Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume7 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 2===

It was freezing out.

Kamijou Touma held himself and shivered on the way back to his District 7 dorm room.

It really was midwinter. It was still only around 6 PM, which should have only been evening time, but it was already dark out.

Unusually, there were a few paper postcards in the door’s newspaper slot. Those were New Year’s cards. Specifically, from his parents and a girl who was apparently his cousin. But most people seemed to use their phones these days. He had a whole list of messages from his classmates (probably meant to double as a test message to his new number). And most of those probably weren’t sent to him personally. It would be a lot easier to just send them out en masse. He appreciated the thought, but he knew neglecting to read them all would probably make things extremely awkward once the new term began. Smartphones came with their own annoyances.

“There, Aradia’s all wrapped up in waterproof duct tape.”

“…”

“Index, Othinus. We’re having a hotpot tonight. You’re in luck because I happen to know a secret: make sukiyaki with chicken and you have a dinner that’s both cheap and luxurious!”

“Yay, we get sukiyaki tonight!!”

“Sigh. What’s this about, human? Trying to take revenge on those cooking shows you kept glaring at when you didn’t have any money? Let your feelings dictate your purchases and you won’t notice how much you’re spending.”

“Shut up, Othinus! I don’t need any ominous warnings first thing in the year. I’ll be fine. I set the TV to record all the New Year’s cooking specials they were running, so I have a treasure trove of recipes to try out! I swear I’ll work through them all by the end of winter break. I’m through feeling poor!!!”

“Wait, wait, wait!! I am not letting you forget about me with all this household talk! You have someone lying on your floor in a duct tape cocoon and I am not letting you accept that as normal!!”

The victory prize he wasn’t sure what to do with started thrashing about on the floor.

Alice Anotherbible was back in Academy City. She had said goodbye during the clash with the dark side, but here she was already. Ignoring her verbal promise like that could be seen as the innocence of a child, but he sensed something more concerning there.

Alice’s sudden appearance seemed to link together some unnatural fragments of issues he had noticed.

Kamijou thought back to the bizarre scene at the District 12 shrine where he had run into Misaka Mikoto, Shirai Kuroko, that ringlets girl, and ''someone else.'' He recalled all those emas wishing for personal ruin instead of success. And the ringlets girl who had abandoned all intention to pass her entrance exams even though it was January of her last year in middle school.

The social phenomenon had been dubbed kotatsu syndrome and it was apparently connected to the Winter Cleaning at the end of the year.

Students didn’t want to study and adults wanted to goof off instead of working.

(Could it be?)

Kamijou Touma recalled something else.

Transcendents had directly clashed in Shibuya on December 31. Their spells had been a threat, but something else had carried just as much danger: their powerful charisma as an individual and the crowd manipulated by it.

Aradia had used the witch’s Sabbat and the Bologna Succubus had used the witch hunt.

(Should I assume this kotatsu syndrome comes from one of the Transcendents using something similar?)

Alice, for example.

Hadn’t the Winter Cleaning occurred the exact same day as her first visit to Academy City?

(No, there isn’t any real evidence of a connection there.)

The Transcendents had the dangerous ability to manipulate large groups, but he didn’t know if it was something they consciously used or something that happened on its own. And it was possible there was another self-indulgent Transcendent in the Bridge Builders Cabal.

Could he really point at the obvious suspect and insist she had to be the culprit?

He felt like he was falling into that trap.

“…”

At the same time, could he safely return Aradia to the Bridge Builders Cabal after defeating her once already?

How much could he trust Alice if she accepted Aradia back with a smile and insisted he had nothing to worry about?

He couldn’t handle Aradia on his own, but he was honestly ''afraid'' to return her to Alice and the others.

He asked himself why he felt so much fear and unease about Alice Anotherbible.

Hadn’t she saved him when they first met?

On the way back, they had stopped at a supermarket and bought plenty of ingredients, so now he transferred them from their foam packs to metal or plastic trays and put them away in the different compartments in the fridge. Othinus spoke from his shoulder in the middle of the work.

“You couldn’t do a thing about Alice and her ilk back there.”

“Victory for me means fighting without causing any collateral damage, which wasn’t possible there.”

Of course, something had happened when he ran into Alice without warning. Especially since he was escorting around Aradia after defeating her. Anyone who wanted to prevent Aradia from leaking any cabal secrets would see her as a target.

Kamijou had put his old folk’s smartphone in his pocket. He had no choice but to give up on the GPS tracker.

Alice hadn’t been alone.

She had been flanked by a pair of Transcendents. One was Good, Old Mary who he had seen in Shibuya on the 31st. The other was someone new to him. The magician was a black-haired young man wearing a tailcoat and holding a black cane, making him look like a butler.

Kamijou’s side hadn’t been entirely powerless. They included Grimoire Library Index, the Sisters, and several Tokiwadai elites: the #3 Railgun, the Judgment girl who could teleport, the ringlets 3rd year, and ''someone else.'' Kamijou himself was a Level 0, but those girls belonged to a prestigious esper development school, so they would be able to resolve most any trouble without his help.

But how much did that matter in this case?

He couldn’t stop having a very bad feeling about what could have happened if a battle had broken out there. If the Transcendents flanking Alice hadn’t deterred everyone with ''killer intent so thick it was stifling'' or if that hadn’t been enough to stop the Tokiwadai girls, what might Alice have done on a whim?

Could Kamijou’s hand have stopped that?

In Shibuya, the Bologna Succubus had said he was the only person capable of controlling Alice, but ''was that really true''?

''“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

That line stuck with him.

The gloomy young butler’s words would not leave Kamijou’s mind.

Strangely, he had trouble remembering ''who'' the young man had been speaking to.

Alice herself had looked confused. He was pretty sure she had spread her arms to welcome them.

However…

''“Peeking inside this girl’s mind will only trap you in a psychedelic world. Alice’s world is like a bottomless pit that can bring only tragedy to those who experience it.”

If the young butler hadn’t casually grabbed Alice’s collar and stopped her, she might have run over to Kamijou.

Alice’s group hadn’t forced Kamijou to do anything.

They hadn’t even demanded he hand over the witch goddess.

That was another way of saying they felt confident they could take her back by force if necessary. Kamijou wasn’t even worthy of a seat at the negotiating table with them.

Most likely, only Alice’s group and any others worthy of the Transcendent title would find a seat there.

What did someone need to do to earn that title?

Kamijou hadn’t a clue, so he doubted he was anywhere close.

“…”

“Touma, where’s the meat?”

“Hold on. Using a knife to remove the small clumps of blood from the jaw is the secret to making good chicken.”

He switched his focus and pulled an earthenware pot and a frying pan from the shelf. For sukiyaki, you couldn’t just place it on the stove. Some ingredients needed to be seasoned first and some needed to be pre-cooked to ensure they weren’t undercooked.

With expensive, thin-cut beef, it was apparently best to cook it in a frying pan, but they were using chicken (which was pretty dangerous if undercooked). That tasted best if you submerged it at the bottom of the pot.

“Alice said something about a consulate, didn’t she?”

“She doesn’t seem like anything more than a kid, so I doubt she came up with that idea on her own. My guess is visiting Academy City every time she wants to play sounded like a pain, so she innocently asked for a secret base here. Then those Transcendents made it a reality. Sweating all the while at the thought of disappointing her.”

Most likely, no one knew how many bases the Bridge Builders Cabal had around the world. To them, this may have only felt like adding one more to the list.

(Come to think of it, Aradia and the Bologna Succubus must have a home country somewhere out there. That’s really hard to imagine.)

“A consulate. Hey, Othinus, how bad is that?”

“A consulate built without mutual trust between the two countries is even more dangerous than a blackhole. Listen, human. No one can investigate inside a consulate. Even if someone steals something from an Academy City museum or steals some kind of information, they’re untouchable if they hide in the consulate until they find a way to escape outside the city. The Transcendents can take whatever they want from the city, load it into their car with a diplomatic license plate, and carry it to the consulate and then stop worrying. Because no one can investigate further.”

“…”

“At the same time, Academy City can no longer refuse to keep people or items from being transported from outside the city and into the consulate. Magicians used to have to nervously sneak over the city walls, but no longer. Now those dangerous magicians can strut on in.”

There was a process for deporting people like that, but that was all there was. Demanding they leave wasn’t the same as trying them for a crime and deportation had to be issued by name. According to Othinus, the entire process was meaningless against Alice’s Transcendents since no one knew their real names and nationalities.

That meant they couldn’t catch these mystery people red-handed and boot them out.

Diplomacy always required paperwork, even when that meant ignoring the reality before your eyes.

So even if Academy City’s leadership said “Alice must leave”, the consulate could point to a part-timer they hired, say “that’s Alice”, and give her some pittance to make up for being deported. All while the real Alice Anotherbible walked freely around Academy City. Everyone would know it wasn’t right, but that was how it went with paperwork. It was powerless against people whose appearance and name weren’t found in any database.

Who was this Transcendent named Alice?

Was that her real name or one of many pseudonyms? Was she human, or was she something else?

Did anyone have a clear answer to these questions?

Anyone at all?

It was nice having something to keep busy with. Without the familiar meal preparations, Kamijou may have been crushed by his worries.

“Hey, Index! The pot is ready to go, so clear off the kotatsu and place down a pot stand.”

“But my job is to eat, eat, sleep, and eat!”

“Just help out some, you freeloader!”

In the Kamijou household, they used an induction cooker instead of a gas-powered portable stove. Why was obvious. With the kind of misfortune Kamijou was accustomed to, he just knew having a portable gas cartridge around could only lead to misfortune.

“Not that the induction cooker is perfectly safe. Use it too horribly wrong and the power cable could start a fire.”

“Could you not, Othinus!? I don’t need any ominous trivia to start off my year!”

Since it was New Year’s, he gave the calico kitty his usual cat food plus a liquid pet treat known as Muru.

Even this sukiyaki was just another variation on his usual cheap cooking. And sukiyaki stock was one of the three great cheap seasonings, right alongside eel sauce and matsutake soup.

“Here are bowls for everyone, here’s an egg, and use these chopsticks for searching through the pot. I’m not making any zosui to finish it off. I have rice and udon separated out, so create your own universe in your bowl, while building up to whatever you want to eat last. Okay, let’s get started!”

“Yay, it’s all you can eat!!”

“No, it’s a hotpot, Index! Don’t go reaching for the rice cooker right away!! How high were you planning to pile up your plate!?”

At 15cm, Othinus was shorter than the earthenware pot and reaching inside would mean rock climbing up a hot cliff, so she decided to just steal things from Kamijou’s bowl. He wished she would stop balancing her stomach on the edge of the bowl to lean inside.

But there was still one person unaccounted for.

“…”

Aradia remained a duct tape mummy with her arms bound behind her back and she was glaring hatefully over from the floor. She could sit up on her own using her abs, but she couldn’t do anything about the hands behind her back.

She may have been hungry.

“So, Othinus, what do we do about Aradia?”

“Why ask me? Isn’t solving magical problems that British grimoire library’s job?”

“She’s too busy chowing down on nothing but meat and rice to be any help. Index!! Chicken breasts are admittedly cheaper than pork or beef, but it’s still meat. That’s a luxury item, so make sure you chew thoroughly and actually savor it! How are you swallowing it down so fast!? Chicken isn’t a drink!!!”

The TV was on, but no one was really watching as a comedian made a fool of himself in nothing but briefs. It was a traditional New Year’s act. The popular middle-aged man was being held back by some younger men when he took a hot piece of shabu-shabu meat to the forehead and writhed around on the floor. Apparently that didn’t set Kamijou off because of the note that the staff would eat it later.

But that aside…

“Say ‘ah’, Aradia.”

“!?”

Aradia’s shoulders noticeably jumped and her face grew red, either from anger or something else.

“Y-you must be joking. I am Transcendent Aradia. I will not accept your condescending charity even if I did lose to you.”

“(Hey, you’re free to refuse, but if you keep shaking your head, a miracle could occur and that hot chicken will end up somewhere other than your mouth. Just like with that briefs guy’s expert comedy act on the TV there.)”

“O-okay, fine!!”

Othinus’s whispered voice switched on Aradia’s desperation mode. She shut her eyes in frustration and opened her trembling lips.

Kamijou wanted to know why this mystery woman looked somewhat embarrassed about nothing more than being fed some meat.

He tilted his head as he resumed feeding her the chicken sukiyaki.

She ate it.

She was suddenly much more obedient. It was cute.

She looked like a mysterious beauty, but he was feeding her like a small child, creating an odd dissonance.

After watching her chew a few times and swallow, he grabbed the next bite with the chopsticks.

“Oh, right. Is there anything you can’t or won’t eat? Any allergies?”

“That would’ve been a great thing to ask ''before'' force-feeding me. But no, nothing like that. Besides, witches get their power from searching the forest for anything with medicinal qualities. You can’t do that if you’re picky about what you eat. Munch, munch, gulp. What was that I just ate? Some kind of gelatin?”

“It was shirataki, a type of konjac.”

“Konjac? I’m not sure what that is either. And what is this white rectangular thing? Please tell me it isn’t a hunk of egg white or butter.”

“It’s tofu. It’s made from soybeans, but I would recommend not looking at what the word literally means. A European who doesn’t know how it’s made would probably react badly to that.”

“Tofu???”

That must have been a difficult word to translate into English and other languages. Her common tones didn’t know what to do with it. There was probably a word for it in other Asian languages, but apparently not in the mother tongue of this goddess of witches who flew brooms through a night sky filled with five-pointed stars.

“Munch, munch. Napa cabbage, tofu, and wheat gluten – if it’s soaked up some flavor – are all so good! Yum!”

Kamijou must have assumed it would all be fine since Index devoured it all without issue. But you couldn’t trust that demon lord of gluttony’s tastes because, when she was hungry, she would chew up and eat unpopped popcorn. (Warning: This is a good way to chip your teeth☆)

Aradia had a curious look as she chewed on the food given to her by the chopsticks. Feeding a beautiful young woman a mystery food was one hell of a situation when he actually thought about it. Take that in a cruel direction and it could be foreshadowing for the shocking ending of a SF movie or a psychological horror novel.

She may have trusted him enough to know he wasn’t the type to engage in that sort of deception, even if they had been enemies to begin with.

“Now this I know. It’s an onion.”

“What do you call these long ones in English? I know you just use ‘onion’ for the round ones.”

“I think the closest term is scallion.”

“Why does that sound like the codename for a new surface-to-air missile?”

That may have been one sort of cultural difference.

Like how the English word “carrot” sounded weirdly cute to him.

“Witches use onions a lot. Along with garlic and ginger, they’re one of the standard medicinal plants used as a starting point for a variety of medicines.”

Was she pointing out that real witches didn’t just use plants that had legs and screamed when you pulled them from the ground?

“Onions are medicinal?”

“You can use them for just about anything. For example, you can use onions and tomatoes to create a rare medicine that foolish royals and nobles are willing to buy with a hunk of gold 10 times its size.”

“(You’re talking about a witch’s aphrodisiac, aren’t you? You clearly don’t know how dense this human is if you think that sort of subtle sexual harassment is going to get a reaction.)”

“?”

Kamijou was confused.

He couldn’t keep up with this discussion between a Magic God and a Transcendent.

Aradia fidgeted while still tied up. The pointy-haired boy figured that meant she wanted more food, so he grabbed some more onion from his own bowl instead of the large pot and carried the chopsticks to her mouth.

“Onions as medicine, huh? Weird how you can find these connections anywhere.”

“Onion and ginger is one of the standard medicines for minor things like colds.”

“Ah ha ha. Oh, you mean that thing about sticking a green onion up your ass when you have a cold?”

The instant he mentioned that Japanese tradition, Cocoon Aradia hit him with a drop kick.

She must not have appreciated that particular idea while she was trying to eat.