Group was one cold-hearted group.
The remaining three members had put their investigation of Unabara's mysterious disappearance on hold. However, even if there were a slight hint they wouldn't know whether to go save him or not. The standard idea in "Group" was that each member had to deal with their own problems.
And so,
"It's from the Group grunts. It seems the paddy wagon Management was on had been attacked."
"A massacre?"
"Nah. Kindly speaking, all apart from Management have been rendered unconscious. Either way, we lost our chance of hearing him out directly."
"Aren't there any clues of who did this?"
"That's why that guy left these cash notes behind."
For now, they had to start from the paper money.
The Group trio, having left from the Family Side apartment building number two, returned for the time being to one of their hideouts and decided to examine the electronic data stored on the IC chips from the paper money.
"Even so, this hideout is an empty store at the underground shopping complex. What if an expectant corporate dropout comes to peek in?"
"When that time comes we're out of here. We have hideouts are all over the place; these shops are set up for them anyway."
Tsuchimikado lightheartedly said, then set a paper money-reading device onto the floor.
And connecting to the laptop via cable was,
"...What's that?"
Musujime inquired inquisitively. Tsuchimikado chuckled at her.
It was a sensor for cell phone wallets located at the side of cash registers in convenience stores.
"Well... It's a bother, so I asked a supplier to bring in a reader."
"Well whatever it is I don't particularly care."
Accelerator said, while sitting in a pipe chair and tending to his handgun.
"Get cracking."
"Got it."
Tsuchimikado simply replied, picking a pile from the five stacks of paper money and swiping it through the equipment.
Not even the name of the country was displayed on screen. It was merely a clutter of numbers. Tsuchimikado then worked in the terminal, finally changing them into words with some significance.
"We've got a sudden hit, eh."
Tsuchimikado squinted at the characters displayed on screen.
"...Looks like Management's shopping list. His dealings are with a single professional sniper. Oh yeah, it looks like trouble just by the sniper's weapon."
He swiped the second pile through the equipment.
"Sniper's name is Sunazara Chimitsu. ...Alias unknown. Recorded personal history and abilities are unreliable. But just from the ¥700,000 referral fee, he's one nice bargain item."
He then swiped the third pile through the equipment.
"This is about the sniper's weapon. What's prepared is...the MSR-001. Magnetic Sniping Rifle."
Tsuchimikado said with a pained voice.
"Magnetic, you say?"
"As its name says, it is a sniper rifle that uses electromagnets to fire steel bullets. Of course it's made in Academy City. Its construction is even simpler than that of a railgun. Muzzle velocity is 280m/s. Almost the speed of sound."
"...That might be something. Although I hear that normal sniper rifles do good on performance."
However, Tsuchimikado laughingly said,
"In sheer power, true. However, this one does not use gunpowder, so there's no recoil. Without the shock that most sniper rifles produce, sensitive aiming equipment can be attached very precisely. When using gunpowder, a certain amount of strength is required to withstand the recoil during firing. What's more..."
"What's more?"
"If gunpowder isn't used, then there's no sound. It's most suited for killing stealthily."
As he said those, Tsuchimikado swiped the fourth pile through the equipment.
However, only errors displayed on screen.
They could not read the essential data.
"Dammit. The IC chips must have been busted by heat or shock. From just what we can see from the fragmentary header data, it looks like the definite business partner who hired the sniper is written here."
No matter how many time he tried to swipe the pile through, the contents of the paper bills still couldn't be displayed.
Tsuchimikado gave up for now, and swiped the last pile of bills.
Displayed on screen was a rough sketch of some location.
It was a simplified map, with everything but the important buildings eliminated. A red dot was marked in the middle and numbers were written beside the surrounding buildings, indicating things like how many buildings there were and total distance. Indecipherable information for only such an overhead map.
Tsuchimikado smiled upon seeing it.
"Looks like the sniping plans. Did Management handle it this far?"
"Heh. A great grocery store, that one."
"The location's the front plaza at the District 7 concert hall...."
Musujime looked up at the ceiling and,
"Just above this place eh."
"The concert hall front plaza is being chartered for an address by one of the general board of directors. I dare say that VIP is the sniping target. Name's Oyafune Monaka. I don't know what kind of plans the opposition is using to strike at the top, but it appears they are plotting an outrageous plan to assassinate Oyafune. By stopping this our work will be complete. ...For Unabara, well, forget him. The one with the lowest 'score' in this job will have to play punishment game and go save him."
"Sigh. From here on we run and chase after the sniper? Why don't we just ditch this bothersome job and stop the useless address?"
Accelerator said with a really irritating voice, but Tsuchimikado shook his head.
"That would be impossible."
"Hah?"
"It's simple. The address has already started."