It had been fifteen minutes since the apartment room was blown away by a rocket.
Tsuchimikado Motoharu and Musujime Awaki were in an apartment room in the Family Side Building no. 2.
There were no fire brigades or Anti-Skill personnel. Here and there, bystanders could be seen surrounding the building, but no one entered. After all, there had been an explosion. And they wouldn't dare enter considering the danger included in fire and destruction.
The apartments had been constructed for residential use, but the rooms were used almost only for solitary living. On top of it, apartment tenants were overwhelmingly faculty, outweighing even the students in number. Because Academy City had rounded up Anti-Skill for war preparations, shifting the task of preparing the lesson materials to the other teachers, the rooms were empty even on a national holiday.
"Right here."
Originally a high-class 4LDK mansion, the middle of the room had been blown out by explosives, even the furniture and inner walls had crumbled down. Thanks to that, the apartment now only had about two rooms. One could see the bathroom just by passing through the main door.
"They've thoroughly destroyed the evidence. Even bringing in those skilled in telepathy might do us no good."
Musujime muttered as she looked at the blackened floor.
The one late in coming, Accelerator, finally turned up leaning on his cane.
"Tch. Just when I was thinking that it's a summon, it's yet another enjoyable garbage disposal job from the top."
Tsuchimikado, without looking at Accelerator, said,
"You finished with your errand?"
"Shuddup."
Accelerator halfheartedly rejected it and looked at the surroundings.
"Is this the spot where that idiot Unabara disappeared?"
"Yup. For now, Management is a live captive, and being transported on the paddy wagon of the grunt groups, but my level of confidence for his verbal-only information is low. And he's only strangely whining and saying stuff like "the info stays only in my head." I sent Unabara here for the support data we need, but then..."
Tsuchimikado, in a dull voice, said,
"During that time, he was probably attacked from the third floor. In this situation, I still don't know whether it's that Unabara himself is targeted or that Management's information is targeted, but from the looks of it, it's the latter. The report from Unabara beforehand is that there is stuff like personal computers and HD recorders, but they've disappeared like magic. Everything was taken away, even the AI-equipped appliances."
"At least it appears there's an appliance left behind here."
Musujime was lifting up a blackened microwave oven with her foot. It immediately rolled onto the floor.
"Perhaps it's one of those not loaded with AI. A type where one cannot input additional info into it: it would be thrown away just like that."
Investigating the room, there was, in addition, a broken-down TV and electric iron. But all the important stuff had probably been taken away.
Accelerator sat down on the disemboweled bed,
And exhaled, seemingly uninterested.
"Tch, what a bother. We know shit about that bastard Management's information. And we know shit about what happened to Unabara. Good grief, make sure that if it's your job, you bastards had better deal with it."
He lightly kicked at the destroyed microwave oven rolling nearby.
At that instant, the plastic-made door opened and the contents spilled out.
"...hm?"
It was the paper money.
The five stacks of soot-stained paper money were somehow stuffed into the microwave oven.
"The report says that we're worried about Unabara."
Musujime, who had bent down to pickup the bills, chuckled as she said that.
"There should be the anti-counterfeiting IC chips within these bills. Something might be written in them. By putting them into the microwave oven, they can be sealed off from radio signals. Even if, for example, the attackers carry a sensor just for them, that would probably be tricked into not detecting them."
"...Did that shitty bastard hide them in advance?"
Just as Accelerator inquired, Tsuchimikado, standing apart from them, raised his voice as he said, 'hm?'.
Looking closely, a man's corpse was stuffed inside the closet Tsuchimikado had opened up. On closer examination, its skin by the right calf leg was completely torn off.
Tsuchimikado sighed and said,
"This is Unabara's work."
"That act done at the foot? Is it that bastard's hobby?"
Musujime grimaced on hearing these words. Her feet were once injured in an accident during class. The trauma of that time had not vanished yet. To make it worse, her trauma was so bad she had to use low-frequency vibration medical equipment to reduce the stress every time she used her ability.
Tsuchimikado shook his head.
"He uses human skin to create one kind of a talisman. You guys don't know magic so I'll make the explanation of theories brief...but the point is, **he has the skill to substitute as other people**."
While looking at the foot injury of the corpse, Tsuchimikado said,
"That Unabara bastard has totally changed places with this one. Now he's mixed with the guys who attacked here, waiting for an opportunity."
In short, Tsuchimikado acknowledged,
"That masquerading bastard is still alive. And I don't know where he is laughing now."