Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume12 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 7===

“Teacher. Huggy squeezey☆”

“…”

Should he really be doing this right now?

Kamijou Touma was given a full-power hug from needy Alice. Had his shitty life finally entered a bonus mode? The sweet and warm girl content had been through the roof for the last bit.

Maybe it was weird to think of it this way in a city of science like Academy City, but he feared he was accumulating bad karma from all this. Enough to get him punished later on!!

They were in his dorm room.

This was a strange situation where little Alice would cling to him any chance she got, but he was still pale and chilled to the bone.

(Damn, he’s not answering his phone. What is dad doing?)

[[File:GT Index v12 BW5.png|thumb]]

Then again, this was causing enough of a commotion in a city of science. If his father did answer the phone, he would probably assume it was a ghost scare or a cruel prank.

The weird part was the disturbing lack of anyone talking about this on the school’s social media. Kamijou-san was (according to himself) a brilliant person who could actually use a smartphone and he knew how to take a look at his class’s social media group, but no one was talking about it. In fact, no one was there at all.

…Or were they cut off from it for some reason?

That bothered him, but he wasn’t going to find the answer worrying over it here. He couldn’t exactly head back to the crematorium.

Anyway, he wanted to make sure he was safe and then fortify his position.

He was preparing a bath, but it would be a while before the hot water filled the tub.

He was cold.

He felt like he was going to die.

Had his sense of cold been numbed over before? Once he got in his room, he finally recalled that it was January.

After extracting himself from Alice, he moved to the bathroom. While he was at it, he would change into his school uniform in the changing room. He checked on the tub and confirmed it would indeed take a while longer.

“Sigh… I don’t think I can wait that long. It’s not my way, but maybe I should change before taking the bath.”

“Yay, a bath with teacher!”

“Wait! Did I just hear something ultra ominous from out there!? No, reacting is the wrong move here! I need to pretend to be a dense romcom boy and have selective hearing loss over this!”

He had been careless, so now he had to press his shoulder against the changing room door to defend it at all costs.

The bathroom lock could be opened with a single flat head screwdriver. Nothing could be less trustworthy.

“Ohh, teacher wants to play the door pushing game!”

“Gwahh, how is she so strong!? Is there an elephant going nuts on the other side of the door!?”

And as he shouted that, something felt off.

“…?”

Kamijou used the indoor clothes drying rod to jam the door shut and then hesitantly reached his hand into the tub before yanking it back.

Was that ice water?

And why wasn’t there any steam coming from the bath!?

“Th-this isn’t hot water!! Why is the tub full of freezing January water!? D-did someone mess with the machine’s recommended settings and switch it to learning mode? I don’t want that! I just want it to work normally, not some weird new service!!”

“Teacher, is it a problem with the water heater outside?”

He petrified.

Being corrected by Alice was about the last thing he had expected.

Regardless, he walked out the front door while shivering.

What if it was broken? Would a repairman accept the work when he was currently being pursued by Anti-Skill?

(But is there a way to have them do the work without actually meeting them? Like when you get something delivered and they just leave it at your door? No, no. I couldn’t explain how someone other than the guy living in the room wanted the water heater repaired. Oh, but then again…)

“Teacher? When a machine is broken, you can fix it by blowing on the metal part and reinserting it.”

“Now there’s some advice that takes me back. Oh, right. You’re actually older than me, aren’t you?”

“Hm? Why are you lost in thought, teacher?”

Wait, but weren’t even discs considered old fashioned at this point? Kamijou sensed some kind of twist in space-time.

And while they discussed it, he heard a noise.

He slowly turned toward the tone he recognized as the elevator arriving.

And the lonely little girl turned with him.

(What?)

The cheap elevator door opened and a priest in black with long red hair stepped out. Maybe it was the direction of the wind or the humidity…and maybe the amount of tar or nicotine was exceptionally high, but even at this distance, Kamijou thought the stench of cigarette smoke was seeping into him.

For a brief moment, the sound of the January rain grew louder.

Almost like he was hearing the sprinklers linked to the fire alarm.

(What…the hell?)

''He had no memory of this.

''But there was something about the combination of this place, this sound, and this person.

''The scene before his eyes caused a stirring in his heart?

“S-” said the pointy-haired boy on reflex.

Yes…



“Stiyl Magnus?”



It was him.

But Kamijou had no idea why he would be here.

For one, how had an Anglican magician gotten into Academy City?

Then it hit him.

“My funeral…”

“I have zero intention of grieving over you. It just made a convenient excuse for an outsider like me to pass through the front gate and enter the city. ''The other team'' appears to be having trouble, but I’m sure they’re right there outside the wall.”

That explained the how.

But there was a more fundamental question.

Why had Stiyl come to Academy City when he was suppose to be in England?

“…”

Kamijou remained cautious.

He glanced over at Alice.

Had the Anglicans been working hard to resolve the Bridge Builders Cabal issue in their own way? If so, Necessarius’s timing had been uncharacteristically poor. No matter who might have what complaints now, the issue with Alice had been solved. She would no longer destroy others or the world.

Stiyl Magnus said nothing.

The scene around him changed.

Kamijou felt like he was being pulled toward him.

The smoker priest’s black habit flapped hard at the air and then a ton of cards burst out in a great spiral. They attached themselves to the walls and floor and stayed there. Just like cherry blossom petals covering a lake or road after the merciless rain brought them down. There were too many to even see the original colors of the surfaces.

They were all laminated…

“Rune…cards?”

“''Teacher'',” snapped Alice Anotherbible before Kamijou’s past experiences could tell him of the threat.

And just after her warning…



''Fwoosh!!!

Stiyl pulled a flame sword out of thin air like a magic trick, the sword’s form collapsed, and flames erupted out like a flash flood.



Kamijou’s right hand sprang up to hold the palm out front.

He wouldn’t have made it in time without Alice’s warning.

Imagine Breaker.

He negated the scorching flames of more than 3000 degrees Celsius, but Kamijou still couldn’t believe it.

“Stiyl!?”

“''This isn’t about Alice Anotherbible''.”

The words muttered by the flame magician were colder than ice.

“''To be honest, I don’t care about her.''”

It was obvious now.

One look in Stiyl Magnus’s piercing eyes was enough to know who his true target was.

“You’re here to kill me!?”

“Sorry, but this ''isn’t even'' a job for the Anglicans.”

The soles of Kamijou’s shoes scraped audibly against the floor as he backed up.

He rejudged the distance between them.

The straight and narrow hallway left no room for lateral movement.

He hadn’t expected anything like this, but he was still glad he had changed into his school uniform.

An outsider like Kamijou had no way of knowing how the Anglican Church would view someone who had died and come back. Was he a troublemaker who had disturbed the natural order, or was he a living sample of the work of an expert magician? Either way, he knew they weren’t going to just let him go. Especially when he was inside Academy City, the headquarters of the science side that stood opposed to the magic side.

Kamijou had come up with all these guesses, so the words spilling from Stiyl’s mouth caught him by surprise.

“With you gone, the rights to your possessions go to others.”

“?”

At first, Kamijou didn’t know what he meant.

But Stiyl was serious.

The rights to his possessions? Stiyl was willing to kill over that?

The smoker priest clarified.

“Grimoire Library Index Librorum Prohibitorum was temporarily placed in Kamijou Touma’s care.”

“…”

Kamijou felt like he was using the coin-operated binoculars found at scenic locations. The distant and out-of-reach answer was gradually coming into focus.

And the image he found left him speechless.

No.

Wait, it couldn’t be!

“It was only ever temporary. If you were dead, so be it. With her temporary owner gone, ''that girl'' would naturally be returned to England where she belongs. Many magicians hoped for exactly that. Especially those connected to the Anglicans. Myself included.”

Yes.

That was right.

Index was ''a freeloader'' in Kamijou Touma’s dorm room. He didn’t know what specific agreement the Anglican Church and Academy City had made, but the situation had been stable.

But what happened to Index if he died?

And what if the pointy-haired boy unreasonably got back up again???

“But you had the gall to come back to life. Yes, yes. I have no intention of figuring out the details of the spell. All that matters is that Kamijou Touma once more cheated the system to get through it all! …Stop messing with us like this. Do you have any idea how much it shakes the world as a whole each time you go off and die or come back from the dead!?”

Could it be that no one wanted him alive again?

He had wondered that when he first escaped from the cremation chamber. But he had assumed that was an emotional issue of like or dislike – necessary or unnecessary.

“That said, the situation plays right into my hand. You were already set to be cremated. And even after you escaped, Academy City has been working to incinerate you with flamethrowers. No one will question it if you end up burned to death now. It will require massaging the timeline a little, but I’m the best man for the job, don’t you think?”

“…”

“I can’t imagine Kanzaki Kaori or Orsola Aquinas doing this job.”

It was pure interest.

A powder keg.

He hadn’t predicted this would shake things up so badly that it could even affect the power balance between the three major Christian factions on the magic side.

“The dead should remain dead, Kamijou Touma,” spat Stiyl Magnus.

Were some battles already being fought in the shadows over who would next take in Index?

Those eyes carrying a mixture of rage and contempt were the eyes of the kind of person who amused themselves by spreading false information on social media whenever there was a disaster or war.

“That is your duty.”

Kamijou couldn’t get any words out.

A single quiet footstep sounded.

It came from Alice Anotherbible standing next to Kamijou.

“It doesn’t matter what your reasons are.”

Her voice was cold.

But you must not forget.

Alice was not angry for herself.

The coming battle had nothing at all to do with her.

But angry she was.

“If any mouth in this world says teacher should be dead, then the girl will sew it shut. As the first and the model for all Transcendents, the girl can mop the floor with an ordinary magician or two. Mop the floor easily.”

She wasn’t boasting.

After the trouble she caused Academy City, Alice might really be able to do that.

''However…



“Khah…!?”

“Teacher!!”



''Wham!!!

A sudden impact pierced through the center of his gut. Something invisible had done it. He doubled over, but he wasn’t even allowed to fall. Unable to breathe, Kamijou Touma spat out all the air in his lungs. Some blood may have come up with it.

Alice was by his side, yet her cries sounded distant.

His sense of pain was instantly blown away.

What had happened to his body was so absurd none of his ordinary senses could make sense of it.

But the most frightening part wasn’t the impact itself.

Unlike 15cm Othinus, Alice Anotherbible still had her unique power, yet she hadn’t noticed it while right by his side.

What in the world had attacked him?

Neither Aradia nor the Bologna Succubus could do this.

Then who could?

Most likely, it ''wasn’t even'' Stiyl Magnus who stood before him! After all, Alice had provided Kamijou Touma with an accurate warning when Stiyl first swung his flame sword!!



“My, my. You have taken on the stench of death since we last saw you, Kamijou Touma.”

“See, it’s just as I feared. You’ve become more like us, haven’t you?”


[[File:GT Index v12 BW6.png|thumb]]


Kamijou’s shoulders jumped.

He recognized those voices.

One was a beautiful woman’s alluring voice, which resembled a sweet fruit so overripe it was starting to rot. The other was a girl’s young but still unripe voice.

Didn’t that combination of voices belong to…?



“Nephthys…and Niang-Niang?”



They were Magic Gods on par with Othinus.

What were those monsters doing with Stiyl?