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

===Part 7===

She didn’t go for the cigar or the kiseru.

“Yes, I will be taking that lighter. It will be much simpler if I take your 🔥 instead of all your many 🚬 products.”

“Woof, woof, woof!!”

“Suddenly trying to act like a cute 🐕 is ❌ going to change my 🧠. Using the kiseru helps 😷 how much you’re smoking, but you are matching the pace of a ⛓️ smoker right now. Smoking is bad for your health and there is ❌ possible way you can 🗣️ otherwise.”

The golden retriever lunged at the person forcing her own preferences onto him. Having her face licked by a tongue that reeked of nicotine made Lady Kingsford shriek and fall onto her rear. Was all this really about her not liking the smell?

“Oh, dear. My glasses. Where are my glasses?”

“I have found your weak point now, you gentle teacher. What are you, a living cliché?”

Losing her glasses made that founder of founders get down in a doggy pose. Crybaby Anna Kingsford crawled around feeling about for her glasses until Kihara Noukan sighed and used one of his mechanical arms to hand the glasses to her.

The interaction received a sidelong glance from a woman in a beige habit and blonde hair roughly cut to shoulder length. No, that was actually Magician Aleister who had hijacked a great demon’s body.

He clicked his tongue while walking toward Academy City.

“They’re going to notice this time,” said the golden retriever’s artificial voice. “Our group has gotten too large and we haven’t prepared well enough to sneak in safely.”

“I know that. I did build this city from the ground up, after all.”

For one thing, Anna Kingsford – who was tearfully putting back on her glasses – was not a camouflaged model finetuned for infiltration missions. If they took her with them, Accelerator’s side would notice immediately.

Aleister wasn’t happy about the situation either. He had already handed Academy City over to the next board chairman, so he didn’t want to be making frequent visits.

But things had changed. In a big way.

The Bridge Builders Cabal had a consulate.

They had created a bridgehead enclave inside the headquarters of science.

That secret base would make it impossible to track anything that was stolen and impossible to prevent anyone from getting inside.

(Why would that boy choose to enter their base where they can legally disappear him?)

Of course, this human’s objective was not to solve a riddle. Everything would be for naught if Kamijou Touma wasn’t rescued from the threat of the Bridge Builders Cabal.

He would save that boy even if it meant breaking his word. In a way, it was a very Aleister thing to do since fate never seemed to let him follow his own rules anyway.

So they crossed the outer wall and entered Academy City.

“Your pareo.”

“Hee hee. Thank you very much. Such a gentlemanly 🐕 to hold it down with your 🦾.”

There was no time for getting weirdly emotional or succumbing to self-loathing. The beige habit woman spoke up while they walked through that familiar city.

“H. T. Trismegistus.”

There was a note of annoyance in Aleister’s voice.

He then restated it as if confirming it for himself.

“Hermes ''Thoth'' Trismegistus. That Egyptian secretary god has a strong connection to Holy Guardian Angel Aiwass. And both Hermes and Thoth correspond to each other in Liber 777, an occult dictionary I wrote. That means Alice isn’t the only one. Yet another hint of the Magick system I worked on so long ago. Ugh, why do I always do this!? If only I could go back in time and punch my past self.”

Witch Goddess Aradia was another obvious example.

In fact, the entire framework of Wicca was created by Gerald Gardner, who had interacted with Aleister. Aleister’s influence could be seen in the portion of Gardner’s witchcraft where the practitioners gained power through sex.

Looking relieved now that she had her glasses back, Anna Kingsford whispered in obvious enjoyment.

“Hee hee. By that logic, would the Bologna Succubus and Good, Old Mary be 🔗ed as well?”

“…”

“My, my. I 💭 which Magickal supernatural being they could be. Perhaps the sky goddess from 🇪🇬 mythology? Or maybe the lady in 🟥 spoken of in the 📕 of Revelation?”

Anyone could tell from the teasing tone of voice that Kingsford was only eliminating impossible options. Although she smiled and swiped a portable ashtray from Kihara Noukan while doing so.

There was no point in trying to find a connection in all of them.

It was dreadfully easy to find mistaken interpretations when using Magick. It was a labyrinth of one’s own making that beginners often found themselves trapped inside.

Magic was so complicated because it operated under an orderly set of rules, but questions didn’t necessarily have just the one answer. If you weren’t willing to accept contradictions like two distinct but equally correct answers, then you could never reach the truth. That was a conclusion Crowley himself had reached at a certain temple.

So putting off a question on hold was far more important than you might think.

(I shouldn’t assume the Crowley system ''alone'' is enough to explain all of this.)

Alice Anotherbible, Aradia, H. T. Trismegistus.

Then there was the Bologna Succubus, Good, Old Mary, and the rest.

For the time being, he decided to operate under the assumption that the cabal contained some with Magickal origins and some without. But it didn’t look as simple as the ones who followed the Crowley system being Rescuers and the others being Killers.

“Some come from Crowley and some do not.”

“And some have decided Kamijou Touma should live and others have chosen he should ☠️.”

They had already found a mixture of four different categories within the single cabal. That was unusual since cabals usually followed a unified ideology with their magic.

Furthermore, there was another unique case beyond those four types.

“Why are you staring at me?” asked the face plastered to the film canister he held.

Anna Sprengel.

“Wasn’t she invited to join that Bridge Builders Cabal?” asked Kihara Noukan.

“That suggests the Transcendents aren’t some legendary group with, for example, only 12 spots available. If someone meets certain requirements, they can add new members.”

“Which leads to an obvious ❓☆”

Anna Kingsford’s tone was light.

Was this how she had once spoken with Westcott and Mathers?

“''What conditions did Miss Sprengel meet''? What expectations did they have of her and how did she end up betraying them?”

“I don’t know anything about magic,” said Noukan, “but for someone to betray your organization, you must have placed your trust in them at least temporarily.”

Some followed the Crowley system, others didn’t. Some were Rescuers, others were Killers. Which of those groups had Anna Sprengel joined?

“That line of reasoning doesn’t fit the timeline,” said Miss Sprengel.

“…”

She laughed when Aleister fell into silent thought.

“The split based on what to do with Kamijou Touma only came to be after I betrayed the cabal and messed with Alice. Those groups did not exist originally.”

That left only two groups: Crowley and non-Crowley.

Time to think through it again. When comparing their magic, was there anything linking Aleister and Miss Sprengel?

Eventually, the beige habit woman muttered under her breath.

It didn’t matter if part of the process was flawed as long as you found your way to the correct answer in the end.

“''So that’s it.''”

“Have you grasped the big picture now?” asked Miss Sprengel.

“The Bridge Builders Cabal’s Transcendents seemed awfully confident with their boasting about individually rivalling the entire magic side, but I see where they were coming from now.”

In that sense, Anna Sprengel did indeed qualify.

Aleister brought a hand to his borrowed chin.

“It also explains why Alice’s group did not choose Anna Kingsford when her magic is so much more powerful.”

“Yes. And it means an immature Aleister Crowley might have been accepted as a Transcendent if things had gone differently.”

Not that Aleister Crowley ever would have chosen to obey someone else in that way.

Funnily enough, this meant it was impossible for both Aleister and Miss Sprengel to join the Bridge Builders Cabal at the same time.

Only one or the other could join.

“Every man and every woman is a star,” sang the girl’s voice.

That was a theory Aleister himself had once proposed.

“All people can create a monster and become a god. Of course, doing so would change the very definition of the word ‘god’. With one 2000-year period ended, the world has already entered that age. Isn’t that the Aeon of Horus you proposed? That is the foundation of their strategy. That is what the Transcendents have created by gathering together and what they are attempting to control all on their own.”

Miss Sprengel continued to sing from the surface of the film canister.

“But I am ''not'' talking about Alice here.”