, Frenda, and Takitsubo got in the backseat. It was a four door car made for families much like the taxis in the area, but it did feel a bit cramped with 5 people in it.
"Where are we going?"
"Kirigaoka Girls Academy in District 18. There's a particle engineering lab near it. That's the only place where the uproar over Oyafune led to a bit of disorder with the private guards being called in and some equipment being transported. The security there is now fairly insufficient due to that. It's pretty easy to see the plan here."
"There was only one place? That is simple."
"Sorry, I forgot to mention that there were multiple places, but this was the only beneficial one."
"I see," responded Hamazura arbitrarily. "But particle engineering? If that really is School's target, what are they after?"
"Who knows. But it's better than dealing with the whole Oyafune Monaka thing, right? So let's head out and clean up this mess some other bastard's left."
"Hmm," said Hamazura as he easily started the engine.
Takitsubo's voice came from the backseat.
"Hamazura, do you have a license?"
"You don't need a card to drive; you need the skills."
After responding, Hamazura smoothly departed in the automatic transmission car.