Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume10 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 9===

The darkness of night covered the world.

The costumed crowds filled the main streets, but they did not reach the skyscraper rooftops.

Or, in this case, the narrow catwalk along the building’s front face allowing maintenance access to the giant sign.

Anna Kingsford was there smiling but also looking unusually beaten up.

Most notably, her retro glasses had cracked lenses.

“Good grief. You have improved your skills while I was gone, Aleister. Still, ⛽ing your creativity with 😡 and hatred will narrow your focus. It can be productive, but if you aren’t careful, you can end up developing self-centered 🪄 and eroding your 🔗 to the world around you.”

“You have some nerve saying that after getting yourself killed and then provoking me like that… Are all teachers untrustworthy garbage?”

“Not what I would expect to hear from the person who created Academy City,” said the golden retriever.

He pulled out a thick cigar with his thin metal arm only for it to be snatched away by Kingsford again. That kind of casual habit and mannerism helped convince Aleister she really was alive and this wasn’t some kind of bad joke.

Anna Kingsford was alive.

“Don’t get all 😢 on me.”

“There are no tears in my eyes.”

“Now, let’s get ⬇️ to business.”

The expert added a sharp edge to her words.

The mood changed.

For a true magician, was their interior identical to the world around them?

Anna replaced her broken glasses with a spare pair as she spoke.

“I am only a preserved corpse. If the great threat to the 🌍 has vanished and my service is ❌ longer necessary, I see ❌ really reason to stick around. I can return to being an ordinary corpse. Yet I have unnaturally remained in this city even if it meant reconnecting my severed torso and neck. That means something out there is worth my remaining.”

“Are you saying this didn’t end with Anna Sprengel and Christian Rosencreutz?”

“Rosencreutz was only a side issue. The 🌉 Builders Cabal dragged him out onto the stage as their savior, but he is ❌ the real threat. The center of that cabal has always been someone else: Alice Anotherbible. She has never even tried to hide it.”

“What are you saying is going to happen?”

“He will ☠️.”

Aleister nearly missed it.

Anna Kingsford stated it so naturally.

With sadness in her eyes.

But has that expert ever said anything wrong before?

“Do you think Kamijou Touma can overcome this because of who he is? Do you believe for ❌ good reason that he will find some way pull through yet again? But things are different this time. Because he is the one who chose the current conditions.”

“…”

“So I am sorry to say, he really will ☠️ this time. …And at the very least, he alone cannot change that. No matter what.”