Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume10 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 11===

Kamijou Touma walked through the city night.

He had come to a standstill less than 100m from his dorm.

“Who are you dressed as?”

“S.T.A.R.K.S. from Zombie Hazard! Bang, bang, kaboom!!”

“Is that the movie version of the uniform? Now that’s a deep cut!”

A cosplay group was dressed up all in black as some kind of special forces. They were laughing and aiming their weapons around, but those were probably real revolvers and grenade launchers they had stolen from Anti-Skill.

They were all smiling.

They meant no harm.

All of this would prevent Academy City from functioning, which would in turn cause the world economy to collapse.

The ones dooming the world had no idea they were doing it.

All of the streets were crammed full of crowds. The density was worse than a rush hour train, so if you tried to push through the crowd, it would take you all night to make it 50m. But occasionally, there were strange gaps. Those gaps usually meant the middle and high schoolers were riding around on massive tanks or armored vehicles like they were tourist carts. None of them had licenses, so they were running right over the guardrails and street signs.

Some of them must have swiped the backpack-sized communication equipment and then stolen the necessary sync settings to fly military drones around with their phones.

The bronze statue of some school’s principal had been dragged out to the center of the road where they lifted it up like a mikoshi.

“(If this is all due to Alice’s ''influence'', I can’t let her misbehave any more.)”

Charging in blindly would only get Kamijou repelled by the solid wall of people.

If the crowds grew violent or hit him with one of their vehicles, he would die.

Not all deaths were of the dramatic variety.

“(I can’t leave Index with her either. Dammit, they’re both just innocent gluttons. Is there really no way for them to get along and work together!?)”

The crowd parted as an armored vehicle moved out ahead on a joyride.

Kamijou ran out from behind cover to make use of that gap.

And…

“(I feel bad sneaking out on Anna and Othinus, but I have a really bad feeling about this one. It’d be one thing if this was shogi, but I can’t ask anyone to hep when it’s chess. Good, Old Mary’s resurrection doesn’t work on lethal injuries caused by Alice. I just can’t justify involving those two in-)”

“How stupid are you, human?”

“Gwah!?”

Kamijou was so surprised his feet got tangled up below him and he nearly fell to the cold ground.

The 15cm god gave him an exasperated look from her usual spot on his shoulder.

“I’ve been around you long enough to know what you’ll do. The real question is how you keep managing to sneak out on that nun when she’s supposed to have a perfect memory.”

“Y-you’re here to stop me?”

“From doing what?”

“From saving Alice.”

Silence followed.

Othinus didn’t immediately snap at him at times like this.

She used her silence to get him to continue talking.

“I mean, maybe Alice is causing all of this. And Index is in danger. Maybe these rioters will destroy the city if nothing is done and maybe Alice could destroy the entire world on a whim.”

“…”

“But is that really her fault? It isn’t, is it?”

Kamijou’s eyes dropped to his right hand.

He still felt a dull impact there. The feeling of punching Christian Rosencreutz with the giant Dragon Strike still lingered there.

That wasn’t the same as an ordinary fistfight. That power took lives. It gave up on people and robbed them of their future possibilities.

He didn’t want to do that to Alice.

Even if the world might end tonight.

Seeing Alice dead had left him an empty shell.

He hadn’t been able to think.

In a way, it had been his inability to overturn that death that had led him to pour everything he had into fighting CRC and saving Anna Sprengel.

But.

If she was still alive…

If he could still reach out his hand to her…

Alice Anotherbible’s story was not yet over. He could still correct her mistakes and save Index while he was at it.

He thought back to when Index and Alice had eaten breakfast in his dorm.

They could all be together like that again.

(And that’s worth risking my life for.)

“The Bridge Builders Cabal put Alice where she is, Rosencreutz killed her, and I gave up on her… You can find any number of other causes. Maybe I do have to settle things with Alice, but that doesn’t have to mean killing her. Whatever it takes, I will end this so Index is safe and Alice is smiling. She’s allowed to see no hope left in this world and want to do something about that and I’m allowed to feel some responsibility there! Because I’m the one who pushed Alice to this point!!”

“Sounds good to me.”

Othinus gave in surprisingly fast.

Kamijou was actually taken aback.

“What’s the confusion? I’m your understander. Alice Anotherbible is definitely the center point of all the trouble that started around Christmas last year. The way things are, the grimoire library will die at some point. No matter how stupid this current trouble looks, if we ignore it, there is no stopping Academy City from collapsing and world economy along with it. ...But does that mean killing Alice is the right move? As a war god, I won’t hesitate to say yes, but you don’t agree, do you, human?”

“…And you’re okay with that?”

“You caused me so much trouble over saving that villain Anna and ''now'' you ask if I’m okay with what you’re doing? This is well past discussing what I’m okay with and you know it.”

“…”

“The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Make the wrong move and you will never see the Index Librorum Prohibitorum again. Worse, tomorrow might never come. ...But all of that is between you and Alice...and that nun, I guess. So make your choice based on what you want to do. Nothing else is going to change what happens here.”

Kamijou smiled a little.

And then he resumed running.

“Where are you headed?” asked Othinus from his shoulder.

“School.”

That place was closely linked to Kamijou.

Anna had said his dorm was a likely candidate, but that was wrong.

Alice had already seen his dorm.

She would be more interested in visiting a place she hadn’t been before.

“I bet Alice wanted to go there at least once!!”

For some reason, this statement earned an exasperated sigh from Othinus.

“Who does she think she is, following the same logic as me?” griped the war god who had once fully destroyed the world.

Something had to be done.

He would save Index and he would stop Alice’s misbehavior.

He wouldn’t treat that girl like a monster.

He had to make sure someone he cared for did not harm someone else he cared for.

Whatever form it would take, the time had come to settle things with Alice Anotherbible.

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