Unabara Mitsuki was in a multi-tenant building in District 10.
The area he was in functioned as one of Block's hideouts.
Currently, 3 members of Block and about a dozen fighters from the subordinate organization were gathered there. And Unabara Mitsuki had switched out with one of those main members.
"…Almost there now," said Saku Tatsuhiko as he shook his large bear-like body.
A laptop computer was in front of him. It looked compact, but there was a cord stretching from it that led to what looked like an overfilled sandwich. It apparently had about 15 commercial CPUs spread out on it with liquid cooling tubes running between them.
Teshio, the muscular woman, looked at the screen and spoke to Saku.
"Did you do it?"
"More or less. Since I used the Virus Isolation Center as a dummy, District 23 was understaffed." Saku moved his mouth without looking over to Teshio. "This is the first step towards saying goodbye to this shitty world where every little thing is permeated in the stench of Aleister."
Saku wasn't really paying attention to who was listening; he was mostly speaking to himself.
Even so, his words were powerful ones.
"This is only the first step. We're still well off from the goal, but we're on our way."
"…"
Unabara casually looked over at the clock on the wall.
Block would have the satellite in a just a few more minutes.
Accelerator hadn't contacted him, so he didn't know whether the antenna had been destroyed yet or not. He turned his attention towards his pocket. He thought about the Spear of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli he had there.
(…I could end this by destroying that computer, but I would never survive the aftermath.)
Sweat moistened his palms.
He couldn't put off this decision.
But then Teshio Megumi spoke.
"It seems something happened in District 23. A number of Anti-Skills were taken out there. From the transmissions I was able to intercept, a rescue worker was surprised at the fact that none of the injuries were fatal."
Everyone looked towards the speaking woman.
"Connecting the dots between the defeated Anti-Skills leads straight from the terminal station to the antenna. At tremendous speed, too. Much faster than a normal person could manage on foot."
"What organization is behind it?" asked Saku. "It would have to be Member, right? It has to be those dogs of Aleister."
"No," said Teshio quickly. "It's Group. I remember that white hair. If I remember correctly, he's a Level 5 who has recently come to this world."
(…She recognizes him?)
Unabara found that odd, but figured it out quickly.
The functionality of what Teshio held in her hand was more like a small business terminal than a cell phone. And on its screen was a grainy image that looked like it had been taken from a great distance.
According to the numbers on the edge of the image, it had been magnified 4000 times. Most likely, a member of Block's subordinate organization who had been waiting outside District 23 had taken it.
The monitor showed Accelerator headed towards the antenna.
With his power, he could easily destroy the 25 meter-radius parabola.
And Block wasn't going to take it sitting down.
(Not good! …Actually, maybe this is fine. Even if they do have him, they can't accurately snipe him from that distance.)
"What do we do?" Teshio Megumi plainly asked for instructions
All eyes turned to Saku.
"That should be obvious."
Unabara felt tension run across his body as he heard that unworried voice.
They must have had some kind of counter-measure.
He speculated that they might have some kind of bomb set up near the antenna that could detonated remotely, but the large bear-like man gave a different answer.
"We pray for his success."
At first, Unabara Mitsuki didn't understand.
But then his thoughts recovered.
(Oh, no… They're after…!?)
"A frontal assault on District 23 would have been difficult with our powers. But this can't happen without the antenna being destroyed first. So we had to get some help from a more skilled idiot."
"Surprisingly, we may have overthought this one. The Level 5 has reached the antenna."
"The higher ups watching over all this must have opened a path for him. That area is crawling with air force-related weapons. Normally, an unmanned attack of mostly HsAFH-11 Attack Helicopters would have gone in to intercept him. Although it doesn't matter because that Level 5 could have easily defeated them."
(Our attention was drawn towards the optical weapon equipped on it, but Hikoboshi II's primary function is to provide surveillance of Academy City and the surrounding areas. Without the antenna, both the attack functionality and the surveillance functionality will be taken out!!)
Unabara thought about the cell phone in his pocket, but it would be extremely difficult to get away and contact someone at a time like this.
Teshio stared at Saku's face.
"Are we really going to use the people waiting outside the outer wall of District 11?"
"People like them are perfect for a plan like this. What? You aren't having second thoughts about getting unrelated people wrapped up in this, are you?"
The large man ended the now-unneeded cracking program on the laptop, turned off the machine, and tossed it over to the subordinate members.
"Let's go. There are 5000 mercenaries waiting for us outside the walls."
October 9th 1:29 PM.
A certain satellite lost functionality because the antenna that communicated with it was destroyed.
Academy City's defense capabilities had greatly fallen due to its surveillance network in the sky being gone.