Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume9 Chapter1 (section)

===Between the Lines 1===

Lambeth Palace, London.

A solemn voice rang through the residence of the Archbishop at the top of the Anglican Church.

“Attention, pawns.”

“What did you call us!?”

Agnese Sanctis was ready to fight, so Sisters Lucia and Angelene had to restrain her.

Dion Fortune, who had taken the Archbishop position after Lola Stuart’s unprecedented resignation, sighed in exasperation at what she saw before her. Namely, a travel suitcase stuffed so full the lock looked ready to burst.

The impertinent girl addressed her subordinates.

“Do none of you awkward nuns know the first thing about taking a long trip!? I won’t need my pajamas or bathroom things right away, so you can put them at the bottom of the bag. But flimsy foreign language handbooks, card games, and anything else I will need more frequently should be at the top! This is basic stuff. Did you rely on your mother superior for everything back at your original abbey!?”

“Are you serious? Why would we have a paper guide nowadays when everything is machine translated?”

“Don’t be dumb. What if my phone breaks, turning it into an expensive paperweight? And when I’m in the middle of a strange foreign country, no less!? Of course I’ll have that convenient mobile device, but I also need to bring something paper just in case. Oh, and make sure the deck of cards has two jokers. You can’t play some games with just one.”

Agnese stared icily at Dion Fortune who was smugly lecturing the combat nuns who spoke dozens of languages and were trained to blend into any part of the world if necessary.

“Why are you in such a hurry to leave in the middle of the night, anyway? Trying to skip town?”

“I’m not interested in power structures or wealth. I know I’m only a body to fill the position until the next real Archbishop is chosen. But since I have this power for now, I might as well use it, right? That would be best for the UK as a whole.”

“Then make sure you don’t forget this: your passport. It’s worth having on hand even within the EU because cops can be stupidly pigheaded at times. So where are you headed?”

Dion Fortune responded with a “nee hee” of laughter.

Like she was secretly sharing her plan for a prank.

“''Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany.''”

“…”

“If you have any knowledge at all of the Golden cabal, you should have a good idea what I’ll be looking for. Hint: Mathers and Westcott ran themselves ragged searching for it but never found it, so they had no choice but to claim it was a spiritual thing that existed in a separate phase.”

“The First Temple?”

“Right. Its actual name is the Licht Liebe Leben Temple. Anna Sprengel was said to belong to and directly manage that magic cabal, which can be seen as the starting point of our Golden cabal. With Miss Sprengel and even CRC showing up, I figured it was time I dug a little deeper there. Of course, this is a fairly dangerous decision for a Golden magician.”

“…”

The Isis-Urania Temple, the first one established in London, was also known as the Third Temple. They had chosen not to start at one out of respect for the First Temple which was (supposedly) run by Anna Sprengel.

“Ah ha ha!! So impressed you’re dumbfounded, you silly and useless nun pawns!? We’re talking about Anna Sprengel and Christian Rosencreutz here, so I need to investigate the Rosicrucian cabal, which always seemed more like a legend than anything! It might be a temporary gig, but I didn’t snatch the Archbishop position for no reason. So do your job as pawns by preparing your big boss’s suitcase and do your part for the UK and the world. C’mon, make sure you put the wallet, credit card, and transit card, which can also be used for shopping, in different places. Losing all of them at once would be a nightmare. Do you want me to be stuck all alone in Germany!?”

Just then, the smartphone (which she had been planning to use for checking restaurant reviews at her destination) vibrated. Dion Fortune grabbed the device that was surprisingly loud even in silent mode.

“Hello? What do you need with the great Archbishop? I’m busy as hell, so I hope you made an appointment, you piece of sh-”

“Oh? You’ve moved up in the world since I last saw you, my disappointing apprentice. Hard to believe this is the same person who spent night after night sobbing in fear of stray cat attacks.”

“!!!???”

Agnese and the others watched curiously as Dion Fortune’s back went ramrod straight despite only talking on the phone.

“M-”

But the Archbishop had bigger concerns.

She was already soaked with sweat as her old trauma was triggered.

“''Mina Mathers''? M-mistress, what business do you have with me today? Heh heh, eh heh heh.”

Many incidents and conflicts were recorded in the history of modern Western magic, but there was one magical battle nearly as famous as Crowley’s Battle of Blythe Road.

The compilers of that history referred to it as Mina Mathers and Dion Fortune’s magical catfight.

(But that wasn’t two girls grappling in a vaguely naughty way. I was attacked by a giant catlike thing that tore a huge slash across my back! Eek! She has some nerve calling herself the black cat witch. It really is true history is written by the winners since she chose to rewrite herself as something a lot cuter than reality!! Not all cats are cute little housecats!!)

“I predicted that my incapable apprentice would be searching for the First Temple. As things are, that human might just do something rash all on his own. With someone who can win by being self-destructive, there is nothing in this world more frightening than when they are truly pissed. I honestly can’t bear to see that happen, so you need to join me in assisting him as soon as possible. We are looking for the same thing anyway.”

“Heh, eh heh heh. My mistress, what if – purely hypothetically speaking, so please don’t take this seriously! – I were to tell you that today’s tarot reading were poor and according to Western yoga – that is, according to the Kabbalistic interpretation – I should take a rain check and try this again some other-”

“''Then your kindhearted master might just lose her temper and extend her claws for the first time in quite a while.''”

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