Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume13 Chapter2

==Chapter 2: Death and Slaughter – VS_NECROMANCER.==

===Part 1===

The sun was setting on Academy City.

The red snow continued even as night fell.



“Nhh…”

Necromancer Isabella Theism raised her arms and stretched.

Even that dealer in death had visibly white breath in the darkness.

The building was cramped and Isabella knew she was ruining the mood, but she had no real obligation to get along with her colleagues. She hadn’t come to Japan to make friends.

They had taken over this city.

They had accomplished what the magic side as a whole would consider a great feat. This alone had to be causing a kerfuffle in the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches. If the power of science joined the conflict, it would greatly change the three-way stalemate between England, Rome, and Russia.

Offering Academy City to the queen would be enough for Isabella Theism’s name to go down in history.

(How history would describe me is an open question, though. That queen is an upright person who values peace and loathes fighting.)

But controlling the world meant nothing if that world was destroyed tomorrow.

She had to focus on Great Demon Coronzon for now.

“Which means I don’t have time to listen to complaints from ''outsiders''.”

She focused on her earphone and heard an annoyed voice.

“What is wrong with you? Wasn’t that a little quick to completely change your mind on me?”

“All I did was lay some groundwork I felt necessary for my mission. To me, this seems pretty peaceful compared to carpet bombing a jungle or some buildings the enemy might be using to hide.”

“Hold on. It was you Anglicans who said you wanted a united front.” The new board chairman’s voice dropped in tone. “That’s why I didn’t resist much when I discovered your further savagery. Setting aside whether it’s humane or not, I could have ''used magnetic resonance well beyond any safety standards to rattle people’s cranial nerves and turn them into living pawns'' all from a safe distance. I can still do that.”

“Well, that’s a new interpretation of the zombie. And I like that they’re zombies but you aren’t controlling the dead.” Isabella actually sounded amused. “Did we sign any documents? Did we stamp it with our seal? All you’re going off of is a baseless chat with our previous leader, who had no right to be leading in the first place. Now that I’ve taken the position, I’m not bound by any vague verbal promises or implicit understandings. I, Isabella Theism, will do everything necessary to stop the Adikalika large-scale attack spell that Great Demon Coronzon is preparing. …And I mean everything necessary as a necromancer, of course☆”

When the leader changed, so did the overall policy.

That unpleasant side of organizations was rearing its ugly head here.

After trusting and opening up to the previous leader, that leader was driven out by infighting and a completely different person was now in charge and saying the exact opposite. All the personal trust built up before had been shifted onto someone else entirely and all the risk was shoved back onto him for opening up. Even though this was no time to be getting sidetracked with that sort of nonsense.

“Don’t you get that this fun of yours is only going to lead to more meaningless death?”

“Meaningless? Of course not! …I won’t let a single death go to waste. I generally use imitations rather than consume actual dead bodies for my spells, but that doesn’t mean I lack the ability to do so. And creating lookalikes out of safe and reliable ingredient is a lot of work. If Academy City is going to let these real dead bodies go to waste, I will take full responsibility and put them to good use.”

She was smiling.

This was no lie or mockery – she really meant it.

With Isabella Theism, there was little meaning in debating whether she was a good or bad person. The meaning of justice changed depending on your viewpoint and her opinion was technically correct if ''all'' you wanted to do was keep the United Kingdom safe. Of course, that was setting aside the question of if the British people would permit ''a peace built on other’s deaths.''

To Isabella, lives were like a fuel that could be burned with the maximum efficiency. Using them up without any waste was a virtue. So to put it another way, inefficiently protecting others’ lives was not all that important.

Whether this was good or evil didn’t really matter here. That question could wait.

But Accelerator did have an answer for whether he liked it or not: he couldn’t have disliked it more.

“…You’re different.”

“From what?”

“''You’re nothing at all like the necromancer I know.''”

“I should have known the one sitting in the board chairman’s seat would have some delightful friends. But, you see, this field has branched into many different ideologies and factions.”

Yes. Her sensibilities were not off because she was a necromancer or because she was a magician who specialized in human death. This all came down to Isabella’s personal beliefs and tastes.

Her insistence on always doing what was correct rankled Accelerator, but she was the one who had ended up in a position to influence the fate of Academy City and the world as a whole. Was the world really in good hands? In a way, she was even more of a pain than Coronzon who opposed the world more directly.

“But the fact remains that no amount of complaining on your part is going to change anything. I mean, Academy City is a shambles, isn’t it? You can’t gather enough pieces to take on Coronzon. So despite your sensible complaints, you have no choice but to rely on the Anglican experts who have entered your city. And need I remind you that it is we Anglicans who overcame the threat of Coronzon in the past?”

“…”

“Yes, wouldn’t it be nice if Academy City still had a trump card up its sleeve?”

===Part 2===

In a District 7 hospital, a nurse who had gone out of her way to modify her official nurse uniform to give it a miniskirt stepped into the emergency room.

“Hey, doc☆ You have a message from Anti-Skill’s um…how do you read this name? It means yellow spring river, but they really should give you the reading too. Anyway, she’s one of those people who keep the city peaceful. Something about wanting an expert medical opinion.”

“If it will not save a life, I’m not interested.”

“I’m not sure in this case. Apparently there’s a few witness reports around the city saying a dead kid called Kamijou Touma is up and moving around.”

“…”

The frog-faced doctor sighed.

Now there was a name he hadn’t expected to hear again.

And…

“Are they sure he’s really dead?”

“They don’t know, which is why they wanted the advice of the doctor who declared him dead. They apparently can’t contact the crematorium either.”

That meant it was possible he wasn’t dead.

The frog-faced doctor had confirmed the boy’s death and even sewed up his mangled body. He had even observed the embalming in the morgue, but was it really possible to fake death in that state?

However.

If the boy was still alive, then, whatever his state might be, he would be one of the patients the frog-faced doctor had to save. He was probably caught up in some kind of trouble again, but that was no reason for the frog-faced doctor to give up on a patient. No matter what it was.

(And really, this sounds a lot more like the boy I know.)

“Transfer her to this monitor. The hospital is full of computers, so this monitor is as good as any.”

“On it.”

The nurse whose excessive display of sex appeal was constantly troubling the patients left the room.

The very next moment, something else happened.

Specifically, something moved atop a bloody stretcher in the emergency room. Perhaps because the poor female patient was unidentified (despite what looked like an ID card hanging from her neck), she had been sent away from District 10 and across the district line to reach this hospital. But by the time she had arrived, hadn’t she already been in cardiac arrest?

“What…?”

Immediately after the frog-faced doctor’s puzzled question, it happened.

It was like a mousetrap equipped with a powerful spring.

The young emergency patient had lost so much blood after biting her tongue that she hadn’t even been able to move her own heart, yet now she sat up. With enough force to tear out the cardiopulmonary bypass tubes attaching her to an external box.

“Bonjour!”

“…”

The frog-faced doctor looked like he wanted to say something, but it was the emergency patient who smiled and spoke to him.

“Ohh, I feel so dizzy. The blood isn’t reaching my brain. Maybe that’s why my self-diagnosis is stalled… A mystérieuse cardiac arrest patient who you couldn’t seem to identify must have been tough, huh? Well, your Jane Doe is in fact named Kihara Goukei, but you can call me Madame Gou. Oh, right. Do you know the nombre of the ambulance that brought me here? Those EMTs work so hard year round, so I feel bad troubling them with me. I need to send them some expensive mangoes later on.”

She was speaking a mile a minute.

Her tongue was operating quite smoothly for someone who had bitten it badly enough to kill her.

“Um, so, is the dead coming back to life the latest fad in this city or something?”

“Don’t ask me. But every part of my body is crammed full of that sort of technologie,” casually revealed Kihara Goukei.

This was the true face of Bio Secure.

“Nhh hee hee☆ When you belong to a team that deals with the city’s illegal undead, you gather a lot of specialized knowledge from across the city. And no one really tracks what happens to that bizarre technologie once it’s been confiscated, so no one ever notices if you modify some of it for your own use before consigning it to oblivion.”

“So you’re saying you have turned your own body into a collection of forbidden research you gathered around Academy City?”

“Because stealing other people’s recherche is so much faster than developing it yourself. That’s more the thought process of an industrielle spy than a researcher, though.”

Biting your tongue would kill you?

Then you just had to have two tongues.

…It was toying with death on that level that made her a Kihara.

“Do you not consider life to be valuable?”

“Life is precious, of course.”

The answer came immediately.

It sounded pure even.

But all that was distorted a second later.

“''Which is why'' it’s so much fun to toy with! A life is one-of-a-kind and not some replaceable scrap of paper, which is what makes it so exciting. Oui, oui. It all comes down to the knowledge that you are doing something truly irreversible!! Ah ha ha. Isn’t that the very definition of a desecration!?”

This was the difference between normal people and the Kihara family.

It wasn’t that they didn’t understand the value or share that value. They understood it perfectly, but their goal in handling something precious was entirely different. They were a wholly incomprehensible bunch.

Kihara Goukei continued, looking carefree.

“Now, a perfectly healthy person hogging your emergency room would only trouble the next patient, so I will take my leave here. Oh, which way to the payment desk? This looks like a big hôpital, so is it busy on weekdays? I’m in a hurry, so it would help immensely if you could just automatically charge it to my carte.”

“I get the feeling letting you go will bring trouble to many more people.”

“But you can’t stop me. Not as a docteur, anyway.”

She made it sound so obvious.

There were specialized tools in here, like scalpels used to cut skin and bone saws. Even opening the anesthesia valve might be able to neutralize this dangerous person.

But…

“You are a skilled doctor. Skilled enough to make a Kihara like me jealous. But your skills can only be used to save people. You might technically possess the skills, but you cannot cut into people or sew them up for any other raison. That is just how doctors work.”

“…”

“Oh, don’t worry. I too am working to protect Academy City’s peace. So don’t give me that grim look. I will do my job.”

“Even thought you’re a Kihara?”

“Oui. I will do it ''as'' a Kihara.”

===Part 3===

The District 2 gunpowder testing lab was in fact an unmanned weapon data center.

It was a large place.

And its security was in fact ''too advanced'' to be fully utilized by the nuns and magicians with a poor grasp of scientific technology.

There were plenty of blind spots.

Lucia had dragged Agnese and Angelene to the heat control room.

Simply put, the room was lined with valves and tanks of the chemical coolant used to cool the large computers.

“What did you want to discuss?”

“Whether or not we’re going to continue obeying Isabella.”

Sister Lucia was fastidious.

She may not have liked Isabella’s methods, such as attacking her own people when they got in her way and accepting the impure along with the pure – and she in fact seemed much more at home with the impure.

“Eh? Eh? But the Anglican Church took us in when we fled the Catholics.”

Stooped Angelene hurriedly observed both Agnese and Lucia’s faces.

That was the first and most important point.

The 250 members of the Former Agnese Forces would gain nothing by clashing with the Anglicans.

In fact, they might end up with their lives at risk.

But Lucia crossed her arms and continued.

“I feel like the fair deal we were given is being violated.”

“Well…we are basically freeloaders with them. This isn’t the first time we’ve been given odd jobs that are definitely not worth the effort. And any accomplishments we do make go to whoever our leader is on paper.”

Agnese shrugged, but Lucia did not stop.

“She knocked out Stiyl and I don’t like the true identity she was hiding. Can we really leave the fate of the Italian Peninsula in her hands? Doesn’t this situation worry you two?”

“If Adikalika is activated, the world will be headed toward its doom. England has no reason to hold back.”

“So you think they’ll treat everyone equally? Really? Destroying the Vatican will not immediately doom London.”

The atmosphere froze.

That statement made them focus on the cracks.

And Sister Lucia wasn’t wrong.

Even if the world was set to be destroyed today or tomorrow, was England really doing everything they could? For example, Queen Elizard wasn’t here. Nor were Princesses Riméa, Carissa, and Villian. It was true it would be unusual for the royal family to be sent to the front line, but why was everything still operating “business as usual” with all this going on?

Even if the Catholics wanted them dead, Agnese and the others couldn’t abandon them to die.

They were only with England because it best served their purposes. Which was why Agnese had just said they were basically freeloaders.

Angelene stammered, “C-come to think of it, I haven’t seen any sign of the war-loving Knights around. The Anglicans are the only one of the three factions here. Before I thought that was lucky since it would avoid infighting, but now…”

It was easy to suspect England wasn’t taking this as seriously as they might.

Even though the clock striking midnight could signal the Italian Peninsula becoming a sea of blood, flesh, and bone.

The discussion had fast reached a point where it would look badly on them to be overheard by any of the true Anglicans.

But they couldn’t help but get worked up among themselves.

Agnese asked a careful question.

“Are you questioning where they’ve set up their defensive line?”

“We’re convenient workers, if not outright sacrificial pawns for them. I expected them to ask us to risk our lives and fight here. Kanzaki might not because she’s too nice, but why isn’t Isabella Theism demanding it of us?”

Could England be taking an optimistic view?

Did they only see this as an occurrence in Academy City of distant Asia, on the other side of the world?

Even if they screwed up and the Italian Peninsula were submerged in a sea of blood, flesh, and bone, did they think they had another chance? Maybe it was only subconscious, but did they still think there was a buffer zone left?

Lucia had a point.

Especially from the perspective of the Former Agnese Forces who wanted to protect the Italian Peninsula at all costs.

But at the same time, Agnese had felt a chill on her spine for a while. A very distinct chill.

The mention of Great Demon Coronzon may have reminded her.

(This happened last time in London, didn’t it?)

So she was cautious.

She had to treat this like defusing a bomb.

Coronzon was an expert at tearing apart the bonds between people.

So it was possible this conflict had been planned and this suspicion between allies would all serve to benefit the great demon.

(Could this be the same war mood – that same scent in the air – that sent Sister Orsola down the path of self-destruction?)

“Even so, you aren’t suggesting a coup here, are you? The Anglicans have over 10 thousand people in Academy City, so there isn’t anything our 250 can do. And they even have that extraordinary Saint. Not to mention that infighting while Adikalika is being prepared will only delight Coronzon.”

“I know that,” immediately replied Lucia. She apparently had a different idea. “Which is why I’m saying we can’t afford to leave this in the wrong hands. At the very least, Isabella can’t be the one to carry the fate of the Italian Peninsula on her shoulders.”

“Then Kanzaki? She is a dazzlingly good person, but she has the Amakusas to protect. Will she really make any bold moves to help us?”

“No.”

The fastidious nun sharply rejected that idea.

“There is someone else in this building, isn’t there? We need to be using everything available to us, but one person is going to waste.”

The three of them exchanged a glance.

Come to think of it…

“If ''she'' is at the center of it, then everyone here will do their job regardless of their position in the magic side power map. Even if it means forcing forward the defensive line that they’ve pulled back. Don’t you think so?”

===Part 4===

In the District 12 consulate, Kamijou Touma and the others were discussing something. Probably a plan to use against Coronzon.

Feeling left out, Hamazura Shiage’s face clouded over.

“Y’know…I just can’t believe Coronzon is trying to destroy the world again.”

“Think of it like her instincts as a great demon,” casually replied Dion Fortune. “You can’t expect to fix this with a conversation. She isn’t one to be stopped with the straightforward methods Kamijou Touma prefers.”

…Was that really true?

Hamazura thought back to the frozen ocean in the UK. When they last spoke in the cruise ship, she hadn’t seemed like an incarnation of evil to him.

333, dispersion. She was the one who tears apart people’s bonds and obstructs their evolution.

That much was true.

But on the other hand…

“Coronzon helped save you back then. She complained a bunch, but she didn’t take the option from me.”

“But would the world at large consider that an act of good? You’re forgetting that I was a pawn she created to grind the UK’s functioning to a halt. She was saving one of her own attackers.”

He hadn’t thought of it that way before.

Hamazura worked to suppress his reflexive response and made sure to actually think before speaking again.

“Are you saying she only showed interest in it because it was an act of evil?”

“Who knows. Even the magicians who have specialized in studying Coronzon are split on the subject. Master Mathers insisted she is an absolute evil while Crowley argued she is one side of a relative evil. Even those at the top of the magic side weren’t certain of her true nature, so that isn’t something you need to worry yourself over.”

No one knew.

It wasn’t clear.

And yet the world had decided they ''might as well'' call her evil?

===Part 5===

Dion Fortune wasn’t the only one hurriedly investigating Adikalika.

This affected everyone in the world.

And Crowley’s home of the United Kingdom had tons of documents related to his Magick. Since it was based on the same source, Isabella could make some predictions and estimations of what Great Demon Coronzon’s version would look like.

With a general knowledge of the destruction specs, one question remained on Isabella Theism’s mind.

(Why Rome instead of the UK?)

Of course, she could guess that Adikalika’s power would be difficult to use effectively against the UK due to their research into anti-Crowley techniques. And if Adikalika blew away an entire region, it would trigger global chaos and war just as well whether the target was the Anglicans or the Catholics.

But was that really enough for that great demon to give up?

Her grudge was clearly centered on the UK. That had to be the place she most wanted to destroy. And once she decided to destroy it, wouldn’t she make sure it happened no matter the cost or how extensive the preparations?

“This isn’t a plan B. Coronzon didn’t shift to her second best candidate as a compromise.”

But if that was true, it formed a natural question within Isabella.



“She’s intentionally targeting the Roman Catholic headquarters at the core of the Italian Peninsula. …''Is there something there''?”



And so.

In Academy City’s District 7.

Isabella Theism decided to find an observation point for Coronzon. She had plenty of sacrificial pawns she could have used, but was that really a good idea? They wouldn’t flat out refuse her orders, but even if they made a show of obedience, they might hide useful information. So she decided it was better to do the investigation herself.

What did Coronzon want to destroy in her attack on the Italian Peninsula?

Revealing the structure of the over-the-top Adikalika spell might just provide a hint there.

“Hm.”

Great Demon Coronzon was in this same district.

Isabella Theism had come here hoping to find something there, but…

“There definitely is something.”

Something was rustling along.

It looked like a giant crab, but that was no crab. The monster was around 2m tall and it was hideous. Instead of a poisonous creature, this thing inspired the sense of disgust felt when peering into the kitchen garbage bucket in a stranger’s house. The mass of gold giving off a twisted glow was in fact formed by balling up something like long blonde hair.

“?”

(Long blonde hair. So did this come from Coronzon? If this is her sending out pawns to stop people instead of just showing off, she must be a lot more concerned than she lets on.)

Apparently there was no need for the things to be crabs.

She also saw a great serpent slithering along the red snow, a thin-winged bat, a fat fly, an eight-legged octopus, an earth-devouring snail, and a scorpion that moved different again from the crab. They were all, of course, made from blonde hair.

(That rules out the idea of them being the horoscope symbols.)

They might simply be based on different demons, but she wasn’t certain of that either. Unlike the horoscopes, she wasn’t familiar with any crab demons.

Isabella Theism was a necromancer who specialized in death.

As she stood still and gave off a death scent to play dead, a blonde hair monster passed right by in front of her. They didn’t seem too intelligent. Maybe they couldn’t ad lib, or maybe they couldn’t recognize people if they didn’t fit certain predetermined search conditions.

The same thing repeated a few times.

The monsters were wandering around with a decent density. Specifically, she could see two or three of them from a major intersection. The distribution seemed to differ depending on location, so traveling toward the denser areas might show her where Coronzon was located. However, playing dead took a fair amount of effort, so she decided to end her recon mission here. She also doubted holding her breath would be enough to approach Coronzon close enough for a surprise attack.

(And I doubt these are the only pawns Coronzon has. After slipping past the grunts, I would probably find a mid-boss waiting for me.)

Isabella’s death camouflage was somewhat effective.

The gold monsters failed to notice her even when passing by right in front of her.

But what would happen if they did notice her?

The answer seemed obvious enough looking at the crab legs and pincers of the one that had gone clacking by earlier.

“A single step outside in District 7 would probably be deadly.”

On the other hand, there was no powerful blood scent hanging over the city.

The pawns were not going around actively breaking into homes and killing people.

If you didn’t leave the buildings, no harm would come to you.

So these pawns were meant to ensure no one interrupted Great Demon Coronzon’s Adikalika preparations. By giving them specialized abilities and a simple movement pattern, she was avoiding the mistake of delaying her plan by giving too many resources to the grunts.

…Of course, a failure to notice the regularity of their movements could lead people to behave like they were asking to be killed.

“Wahh!!”

Isabella heard a scream.

From a small boy of maybe 8 or 10. After seeing a monster out the window, had he decided his room was too dangerous and fled outside instead of locking up and sitting tight? Isabella glanced over but immediately gave up on him.

He was a little too far.

She couldn’t reach him.

And there was no harm in ignoring him.

Isabella’s only goals were preventing Adikalika’s activation and eliminating Great Demon Coronzon. She hadn’t exactly been asked to tally up and report on how many died in the process. Dion Fortune was it? Even if that archbishop added that condition now, she was only a false leader given the position to fill the empty seat in the interim. The older members had no obligation to obey her.

The sounds of splitting flesh and spraying blood rang loud.

Isabella’s expression barely changed.

Someone had protected the boy by placing herself over him. The woman wore a distinctive mask and was dressed a lot like a dentist. The golden pincers and legs had stabbed right into her back.

Red scattered from her.

Anyone could tell she had lost a lethal amount of blood, yet…

“Mon dieu.”

She sounded carefree.

No, she seemed irritated.

“Whoever designed this things needs to observe crabes better. And learn more about romance. A crabe’s pincers don’t stab or slash like a knife – they crush and cut like a chain tool!!”

After a dull scraping sound, the two meter pawn was split in two. Right down the middle. The crab lost control and split apart. Into countless threads – no, hairs.

How had she done that?

Only now was Isabella’s curiosity piqued. Even if this was only a scout or patrolwoman, did Academy City really still have someone capable of slaying one of Coronzon’s pawns?

The boy and the woman appeared to be conversing.

“U-um.”

“What is it?”

“Thank…you?”

The woman in question was soaked with blood.

No matter how invincible that last move had made her look, her back had still been stabbed repeatedly.

“Eek!?”

“My, my. Don’t worry. I am not ''designed'' to let a little thing like this kill me. …Also, I am Kihara Goukei, but you can call me Madame Gou.”

“Madame…ahh, y-you’re so hurt…and it’s…it’s my fault…”

“Forget about that.”

She used those words to set aside the blood still gushing from her.

The bloody woman acted like her next question was what really mattered.

“What is, um…yes, what is your name?”

“Urekawa. Urekawa Ousuke.”

“Urekawa-kun then? Cough, this is all necessary if you’re going to survive…so take a close look so you won’t forget it.”

Seated on the ground, Kihara Goukei pointed elsewhere.

“What…?”

“Do you see the bus there?”

It wasn’t far away. It was doubtful if the middle-aged man floundering in the driver’s seat actually had a large vehicle license, but that wouldn’t matter as long as he could get the bus moving.

“It will be leaving soon, so you need to get aboard before it does. And then the wonderful grownups aboard will make sure you can escape…so hurry.”

“But…what about you? We need to stop your bleeding!!”

“''Don’t worry about that.''”

The intensity behind those words made the Urekawa boy’s little shoulders jump.

Only a second-rate would flash their weapon to gain the obedience of those unable to fight. A true professional could easily grasp someone’s heart just by changing the mood.

The boy took a few steps back.

Kihara Goukei smiled a little as she watched that small back running elsewhere.

More of those weird golden things were wandering the area, but they did not attack anyone beyond a wall or door. So whether the bus was moving or not, the boy would be safe once inside it.

So she must have concluded the boy would be fine.

With that settled, Kihara Goukei turned toward the real threat.

In other words, toward Isabella Theism.

“Now, then.”

After an unpleasant tightening sound, Kihara Goukei’s bleeding stopped.

She didn’t have any bandages, not even a tiny adhesive one, but she had done this on her own.

“Independent stanching. It’s not all that unusual a trick. It’s a standard function for animals that sever a body part to escape predators in an act known as autotomy. Think a lézard’s tail or a crabe’s legs.”

“If you can stop your bleeding at will, why didn’t you fall over and play dead? This way you might as well be asking for someone to finish the job.”

“And then who would protect that boy? From those monstres and from you who had no issue abandoning him to mort.”

Isabella Theism heard a quiet psht of something in the air.

“?”

Something stabbed into her right thigh.

She felt no pain.

It was the dart from a tranquilizer gun.

“Okay, now raise your hand if it hurts.”

With continuous metallic grinding and scraping sounds, something like a scroll was unfurled. A belt as wide as a college notebook was spread out around Kihara Goukei like a hagoromo. It was lined with torture devices.

“Not that I’ll stop if it does☆”

The cruel dentist grinned behind her mask.

And the clash began.

===Part 6===

“Brr…”

Index had little knowledge of the science side, so she didn’t know where she was locked up. It was a space a lot like a large, large indoor pool. Her arms and legs hadn’t been bound, but escaping the boxy room would still be a challenge.

Meanwhile, Othinus was looking all around from her shoulder.

“They said this was an unmanned weapon data center…but is this a spare room? They’ll need more vending-machine-sized servers when they inevitably need more processing power, so they must have secured the space for them ahead of time.”

“What’s your point?”

“It’s a big room with secure locks, but it’s been left empty since they have no use for it yet.”

Yes, that did sound like a convenient place to lock someone up.

“Hey, are you alright?” asked Othinus.

“I’m hungry, but the cold isn’t too bad.”

“Not what I meant. You can’t forget what happened back there, right?”

Was Othinus referring to the necromancer’s imitation dead bodies, or the fact that Index had been betrayed by her fellow Anglicans?

Index smiled a little with the cat in her arms.

“I’m fine.”

“…”

“This is nothing compared to Touma being declared dead and having everything taken from him. I can handle this much pain, but it’s different for Touma. He shouldn’t have to put up with that at all.”

“Yeah,” said Othinus.

Kamijou Touma was alive, but there were those who couldn’t accept that. The 15cm god recalled that empty dorm room. Kamijou Touma’s death itself may have happened by chance, but someone somewhere benefited from keeping him in that “dead” state.

Were they on the science side or the magic side?

Either way…

“Robbing a god of her temple and throne is an unforgivable sin. Whoever is responsible, they must be made to pay for violating the sanctity of my holy ground.”

Just then, they heard footsteps.

The footsteps stopped at the door and were followed by the clicking of the lock being operated.

Someone was here.

“Keep quiet.”

The door slowly opened and Kanzaki Kaori entered with a finger up to her lips.

She carried a ring of keys.

“The door has two locks. The idea was for the Amakusas and the Former Agnese Forces to each have a key to prevent betrayal, but as you can see, I am one of the fewer than 20 Saints. They can’t stop me when I put my mind to it.”

“You’re actually…freeing us?”

Index’s question brought sadness to Kanzaki’s eyes.

As If she hadn’t expected this doubt.

“If I didn’t do it, Stiyl would have tried it even if it killed him. I’ve let him be the villain too often already.”

“?”

Index looked confused. She didn’t understand why Kanzaki would bring up that priest.

The absolute confidence she had in her perfect memory only made the missing memories all the more cruel.

She didn’t even question those memories that had been intentionally erased.

(And it turned out Lola Stuart was Great Demon Coronzon. I would love to give her a taste of my full strength as a Saint to pay her back for what she did to us.)

But that likely wasn’t her role.

Kanzaki was aware of that.

She adored Index more than she could say, but she had no intention of destroying the girl’s current world.

“Listen. Isabella is off doing who knows what, so this is my chance to let you go. The knowledge of your 103,001 grimoires should be used to protect people. So it would be best if you went to Kamijou Touma now.”

“But wait.”

Othinus interjected after listening from the nun’s shoulder.

She appreciated this…but it went beyond what could be decided on an emotional impulse.

“The Anglican Church is an organization, right? And a global one at that. Even if you can’t stand Isabella on a personal level, disobeying her orders will only hurt you and your companions.”

“Be that as it may, this is something I must do. Plus, I know those companions. None of them would want me to save them at the cost of your freedom. And I don’t just mean the Amakusas. The Former Agnese Forces were clearly holding back when they fought me.”

That was the end of it.

She stood firm.

The 15cm god clicked her tongue and looked away.

…How could she reject this kindness when Kanzaki looked at her that way?

“It would be a challenge for us to directly cooperate with Kamijou Touma. We have too many other obligations. But you two…”

“We’ll do it.”

Index didn’t even let Kanzaki finish.

The powerful look in her eyes stared directly into Kanzaki’s eyes.

“Because I know it’s what I should do. Helping out Touma is always the best option.”

“This way.”

Kanzaki Kaori would never stand by Index’s side again.

Other people stood there now.

But she did not consider shoving those people aside to reclaim that spot.

Index’s trust had been reset along with her memories.

So the only option was to build them both back anew. Even if it resulted in a different relationship than before.

“I can show you to the building exit, but that is all ''we'' can do. You must find a way to locate Kamijou Touma and join him. Grimoire Library Index, I leave the righteousness and pride of the Anglican Church in your hands.”

===Part 7===

A creepy rustling sound filled the street.

Golden crabs and octopuses automatically tracked Kihara Goukei’s movements and rushed toward her, but each of them was sliced through and broke apart in turn.

In the night, a bone saw and forceps sharply reflected what little light remained from the streetlights.

Kihara Goukei had hoped to end Isabella’s life before her forcibly boosted muscular strength destroyed her joints and cartilage, but Isabella was a lot nimbler than she had expected.

Specifically, Kihara Goukei’s current state gave her enough speed to easily dodge out of the way of a bullet flying straight toward her, but…

(Hm? Ordinary réflexes shouldn’t be able to respond to this.)

That meant her enemy was being boosted somehow.

Come to think of it, there was something odd about the brown woman’s rags. Given the way it fluttered in a way that ignored the wind currents, it appeared to play a muscle-like role similar to externally-attached springs.

“She also seems immune to anesthésiques. What kind of crazy body does she have?”

“You need to ask that of a necromancer?”

Something whooshed by over Kihara Goukei’s head.

It was a filthy rag so stained yellow and brown that its original color was impossible to determine.

It spiraled around high in the air and then stretched out as it fell straight down from heaven to earth. Almost like a guillotine or something.

“What are you, Ittan-Momen 2.0?”

Kihara Goukei considered how to dodge this, tilted her head, and settled on simply jumping back a step.

She heard something slice through the air.

Followed by a heavy crash.

The asphalt was easily smashed and even the dark soil below was thrown into the air. It went without saying what would happen if that hit a human.

Western European necromancy was not about controlling a rotting corpse to sic it on your enemy and it didn’t harness the grudges of the dead to kill people. It’s true identity and essence was the summoning of dead souls using the clothing and other possessions dug up from graves and the revealing of secrets about the world and about individuals using divination (mancy) of the dead (necro). …Simply put, it had been a secret fad among the bored upper classes because there was very little risk in trying it out (because opening a coffin was not a crime if it belonged to a family member).

This meant controlling the clothing of the dead was their specialty.

Of course, this didn’t apply to necromancers from other regions and cultures.

“That isn’t just a piece of cloth. Is it hardened with glue or something?”

“A human body is nothing. With a bit cleverness and creativity, I can slice through a tree branch with this.”

The deadly guillotine dropped from up high a second and third time, but Kihara Goukei intercepted it and knocked it to the ground with her giant forceps, bone saw, and other torture tools.

“Release ocular muscles – boost kinetic vision 500%.”

(Based on the impacts reaching my wrists, its weight is several times that of the heaviest bowling balls. I see. So the problem is the height from which it drops.)

“Ugh, I’m feeling dizzy. Urp. Oh, right. I should have boosted my stomach first…”

“Vomit inside your mask if you like. I will kill you while you do, though.”

The number of rags flying overhead suddenly exceeded the number fingers on both hands.

And they weren’t all guillotines. The one that looked like a large rake may have been a Cat’s Paw that was used to tear at the surface of someone’s body. The one a lot like a crane game with pointy tips was probably a Spanish Spider that was stabbed into someone’s back so they could be suspended from the ceiling and have their flesh torn by their own weight.

Their forms had a historical flavor to them rather than focusing on efficiency.

Was that just the necromancer’s poor taste?

Kihara Goukei muttered under her breath.

(Of course, it says something about me that I can recognize them all on sight.)

Isabella grinned thinly.

“You have some skill – or more likely are using some kind of trick – but there is only so much you can handle with just the two arms. I don’t need anything special. I can simply overwhelm you with numbers!!”

“Yes, excellent logique.”

With the sound of tearing clothing, Kihara Goukei’s number of arms suddenly grew to six.

The opposite could happen too. A pure pursuit of function could take on an appearance straight out of myth.

“Adding on more arms isn’t that hard. It’s adjusting the position of the shoulder joints that takes some doing.”

They clashed regardless.

The arms spread out like wings were completely expendable. The very first strike tore away one of Kihara Goukei’s arms along with the torture device it held. The second strike meant the sacrifice of another arm. They were more broken off than severed. Had it worked against the brown woman that she was using a mixture of different weapons? Kihara Goukei didn’t particularly care as long as the guillotine didn’t slice through her face or torso along with an arm. And the third strike was blocked with a grinding noise.

It had hit something hard.

The flat, rectangular object at her palm was a giant shield. Except it was made of something more biological than steel or plastic.

“Hwa ha ha ha! Countermeasure complete! My monster of the week name is Crab Shell Man!!”

“?”

In the brief moment Isabella’s movement was stopped, Kihara Goukei sent in a sharp right hook. And that arm had already become a human-sized crab pincer, so a direct hit would crush and sever her neck like a chain tool.



''Splat!!



The bloody sound came from the center of Kihara Goukei’s chest.

Several objects like white guitar picks had pierced through from her back.

An unharmed Isabella smiled bewitchingly.

Kihara Goukei’s eyes widened.

“…Eh?”

“Did you already forget what I called myself? I do believe I introduced myself as a necromancer.”

What was the weapon?

What had stabbed through Kihara Goukei’s back and burst out from the center of her chest?

…It was her own broken and severed arm. Or really, the crushed bone in the mutilated cross section?

“And no one ever said I could ''only'' do the Western European version☆”

“…”

“I didn’t expect you to scatter your own dead flesh around. Thanks for the assist. You might as well have been asking me to use it.”

“Gh…ph.”

Kihara Goukei tried to speak, but only fresh blood filled her mask. A large hunk of blood.

She had been stabbed in a very bad location.

“You can use your tricks and cheat death as many times as you like.”

Necromancer Isabella Theism grinned and sprinkled something from her fingers.

It wasn’t visible, but it smelled like blood. Like spotting a crushed frog on the roadside on a rainy day.

“''But all flesh that has died once is my domain.'' Now that you’ve died, you have lost the right to your own body.”

A moment later, all the blood, flesh, and bone separated as it rushed toward its original owner from all directions.

===Part 8===

While Kamijou’s group continued their discussion, the consulate’s doorbell rang again.

Last time, he had gotten all worked up only for it to be Dion Fortune’s group. Thanks to that experience, he was a lot more relaxed this time.

“Who could it be this time?”

“Now that our guard is down, what if it’s Coronzon paying us a late-night visit?”

He really wished the Bologna Succubus hadn’t said that.

The two of them walked to the front entrance…and they could see the answer. Before even opening the door, the nearby crack in the wall provided a view of the visitor.

But he opened the door anyway.

“Who are you?”

“I am Qliphah Puzzle 545, here as a messenger for Board Chairman Accelerator. Um, I thought for sure we had met before.”

The girl had something like a squid tentacle swaying side to side from the back of her hips. And did those English newspaper things even count as clothing?

Whatever the case, she wasn’t an ordinary human.

The Magic Gods, the Transcendents, an artificial demon…and Dion Fortune was a tarot deck and original grimoire, wasn’t she? There was definitely something wrong with Coronzon to be able to stand up to such a wide variety of people all on her own.

“Does it mean what I think it does that he had to send a messenger?”

“Um, yes. It does.”

Accelerator hadn’t come himself because staying in that prison was his way of atoning for his crimes.

But this was more than that.

“Isabella…what was her name? Anyway, the magician effectively commanding the Anglicans at the moment. Is avoiding her complaints really that difficult?”

“It iiiiis. For one thing, my master has only just started learning about magic, so his knowledge is limited. And because he really doesn’t understand it, he can’t figure out how to avoid the attacks being made through the channels that have long lay buried within Academy City.”

Isabella likely had her own methods. Kamijou understood that. But apparently she really would use any means necessary even if her overall goal was to defeat Coronzon and protect the world.

Kamijou invited the artificial demon inside and spoke in a weary tone.

“The city doesn’t need a defense against the Anglicans now too, does it? We already have our hands full with Coronzon, so fighting on two fronts would be such a pain.”

“I get the feeling all of this could change depending on what happens.”

===Part 9===

It was over.

Isabella Theism breathed out through her nose.

Apparently this was all a science side expert in death and the desecration life could manage.

A scratchy sound came from her ear.

That reminded her she was still wearing a wireless earphone. If that had been the science side’s final trump card, then she could only give her condolences. They just hadn’t been up to the task. And that strength, as minuscule as it had been, should have been directed toward Coronzon.

(Then again, I get the feeling she was acting on her own discretion. Magic side or science side, this seems to be the fate of all organizations. The bigger they get, the harder it is to keep track of the extremities.)

“Surely you aren’t going to demand monetary compensation for this damage when the world is on the verge of ending. Or did that finally break your spirit and you’ll announce your surrender?”

“My, how hotblooded of you. But aren’t you fighting the wrong person? Necromancer, you are one of the foolish obstacles to natural decomposition that human knowledge has brought.”

This was not the new board chairman.

Isabella grimaced and lowered her voice.

“Great Demon Coronzon.”

“Don’t act so surprised. You have realized I am taking over the city using something other than science, haven’t you? Then obviously I can take control of the city’s communication infrastructure. Using a method that doesn’t require electricity or electromagnetic signals.”

Apparently Aleister had set up every last part of the city that way. If only he were still alive so she could give him a witch trial and burn him at the stake.

“But the very fact you’re doing that means you’ve already glimpsed your own Achilles heel, doesn’t it?” said Isabella. “If you do launch your Adikalika spell at the Italian Peninsula from here, it will mean the beginning of a global war…but it also ties you to this city. And in the struggle for Academy City’s infrastructure, we have already taken back around half.”

“But you Anglicans don’t rule the world.” There was mockery in Coronzon’s voice. “While Adikalika is directly targeting the Roman Catholics, you’re really only saving them as a means to save yourselves, so I wonder just how much trust they really have in you. Oh, and come to think of it, aren’t there some of them within your own ranks? Yes, that foreign unit of Roman Catholics.”

Dispersion.

She easily separated people from each other.

Even if their goals were the same and they were all working to bring peace to the world.

“And then there’s the Russian Orthodox Church. Heh heh. Have you noticed how much they despise having something inhuman occupying a seat with influence over the fate of the world?”

“…”

“The Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches will do anything to break free of the current situation. Isn’t that right? And Adikalika is reliant on the geographic features of Academy City. So if someone were to ''wipe Academy City from the map'', they could prevent the world-destroying Adikalika from being activated. Simple, isn’t it?”

Only if you didn’t care about the 2.3 million innocent people living there.

And they likely wouldn’t even provide enough advance warning for the Anglicans there to evacuate.

“I am the world’s gear in charge of dispersion, so I will bring natural decomposition to all things. I will bring opposing factions A and B together so they can be discarded like matching cards in old maid. The three main Christian factions are a pain since they are of an odd number, but I can trigger total mutual destruction by adding in Academy City.”

“I would call that interesting, but I’m not one to trust demons. You could be making it all up to make me rush my next move, so I’ll take it with a grain of salt.”

“Oh, really? Believe it or not, I am one to honestly pass on the truly nasty and devastating truths. Like this for example.”

“?”

“Necromancers are not the only fools born of human knowledge who obstruct natural decomposition. It would seem you are not out of the woods yet.”

===Part 10===

Kihara Goukei was lying nearby.

The density of the red snow was growing. It had already begun to accumulate atop her, but she showed no reaction even as it covered her mask like a frozen mass.

Anyone could tell she was approaching death.

And there was one person who could not accept that fact.

“No!!”

In the bus.

The size of the vehicle limited what streets it could use. After turning around, it had needed to drive back this way in order to escape further away.

So he had seen it.

Urekawa Ousuke, the boy rescued by a certain monster, had seen the result of the battle.

If the snow were falling just a bit harder, it would have covered her too much for him to see.

The grownups’ calls for him to stop were drowned out.

Of all things, he opened the window and jumped out.

If he had stayed put and let the bus take him away, he would have escaped to safety. And there was nothing he could accomplish by choosing to remain here even if it meant injuring himself.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t abandon her. Not after she saved him. That grownup had risked her life and bloodied herself protecting him.

“No, wait.”

The boy did not stand back up.

He may not have been able to right away. Even with thick snow to cushion his fall, he had jumped from a moving vehicle.

“Please.”

But there was something requiring his attention more than his body’s pain.

He raised just his head, the rest of him still sprawled out on the cold ground stained by red snow.

And he shouted from his little mouth.

“''Wake up, Madame Gou''!!!”

===Part 11===

Internal Mechanisms: All 185,814 sections responding.

Bio Limiters: Depth 5 release

Lifespan Effect Calculations: Bypassed

Body Local Network General Host Name “Kihara Goukei” has entered final operating mode.

Forcing reboot.

3, 2, 1.

===Part 12===

''Badump!!

That distorted pulse was audible to Isabella Theism even at a short distance.

She shifted her focus from her earphone to the outside world.

Something was happening that required her attention.

This was clearly out of the ordinary.

Kihara Goukei sat up like a mousetrap after luring its prey in with a hunk of cheese.

“Whew. Ha ha ha. Mon dieu. I’m not about to complain if I die. I’ve lived the kind of life that will bring mort to me first and foremost once something goes wrong.”

Her entire body was slick with blood.

Nothing about her situation had improved.

But that other monster spoke with a hand on the side of her wobbling head to hold it in place.

“But now that he’s called that name…''I can’t afford to lose.''”

“Wha-”



Isabella’s question was cut off by an unpleasant cracking sound.



Kihara Goukei’s fist had broken.

Due to the speed and weight with which it slammed into the center of Isabella Theism’s chest.

That unpleasant sound had come from the breaking of Isabella’s ribs and sternum.

(When did she stand up…when did she throw that punch!?)

Isabella held a hand to her mouth but that couldn’t stop her from coughing up blood as she jumped back.

Kihara Goukei smiled as she forcibly mended her broken fist, causing grinding and cracking sounds within the hand.

Her mask was covered in blood. From within.

But sill she smiled.

“I really have removed ''my final limiteur''. A child is watching and he trusts in me. So now Madame Gou…absolutely can’t afford to lose.”

“Who…are you?”

She was one who toyed with human life.

She was a hopelessly mad scientist.

She wasn’t about to deny those sides of herself.

''But…

“You can’t get away with everything using the ‘I’m a Kihara’ excuse, you know? I never did like that excuse. So I started wondering if there was some way to live my life so I didn’t have to make excuses and before long it was all I could think about.”

Isabella stopped briefly.

Looking like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“I’ve heard that one a million times. Is that why you decided to be someone who protects small children?”

“Ah ha ha. Oh, if only I could contribute to société in the usual ways. But I’m so afraid of it backfiring that I avoid using my Kihara side to get too involved with individuals.”

“Then why?”

“Because he called for Madame Gou, not a Kihara. ''Everyone always assumes it’s some bad joke,'' but I finally found someone who will trust in that name. What could be more miraculous than that? Scientists are all the kind of jerk who has to question anything and everything, but we’re also capable of accepting the things we see for ourselves. So after seeing this for myself – dammit – I can’t deny it. I’m willing to completely change the way I live my life for this.”

To put it another way, Kihara Goukei was willing to risk her life for this small thing.

That was also why she dressed as a dentist.

A dentist loved children’s smiles more than anyone and mastered the techniques needed to heal them and save them from pain, but they were also feared by those same children. And she had wanted to be someone who could be proud of that.

Just look back at what she had done.

When the presumed “moving corpse” named Kamijou Touma had appeared, when she quarantined the people in the crematorium who could possibly be infected or contaminated, when she protected an innocent child at the cost of so much blood, and when she confronted Isabella Theism. Kihara Goukei hadn’t made a single wrong decision from moment to moment.

She was a member of the Kihara Family, but she was not a broken person.

She was someone who always did the right thing but was always feared for it.

She was a heretic among the Kiharas.

With that battered body, she proudly protected little Urekawa Ousuke and made the position her own. Madame Gou smiled thinly behind her bloody mask.

With a pitying look for the other expert of death who stood opposite her as a relative evil.

“Taking on the th	ankless role isn’t easy, is it? You’re not even a Kihara, so it must be exhausting to ''force yourself'' to do it.”

“You understand nothing about our world.”

“I’m not interested in learning about any other world than the one I live in, but I am still a Kihara. Even if it’s their job, it hurts anyone to make innocent children cry. Could that be why ''you Britanniques are going so easy on us'' despite shouting about a threat to the world? Your hesitant use of the Academy City facilities means anyone can pick up your communications. I was basically snacking on intercepted messages between the hôpital and here, but it really makes me wonder if you’re even trying.”

“…”

Isabella fell silent.

Kihara Goukei smiled behind her mask. But with all the blood, the smile was more grim than grin.

“I don’t understand any of this Coronzon stuff, but you say there’s a threat to the entire world, right? Then I would think at least one of you would suggest bombing the entire city into oblivion to ensure the safety of the rest of humankind, but none of you is touching on that last resort. It’s hardly a surprise you’re being delayed by enemies you hadn’t even considered. You won’t accomplish anything if everyone on site is hesitant to speak up. And…when everyone deployed to the front line is scared and reluctant to dirty their hands, it’s going to ''put a greater burden'' on their leader.”

Necromancers were cruel.

To their targets, they might even seem like horrific monsters.

But had Isabella mentioned even once that ''she enjoyed that cruelty''?

From the beginning, she had only ever said she had come to Japan to do her job.

So of course she wasn’t interested in people’s dramas or stories. Her stance was to not protect as many people as possible by not letting her personal feelings for her fellow Anglicans hold her back. She was taking the problem seriously and giving it her all.

She could not afford any detours, so she wouldn’t even help a stranger she chanced across along the way. It might seem like a little thing, but going with her heart there could throw off the overall schedule and allow the entire world to end.

Ordinarily, her attitude was the correct one for a combat professional.

“So I don’t blame you for what you did. Whether it’s England or somewhere else, there is ''something you want to protect'', isn’t there? Even if it means dirtying your hands and becoming the kind of person who will make a small child cry and throw stones at you with their small hands in a city turned into a battlefield. You have something that makes it all worth it. …So how about you accept that, hold your head high, and come at me with everything you have? So you can stay true to what you believe is right.”

Isabella Theism listened.

She hung her head as the enemy’s voice reached her ears.

And the brown necromancer smiled.

Just a little.

“Let’s stop playing around.”

“Gladly.”

“And I do have just one thing you should know. Voodoo is known for its zombies, but it is a polytheistic religion where the list of gods being worshiped is always in flux, the good gods and evil gods can swap places depending on the circumstances, and they freely take in parts of other mythologies. Indian mythology has a god that came from a movie, but I think Voodoo provides even more freedom than that. Which makes it extremely convenient for a necromancer who learns bits and pieces from other mythologies and then misuses them. And when you can borrow the power and symbols of any being, you can do things like this.”

“?”

“''Daeva''.”

With that single word, something appeared behind Isabella Theism.

Kihara Goukei first saw a gigantically swollen insect abdomen.

Next, she saw brutal legs resembling spiked clubs, a pair of compound eyes so red they appeared to be filled with blood, and translucent impure wings.

Empty space seemed to distort to allow the appearance of a giant fly of more than 5m.

Yet its curves seemed somehow feminine and alluring.

Each individual part might be found in nature, but this being clearly existed outside the physical world.

It was still transparent, but it had completely affixed itself to this world – this phase.

“I see. Would you look at that.”

Kihara Goukei looked up at it with a half smile.

She didn’t know what it was, but it certainly appeared to be on another level from what she had dealt with so far.

Only Isabella’s voice continued.

She spoke earnestly, like a priestess serving her dark lord.

“You are one of the six demon lords who rule over evil. You are the bearer of deadly poison who will distort your own legend and fuse with others if it will achieve your goal. You are one of the many foundations for controlling death and flesh. Tonight I seek you, o queen of contamination, dead bodies, decomposition, and apostasy.”

“Interesting. …But it doesn’t mesh well with my scientifique tastes.”



“Intrude upon my world, ''Druj Nasu''.”



The phase border was torn asunder and the thing materialized.

===Part 13===

In the District 12 consulate, Kamijou Touma found himself with little to do once it became time to stare at maps and documents and think up a plan. He left the table surrounded by the golden retriever, Dion Fortune, and others and was trying to pass the time when Blodeuwedd the Bouquet approached him.

Apparently she wasn’t much of a thinking type either.

“Neh heh☆”

Her face was awfully close.

He detected more than just a sweet feminine scent. Several floral scents were mixed together.

She had fully locked onto him.

“Help me, Alice!! Or Miss Succubus!!”

“Those are the last people you should go to for help. Unlike them, I’m a fairly reasonable Transcendent.”

What was Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s salvation condition again?

She saved the unloved.

So he was less than delighted to have her locked onto him. He sighed.

“Then why were you attacking Academy City so much? The city was made by Aleister who seems like exactly your type.”

“Ehh, you can’t be serious.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet seemed taken aback.

Like she had been recommended some bizarre food.

Her mouth formed a small triangle.

“He wasn’t hated or unloved. People called him the wickedest man in the world, a cannibal, and a demon lord, but the fact that he was ‘controversial’ means he did have his supporters and defenders. Yet he ignored all of those voices and chose to get all worked up on his own.”

Were those more like mechanical arms than clothing?

The blonde girl used the sleeves of her thick metal coat to mimic a shrug.

“Aleister Crowley was a human who looked past all the talking voices and focused only on the negative opinions. To the point that some people think he actually felt antipathy toward the people who believed and followed the theories he proposed. From outside, that might look cool, but the people who actually worked themselves to the bone sharing their love with him wouldn’t have seen it that way. The world wasn’t cold to him – he simply refused to touch the meal placed before him until it had gone cold and rotten. I’m not a fan of that kind of waste of emotion.”

“…”

“I want to distribute my unseen feelings to the starving people who can never seem to find any love no matter how badly they want it. To the people who need my feelings here and now. I want to provide the kind of warmth and strength that motivates them to get back up in their dark room and reach for the doorknob. I have nothing to give the fools who are so self-absorbed with their own appearance and pride that they let the feelings they are given rot. There are plenty of truly suffering people out there since the world is so starved for kindness.”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet stopped speaking there.

She peered up at Kamijou’s face in amusement. Only then did Kamijou realize something.

Had he been hanging his head?

“Oh, you don’t like my answer?”

Kamijou Touma hadn’t been there.

He didn’t know the full story of Aleister’s life.

He had only wandered within the Windowless Building under Mina Mathers’s guidance and received tarot-recreated glimpses of Aleister’s battle with the Golden magicians.

But Aleister had learned his wife Rose was doomed

And he had been told in advance that his baby Lilith would surely die.

That human had trembled in rage when his ordinary happiness had crumbled around him. And knowing the Golden Cabal had been responsible, he had fought the Battle of Blythe Road, said to be the world’s largest magic battle. Kamijou didn’t think Aleister’s path could be simply classified as good or bad.

Kamijou had pushed him to the edge.

Maybe it was selfish of Aleister to force his expectations onto Kamijou.

But it was true Kamijou had failed to live up to them.

He had done what Anna Kingsford said and escaped hell alone. Could there have bee another path if he argued back and insisted on thinking it through more carefully?

Why?

Why hadn’t he recklessly insisted that he would bring CRC and Kingsford back to life too and that they would all live happily together next time?

All of that was superfluous.

He knew that of course, but they had directly been dealing with human lives and souls. Wasn’t a crazy place like hell the perfect venue for shouting an unrealistic wish or two?

“If you acted different from normal…”

“?”

“Shouldn’t you suspect you were intentionally guided in that direction? Keep in mind that magic is a system that starts with the manipulation of your own mind in order to influence the outside world and other people. With ceremonies performed by multiple people, it isn’t unusual to sync your mind with the others.”

A journey through hell. Or a jailbreak.

You could say that had been a large-scale ceremony.

“So Aleister was wrong to resent you. You shouldn’t demand someone take responsibility for an unavoidable choice after they finally managed a miraculous resurrection.”

Kamijou couldn’t accept Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s words so easily.

While she was a Transcendent, she hadn’t actually seen that hell. If she could, then the more powerful Alice would have been able to intervene when he died. So Blodeuwedd the Bouquet’s argument was no more than speculation.

Just then, a call came in from Accelerator.

“All the calculations are complete. …Once you’re ready, head to District 23.”

Kamijou frowned.

That didn’t sound right to him.

“District 23? I know that’s an adjacent district…but isn’t Coronzon in District 7?”

“You won’t be able to sneak right up to her on foot. You need a plan if you’re going to get close.”

Kamijou understood before even hearing the details.

He was certain he wasn’t going to like this plan.

“So what is your plan?”

“I’ll use all the missiles remaining in District 2. And I really mean using up the entire stockpile.”

“Hey, I seriously doubt ordinary weapons are going to work on Coronzon!”

“Of course they won’t. They’re only a diversion. You’ll be parachuting down through the bombardment to immediately arrive deep inside District 7.”

“Eh? Right in the middle of all those flying explosives?”

If even a single missile detonated nearby, they would die.

Um, didn’t those delicate devices react at some pretty weird times? Like the shoplifting prevention sensors at a store’s exit, or antivirus software? Even the precise location of a store on a map app tended to be off by just a little. Sure computer chips were supposed to be logical, but everyone had pressed the button on a half-broken game console or washing machine while praying that it would work one last time, right!?

…And Kamijou was certain that he would get the short straw on this one. He didn’t have any objective evidence, but never underestimate Academy City’s Mr. Misfortune! He still hadn’t played any games on his smartphone because he knew just how hopelessly bad his luck was!! Why even bother trying for a rare pull when you knew you would never get it, even if you paid!!?

“Coronzon will notice what we’re doing. No matter how hard we try to hide it,” said Accelerator. “So we’ll never get anywhere if you bank on that. But that just means we need to create a situation where she has to focus on something else even though she knows what we’re doing. …Remember, that Adikalika trump card of hers uses the city’s geographical conditions. So she won’t want any serious damage to the city’s landscape, will she?”

“Oh! You’re right…”

That hadn’t occurred to Kamijou.

Great Demon Coronzon was trying to destroy the entire world, but for now she wouldn’t want Academy City destroyed.

“Even if she is a villain, she won’t want missiles bombarding the city until she’s completed her plan, will she?”

“I doubt every last missile we have would kill Coronzon herself, but she’ll be forced to use that sturdy body of hers to destroy the missiles as her top priority. Isn’t that thoughtful of her? She’ll protect the city for us. An enemy’s strength can become a weakness if you change your viewpoint. Coronzon has no family and she’s not sentimental enough to grow attached to a house or other possessions. But we do know one thing she definitely won’t want destroyed, so we just have to focus our attack there.”

Adikalika was the ultimate trump card that could destroy the world if used in that way, so it had seemed like Coronzon was the one in control. And that wasn’t exactly wrong either.

But if Coronzon was too focused on staying in control, that fixation became a weakness because she didn’t want to lose it. It felt at odds with her ultimate goal, but maybe that was just how strategy worked. Once you gained something, there was a cost to defending it. In battle, there were no 100% pure benefits.

This was a ray of hope.

The time had come to reclaim control of the situation.

===Part 14===

Red snow fell in the night.

Great Demon Coronzon stood in a square space that was unusually empty for this urban part of District 7. The long, long blonde hair draped over her large, bat-like wings kept changing shape like it was creating string figures, but she was really only making minor adjustments at this point. She had been building a spell using all of the terrain and landmarks forming Academy City, but now even the final adjustments were nearly finished. She would soon be able to stop work and move on to the next phase.

Preparations for the Adikalika large-scale attack spell were already complete.

This would be the initial signal gun that would submerge the world in a sea of blood.

She didn’t even need to check the horoscope to know the necessary preparations were complete. She was not concerned that the forces of science or magic would take back control of the city, so now she only had to wait for the moment to arrive.

“Are you watching, Aleister?” she whispered.

She turned her gaze elsewhere, wrapped her arms around her own shoulders, and shook with suppressed laughter.

And Great Demon Coronzon spoke as if enjoying his final resistance.



“You will soon see the end of this world you still trusted no matter how much it hurt you.”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Chapter1|next=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:GT_Volume13_Chapter3}}
</noinclude>