Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume10 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 10===

As soon as he slid the door open, he heard a sharp “pop!!” directly in front of him.

He immediately ducked down and froze up as something grazed his spiky hair.

He hesitantly grabbed some of it to find it was colorful streamers.

The scent of gunpowder came from the conical party popper in the little girl’s hands.

“Tah dah!!”

[[Image:GT Index v10 BW3.png|thumb]]

Alice Anotherbible stood there.

Her beaming smile was so unchanged Kamijou could scarcely believe it.

She was smiling.

Yes, Alice had a face.

That shouldn’t have been unusual, but it clashed with how he had last seen her.

The classroom looked normal too. The desks were lined up in orderly rows and there was no graffiti on the chalkboard. Had she been politely waiting for him here? While wondering which of the desks was Kamijou’s?

“Teacher, the girl is glad you made it!!”

On that signal, the lights came on.

That wasn’t limited to the classroom. Lights filled every window in the building, the gym that had supposedly collapsed when enormous Dinah made her appearance was enveloped in light, and the outdoor lights illuminated the schoolyard and pool.

The school had returned to life.

No, the new term had yet to start, so it was more accurate to say it breathed its first breath.

''Dammit, Anna. I thought you said Alice would be asleep. But here she is wide awake like an excited kid on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve.

Or had ''the'' Miss Sprengel’s prediction been so wrong because of Alice’s power?

Yes…

“Al...ice?”

“That’s right.”

The little girl responded with a volleyball-sized hole in the center of her face.

The classroom behind her was visible through the hole and it was impossible to tell where her eyes or mouth were, but she still spoke the same as always.

“Ah ha ha! Is something the matter, teacher?”

“…”

Yes.

Come to think of it, why had they been so sure Alice had broken after having her head fatally crushed?

Because she killed Christian Rosencreutz?

Because the headless girl had cackled?

Had everyone forgotten that Rosencreutz killed her first? Was it that strange and incomprehensible for someone to consider taking revenge on the person who killed them if he was walking around free and unpunished? And forget niceties about the emptiness of revenge. In the moment someone achieved their vengeance, wouldn’t anyone laugh at being freed from all that pressure?

Alice was normal.

She had simply done some physically unusual things like getting up after being killed and tearing through someone with her hands. But the thought processes leading to those extraordinary actions were entirely ordinary.

Kamijou did still have a question.

(But why is Alice here?)

“The girl could have gone home and sulked, but she couldn’t just leave you, teacher. So she came to give you a piece of advice!”

“Advice...for me?”

“Yes!”

When the grotesque girl nodded, her adorable face had returned.

Kamijou didn’t know which version was correct.

It was possible he had never actually seen her ''real face''.

“Teacher, the time has come.”

“?”

“The predetermined limit is approaching. Do you not remember what we said? The girl already told you what would happen.”

“…Wait.”

He had been wrong.

He had misread this.

Alice Anotherbible was the same as always. In fact, why had it seemed strange for her to do bizarre things? Had he ever once been able to determine the true meaning behind any of her whims?

''It was normal for her to be unpredictable.

If Alice wasn’t behaving normally, it wasn’t something inside her that was responsible. Something in the world outside her was making her behave that way.

She was concerned.

Uncharacteristically so.

Then what was causing it? She knew what was rushing her and making her act this way. That meant this wasn’t an unknown phenomenon – the answer already existed in the past.

Kamijou had stepped on a landmine.

But when?

“Did something happen when I was fighting Rosencreutz?”

“Nope.”

Yes, it wouldn’t have been when he fought Christian Rosencreutz. Alice was already dead by then, so for better or for worse, nothing could have occurred between her and Kamijou then.

Because he hadn’t arrived in time.

Because he hadn’t saved her.

If Alice wasn’t going to accuse him for that, then it wasn’t that either.

“Then was it when we stole the Predator Octopus and-”

“Nope. What even is that?”

For the same reason, it couldn’t have been when he was fleeing through Academy City with Anna Sprengel and Aradia. Mut Thebes and the Shrink Drink that borrowed a portion of Alice’s power had been a threat, but Alice had already been in a daze by then. In all likelihood, she had been far away working with H.T. Trismegistus, Good, Old Mary, and the rest of the Bridge Builders Cabal to complete the ceremony to resurrect CRC.

Alice had filled the Shrink Drink spear with her power before all of that.

In that case…

“If it was before that, was it at the consulate?”

“Not even close.”

The Bridge Builders Cabal creating their consulate in District 12 had been a major turning point.

Alice had cried there.

Because she and Kamijou had definitively parted ways.

But Alice had been hurt there, not Kamijou. Since she had so readily forgiven him here, that wouldn’t be the root of the problem.

The current problem came from elsewhere.

“Then does it go all the way back to Shibuya?”

“Buzz. Wrong. The girl really wanted to visit Japan’s Shibuya.”

Before that would mean Shibuya on December 31, but that was meaningless. Only regular Transcendents like the Bologna Succubus, Aradia, and Good, Old Mary had appeared there. As the only person (supposedly) capable of controlling Alice, the Rescuers and Killers had fought over what to do with him, but Alice herself hadn’t been present.



Then.

Was it even earlier?



“Hold on. You don’t mean…?”

“''It was when we first met.''”

December 29.

A series of incidents had started with an accident involving Overhunting, a prisoner transport train carrying several dark side criminals.

That was when Alice had first wielded her power in Academy City.

What had happened between her and Kamijou then?

“The girl asked to make sure. She didn’t do this against your will. You told the girl to do it and she told you it was a bad idea, but you made the final decision. Which is why the girl asked you if that was what you really wanted.”

On that day, at that time, Alice had tried to forcibly alter the structure of the incident. To create a resolution with no deaths despite several dark side monsters being on the run, she had ''forcibly created a false truth'' in which the original culprit was Frillsand #G.

''“Now.”

''“Please guide the girl, teacher. She wants to ''go on an adventure'' inside you.”

Kamijou had rejected it.

He had told her to bring back the real truth, no matter how harsh it might be.

''“Then return everything to the way it was, Alice. If I use your power like this, I can never truly reach the end.”

''“Umm, are you sure you want that?”

That was when he had said it.

“Do you remember now?”

Some future decision wasn’t going to determine the ending.

He had long since passed the final branch.

Yes.

''“You will die.”

''“That doesn’t change my answer.”

He had said it.

There was no denying it.

On the very first day he met Alice Anotherbible, Kamijou Touma had said it himself. He had known Alice was dangerous, but he had rejected her idea and changed course. He had ignored her advice and demanded it.

When that horrific incident had ended, he had assumed he had gotten through safely.

But he had been wrong.

Alice had never said ''when'' he would die.

It was a prophecy.

Like Nostradamus, astrology, a dream that comes true, letting a spirit possess you to answer questions, or having an aquarium octopus predict the results of soccer matches.

It didn’t really matter what.

It could be scientific or not and ''it could even violate the rules of magic''. If the theory had been proposed at any time throughout history, Alice could build the bridge to make it real. Once a ridiculous theory began to operate, she could toy with it until it was hers.

It may have been less concerning if she had said she simply knew it to be true with no reason behind it. Because no matter how often someone’s intuition was correct, it could always be wrong.

But that excuse didn’t exist here.

The logic behind it was nonsensical, but it did exist.

If Alice said it would happen, then it was guaranteed to happen.

Why had he let himself relax?

She had never said a single word about what hour, minute, second, or rotation of the Earth it would happen on.

Now was still an available option.

Alice’s prophecy was not over yet. The predetermined outcome was still coming.

“…”

Then there was nothing more he could do.

Struggle all he wanted, he couldn’t recover from taking the wrong turn so long ago.

Kamijou Touma’s life had been over from the day he first met Alice.

Their difference in power was just that great.

Of course, Alice hadn’t intended to harm him.

He had chosen it himself. She had warned him not to, but he hadn’t believed in the absoluteness of her prophecy, he hadn’t given much thought at all to his own life, ''and he had simply assumed everything would work out the way it always did.'' Even though things were different this time. If he had known then how extraordinary Alice was, he never would have seen it that way.

But a choice was a choice.

He had already used up his one and only ticket.

He had walked through the crossroads, so there was no way left to avoid his predetermined death.