Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:Endymion Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

Kamijou immediately held his right hand up in front of his face, but he did not have an actual plan. He did not even know what he should negate when faced with an explosion that suddenly appeared out of thin air. If the explosion caused by amplified electromagnetic waves was nothing more than a physical phenomenon caused as a result of what the spell had done, his right hand would be blown off.

However, Kamijou survived.

But not because his right hand had negated the explosion caused by the enemy magician.

The explosion that had occurred right in front of him had not been caused by the nearby girl. It had come from the flame sword held by Stiyl Magnus as he approached from behind her.

He would defeat his enemy.

He had given that priority and sent the shockwave to strike both Kamijou and the enemy magician.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!?”

He did not even have time to utter a question.

Kamijou and the magician girl were knocked to the asphalt. Kamijou was shaken so hard he was temporarily unable to tell up from down or remember what had just happened. But with his vision on its side, he managed to see the girl stand up before he could.

“Wait!!”

He immediately reached out a hand to grab at the girl’s leg, but she stomped on the back of his hand with the other leg. A short cry came from Kamijou’s mouth, but his attempt had not been wholly fruitless.

She must have put a lot of strength into the attack because something fell out of her pocket. It was an electronic device halfway between a cell phone and a data terminal.

The girl looked back at the fallen device for an instant.

“Tch!!”

But then she gave a cautious glance around the area and ran off. She ran as quickly as she could, leaving Kamijou still collapsed on the ground.

She was going to get away.

As soon as Kamijou thought that, Stiyl raced right past him without speaking a word.

The priest was treating him as more worthless than an insect, but Kamijou would likely have been struck by the girl’s magic had Stiyl not attacked. Kamijou might have been turned to ash had that happened.

“Touma!!”

When he heard Index’s voice as she frantically ran up, Kamijou finally felt his senses return to normal.

“We need to hurry, Index. The accuracy of the explosions is still increasing. If she gets away, we’re done for!”

As Kamijou brought his hands to the ground to climb to his feet, he felt something under his palm.

He looked down and found a plastic device between his palm and the ground. It was the data terminal from before.

(Since she didn’t bother to retrieve it, she might be able to reset it remotely. I need to get any information I can from it now!!)

With that thought, Kamijou pressed the power switch. But he could get no further because a password screen appeared.

However…

A photo appeared behind the password screen as the device’s background image. Kamijou froze in place when he saw it.

A bad feeling spread across his entire body.

He felt like he had made some great misunderstanding.

He had no real proof and it was nothing more than his own personal conjecture, but Index seemed to agree when she glanced at the small screen.

“Touma, what you are thinking is probably right. For one thing, I can think of nothing this magician could gain by leaving the group and acting on her own. And the Hindi written on the photo means…”

As Index explained in a quiet voice, the device’s screen suddenly went black. A pie chart appeared in the center of the screen which filled up as the device seemed to complete some task. It would not stop no matter what button Kamijou pressed. Once the pie chart was fully filled with the color red, all light disappeared from the small screen. Not even pressing the power switch did anything now.

(So the data was wiped out remotely.)

Kamijou clicked his tongue and tossed aside the data terminal that was now a useless hunk of plastic.

Index said, “The center of Agni’s Festival Fire was moved elsewhere because you destroyed the one in that building’s ventilation fan, but that magician was not using it. She is causing those smaller-scale explosions using the terminals set up on those ‘turbines’, but it seems she hastily put this together. Otherwise, it seems a poor move on her part to only use a single portion of Agni’s Festival Fire when it is powerful enough to roast the entire city.”

“The Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens is the name of a magic cabal, right? Nothing says she’s the only one of them inside Academy City. There might be others.”

“And if those others have control of the center of Agni’s Festival Fire…”

“Then she’s just a decoy?”

As soon as Kamijou said that, his expression grew bitter.

Index nodded and said, “If the main force of the cabal continues on while we chase her around, they will have complete control over Agni’s Festival Fire. If that happens, entire blocks all over of the city could be roasted!!”

“But…” Kamijou hesitated. “Would a decoy really go this far? That magician is almost guaranteed to be captured and she could even end up roasted by the main force’s plan!”

“I do not know the details of the situation, but that is how it seems to have ended up,” said Index. “It is hard for even me to analyze because the structure is related those ‘electromagnetic wave’ things, but Agni’s Festival Fire is not something just anyone can control. By forcibly interfering with it the way she is, that magician has to be feeling pain like there is fire running through her nerves. …And yet she is putting up with it. She must be thinking about this in some way that makes this the best option.”

To protect Academy City from a great disaster, they had to search out the main force of the magic cabal.

But Kamijou and Index had no hint regarding the location of the main force of the Gate of the Gods Come from the Heavens. Their only option was to capture the decoy girl alive and have her talk.

In other words…

“Not good. If Stiyl doesn’t realize what is going on, he might try to finish this by killing the decoy girl!!”

“Not just that, Touma. Either the magician will be killed by the Anglican Church or she will use Agni’s Festival Fire too much and destroy herself. Those are the only two options. Either way, she will die without telling us anything. The magic cabal intentionally set the situation up that way to ensure their advantage!!”

“God damn all of these people,” groaned Kamijou. His voice then grew to a shout. “How can they choose to die or kill so easily!? The reason doesn’t matter. It’s wrong no matter what reason you have! We can think about what to do next after we save everyone, Index!!”

What Kamijou had seen on that data terminal had not been something complicated and technical. Nor had it been something only someone with magical knowledge would know how to use.

It had been a simple photograph one could find anywhere.

It had been nothing more than a photograph of that girl smiling along with another woman.

According to Index, the words written on it had meant the following:

''So that we have the strength to protect each other.