Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume6 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 3===

Kamijou was spinning.

He had twisted out of the way of the beam, but it had caught his clothes.

He and the bright beam flew through the air and he slammed back down into the asphalt. He rolled across the scramble crossing a while after that before slamming back first into the side of the donut truck abandoned in the riot.

“Gah!!”

But if Othinus hadn’t tugged on his ear to tell him when to dodge, he wouldn’t have managed even that. And letting the beam catch at his clothes a bit had caused this much damage. He felt a dull, twisting pain in his hip and his right leg only twitched when he tried to get back up.

“Human!!”

“I’m- I’m fine…gahh.”

He heard a light clapping sound a short distance away.

Aradia had pressed her palms together in front of her shapely chest. He knew that had to have some kind of magical meaning.

“You survived that thanks to my decision. Such a wonderful good deed, don’t you think?”

“…”

Transcendent Aradia gave him no openings. Had the small snowball already grown lethally large? Was it too big to possibly stop it by waiting for it at the foot of the snowy mountain?

The witch goddess sang with her long silver hair and large wimple blowing in the night breeze.

“Did you hear that, world? Did you hear that, flashing interphasal sparks? My good deed deserves a blessing thrice as powerful. Because a good witch must not come to harm.”

“Human.”

Just then, Othinus whispered on his ear after managing to cling to his clothing during that violent spin.

She was the god of magic, war, and deception.

“Remember what the grimoire library said.”

“?”

“The Wiccan Triple Reload spell is admittedly capable of overwhelming the entire magic side if used correctly, but Aradia’s magic is not based on words. The grimoire library already told you that a witch’s supernatural feats of healing, divination, flight, crop growth, and assassination are all based on the use of natural ‘potions’ extracted from plants and minerals.”

“Wait a second.”

“Cinnamon, garlic, vanilla, ginger, cacao, lavender – the herbs used by witches aren’t necessarily obscure deadly poisons. It is possible that they are much more ordinary and thus, human, we overlooked their presence.”

That would mean it wasn’t just about her phony judgments of good and bad. Did she have a physical tool she used for her magic? Did she have a spiritual item like a fortuneteller’s crystal ball or a witch’s broom? And hadn’t Aradia said it herself? Her spell was a triple ''reload''. Didn’t that mean there was ''an actual weapon'' she was loading those “bullets” into?

All the blood gathered at a single point in Kamijou’s head.

What was his true target for Imagine Breaker?

He had to lean against the metal truck and couldn’t even get up, but he desperately observed his surroundings. What was Aradia’s spiritual item? Was it the ankle-length wimple? Or the noisily clanking gold clasps? The midriff-baring modified bikini? He could ignore her feet since they were bare. He had just reached that point in his thoughts when Aradia made her next move.

“Now.”

She slowly separated the hands held together in front of her shapely chest.

But they enclosed a blinding light that seemed to fill the 1cm space between.

The light blew away all of the darkness lurking in the scramble crossing.

“Are you quite done? Killing you will stabilize Alice. And with Alice stabilized, we can bring peace to the world. Who can argue with the goodness of that deed?”

That was when he noticed.

The light Aradia was producing was his biggest hint. He lowered his gaze once more.

And he confirmed what he saw there.

“Aradia.”

“?”

She gave him a somewhat puzzled look.

She would have understood if he broke into tears and begged for his life. Or if he desperately hurled invectives at her. But she found it very odd for him to speak rationally, steadily, like they were equals.

“I want to make one thing very clear up front: I have rotten luck. You could say I’m made of misfortune. So I can promise you this wasn’t my doing.”

“What are you blathering about?”

“Good or bad, witch spells are returned to their user at triple strength, right? Then maybe your attempts to make everything you do look good are starting to fail.”

“Are you trying to stall for time until someone can come rescue you!?”

Aradia spread her hands another centimeter apart.

That released the light within.

The deluge of light shot straight toward Kamijou.

“So.”

But ''that was exactly why'' Kamijou Touma smiled.

“It was you who carelessly knocked me over to this food truck, Aradia! And can’t a witch’s herbs be found all over the place!? Like mint and cinnamon!”

He did not use Imagine Breaker.

Despite the risk, he just barely dodged the beam by rolling to the side. The food truck he had been leaning against was blown away, but its contents were also scattered everywhere.

That jiggly call girl had sung an improvised song after seeing the ''red pickled ginger'' in her gyudon.

The eyepatch ghost had been afraid her Japanese pasta might have ''shiso'' in it.

Index had stared enviously at the donuts covered in ''cinnamon'' and ''mint'' powder.

None of it had been a waste of time. All of his experiences in Shibuya had returned to aid him. But unlike with Aradia, this wasn’t about mysterious charisma or proselytization. His own actions had created connections with other people and those connections had become a real strength he could use.

Even this donut truck counted.

He had mentioned the mint and cinnamon himself, but vanilla and cacao had also been known as medicines in an older age.

And the coffee and tea available as drink options were made from beans and leaves containing stimulants.

What if all of those things were spread across the area?

“It’s your shadow.”

“Kh.”

Aradia froze just before making her next attack.

She must have noticed that her Triple Reload spell had suddenly ''jammed''.

“Your shadow never changed no matter how much light shined from your hands! And it was always just the one shadow even though all the headlights around us should have given you several!! That dark shadow was always waiting right at your feet, regardless of the actual light source. That’s the true identity of your power. It’s also why you’re barefoot. You mixed your sweat or sebum or whatever other oil with some herbs at your feet to create an ointment whenever you used your magic!”

“I’ll add that I expect your ‘palette’ of chemical compounds is stored in the gold decorations you wear across your body.” Othinus smiled fearlessly on his shoulder. “Gold is malleable. If you kneaded the herbs into the gold for storage, you would only need to rub the clasps together to produce the powder you needed. Gravity would bring that to your feet, so you just needed to step on that barefoot to mix in your sweat or sebum and create that ‘shadow’. Those clasps are shaped like keys. Perfect for creating the chemical palette that acts as your entrance into magic.”

So what happened if vanilla, mint, and other extra herbs are rudely mixed into her “canvas” on the ground?

That goes without saying.

“This isn’t enough to stop me!!”

“Probably not. She’s going to recover soon enough, human!!”

Aradia had already recovered a bit from the damage. She stomped her bare feet on the ground twice to purify it and used her big toes to remake the witchcraft ointment in what looked like a bewitching dance. In the few seconds that took, Kamijou ran toward the other truck abandoned on the scramble crossing: the red firetruck.

More specifically, he ran to the valves on its size.

He again relied on his memory. Why was it the Bologna Succubus had always relied on baths and saunas like the hot spa and capsule hotel with Aradia as her enemy?

Oils, herbs, powders, and ointments.

These witch potions wouldn’t play well with water.

“Ohhh!!”

“Tch!?”

Aradia clearly clicked her tongue when the firehose explosively unleashed a stream of water. Chemical cleanup was usually done by using a liquid, be it water or ethanol. If he wanted to keep Aradia from mixing her ointment by rubbing together the metal clasps, creating a powder, and letting it fall to the ground, his best bet was catching the invisible metal powder in the air and blasting it far away.

For some reason, Othinus smiled coldly from his shoulder.

“Ha ha. The Christians do say wicked women have a weakness to holy water. Are you trying to prove them right, witch god!?”

“Gahh! I don’t want to hear anything from the lingering remnants of a god who forgot to protect the forest-dwelling priestesses!!”

There was a dull snap as a thick piece of metal broke.

Aradia had thrown a roundhouse kick. Her big toe’s nail had torn through the air along a beautifully circular path and sliced through the base of the pedestrian traffic signal located alongside the scramble crossing. She spun it in both hands as lightly as a baton, spun herself around, and sat on it.

She had completed the storybook image.

By the time the tension crackled through Kamijou’s body, the witch’s feet had already left the ground.

Herbs and water were effective, but keeping his distance had been a mistake. Aradia was apparently even better at aerial combat than the Bologna Succubus. Kamijou had to fight with his fist, so vertical distance was devastating for him. She could just stay in the air and kill him with falling objects and projectiles.

“A witch mixes her sebum and sweat with powdered herbs and minerals to create the ointment we need.”

Something flashed.

It came from Aradia as she sat on the severed pedestrian signal like it was a witch’s broom.

Lines of light filled the night sky around her like a planetarium. A satellite viewing the earth may have seen it as a glowing net capturing the planet itself.

“So I will claim the assistance of everything floating in the air! Around 10 thousand tons of cosmic dust pour down on the planet ever day after burning up in the atmosphere. With invisible pieces of the moon in hand, I can even absorb all of the carbon dioxide out of the earth’s atmosphere. The witch goddess will use her ointment to save humanity from global warming! ''And the good deed of saving the world will be returned to me at triple strength.'' Then I will concentrate all of that power on a single point to obliterate the enemy before my eyes!!”

There shouldn’t have been any way for him to win.

Spraying around a firehose could never spray all of the extraterrestrial dust from the planet’s atmosphere.

If she was absorbing carbon dioxide, would her actual weapon be related to the wind or air? Whatever the case, not even any dust would remain of him after she crushed him with triple the power needed to save the world.

Othinus whispered up at the witch seated on the pedestrian signal.

“So a witch uses the same ointment to make her broom fly, huh? But you do realize you’re showing off your weak point this way, don’t you?”

She showed no mercy.

“There you have it, human. End this already.”

Kamijou tossed aside the firehose and clenched his right fist.

Yes.

''No matter how high Aradia flew, the shadow that provided her power remained on the ground.

“Gah!!”

The shadow shattered and she fell from the sky.

The pedestrian signal she was using as a broom loudly bent and the Transcendent rolled along the pavement.

Back down at the center of the scramble crossing, Aradia trembled within the large cloth that had gotten wrapped around her. She groaned from the first physical damage done to her.

She looked so pitiful and seemed to be in pain.

But this pain was nothing compared to the suffering the Bologna Succubus had gone through after throwing out her own life without hesitation.

It was nothing compared to the pain she would have felt at having to fight a fellow member of her cabal.

Othinus crossed her arms and sneered from atop Kamijou’s shoulder.

“Never forget the first rule of magical flight: it’s easily thwarted. Let’s not forget what happened to Simon the Magician when he foolishly challenged one of the 12 Apostles: he lost the protection of his demon, fell from the sky, and died.”