Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:AgneseSS Chapter8 (section)

===Part 5===

Agnese Sanctis had made a serious error by disobeying orders and acting on her own.

Destroying the Sickle of Saturn without permission was especially concerning.

Her meals were reduced from three a day to two and she was forbidden from snacking in between. And this was to continue until further orders were given.

“Ugh…”

The girl in the black nun’s habit looked half dead.

She had been prepared for punishment, but the higher ups knew her weaknesses too well. The ban on snacks hurt far more than the lost meal. How was an Italian girl supposed to live without her coffee? Solitary confinement would have been preferable to this.

She was back in London, England.

The world continued to turn despite everything that had happened. London’s famous colorful payphones were being removed and loaded onto trucks and the taxis polished as bright as leather shoes were being converted to electric models. Even the world’s most famous clocktower was apparently no longer named Big Ben.

Humans were like tuna that had to keep swimming or they would die.

Something unseen was pouring down on the world.

Anything that came to a stop – be it a culture or a mythology – would be sealed in that stratum, just like a specimen encased in clear plastic. History may have had no more weight than a long-forgotten meme.

The Guild and Albert may have found that absurd. They had wanted to reclaim what was buried in the stratum. But after slowly and carefully excavating it, they realized it was small enough to hold in their hand.

Was that why he had wanted to wield it to its fullest?

To prove it was more than that?

(And what about me?)

She sighed.

Not even she understood why she had rejected the idea returning to the Catholics. It was more than just her principles. She may have made the decision out of fear.

Fear that she would lose something if she returned there.

“Sister Agnese!!”

Lucia and Angelene rushed over to her.

The perfectionist girl was punctual and always kept her promises, so she continued to work hard even during their unfair punishment.

“We’re being scrambled to Piccadilly Circus,” said Lucia. “When people look inside a boxy ashtray left on the side of the road, they are sucked in and go missing. There were similar 
urban legends back when technology was shifting from CRT TVs or analog cameras, but it appears someone is copying those stories to feed their ''collection'' obsession. A battle is about to begin at the gathering point, so you need to get fully equipped and move to your post, Sister Agnese.”

“What is our job?”

“This magician keeps escaping because they are sensitive to the faint magic of a people clearing field, so the Anglicans want to do the same job through physical means. The ordinary people will be kept away by feigning drainage problems and covering the road with filthy water.”

Agnese Sanctis looked up toward heaven.

[[Image:AgneseSS_8.jpg|thumb]]

She had suspected it would be something like this.

They were still the bottom rung.

You didn’t get any extra allowance for saving the world.

“How can that be sanitary?”

“We need to wear full-body raincoats with rubber gloves and boots. But wearing that would stand out when it’s so nice out, so a bomber will soon be passing by overhead to support us by creating some artificial rain with dry ice. Sudden downpours not found on the long-term forecast are hardly uncommon these days.”

That strict girl had failed to read between the lines.

Her obsession with cleanliness had led her to focus entirely on how to defend themselves from the filth. Surely there had been other options.

Agnese winked over at Angelene.

“We need phone and social media countermeasures. The risk is especially great since we can’t use a people clearing field. There are so many cameras around these days and I don’t see why that would ever change.”

“Um, actually, I’ve already done that,” said Angelene. “All we need is for you to join us, Sister Agnese. Why do you think we ran over to get you? Because the phones aren’t working here.”

Agnese scratched her head at that.

She had hoped to find a flaw in the plan so she could boycott it, but it turned out Lucia and Angelene were the type to do everything right even when they gained nothing from it.

Agnese had no choice now, but there was a note of enjoyment in her voice as she replied.

“Then let’s get going. The time for some captivating service work is upon us!!”

<noinclude>
{{Toaru_Nav|prev=Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:AgneseSS_Chapter7|next=Toaru Majutsu no Index:Railgun Illustrations}}
</noinclude>