Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume12 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 8===

Burning wasn’t quite the right word.

All the oxygen molecules in the air were split into individual atoms before rebonding and giving off the distinctive odor of ozone.

Aleister clenched his teeth while doubled over on the rooftop as a second punishing blow dropped toward him. A blinding flash and deafening boom followed.

“Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

“I don’t need a big, one-shot attack.”

These words rejected everything Accelerator used to be.

And he spoke them without a hint of hesitation.

Were the logics of an offensive battle and a defensive battle entirely different?

“If I have a way to whittle down your stamina bit by bit, I just have to keep doing that as long as it takes. I can slowly but surely wear down your defenses. I will continue to fight with the resources I have. Can you kill me right away? If not, you’re screwed. It doesn’t matter how boring and silly a win this will be.”

“Gh, khh!!”

A third bolt. A fourth.

But he didn’t break.

Aleister Crowley did not fall.

Everyone else was accepting that boy’s death.

He had to consider what would be lost if he broke now.

Just once more!!

“Not…yet!! I will have my way this time… I will use every piece of knowledge at my disposal!! But not for myself. So that he can stand back up and once more reach out that right hand to save many more people! I will break any taboo that stands in my way. If it will keep them from giving up on a human life, I will stand up to even the most powerful enemy!”

“What does it matter if you defeat that enemy? Why do you even need to make enemies?”

He had no answer.

He couldn’t find anything to say.

He was the human who had belonged to the world’s largest magic cabal and had made full use of his notoriety in that world but had also made countless enemies and ultimately vanished into the shadows of history. Aleister himself knew what would happen if he bragged about being the most infamous magician in the world.

A life of making and defeating enemies did not lead to happiness.

The effort spent on gathering the power to kill and end problems that way could instead be spent on working to explain yourself. To avoid opposition and misunderstandings in the first place. Effort toward that was much healthier and correct.

The Golden cabal had been the world’s largest.

Aleister Crowley was the magician who had won and survived the Battle of Blythe Road.

But.

In the end.

Had he found happiness by ''only'' pursuing the power to master magic and to fight?



What did it matter if you were the strongest?



Someone else had once walked that path.

The old Board Chairman had stayed there, but the new Board Chairman had begun searching through the darkness for a different exit.

His voice spoke.

The collection of raindrop sounds carried human emotion.

No matter how many detours he had taken along the way, his continuing effort to atone for his sins had allowed this monster to begin down a different path from Aleister.

“You could have risked your life to reach out a helping hand. You were in the city, so you weren’t just an observer. You had what it took to take part in the conclusion. But now isn’t the time for that.”

“!!”

“It’s already over.”

One by one, the new Board Chairman’s low words stabbed deep into his own chest.

“You were in the city, weren’t you? Then location wasn’t the issue. Like I said, it was an issue of timing. You chose the wrong time to play your trump card.”

Aleister’s mouth opened and closed, but no words left it.

And not because of the lightning.

They were both unusual geniuses, so he understood what the #1 was trying to say.

Simply put…



“Accept the truth. Stop blaming it on everyone else. …This is all the result of your own choices. Trying to cover up your own failures will only distort the world around you.”



“Oh, oh.”

He crumbled.

He couldn’t even breathe.

His voice eventually rose to a cry – the cry of human lamentation.



…It wasn’t like he had especially cared about the boy to begin with.

No matter how unusual they were, his plan had him observing all residents of Academy City equally.



''“Let’s do this.”

''”No words are necessary. We know each other better than that.”



But in truth, that boy had delved deep inside the Windowless Building and, with Mina Mathers’s help, smashed Aleister’s plan with his right fist.



''“Then prove that we can defeat Coronzon without using Lilith!! What other way is there to protect your precious baby!!!???”



He had saved Baby Lilith and battled Great Demon Coronzon.

During a large-scale battle covering the entire United Kingdom, if not the entire world, Aleister had somehow ended up fighting alongside that boy.

How much had that saved him on the inside even as he maintained a cynical attitude toward the world?

Without seeing that boy’s way of life up close, Aleister could never have faced his own inferiority complex and would have been killed by Mathers then.



''“Ahhhh!! Ahhhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”



When Alice Anotherbible appeared and delivered a devastating blow to the dark side, Aleister had once more entered Academy City.

The monster himself had forgotten how that boy had wept upon learning of Human Aleister Crowley’s survival.



''“Run away with me, Anna Sprengel!!!”



He and the boy had stood on opposite sides on the question of what to do about Anna Sprengel.

From an efficiency and safety standpoint, Aleister hadn’t been wrong.

He was sure of that.

But Kamijou Touma had been right.

That boy had clearly been correct.

Aleister knew that wicked woman had smiled happily by Kamijou Touma’s side after her poison had been removed and the threat negated. That had been a win for the boy’s belief in human possibility.



Aleister couldn’t abandon him.

Even if they had parted ways after failing to reach an agreement.

But.

This was that human’s selfish desire.

Was it not what that boy wanted and would it not make him happy?

This desire wouldn’t lead anywhere.

The memories of him that Aleister had worked so hard to gather up were spilling away.

It was time.

Give up.

If you truly want to focus on a life more precious than your own.



“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”



Yes.

The final person accepted it.

Accepted his death.