Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:AgneseSS Chapter6 (section)

===Part 2===

Theft of magically valuable items was far from unheard of, so it would be difficult to track down Tu’s identity from that alone.

“Heh heh heh.”

But the Anglican Church was not shy about their title as world’s best in anti-magician combat. It had all begun with detecting witches hidden among the people.

Isabella put her hands on her rag-covered hips and laughed loudly.

“Ahhh ha ha ha!! So at long last you come crying to me for help. When you reach a dead end with no path to the truth remaining in the world of the living, just come to Necromancer Isabella Theism☆”

Agnese secretly elbowed Stiyl in the side.

“What’s with her? Did that calm downer of a girl grab an energy drink and flip some kind of switch in her head???”

“She’s just itching to get in on the action after you three did everything for us. Ignore her.”

“You two!” said Isabella while rudely pointing at them.

Her sudden burst of motivation was worrying to Agnese, but it was true they had no way of investigating that statue when only the lower legs remained. Plus, bringing that back up would only lead back to the result of the rock paper scissors game.

Isabella slapped at the center of her chest and gave a snort.

“Why does a necromancer wear the filthy clothes of the dead? What immediate benefit do they hope to gain from that? One answer is divination.”

“…”

“When no one in the world of the living can find the answer, it is time to seek the dead who have escaped all physical restrictions. When the link has been severed, it’s my time to shine.”

Agnese, Lucia, and Angelene all gave her extremely skeptical looks. For one, if she could reveal the truth this easily, why had they spent so much time running around Europe? Magic was convenient, but not all-powerful. The necromancer’s claim was too good to be true and they could not grasp the reality of what she could actually do.

Gullible Orsola, however, continued smiling in her seiza position.

“My, that’s incredible. Then could you ask a ghost to reveal all my embarrassing secrets?”

“I could not.”

“?”

“Like I said, it’s when the link has been severed. Generally speaking, the dead can only reveal lost information. I cannot draw out any information that could be found through methods available to the living, like carbon dating, alternate light sources, lie detectors, or truth serums.”

“Lost, you say?” Agnese grinned. “Then you could tell us how to become a Magic God?”

“If the dead cannot answer me, that means it can be achieved using known methods. But not necessarily known to ''me''.”

She had a comeback for everything. Which was generally the case with people who claimed to speak with the dead.

The others remained skeptical, but they did not put up much of a resistance, which she seemed to take as a sign that she was free to try. The necromancer spread her arms wide and fluttering scraps of paper filled the area. A closer look showed they were all clippings from newspapers and magazines.

“A complete resurrection is the work of the Lord, but I need not go that far to invite in a being capable of answering your question. Once drawn in by the unsalted rye bread and unfermented grape juice, I demand thou don this temporary garb!!”

A mini-whirlwind formed.

The invisible storm was made visual by the floating papers telling of depressing crimes.

“I seek data concerning a lost connection. There is no boundary between life and death here, so draw out the information once formed by human hand but lost through death. Answer my call, for I desire just one thing from the wandering dead: from where was this statue taken!?”

The storm gathered together to take a certain form.

The thousands or tens of thousands of articles formed a life-size human. Although there was no way to tell if that was one of the dead or not.

The stooped and freckled girl’s eyes sparkled a little.

“Oh? I-it made something. Will it speak to tell us the answer? Or will it write it or making rapping noises???”

Silence followed.

The silence lasted a while.

Then Agnese grabbed Orsola’s hand and tugged hard on that nun who was still smiling in the seiza position.

The dead made its move a moment later.

It made an attack like its fingernails were tearing into space itself.

Stiyl removed his cigarette from his mouth, looking very irritated.

“Isabella!!”

“Eh? Oh, c’mon. This means it was a perfect success. Now you all need to attack the raging dead spirit to tear all those articles from it. The last one remaining will be the divination result.”

“I-Is she serious?”

Earnest Lucia’s temple was twitching at this.

And the careless woman bragged about it with a smile.

“Oh, and if you screw it up, you’ll be joining them in the afterlife. Of course, that just means more ''materials'' for me, so it’s not a problem at all☆”

Everyone (except for Orsola who was still not aware what was happening) sent a kick into Isabella Theism’s back, knocking her toward the article doll. It did not seem equipped with a safety device to prevent it from attacking its master. While Isabella screamed and rolled around to avoid the nasty scratching attacks, Stiyl ignited a flame sword in each hand. Thousands of rune cards were pasted around them, but no one else knew when he had done that.

“Disinfect it,” whispered Agnese. “And Isabella while you’re at it.”

“Can do.”

The flame swords made multiple consecutive attacks.

Since Isabella put her hands over her head and curled up on the floor, this must not have been one of her corpses made from animal meat and bones.

At any rate, embers and the scorched remains of the articles scattered through the air.

Agnese reached out and snatched the one surviving clipping that floating in front of her.

She read the headline.

“Thieves break into a Nuremberg museum?”