Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume11 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 1===

The situation had changed.

Anna Kingsford.

That absolute safe zone had been shaken.

No one was perfect.

No one was flawless.

…That should have been obvious. And since Kingsford had seemed that way until now, wasn’t it natural to suspect she was hiding something?

''Was she a wholly good person?

''Or was she a person who only let her good side show?

Stay calm. That would be dangerous in a different way from Rosencreutz who didn’t hesitate to let his dangerous and ugly side show. Kingsford was obviously hiding her true intentions. She kept everything perfectly clean, not allowing even the slightest stain or mistake. Why had he accepted what she said when it was more suspicious than a chemical bleaching agent?

He kept telling himself not to trust anything, but he had still entrusted everything to Kingsford.

He had been reunited with Kingsford and Rosencreutz.

And he had encountered this giant phenomenon called hell.

Had he actually made any effort to organize the information in his mind and come up with an explanation for it all?

Kamijou did not know what Anna Kingsford had actually done while she lived. He had a vague impression of her being with Aleister and Miss Sprengel in Shibuya and Academy City and giving them advice, but he had not been directly involved with any of that. So he had no chance at all of guessing what she had been doing behind the scenes.

She had simply guided them toward victory in the battle against Christian Rosencreutz.

And she had simply guided them toward victory in the battle against Alice Anotherbible.

…But could anyone actually explain why Kingsford lent a helping hand and what she had gained from it?

Kamijou couldn’t see even a hint of an ulterior motive there.

Which made her look like a good person without even the slightest dark side.

“CRC…” said Anna Kingsford.

Always a step ahead and still with her back turned.

Or to put it another way, keeping her face hidden from Kamijou.

“❌, I should call him Johann Valentin Andreae who took on that name and became one with the legend. Now, he did ❌ manage to live for 106 years and he could not resurrect himself 120 years after his ☠️. He extended his life as Rosencreutz, but eventually hit a limit and met his end as a human in 1654. He never managed to destroy the Rosicrucian illusion he had created and he ☠️ed wracked with disappointment and a grudge toward the people around the 🌍 who refused to see the truth.”

“…”

“Once Rosicrucianism had truly left its owner’s control, the term was free for anyone to use. New 🪄 cabals could give themselves clout by claiming to be the legitimate descendant of the Rosicrucian cabal and ❌ one could actually prove them wrong. Plenty of 🪄 cabals with nothing to do with Rosicrucianism used the title too. That is one reason it mutated into a massive collection of 🪄al methods that gathered spells and spiritual items from all over the 🌍. For better or for worse, it was used as the foundation of a wide variety of cabals.”

Her words flowed smoothly.

“This includes theosophist and Hermetic societies, the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, and the Golden cabal created by my students Westcott and Mathers, which went on to be known as the 🌍’s largest 🪄 cabal. The extent differs, but ❌ one of them escaped the influence of CRC who had been sent out into the 🌍 by Johann. Miss Sprengel seems to have felt guilty for using the concept for her disguised life, but she need ❌ have. Because there was ❌ true Rosicrucian cabal. Her guilt over calling herself their true descendant despite her lack of knowledge was entirely misguided. …Our efforts were wasted as we poured our strength into true emptiness while trusting that the foundation could be an illusion as long as we could save the 🌍 that way.”

This was news to Kamijou. He probably would have never learned this if he hadn’t been taken to hell along with these extraordinary experts.

Come to think of it, hadn’t Magic God Othinus sacrificed her eye or life to receive terrible knowledge after mastering her path?

High Priest, Nephthys, and Niang-Niang had done the same.

But…

(Why?)

Kamijou had a question.

His desires had gained visual form in this hell. Rosencreutz’s – no, Johann’s – past sins had been revealed.

But he hadn’t seen anything from Anna Kingsford.

Hell hadn’t reflected any of her inner thoughts, nor had she revealed her past or objective.

(Has she been ''avoiding that''? Rosencreutz’s surprising truth came as a shock, but why were we shown that? It doesn’t seem directly related to our jailbreak from hell.)

In that sense, Kamijou needed to dig deeper on Kingsford.

And if this massive soul-processing device called hell wanted to prevent a (from its perspective) illicit jailbreak, reading Kingsford’s mind and calling up some past trauma would be a great way to obstruct them.

Yet that hadn’t happened.

That seemed odd. And unnatural.

When he looked at it rationally, Kamijou Touma realized he didn’t know Kingsford’s overall intentions, or even the slightest flaw, like what food or genre of music she disliked.

She was perfectly and flawlessly good.

That was all he could see there.

There had to be something more to her.

He just didn’t know if that something would help him or hurt him.

(But…)

If so…

Kamijou had been guided deep into this unfamiliar world. He wondered if this was what it felt like to board a strange taxi in a foreign country where he didn’t know the language. He knew the driver was dangerous, but he really didn’t want to be abandoned in the middle of the jungle or desert. Even if they were a dangerous criminal, he had to pretend he was still fooled and wait until they arrived back in human civilization.

Their destination was the depths of hell.

But what did Kingsford gain by guiding Kamijou’s soul there?

Why had she gone to the trouble when he had already died and would disappear all on his own?

(If I only knew her ultimate objective, I could work backwards from there to escape her plans.)

He could only pray this wasn’t a case of a high school boy being unable to understand the thoughts of an expert.

And was their travel companion his one and only trump card here?

[[Image:GT Index v11 BW4.webp|thumb]]

Christian Rosencreutz.

As terrifying as he was, he was still an expert. He should be able to properly determine the logic behind Kingsford’s actions.