Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 6===

Academy City was a unique city that had been built using the western third of Tokyo.

That meant some of the city beyond the tall walls could be seen from the top of the taller buildings in neighboring Shinjuku.

The administrative area was actually less busy on January 1.

''They'' were gathered atop one of the tall buildings there.

That included Magician Anna Kingsford and the golden retriever Kihara Noukan.

“Now, now, 🐕. You know 🚬 is bad for your health.”

“Please leave this old dog with one of the few things that makes worth living. And since it is New Year’s, I am in the mood to smoke a Japanese kiseru instead of a cigar.”

“No, that will ❌ do at all. Have some Muru☆”

“Wait, stop!! You can’t just give a dog or a cat that secret weapon of a treat! Gwahhhh!!”	

Given something (in delicious wagyu flavor) which may as well have been like a cutting-edge science version of catnip, the golden retriever stood on his hind legs and went to town licking at the opening in the stick-shaped package held by the founder magician. He clearly wasn’t happy about it, but he couldn’t stop licking either.

Meanwhile.

A metal disk larger than a record was slowly flipping from one side to the other.

That was a film canister used for movies. It was currently held between the hands of a blonde nun in a beige habit.

A human face was plastered to the outside of the disk.

The face belonged to Anna Sprengel.

Instead of a simple drawing, this face blinked and breathed. And if the film canister’s owner asked it questions, it had the intelligence needed to provide a response.

“What a pain. If only defeating you was enough to call it a day,” said that owner.

“You noticed Alice back on the 29th, didn’t you? And you realized she was too dangerous to ignore, whether or not she was good or evil.”

That was true enough.

Miss Sprengel was not like Aleister. She may have been the type to push people away by speaking the truths no one wanted to hear.

“This can only mean one thing.”

Aleister, the magician hijacking a great demon’s body, took a deep breath.

He was flanked on either side by a golden retriever and Anna Kingsford, who had been revived by machinery after 100 years.

The human protected by the inhuman stated his conclusion.

“Does the Bridge Builders Cabal have more than one base of operations?”

“For risk reduction purposes, almost certainly. The Transcendents of that cabal know exactly how strong they are. So perhaps it would be more accurate to say they know better than to let Alice Anotherbible’s interest stay in one place for too long.”

Their incredible charisma had influenced a great many people while they remained hidden from the world. That had to be how they had caused the massive riot across Shibuya.

“I have no idea how you reached that conclusion, but I don’t understand any of this magic stuff anyway,” said Noukan.

“Hee hee. Do ❌ worry, 🐕. He will sum it all up for you afterwards. It seems every 🧙 since the 🥇 cabal really likes to hear themselves 🗣️.”

Alice was something born from Crowley’s brand of Magick.

“Who could have created Alice? Not that I expect them to still be alive. I doubt anyone could safely control that capricious thing for long.”

“Oh? You think death is the worst case scenario there? How naïve of you. Especially when you have a fate worse than death literally in your hands right now.”

Cruel laughter left the film canister.

Aleister thought for a moment.

“That R&C Occultics company you started was a model meant to analyze the Bridge Builders cabal, wasn’t it? To gain a deeper understanding of that mysterious enemy organization, you built a similar organization and did some roleplaying to work out its internal structure and, more importantly, discover its vulnerabilities.”

To put it another way, the Bridge Builders Cabal had caused similar harm in the past.

Either to advance the Transcendents’ interests or on some innocent whim of Alice herself.

They had just been less openly cruel than R&C Occultics, so their harm had remained hidden below the surface.

“You really are shortsighted. This is why you should have left me to it for a while longer.” The film canister laughed, pointing toward Aleister Crowley’s constant failures. “My ''short-term goal'' is the destruction of that harmful organization that has taken root in the hidden part of the world. Revealing the Bridge Builders Cabal’s structure and weaknesses isn’t worth it if I can’t supply enough damage to take them down. All I did was unleash Alice to throw some chaos into their little group. That would have taken a much more amusing turn if you had left it alone.”

“For you, maybe. It would have been an unmitigated disaster for everyone else.”

Just remember what happened in Academy City and Los Angeles.

Even in the Shibuya riot, she had tried to turn everything around in the very, very end by pitting a certain boy against Alice.

Of course, just because the Bridge Builders Cabal had multiple bases around the world did not mean they were helpless here. If there were 100 such bases, they only had to crush every last one of them. Even if they didn’t find anyone at a particular base, the documents and other evidence left at the hideout would help them pursue Alice and the Transcendents.

Meanwhile, something still bothered Noukan.

“Setting aside everything about magic, are you saying R&C Occultics was a false organization created to learn how the Bridge Builders Cabal is structured? In other words, it was intentionally designed to resemble the cabal?”

“👍, very good. Have a 🎁 of Muru as a reward☆”

“Please, no more of that cursed substance!! No, don’t tear open the packet with a smile! Noooooooooo!!”

This conclusion may have been hard to reach for the children clenching their fists and fighting on the front line.

This was a job for Aleister who worked behind the scenes.

Anna Kingsford asked a question while petting the golden retriever who had abandoned his pride to lick at the treat in a bipedal pose.

“Does that mean Alice and the Transcendents are ❌ just an indiscriminate gang of 😈 armed with superior occult weapons?”

“Hm. Are you suggesting they also have a powerful enough ''source of funding'' to influence the global economy?”